Arthurs Lake Aquagaine

Monday, 26 February 2024

After another one night turnaround almost the whole family packed and set off for an aquagaine adventure at Arthurs Lake. Unfortunately Zali had covid so we had to leave her at home despite her being the keenest of all of us to participate - in fact it had been her dream rogaine format so very disappointing for her, but she had to focus on recovering in time for her Taylor Swift concert in Sydney on Monday night.

The event centre was at a place called Jonah Bay Campground beside Arthurs Lake - a huge lake with heaps of little islands. It was a really lovely campground with lots of campsites by the water all with brand new facilities including toilets and even showers.  

We arrived late in the afternoon on the beautiful Saturday afternoon, so we just had enough time to test out our kayaks that we borrowed from the Taroona Scouts:

 

Jett was in a team of 3 and they were planning to use our two paddle boards, despite none of them actually having any paddle boarding skills,.  Thankfully they also tested their equipment and pretty quickly realised that if they wanted to make any progress they'd need to have one of them use Zali's no-longer-needed kayak to tow the others along (and also keeping them from blowing to the other end of the lake).  This was their very dodgy setup (thankfully we all had to have life jackets and the organiser had a rescue boat):

 

That night we had a campfire and watched the moon rise over the lake.  

 

Sunrise the next morning was also spectacular:

 

We got our maps at 8am and spent some time planning our route - we definitely could have done a better job of this but we were happy enough by the time we set off at 10am with 4 hours to visit as many checkpoints as we could.

 

Jett and his team decided (wisely) to do the majority of the travel by land - which was possible as the terrain was generally hospitable. We decided to do most of the travel by water, with a few jogging stretches out and back to checkpoints.  We ended up finishing about midfield - a better route could have got us into the top third or quarter, but we were always going to be behind the competent people in the double kayaks who moved along at a fast clip. I think we paddled really well overall and it was super fun regardless. A really big platypus swam along beside us for a few moments which was really cool.

 

All in all it was a great fun adventure to a place we'd never otherwise even know about - we're so lucky to have these experiences!

UPDATE: I just took a screen shot of some drone footage of Jett and his team setting out across the lake - not much paddling going on from the back two. (oh the shame of being beaten by them):

 

 

 

St Helens Flood

Monday, 26 February 2024

Six on Murray has been solidly rented out since the 2nd half of December until a week or so ago - which has been great for us but I've been missing it and the garden was in dire need of some maintenance.   So despite having only spent one night at home recently due to a work trip to Melbourne, I packed my bags and bike and went straight there after an orienteering event near Oatlands.  I tried to encourage Jon, Zali and Jett to come but they all had work commitments so I was solo. 

The first few days went as planned - I worked hard in the garden and in the house - mowing, weeding, watering, planting and generally cleaning and restoring the house after the busy summer.  I also squeezed in a nice run and a lovely ride.

On Tuesday night the rain came.  Enough to give the garden a good soaking and discourage me from going for a run in the morning. It also encouraged this huntsman to seek shelter in the window (thankfully still on the other side of the fly screen):

 

I sat down to work at 9am and by lunchtime the rain was really picking up as was the thunder and lightening which was crashing all around. I kept working away while it bucketed down and it was only a large BANG and the power going out (and internet going down) that finally dragged me away from my desk to go downstairs to gaze at the rain. 

As I stood on the front doorstep I was surprised at how much rain was gushing through the garden - cutting deeply through our pathway and relocating our mulch and pebbles.  It was then that I also noticed that a lot of rain was pouring OUT of the garage roller door.  Which struck me as both odd, and alarming - how could that be? - the rain was outside - had I left a tap on?

No I hadn't.  A quick walk around revealed that the rain was pouring down from the houses and streets behind us, through our garden and to the back door and into the back of the garage (as well as under the rest of the house), exiting out the front. 

 

This had created quite a mess in the garage. When I opened it up water streamed out, leaving a few centimetres of water all over the floor.  I tried to block the water from the back door as much as I could and it was starting to ease off anyway, so it didn't get any worse. With my phone going flat I let work know I was going to need the afternoon off and I got started on the cleanup.

