Member Since: 06 Mar 2017
Location: Lost
Posts: 4969
Great pic's, must look very cool at night Del! yµ (idµ - eAµ) ψ=mψ
29th Sep 2023 7:09 pm
nigethecat
Member Since: 11 Sep 2016
Location: Marnoch
Posts: 4220
[quote="DSL"]PS Forgot the trip up N of Nagoya to a museum that showed Japan after the end of the Edo period, once it opened up.
We haven’t had a safety notice for a while but here’a catch-up. Top right, no Browning 9 mils nor cutlasses but Glocks, Magnums and sabres are allowed. Also what have Corgis done to get banned?
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I see that Wile Coyote is also banned
I want to see the sweets before I get into your windowless van... I'm not stupid!
Corris Grey D4 Commercial SE 2016
Zermatt Sliver 2007 D3 SE manual (gone)
Indus Silver D4 HSE 2015 (gone)
Bonatti Grey D3 HSE 2006 (gone)
White D3 S (LHD) 2007 (gone)
Firenze Red D4 HSE 2014 (gone)
Black RRS 3.6TDV8 2008 (gone)
Rusty Green Defender 110 1997 (gone)
Black FL2 HSE 2013 (gone)
29th Sep 2023 8:38 pm
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72981
And greetings from Kobe!!
Presently enjoying this view from the Crowne Plaza lounge on the 37th floor.
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And working on sampling the sake from L to R so don’t expect too much sense later!
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Cheers all!
3rd Oct 2023 9:49 am
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72981
Drinks machines in Japan are virtually everywhere!! There’s not many places with access to power that don’t have them. Here’s an especially cute one from Kobe Chinatown.
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There are machines that sell drinks (we’ve only seen one that does hot coffee), machines that sell souvenirs, the odd machine outside a bar that sells beer. For the drinks machines think fridges that can be sitting in full sunshine in mid 30s temps, ready to dispense a lovely ice cold drink, usually a bottle of latte, to a weary and sweaty traveller (moi) for less than £1. But this was a first for us, a machine that dispenses stock!!
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Very strange! And told ya things were going to get weird!!
3rd Oct 2023 10:13 am
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72981
And a final few pics.
What do you mean you don’t like my kebabs?
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Scary temple in Osaka, deffo needs some sake.
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Even tapirs need refreshment, but can’t work the machines!
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Faaaaaaaaaaatsatic Osaka cheesecake, this was lunch and dinner, dinner supplemented with crisps and chocolate cake, it wasn’t the healthiest of diets that day! That’s the downside of having a seven eleven and a Lawsons just outside the hotel door!
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And into Kobe. A scramble crossing that out scramble crossings Shimbuya in Tokyo.
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Sweeeeeet, or is it savoury, panda buns.
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And, staying on food, we think this is a sea food eatery but something gets lost in translation.
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A pano with not one but 2 submarines.
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And had to do a double take as wasn’t expecting to see this in Japan.
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Last time we saw one of those was on the ferry from HCM to Vung Tau back in ‘19. Don’t tell Vietnam but we’ll be back there shortly. Well next June, and not to HCM nor Vung Tau.
And finally a bit of the memorial to the Kobe 1995 earthquake.
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Did I mention we were presently on the 37th floor?
3rd Oct 2023 10:35 am
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72981
PS And fantastic night scape, even better with no wobble whether that be sake or plate tectonics induced.
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3rd Oct 2023 10:51 am
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72981
Annnnnnnnd a few more pics. Went from Kobe to Okayama then down to Uno to spend a couple of days visiting the islands between Honshu and Shikoku, Japan’s 4th biggest island.
Cable car up to a botanic garden just up from the hotel, then walk back.
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A day getting funicular up to the top of the mountains behind Kobe and then the ropeway (subtly different from cable car) down the other side.
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It was compulsory to wave!
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And the promise of a nice hot feet soak at the bottom, and yes that’s as much of SWMBO’s legs that are allowed on t’internet! No, the ones on the left are not hers!
