Japan part 2 - Kyoto

After a less than comfortable night in Tokyo bus station, we finally got to start our eight hour journey to Kyoto at 11.30am the following day. Having not got a great deal of sleep, I was hoping for a nice and comfortable bus so I could spend most of the journey napping. Sadly, my height let me down. 5ft8 is apparently quite tall in Japan which meant limited leg room on the bus and a slightly uncomfortable trip for me. After a longer journey than planned, we eventually reached Kyoto at around 8pm and were totally worn out.

The following day we started exploring the city. After Tokyo, Kyoto turned out to be a lot less busy and was much easier to explore on foot. We also made a few friends at the hostel we stayed at who told us about the better places to visit and where to get good food from.

Within walking distance of the hostel we were staying in was one of the larger shrines in Kyoto. There were lots of Japanese lanterns and areas for praying as well as some nice park areas to wander around.

 

 

We also visited Nijo Castle.  I think it was built for the imperial family at some point in the 17th or 18th century. The floorboards were designed to creak so that you could hear any potential assassins waiting to pounce on you. Nowadays, there are no potential assassins (forunately) so we explored the castle in peace. Japanese castles are not the same as those found in the UK. There is a moat of sorts but no battlements or turrets. Here is a picture to illustrate my point...

 

There were also extensive grounds around the castle, my favourite part was here...

 

 

Probably my favourite part of Kyoto was the Golden Pavilion or Kinkaku-ji. I'm not sure when it was built but I think there is actual gold used on the Pavilion. It probably looks good even on really bad days. The day we went was fairly dull but even then, the pavilion was impressive.

 



I felt with both Tokyo and Kyoto there was a lot more to explore than what we managed to see in our time there. I really enjoyed Japan and am now quite keen to go back to revisit Tokyo and Kyoto as well as new places like Osaka.

Sorry it's taken a while for me to post this. Turned out that I wasn't too good at handling the jet lag after I got back to the UK. On the first day I got back, I woke up at 2am. This wasn't too much of a problem as I'd booked the day off. Unfortunately, each day afterwards I woke up at stupid times and had to drag myself to work despite how tired I felt. I drank more coffee on my first day back in the office than I normally would in a week.

Japan part 1 - Tokyo

I've always wanted to go to Japan. I can't quite explain why but it has always been on my list of places to go. When my sister announced that Japan was the final leg of her travels in Asia, I decided to go for it and booked my flights.

We started in Tokyo. It's a massive place with a train system that I could never quite grasp. There are lights and people everywhere, everything I expected of the city.

The first evening we met one of my sister's friends who is teaching in Tokyo. He took us to a restaurant where you cook your food on a hot plate in the middle of the table. We cooked these savoury pancake type things. Not quite sure what was in them but they tasted great.

The following day we met my sister's friend again. Our first stop was a Japanese cat cafe. Not what you're probably thinking... In Tokyo, a lot of people live in flats where they are not allowed pets. As a result they visit a cat cafe to get a chance to play with the cats and feel like they have a pet for an hour or so. It was a strange experience but one we all really enjoyed. Probably took a few too many pictures of cats though.

 

 



After getting very attached to the cats, we moved on to Asakusa to visit one of Tokyo's larger shrines. It turned out to be huge and really busy but very impressive. There were loads of people visiting just to reflect and pray.

On the Saturday, we took the train to Hitachi-Ushiko to meet with our former Japanese neighbours from 1988. They invited us into their home for Japanese tea and cake before taking us to Koubuntei. Koubuntei was a good two hour drive from their house so it was a struggle to stay awake for the whole journey! At Koubuntei, there is a 17th century (or so) house and park. We took a tour of the house with our Japanese friend translating before having a wander around the gardens. It was all very pretty.

Once we got back to Tokyo, we went to the Imperial Palace Gardens in the centre of the city. The gardens were really pretty and surrounded by the sky scrapers of the city. It reminded me a lot of Central Park in New York.

The snow hit on our final day in the city. The day we were due to get the night bus to Tokyo. We decided to spend the day exploring the shops and hoped the snow would ease in order to allow our journey to Kyoto to go ahead according to plan.

