Japan Day 4 - Kyoto to Tokyo

Saturday, 30 December 2023

Our last morning in Kyoto had us checked out at 8am and at Kyoto central station shortly after where we put our luggage into storage lockers and got a local train for 45 minutes out to a region called Nara.

Nara was a nice break from the really busy tourist attractions in the city - it was a big park with lots of nice gardens and temples and other structures and most excitingly, lots and lots of deer which would bow to you if you bowed to them (and then fed them their deer snacks you could buy for $2 a pack).

Japanese gardens always remind me of Tasmanian alpine areas where we have little tarns and stunted bushes.

The temples were huge, as were the Buddha statues inside the temples.

There was no shortage of deer all around. It was very cute.

Back in Kyoto we retrieved our bags and found our way to the bullet train platform. They go between every 3 to 7 minutes - it's incredible.

Arriving in Tokyo we had our most stressful transfer to the subway yet - it was absolutely packed and we got so confused at the arrows and escalators and stairs everywhere.  Tensions were running high but we eventually found our way out of the bullet train part, and made it over to the subway line for an uneventful trip out to our little apartment.  After settling in we went for a walk to find somewhere to eat - there are so many cute little places around - none of them cater at all for vegetarians so I ended up getting indian again from a little hole-in-the wall place while Jon and Jett ate various combinations of octopus and pig skin dishes and Zali had chicken.

Japan Day 2 - Kyoto

Wednesday, 27 December 2023

We started the day with another 4 train trips to get from Osaka to Kyoto - our home for the next 2 nights.  It was great to be able to dump our bags when we finally made it to or hotel.  From there we walked across to Nijo Castle and bought a day pass for the hop-on, hop off bus which we used throughout the day to take us from one highlight to the next. 

Our first stop was Kintano Shrine:

then we walked through streets and parks to get to the famous Golden Temple. It was very nice but pretty busy with tourists.

After icecreams decorated with gold leaf we still had a bit of time to kill while we waited for the bus again so we decided to walk to the next stop which was really interesting going through a mix of fancy streets, back alleys and parks.

We popped out on the main street just in time to see the bus go past so we had to chase it to next stop. After a bit of a rest we jumped off again at the not very silver Silver Palace which again featured lovely gardens around it:

Then it was back on the bus to get to the Yasuka Shrine and the old Kyoto district which was all very lovely but probably the busiest part of our day.

We spent quite a while exploring the quieter alley ways and streets as well as following the crowds up to the temples. There were quite a lot of people wearing full Kimono outfits as there were heaps of rent-a-kimono shops offering styling and photography.  It was a very pretty area but hard to get good photos of due to the crowds.

After more walking and another bus trip we made it back to our hotel by 5.30. After a quick rest we went back out and found a local place for dinner (we are on a bit of a roll finding good places to eat). 

Our observations so far are that the vending machines everywhere are great, the transport is straight forward but still hard to figure out as there are so many different train lines, and everyone is very polite and tidy. We're looking forward to another full day in Kyoto tomorrow.

Adelaide Christmas

Tuesday, 26 December 2023

On Christmas Eve we did a new Adelaide activity for us - playing disc golf at a new course which was formerly a golf course just a few minutes away from where we stay. It was lovely - it was just our group and the massive kangaroos on the course when we tee-ed off at 8am.  It was 18 holes but we only managed 13 as we had to get to Ikea before the breakfast menu changed to meatballs (like cinderella's coach changing to a pumpkin if you ask me).

Jett and I did  pretty well (playing as a team) although everyone had their moments of brilliance.   I'm looking forward to playing again when we are back in town at Easter.

The rest of Christmas Eve was filled with Ikea, a DFO which was actually a really nicely laid out and pleasant shopping experience, hot chips at the West Beach Surf Lifesaving Club while catching up with Damien and Tracey then building gingerbread houses and playing games back at the Moffas house.

Christmas Day was typically huge but atypically really cold in Adelaide. Jon and Jett ran 20k in the park in the morning while I plodded around for 10k - it was lovely though:

Then it was onto Christmas Breakfast followed by Christmas Lunch followed by Christmas Dinner with many many family members and blow-ins.  It was exhausting but we did find the energy to hop in the pool for half an hour somewhere there too - as it was drizzling it wasn't surprising it was just the Hobart-McCombs and one brave South Australian nephew who braved it.

Right now we are sitting at Cairns airport bound for Osaka after a 3.45am start and a 6am flight out of Adelaide.  The heat and humidity just transiting from the domestic to the international terminal was quite a shock after cold Adelaide! 

Contemplations

Saturday, 9 December 2023

Almost every time I come to St Helens I go for a run at Winifred Curtis Reserve because it's just so pretty - see evidence below from another visit:

It's also delightfully flat, and if I run there on a Saturday morning I can buy a still warm loaf of sourdough bread from the local shop on the way home.  So there are lots of reasons. I was thinking today that my Strava route around the area is actually bit misleading as it looks like I just run a loop:

when in actual fact, every time I come I spend at least 5 minutes just sitting here and taking it all in:

Christmas Orienteering Event

Saturday, 9 December 2023

Last weekend was the Christmas orienteering event. These events usually feature a novelty factor and I'd say the McComb family has had a heavy hand in organising the bulk of them for the much of the last decade. Through this time we've made participants (during race time) wrap a present, run through a maze, find a decorated christmas tree amongst sea of christmas trees, complete a bauble-and-spoon obstacle course, attempt to punch a control being dragged across the ground by naughty elves (you can guess who they were), and probably some other stuff that I've forgotten.  So it was a miracle that Zali and I managed to come up with a new novelty event for this year - something we called - 'lay-the-table'.