The photo below is after I'd swept a lot of it outside.

 

I had to move everything and pull up all the vinyl floor plank things and the carpet and foam mats which were floating around.  Thankfully the concrete dried out really quickly, and because the floor was just carpet and vinyl extras, nothing was stuck down, so I could take it all outside to dry off. 

 

 

I still had no power but I got that sorted by using the reverse charging abilities of the Atto (which was 100% charged at that point). The power remained off for 24 hours but using a long extension cord I could power my devices, the microwave and my work setup the next day. 

Lots of businesses got flooded in St Helens that day and there was a lot of damage to the roads and walking paths. I went to the street behind us to see why the water was coming down and found that there was an even bigger mess there - failed storm water drains had funnelled the water down the driveways of the houses behind and sent it to us and our neighbours who lost a fair bit of their garden. By the end of the day I reckon there was a lot of road materials and mulch in Georges Bay.  

 

I got to go for a ride a few days later, but the rest of my time was spent working and drying the garage. The sun came out which made it easier and I moved the carpet squares all around the garden to catch as much heat as possible. By the time I left everything was miraculously back to normal:

 

The event was inconvenient for sure but I am so grateful I was actually in St Helens at the time (with the new car), otherwise we wouldn't have even thought to suspect we would get flooded - our next guests (arriving tomorrow), would have been in for quite the shock! 

 

 

Zali's cake

Monday, 26 February 2024

For no particular reason, Zali made a very cool Switzerland? themed cake the other day:

 

 

Tie Dye Weekend

Monday, 26 February 2024

Jon and Jett were away at a training weekend so Zali and I got into some tie dyeing - my item was my stained ripcurl top - it turned out pretty well. 

 

 

NZ holiday-ish

Monday, 26 February 2024

As the Oceania events were held over two weekends I was able to have some time off on one day before, and for a few days in between.

On my first morning in New Plymouth I headed up to the foothills of Mount Taranaki and got some nice views of the mountain and the city below.  

 

I also had a little bit of time to drive and see some sites between events.

 

 

After the New Plymouth relay I flew to Auckland then got a hire car and drove to Rotorua. I worked from there for the next 3 days (Australian hours - 11am to 7pm) and spent a lot of the remaining daylight hours on a rental ebike on the amazing trails.  I was originally going to be sharing with a friend who was competing but as I occupied the dining table and living room for most of the daytime hours, it was probably best I ended up being by myself:

 

When I wasn't working, the riding was fantastic. I’ve ridden there twice before but this time on the ebike was by far the best (it would have been even better if I’d had company of course).  The ebike meant I could hoon up and down the connecting gravel roads to the start of the trails which were mostly one way.  Previously I’ve wasted so much riding time sweating up the hills or going the wrong way. I still went the wrong way a little bit, but it really didn’t matter.  Despite my free time being a little bit short, I rode far more trails than I have in much longer days – it was great.  

 

Many other Australians were also staying in Rotorua between the race weekends but due to my early-bird & night owl hours, I only bumped into one group late one night at the supermarket.

While I was there I couldn’t help but revisit lake Okareka – the location of our fantastic family reunion in around 2014, and then onwards to Blue lake, which was where we also had a fantastic orienteering trip in 2017 with lots of friends and Harald and Linda.   Lots of great memories there.  

 

On my way back to Auckland I had time to stop at some springs we’d visited a few years before, and also at Hamilton Gardens which was way better than I expected and I encourage everyone to visit as they go past – I stayed longer than I thought I would there.

 

 

Back in Auckland and the night before the final sprint race (for me anyway – the rest of the competitors have a few more races before finishing) we had a small version of family dinner with Uncle Don and Aunty Helen and half of the rest of our NZ cousins in Mission Bay – it was really lovely and such a nice break from the rest of the week where I’d been either solo or faced by tired orienteering organisers.

 

All up it  was quite a week and I’m really glad to be heading home with it all behind me. I still have to write a report and claim for my expenses before I’m done, but I can then lay this job to rest until I’m crazy enough to volunteer again sometime.   The thing I want most now is to spend some time at home with everyone and in St Helens.