Unfortunately, when we arrived for our 10.45pm bus, we were told it was cancelled due to the snow. Leaving us with no alternative but to book onto one the following day and spend the night in the bus station waiting room. Not comfortable at all! Particularly as we got woken up at 5am and told to leave the bus station for an hour.

My next entry will be all about Kyoto and what we did when we eventually did manage to get there!

Northern adventures

It's been a bit longer than intended for me to get round to writing this. I always find something else to do instead.

On Friday, I managed to get myself out of bed at 6am. I am not generally a morning person but managed it and was ready to go and pick my Dad up at 7am. Fortunately, at that time the roads leading to the M1 were not too busy so I didn't have any real scary incidents.

I ended up driving for the majority of the journey with my Dad was navigating. He couldn't map read and drive at the same time. The first real problem we encountered was in Sheffield. There was a massive road accident right in the middle of town. The part we needed to get through. The original plan to stop in Sheffield for some geeky tram trips had to be hastily scrapped and instead I got to practice my clutch control on Sheffield's many hills and drive behind a lot of trams that were also stuck in traffic. Eventually we got through and carried on to just outside Wakefield for the National Coal Mining Museum.

As with any self respecting coal mining museum, there was a trip underground. This involved getting a hard hat and safety gear then cramming into a lift with 15 other people to descend 140 metres into the mine. The chap providing the tour was from Barnsley and enjoyed using various distinctive Barnsley phrases to confuse the more southern members of the group. Despite banging my head a couple of times on the low ceilings, it was a detailed tour and fairly interesting. Perhaps went on a bit too long though.

The next day we drove back via Sheffield so we could get our fix of tram riding. Luckily there were no accidents or traffic jams on this occasion. We took a tram from Meadowhall shopping centre and tried to find an Industrial Museum. We found the museum but unfortunately it was shut on a Saturday and we were there on a Saturday. Instead we had a wander about before catching the tram back to Meadowhall and starting the journey home.

This part was slightly more stressful. There were a lot more crazy people out on the road. There were people doing 80/90 miles per hour undertaking and the odd annoying truck. I managed to keep my cool and we made it back to south west London by about 6pm.

Now it's back to normal life - pottering about in the suburbs of London. I got a trip to Essex for work on Monday but that mostly involved giving a presentation and enduring noisy school children on the train back to Liverpool Street.

Trips and other plans

At the beginning of the year, I set myself a few targets. Most of which I haven't done too well with despite rebranding them from the more normal term of new year's resolutions.

One of my targets for 2012 was to do a road trip. Since January, I have managed several road trips. Driving to glamorous destinations including Cardiff, Bournemouth, Brighton and Plymouth. My next big trip is on Friday when I am driving to the North of the UK for the first time.

I've done all the preparation - checking the oil, tyre pressures and attempting to clean the car. Now all I have to do is negotiate my way onto the M1 and head towards Huddersfield. Easy right? Fortunately for my fellow road users, it will not just be me on this journey. On this occasion, I will be splitting the driving with my dad.

The plan is to visit Sheffield then head onto the National Coal Mining museum near Wakefield. Staying over in Huddersfield for the night then heading back, probably through a few other fun towns along the way. Maybe not as glamorous as some trips but hopefully it should be fun and the driving won't be too complicated.

I am trying to make an effort to update this blog more regularly so I will write an update on how I get on after the trip.

I also have a conference to attend for work at the end of next month. That too is in a less glamorous location - Croydon. I've only been to one conference before for work and it was two days of awkward team building moments. Fortunately there is an evening do where a lot of people drink too much and do silly things. On the last conference, I enjoyed the complimentary wine a bit too much and was feeling a bit delicate for the group presentation the following day. Not good. This year, I have to give a 10 minute presentation by myself on the merits of being on the staff panel. Perhaps I will provide an update on how that one goes too?

The big exciting trip to somewhere new and fun is in January. I am going to TOKYO! I've always wanted to go to Japan and since my sister will also be there at the same time following her Malaysian adventures, I thought this was the ideal opportunity. Regardless of any less exciting blog updates in the meantime, I will definitely try to keep a record of the trip here.