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Himeji Castle, a nice break from the train ride from Kobe to Okayama. Dumped the bags at the JR station and a nice wander down to the castle.
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Didn’t see any wasps that needed my ninja skills though.
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Did someone say food? Here from an eatery at the station in Okayama.
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SWEEEEEEEEEET old style tram down to the hotel.
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And you don’t often get a view out onto a full blown, if tiddly, castle from the rooms.
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Cranes taking off from the local botanic gardens.
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UC&P
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And then down to Uno and the eastern islands of the Seto Inland Sea where we had a couple of days hopping on and off ferries, hiking across them and scratching our heads re all the art that is there.
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No idea.
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Now that’s a work of art.
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And a fast boat back.
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Next day to Tashima Island, it was like going back a couple of hundred years in time, really quiet and virtually no tourists, apart from at the couple of art museums.
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Main museum was a big concrete dome with water coming out of the floor and coalescing together in a most hypnotic way. Totally magical, until stepping in a pool of said liquid reminded you that your boots were not on your feet!
No pics inside but this is the dome, not allowed to take snaps inside.
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Today was getting to the island by ferry, then in the local botanic gardens until we could get into our hotel.
1st ferry.
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Nice view of the red pumpkin again.
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And second ferry, same as first but with spots rather than diamonds.
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And fantastic Ritsurin gardens. Absolutely boooooooootiful and peaceful, even a downpour didn’t change that.
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Let’s not be koi about these fishies, and no carping on!
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That’s us up to date, got some seriously complicated travelling ahead so if the next pics come from Korea (N or S) then we’ve gone seriously wrong!
10th Oct 2023 11:00 am
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72981
Evening all, and greetings from Shishikui down bottom right of Shikoku island.
Proper Japanese hotel, our first ever. It’s not exactly a comfy experience on the travel weary bones but it had to be done!
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View out over the Pacific, next stop just S of LA, ignoring a little bit of Japan in the way.
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Dinner menu. GoogTrans to the rescue! All really good and the food just kept on arriving!
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Beds for the night, very low level and slightly solid!
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More food, breakie this morning. Fish was boooooootiful!
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View the other way, where surfers are now.
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Long day travelling today to Kochi, tpt in this part of the world is somewhat limited, should get there this evening sometime.
13th Oct 2023 2:30 am
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72981
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Sorry folks, more food pics.
Local market’s food court, absolutely packed at about 11am.
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Lots and lots of lovely looking food but zeroed in on Katsuo no Tataki, seared benito. By seared think straw powered jet blast that gives the totally fresh tuna a lovely BBQesque layer with lovely raw middle.
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Very lovely it was too, with lemon & soya and raw garlic. Again set meal, with meso soup and rice to mop up the last of the sauce.
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Gratuitous pic of the Kochi dog, as depicted in the pavements. St Bernard in sumo outfit.
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PS Just watching re the benito dish to plate on local TV, getting hungry again!
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14th Oct 2023 8:21 am
Moo D3 Decade
Member Since: 13 Aug 2010
Location: Wiltshire
Posts: 14243
You like you're having a cracking time. It's a great country with wonderful people. I'm due out to Tokyo again end of November. Love it.New Defender L663 110 SE (known as Noddy!)
Sold Volvo XC90 R-Design (known as Basil)
Sold - D4 HSE (Known as Gerty)
No longer the Old Buses original owner
231,000 miles and counting
05 S manual owned from March 2005
D4 Face lifted
Still original injectors and turbo
V8 Front brakes
BAS Remap, Allisport Intercooler and deCat
EGRs blanked
T-Max split charge
Hanibal Expeedition rack
Prospeed ladder
Duratrac tyres
IID BT
BAS FBH control
14th Oct 2023 10:47 am
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72981
It is a great country and truly wonderful peeps. We often have the discussion on our travels along the lines of “if we could, would we live here?” and for Japan its a definitely, if we ignore the language side of things.