NZ – Oceania Sprint Champs

Monday, 26 February 2024

I am on the plane returning from the Oceania Sprint Orienteering championships. For me this is a huge relief to have it behind me as rather than run in any of it, I’ve been the Senior Event Advisor which means I’ve had to do all I can to ensure that the event is successful and up to the international standards & rules as set by the International Orienteering Federation.  Whilst I haven’t had to do anything like the work of the actual event organisers in both New Plymouth and Auckland, it has been a bit of a slog and quite draining especially when I had to ask the organisers to do more than what they were planning in some areas (in order to adhere to the rules or the comfort of the athletes). To add to the burden the events themselves were very complex (a knockout sprint series featuring 4 races in two venues, and around 30 heats all on one day), and a sprint relay competition which had all the complexity of a regular relay but extra fast.  The stakes were pretty high for the elite competitors as a spot at the world championships was guaranteed for the winners regardless of whether they got selected for their country.

Ultimately everything went fine – we didn’t have any official complaints or protests, and no huge mistakes were made.  The day of the knockout sprints was miserably wet all day, and the Auckland individual race had such high winds that a window on the campus we were using got blown out and showered glass down on the competitors.  In both areas the map area changed almost daily as classrooms were physically moved around and construction areas appeared and disappeared on the map.   Some things could have been done better (the course lengths for the sprint were ultimately too long and the model area was a bit of a mess), but overall it was fine.


Final thoughts on Japan

Monday, 26 February 2024

Japan was great, we all really enjoyed it.  I’m sure it was an easier destination for tourists now than say 10 years ago.

As such there were a lot of tourists everywhere, many doing exactly what we were – tacking a ski holiday onto the beginning or end of their trip. This made the bigger tourist attractions really busy but still manageable – we saw the infrastructure in place ready for queues a lot longer than the ones we were experienced so I’m guessing summer or spring are the peak seasons for the non skiing tourists.

If it wasn’t for the skiing (which was still a lot cheaper than the equivalent in Australia would have been), the trip would not have been too bad cost-wise. Food and subway prices were pretty cheap, accommodation wasn’t too bad (except in the snow).  Surprisingly the bullet train was more expensive than flights would have been for the same trip though.

It was strange how difficult it was to book some things ahead of time – many of the websites were indecipherable even in English. It was a major achievement to book ourselves onto the ski bus that went from Sapporo to Niseko – I guess most of the bookings are made via travel agents but they seemed to be taking an extra $100 per booking so we tried to avoid that where possible – in the end we just used a travel agent for the on-snow parts (accom/rentals/passes & lessons), and we did all the flights and everything else. At times this was exhausting and that was before we left Australia!  Once we were in Japan I was SO glad I had panicked at the last minute and taken a wad of actual Japanese Yen with us as at least half of everything we bought including tickets to tourist attractions, had to be paid for in cash. We got through $1500 in the 2.5 weeks we were there.

Our trip over to Japan was very quick – we went via Cairns both ways. Cairns international airport seems to be almost exclusively being used by Jetstar for their Japan flights – the morning we were there they 3 departing flights in a 2 hour period, all Jetstar, all going to Japan.  While the domestic part of it is fine, the international is pretty shabby and not really ready for such a high volume of passengers within such a short period of time. Both exiting and entering Australia had long long queues at customs and security.  I think there were just 2 of the automatic passport gates whereas Melbourne would have to have more than 30. It made it very slow going.  For us (and many others, coming back from Sapporo was a long haul – it took around 38 hours to get from the resort to home – which included 2 hours waiting in Sapporo, 6 hours in Osaka, 3 hours in Cairns and another 3 or 4 in Melbourne.   Although the Hobart leg added some extra time, from the conversations around us – most people were suffering a similar trip to us.

The skiing was great – it was good that the snow turned to powder halfway through our stay and a shame all of us except Jon got sick for some of it – but we probably needed a bit of a rest anyway.  I had thought this might be the last time I went snowboarding but it was such fun that I’m not going to rule out another trip.   We didn’t take advantage of the Onesens everyone raves about – the kids were totally against it and I guess I wasn’t keen enough to go by myself (they are segregated) although I’m sure it would have been nice.

