M & I have researched the area quite a bit and besides the city centre and castle (which we did yesterday), the only other thing that looked worthwhile to see/spend time at was Lake Hamana. It is actually strictly speaking a lagoon as it is connected to the Pacific Ocean but Japan considers it to be the 10th largest lake in Japan. The water in the lake is brackish because of the connection to the ocean...
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We had breakfast included in our hotel rate and so M & I waited until towards the end of breakfast time to have breakfast so we could sort of combine it with lunch and skip lunch. The breakfast is a wide spread of both local and western type breakfast. Most importantly I can get an decent americano (or two) and not have to pay R65 (or more). After breakfast M and I walked up to Hamamatsu...
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We checked out just before 11am and headed to our last stop on our Japanese tour. We were heading to Hamamatsu which is north east of Osaka on the coast. Multiple trains involved (as per usual) - train to Osaka, change onto a train to Shinosaka and then shinkansen from Shinosaka to Hamamatsu. There are a number of things that amaze me about Japan and I have only ever seen in this country (and I have...
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The guidebook basically said Osaka isn't a place to spend any time. If only we had read that before booking two nights here! It is a very modern city with hardly any tourist attractions. Universal Studios is one of the main attractions and that doesn't hold any attraction for us. The people arrive in their hordes though to come to Universal City. It must be doing very well. It doesn't seem to change much whether it...
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We traveled to Osaka from Toyota yesterday. It is a bit of a mission because it firstly required a 20 minute walk to train station - we tried to get a taxi but they said the taxi (sounded like the only one in Toyota!) would take 20 mins to arrive. Then a local train (private company run so required buying a ticket) to one station, change at that station and then onto another train (from same...
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When in Toyota, what else should one do but go visit the Toyota museum. Having done our research that actually seemed to be the only thing to do. So we walked the roughly 2km to the museum and managed to kill close to an hour there. They do factory tours as well but unfortunately the assembly line isn't operating on Saturdays so no tour was possible. M did his bit for the environment and generated some...
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No I didn't mean 'travel by Toyota', I really did mean travel 'to' Toyota because that is where the next Springbok game is taking place. Unfortunately it is not an easy place to get to especially not from Kyoto. It required us to firstly get to the station (just on 2km away). We would usually have walked but my feet told me to call an Uber instead. We then had to take the shinkansen to Nagoya....
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Yesterday started earlier for B as he had to go to the train station before us. Why you might ask? Because he decided to launder his rail passes which was in his pocket when we did the washing the previous evening. Big signs up at the train station saying "We won't replace your pass if you lose it, have it stolen or you wash it". Given the cost, B reckoned it was important to try. Fortunately...
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B went for an early morning run and then kindly went to get us some coffee yesterday morning. It seems Japanese don't drink coffee for breakfast as the 'Coffee on the Go' place in the same road as us doesn't open until 11am and the again it was closed on Wednesdays as well! He did find another place but didn't think to check the price and came back with R66 coffees (and no it wasn't the...
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We left Tokyo yesterday to travel to Kyoto. We also said goodbye to D as he was flying back to New York. His flight left at 3pm but he also wanted to do some shopping so he headed out at around 9am. The rest of us left at 10am (check out time of AirBnB). We did the 15 minute walk to Omori station (and I was sweating profusely by that time) and then 2 stops on...
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