And re visiting Tokyo, this part of Japan is a world away from the big cities, it’s gob-smackingly beautiful and everything is so much more relaxed. Kochi is a lovely city and very welcoming, even if we are hitting GoogTranslate like it’s going out of fashion! Get yerself out in the boonies for a few days, it’s fantastic. Only down side is we no longer turn up at a station and we’re cursing coz we’ve just missed a train and the next one is a 7 minutes wait. It doesn’t work like that here.
A few view pics that you deffo aren’t doing to get in Tokyo.
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But the buses are much cuter here, we’ve been riding these around the Muroto Peninsula and often been the only peeps on them. Our own personal taxis.
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Re travelling in Tokyo, if you have an iPhone or Apple Watch you can put a Suica or PASIMO “card” on that and it makes using trains and metro massively easier. No looking up prices and buying tickets, just bung some credit on and tap on them tap off. Simples.
14th Oct 2023 1:59 pm
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72981
And greetings from the end of a boooooootiful day in Matsuyama.
Today has been a day of fun and frolics at yet another castle. To get up there there are 3 options, on foot, cable car and chair lift. It was a bit of a hike so opted for one of the latter two.
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Chair lift was an interesting prospect from the warning notice. Love the “drunk” bit!
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Mind you being drunk would help!! It was like someone had nicked a school chair and welded it to a pole and strung a load of them on a wire!
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Needless to say we took the cable car/ropeway.
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Falling off the chair wasn’t the only danger, watch out for cute monkeys.
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And the trees they throw at you!!
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And to the castle, which gave great views and was one of the best Japanese castles we’ve been in.
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As usual lots of stairs/ladders to go up, unfortunately my port socks are on my starboard foot and vice versa so no chance of using them to keep left.
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Odd socks have become a thing for us (well me) travelling as we tend to go through socks and usually end up at the end of a trip with all odd ones, now we (well I) just embrace the oddity as we’ve discovered Family Mart sell ideal odd socks.
Great garden at the bottom of the hill, with a bit of a conveyor belt for wedding pics.
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Back to the hotel safely without seeing a single monkey.
And a few pics from getting here via Uwajima. Deffo some of the most rural bits we’ve seen in Japan, all from a bright yellow train.
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In case peeps didn’t know where they were when they rented bikes.
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And a sweeeeeeeet old loco outside the station.
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Great views on the train ride from Uwajima to Matsuyama.
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Going back to Kochi, great cave to visit to the N. Some of the walk way was a bit neat, can’t imagine this would be allowed back home!
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But there was sufficient warnings, incl notes in English just before entering but after buying the tickets.
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But the caves were fab!
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And yes, those black specs are indeed bats!
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And coz Halloween is around the corner, prepare for a fright.
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That’s all folks, off out for dinner.
19th Oct 2023 9:13 am
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72981
PS Dined at the local Yoshinoya establishment, a national “fast food” chain that does Japanese scoff and very nice it was too. All this was £10 for 2 of us.
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Then back to room to enjoy a cheeky little bottle of this particular Aussie grape juice, which cost us the grand sum of £3.58 from the Family Mart 50m from the hotel.
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We never really thought of Japan as a cheap place to travel in but food, travel and even hotels are costing much less than we thought. Not complaining about that one bit.
19th Oct 2023 10:30 am
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72981
Evening all, and a boooooootiful sunset over Hiroshima.
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Been a good few days of fun and frolics, will bung up some pics once I get a nice cold beer in front of me. I’m about 17 minutes now!
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25th Oct 2023 9:13 am
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72981
Right, time to get up to date.
From Matsuyama to Fukyoka was a road trip, “long” distance bus as JR hadn’t gotten the memo and put in a rail link. It was road or ferry, and the road was via a load of bridges and beautiful islands.
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That’s the downside of having a seven eleven and a Lawsons just outside the hotel door!