As I had anticipated and as I’ve mentioned before I found the lack of vegetarian stuff really really annoying.  It makes no sense not to provide a vegetarian option in this day and age.

Japan Day 10 - XX Snow Snow Snow

Monday, 8 January 2024

I haven't blogged much since we've been here as ski days tend to be fairly repetitive and not very exciting to read about.  They have certainly been fun to do though - we've had every type of weather - cloudy, blowy, blizzardy and beautiful sunshine and the snow has been everything from soft to icy to what it is now which is very very powdery.  

Everyone apart from Jon has had a cold which has taken each of us out for varying amounts of time - Jett was ok after half a day in bed, I needed 2ish days to be back on the slopes (one of them was a rest day anyway), and Zali is still recovering after a full day off but managed to get out again today for a short night ski. We tried to go out earlier in the day but due to the huge dump of snow in the last 24 hours most of the lifts were closed while the slopes were checked for avalanche risks and brought under control.  This forced the queues for the very short and slow available lifts to be so huge - this is a snapshot from the local webcam at the exact point at which we decided a 20 minute wait wasn't worth the 5 minute downhill run and started to head home to wait for the gondola to open - which it never did:

 

We spent the rest of the morning and afternoon relaxing at home and then browsing the shops. The Happy Birthday balloons are for Zali's birthday back on New Years Day, the day we arrived - we duck under them whenever we need to get to the kitchen.

 

 

I understand that Niseko is the most western of the Japanese ski resorts - at least half the ski-ers are Australian, probably more.  Despite it being very new with just a few older buildings it's quite pretty - especially when covered in snow - I finally got some time to take some photos as we walked around the streets this afternoon:

 

 

Niseko has lots of food trucks - something I've never seen before in a ski resort.  The prices are reasonably high for Japan but still a lot cheaper than they would be in equivalent ski areas in Australia. I think the heavy dump of snow made operating challenging for them today though - they had a lot of work to do to dig them out before they opened this evening:

 

Being Japan there is no shortage of vending machines - including this one which vends t-shirts, socks, and beanies:

 

Tomorrow we're planning to get out early so we can hopefully get up the mountain ahead of the crowds and enjoy some fluffy powdery snow.  It's snowing again now - and has been for most of the day. In fact in all my time in Norway I never saw snow come down in the volume it has over the last day or so (hence the lift trouble) - fingers crossed everything is open tomorrow for our 2nd last day.

 

Japan Day 7-9 - Tokyo to Niseko

Wednesday, 3 January 2024

New Years Day started early for 3 of us with a run around the Imperial Palace Grounds. I took the metro for a few stops there and back to avoid running 12km on ashfelt (I still ended up running 8k) but Jon and Jett were happy to pound the pavement all the way for the 2nd day in a row.  The loop seems to be equivalent in popularity to the Tan track in Melbourne - it's almost exactly 5k and on New Years Day it had a lot of extra people wanting to watch the sun come up over the Palace.

It was a nice enough loop - a shame about not being able to run in the gardens - it's another thing closed over New Year in Tokyo.

 

We all arrived home around 8 and had an hour to pack up our house and leave on the fairly complicated 3 train journey to the airport which I had written out the day before. There are lots of options for getting there - but I wanted one which would get us as close as possible on the remaining hours of our 24 hour passes we bought the day before.  There was no avoiding the final $25 train  but it took us smoothly to the airport arriving comfortably a few hours before our flight on the airport's busiest day of the year.

 

After we arrived we took a bus for the 2 hours to Niseko with all the other skiers (mostly Australian)  (we had just started this journey when the earthquake hit the rest of Japan) and then did a final transfer from the Welcome Centre to our incredibly spacious apartment here at the snow.   After picking up our rental gear we could finally relax at about 8pm - so it was a pretty long day. Jon and I went for a short walk to get some supplies and then we all went to bed as early as possible.