Wonderful West Country

Last week my sister (Megan) and I embarked on the longest road trip either of us had done since passing our driving tests .

We drove from Teddington (south west London) to Plymouth. A journey of about 215 miles on some rather windy, hilly roads. There were also inconsiderate truck drivers, traffic jams and our own attempts to navigate to add into the mix. Luckily we made it there in one piece without any major incidents. Yay!

Here is a picture of the more traffic free part of our journey...

We stayed with our aunt, Glyn, in the Mutley area of Plymouth. Handy for all the student bars and not too far from the centre of Plymouth.

On the saturday, we took the train down to Cornwall to visit Looe. Megan was keen to swim in the sea so as soon as we arrived in Looe, we headed straight to the beach. I don't normally go for trying to get into the sea beyond paddling depth but decided to be brave. Once I overcame the initial chill, it was actually really nice.

In the evening, Glyn hosted a party at her house to celebrate her birthday. It had a hippy theme so everyone dug out their long hair wigs, tie dye, flares and other hippy accessories. Here's a pic of me and Meg in our hippy outfits...

What you can't see in this picture is Megan's awesome hippy trousers, really added to the hippy look. The party itself was really good. Glyn has some very cool and interesting friends who had all put in a lot of effort for their costumes. There was even a hippy themed jamming session featuring a guy singing on guitar with a tambourine and flute to keep him company.

On sunday, we decided to stay in Plymouth. We took a walk down the hill to the city centre and explored the fairly new Drake Circus shopping centre before heading to the harbour area. We decided that the Plymouth Aquarium was an essential place to visit. I love aquariums! I get very transfixed by all the different sea creatures, particularly the jelly fish. They also had some amazing octopi (I think that's the right plural for more than one octopus) and mini sharks.

By monday it was time to go home. Unfortunately, the weather conditions on the way home were not so friendly. We had to contend with pouring rain and fog on the windy, hilly roads that took us back towards London. It was a scary driving experience for us both but we made it. Hopefully, we can do more cool road trips like this and feel much more confident as a result of doing this.

Driving me crazy, 2012

Following my last driving related post back in 2010, I would like to announce that I passed my driving test first time on 8th November 2011. With two minors. Clearly the many driving disasters along the way were worth the trouble.

When I finally did pass my test, my Dad provided me with the following advice: "now you have passed your test, the learning really begins".  At the time, I thought this was all a little patronising and was not really sure I could handle traumatic driving experiences all by myself.

Fortunately, in the nine months since I have passed I have not had any major incidents. I had visions of dramatic crashes, particularly on the first occasion I went on the motorway. Then again, I'm not sure any sane people decide that the M25 is the best motorway to start with.

Embarrassingly, I have had a couple of minor incidents. On one occasion, I was trying to reverse out of a parking space and knocked my wing mirror off by clipping it on a metal post. Stylish. On another occasion, I was trying to manouvre out of a tight space in an underground car park and ended up getting a bit too friendly with a van. Leaving a dent along the side of my car and the van completely unharmed. Luckily, my Dad has helped me fix these problems and make my car look less battered. He has fixed my wing mirror and beaten out the dent I put in the car. Perhaps his original post test comment wasn't quite as patronising as I orginally thought?

I'm planning a road trip down to Plymouth with my sister on Friday. I'm going to add an update on that trip once I get back with a view to using this blog more frequently from now on.




Demonstrating my driving skills by not moving in a car park and letting Colin the Cat take all the credit...

About this blog, the stories and the updates it contains.

Someone at work asked me today whether I ever wrote the stories I tell down. It reminded me that I had set this blog up some time ago with the intention to do just that.

I haven't decided whether I will publicise this or to leave it as it is, in a dark corner of the internet most people don't stumble across. I think I will have to see how it goes and whether I manage to add more stories over the next few months. I also feel it is worth establishing whether I can write stories in an interesting, compelling and maybe even vaguely amusing way.

All the stories and the updates on this page are taken from my life. I have developed a habit of finding myself in odd situations, having clumsy moments or generally causing chaos.