Essentially participants had to recreate a Christmas place setting mid course before they were allowed to continue. 

Due to the many colours and patterns that were featured in the original design it would have been hard enough but we added some extra difficultly by putting the original setting a good 30 metres away from the supplies and judging area and also having lots of dummy supplies the participants had to choose from:

My job was to stand at the original setting and explain the task, Zali's job was to judge the place settings.   It was deeply amusing for both of us. Some (few <5) people managed to nail it first time, others required 5, 6 or more trips back to the sample to get it right.  I'd say the median was about 3 trips back to check the original.

Thank fully everyone was pretty good natured about the task and seemed to enjoy it. When they got it right they had to pull a cracker with Zali (she must have done 70 that day) which contained the second half of their courses:

This feature had taken us hours to achieve the day before - we had to carefully open up and 'gut' cheapo Big W crackers, then insert our tightly rolled maps and gently re-seal them.  It was a lot of work but a fun little thing that I think everyone enjoyed. 

Before & After #56 - more garden

Sunday, 22 October 2023

One of the many joys of the big north facing windows of the St Helens house is the view over the garden that we've been working on since the house was finished. We've gone from this: 

 To this:

It's lovely. And it's not just the outcome, it's also the knowledge that this is the result of our hard work as well as the forced labour of many (most) of our friends and family - from planting to digging to watering to shovelling loads and loads of topsoil and mulch around. 

We're having a constant battle with the the wallabies and the occasional deer - every time I decide a plant is mature enough to un-cage (they seem to mostly focus their attention on the supple new plants), they decide it's still delicious and nibble it down to the ground - they owe us $100s in nursery costs.  The grasses seem to mostly have survived although there are a few they simply won't leave alone which is weird as to the naked eye they look exactly the same as the one beside it which is untouched. 

Aggressive Hitchhiking

Saturday, 21 October 2023

Ideally St Helens would be around an hour closer to Hobart - close enough to get there in 2 hours, but not so close that it doesn't feel like we've gotten away from real life.   

Jon and I try hard to avoid driving up here in the dark, but on Thursday the earliest I could get away from work was 6.15, so by the time we'd stopped for a pre-ordered kebab at Campbell town it was around 8.30 and quite dark as we turned off the A1 and onto the A4 which cuts through the Fingal valley and down to the coast.  Moments after turning I was quite surprised to see someone waving us down from the middle of the road. I expected it to be some sort of emergency but it turned out it was just a hitchhiker called Sam who was desperate for a lift to St Helens.  If it had just been me I would have just kept driving (once I realised it wasn't an emergency) as Sam seemed a bit dodgy but Jon reluctantly agreed and I didn't feel like we had a good enough reason not to take him - although I was extremely annoyed about his methods - he'd was just returning to St Helens after visiting mates in Launceston - it was not an emergency and definitely not cool to be waving people down on the road at night. 

So we set off again with Sam in the back (and with me still a bit rattled and annoyed) and then almost immediately we hit a wallaby. In different (calmer) circumstances I might have been able to avoid it but I couldn't do any more than jam on the brakes and we still gave it a hefty thunk which was awful.   If I was rattled before I was doubly rattled afterwards and spent the final hour of our journey being completely on edge and wishing we were there already.  Thankfully the rest of the trip was uneventful and we dropped Sam off in St Helens and returned to our house to finally unwind from the trip.   

It took half a day before I noticed that we'd really damaged the front and side of the car (poor wallaby). The light is smashed up and 2 panels in addition to the bumper bar and grill thingy are damaged. Sigh.  

WA Aus Champs - Part 3

Friday, 6 October 2023

Thursday was the schools relay day - always the loudest and the most colourful of the schools events.  

Whilst many of the state teams were beaten by the NZ teams, the Tasmanians did pretty well against the other states and Jett's team was 3rd state overall which was great for his final year.

After all the excitement Zali and I went out to run our final race of the 3-day just as it was getting really hot - so it was a bit of a struggle but still fun.  Then we drove to our final accommodation place - a weird half dune-construction, half holiday villa suburb about 30 minutes north of Perth - possibly a bit like Dubai!  I booked it as it looked like a complete change from all our other places - and I'm pretty happy with it so far!  Despite being the cheapest per night its by far the most spacious and only 300 metres from the beach. 

Ali and I started the last rest day with a dip in the ocean then breakfast outside which was lovely. Then (while Zali still slept) we drove about 15 minutes to a nearby national park where the Tasmanian team were busy doing a tree top adventure.  After catching up with them all for a bit we checked out the Koala enclosure then drove to the Yanchep Lagoon - a place recommended by the person at the park entry gates - that tip was worth the $15 entry fee alone as it turned out to be really lovely:

If we get a chance I'd like to go back there - it was by far the most busy place on the coast (everywhere else seems weirdly quiet - even the national park). We had a quick dip then headed back to see how Zali was doing.  She was up so I was able to drag her down to the beach where we spent a lovely few hours in the water then lying on the grass in the sun (That's Zali in the water in the photo below).

Tomorrow is going to be really hot (37) so I am already looking forward to the swim in the sea when we get home from the Long Distance Champs.  The start times have already been brought forward by an hour but it's still going to be 30 degrees when we start so I'm not really looking forward to it!