 

The next morning we went out as early as we could to get a few rides in before Zali and Jett checked in for their day lesson at 9:45.   Unfortunately Jett was feeling sick by lunchtime and had to abandon the rest of the day but the rest of us survived until the lifts closed at around 4pm - they close pretty early here as it gets dark so early although there is night ski-ing on some slopes for the super keen beans.  I should mention that the weather was cloudy and foggy for most of the day so it was impossible to even see where a chair lift ended as you rode it. 

Jon and I then took a night bus 15 minutes away to the nearest regular town to stock up on supermarket items - the round trip took us about 2 hours so we were pretty exhausted after our first day of ski-ing since 2016 and the long days.

Today we woke up to sunny blue skies so we once again did a early few runs before we all checked in for our day long lessons.  I'm glad Jon and I are about the same standard (he's better) but we are similar enough to get ranked in the group for lesson purposes so we can spend the day together.   Anyway the views today were great:

 

 

We all did well in our lessons and the day went by really quickly - the kids are now up to our group so if we do another lesson we might all be together. 

Back at home we made pizzas for dinner and it will be another early night. Unfortunately I've now got Jett's cold so I'm not feeling the best - hopefully I'll be better tomorrow as it may be our last sunny day of the trip. 

Japan Day 6 - More Tokyo

Monday, 1 January 2024

Jon and Jett got up early to run to, then loop around, the outside of the Imperial Palace Gardens this morning. It was about 12k return from our apartment - too long for me on pavements so I enjoyed sleeping in instead. 

When they returned we had a leisurely breakfast and went back out to Shibuya to exchange a t-shirt that was mistakenly bought in the wrong size the day before. We decided to combine this with a trip to a sushi train nearby then another wander up and down the streets an alleys in that area.

 

 

We took the metro home then spent a few hours relaxing and working out some logistics for the next few days. At 5 we went out to the Senso-Ji temple area which was very pretty and really buzzing with people and food stalls.

 

A popular thing to do was to get your fortune for the new year - so at the hefty cost of $1 Zali and Jon shook a little metal box to see what number came out, then they could take their pre-printed fortune from 1 of 100 little drawers.  

  

After this we wandered over a few bridges and went to the Tokyo Skytree - which is a big Sydney Centrepoint style tower with no other purpose than being a tall tower.  

 

It was pretty cool but too busy to really soak up the view - it was hard to even get to the windows in some parts.  Nevertheless the views from 450metres high over the city were pretty and made a nice contrast to what we'd seen the day before in daylight from the Shibuya Skytower.  Unfortunately my photos are all blurry:

 

We are now ringing in the new year by watching Japan's famous NYE singing contest on TV.   

 

Japan Day 5 - Tokyo

Sunday, 31 December 2023

We started the day with intentions to run around the National Gardens which are just across the road to us - unfortunately they are closed until the 3rd of January like a lot of things in Tokyo, so we had to make do with running on the streets. We passed by the Tokyo sports stadium and went past a memorial building for an Emperor that he built for himself before he died:

 

Back at our apartment we managed to put together the ingredients and kitchen utensils to make som pancakes for breakfast - no small feat in an apartment with almost nothing but the basics, not even drinking glasses.

  

This was good fuel for our fairly long walk to the Takeshita Street, and on to the Shibuya shopping district which includes the famous 'scramble' crossing.

 

 

The streets were very quiet until we got to this district, then it was very busy but not too bad. Jon finally got a chance to get the toffee-strawberries-on-a-stick that we'd seen sold everywhere.

 

 

 After a bit of browsing we went to the Shibuya Sky viewing platform, which Zali had cleverly insisted we book a few weeks before we left. It was a beautiful day and a great place to soak up the size of the city.  We ended up staying for quite a while up on the open rooftop as well as inside the viewing floor.

 

 

After a bit more browsing we headed home via the Metro.  We are feeling slightly more confident about it now - despite the fact it looks like this and we are still buying tickets from the ticket machine each time we travel:

 

In fact we felt so confident coming home we decided to split up and take different carriages to see if everyone could negotiate the change of train line and correct exit at the other end.  Jett's data isn't working so he was really living on the edge.  I ended up on the same carriage as Jon for the 2nd train, perfectly positioned to exit the subway close to the designated finish line - a convenience store near our place. Jon and I (the rules prevented us from colluding) both got to the store first and texted a photo of the proof to the losers. Who promptly texted us back a photo of their shopping basket as they were in the 'correct' convenience store - there were two within sight of each  other and Jon and I had stopped too early. Dang.

Back at the apartment we had an hour or so to relax and find some dinner before we had to head out for another activity that Zali had found before we left - an arty immersion light experience near the bay (so another two train rides away).  It was really good fun and really was immersive in some parts as we waded through water with fish projected onto it - it was really cool. 

 

A few more train rides back and we were home by 9ish.  Another long and fun day! 

 

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 3 - more Kyoto

Thursday, 28 December 2023

Today started with a short run around the National Gardens which is a few blocks away from our hotel. Actually to be precise it started with a run away from the gardens as I sent us in the wrong direction for a few minutes.

 

 

It's about 4 degrees in the morning and climbing to 10-15 during the day which makes it nice in the sun and a bit chilly in the shade.

After a buffet breakfast which Zali loved as it featured rice and seaweed, but the rest of us were indifferent about as it also featured pretty cold eggs and bacon, we set off for the Bamboo Forest, a big tourist area about three or four trains away (it's all a blur now).  We seem to take way longer than google suggests we should for all these trips as we spend so long trying to work out how to swap between the different train lines and worse, train companies, and we always seem to have the wrong ticket.  Nevertheless we eventually arrived and headed up a very steep hill to visit the only monkeys native to Japan.

 

They were very cute especially the baby ones who were busy tumbling all over each other in a big gang - kind of like lambs. 

Back down the hill we walked over the river to the bamboo forest

 

- it was a fairly small patch of forest with a nice path through it - it was hard to get a good photo as there were so many other tourists and actually if it wasn't for the diversion to see the monkeys it would be hard to justify the long trip out. 

   

The areas around the popular tourist places are filled with interesting food stalls and tacky souviners but unlike other places we've been to, the vendors are not pushy and leave you alone until you want to buy something which is nice.

After trying some of the street food - Jett and Jon had an octopus skewer, Zali and I had a weird form of dagwood dog, we headed back across town to the number one tourist attraction in Kyoto - the Fushimi Inari shrine.  It took us 4 different trains on 3 different private lines (and 3 different tickets) and when we arrived it was packed as I'm sure it is for most of every day. In fact it was so packed the start of the walk up the hill was almost claustrophobic inside the red structures.  Happily the steeper and longer the trail went for, the less people survived until there were even opportunities to get a few good photos.

 

 

By the time we got to the top (about 40 minutes of steep steps with a few small flatter sections in between) we were pretty sweaty. Thankfully it was a loop walk and the downhill was pretty easy.  We stopped for an icecream before catching another two trains back to our hotel via the huge Kyoto Station.  

 

By the time we got back I was absolutely exhausted from so many hills and almost 30000 steps. I was content to get dinner from the supermarket nearby but Zali found an Indian restaurant 500metres away so we went there instead - I am already a bit tired of the slim vegetarian pickings that can be found in Japanese cuisine - the restaurant in Osaka was a highlight but since then it's been a bit difficult so the Indian was fantastic after a big day. 

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.

Japan Day 1 - Osaka

Wednesday, 27 December 2023

Arriving at night to Osaka would have been more of a temperature shock if Adelaide wasn't so unseasonably cold this year!  All our flights went smoothly although the 3.45am wake-up time clearly took its toll:

 

We arrived about 6.30 pm and had to negotiate the train line to travel about an hour into Osaka.  It should have been much easier than it was but apparently the popular rail card is unavailable at the moment due to a chip shortage so we've had to deal with a lot of individual ticket machines.  After 2 trains we made it to our little (tiny) apartment at about 8pm, dumped our bags and the exhausted Zali and found a really cool place to eat nearby.  The food was delicious and cheap although it did take a while to arrive so we didn't make it to bed until 11. What a day.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ...