"I hate blogs, they're completely pointless" @simontalbot - Tumblr Blog

I’VE MOVED!

Tumblr was trying to get people to create Tumblr accounts to access the full blog, so I’ve moved it. (Things have changed since 2020!).

The blog is now available here:

Home | I hate blogs, they’re completely pointless

I’ll tidy it up at some point and move my old entries, but for now it’s on Wix. Enjoy!

Toronto -> New York Trip - Day 1 (14 October ‘23)

IT'S BACK!! The long awaited and highly anticipated return of my travel blog - after a few fallow years thanks to Covid. It's full of incredible insights about the places, people and cultures we encounter on our travels. My thousands of followers will be so pleased...

Nah not really.

It's just a bunch of poorly taken photos (except Kirstie's that I steal) and a brief account of what we've been up to. Mostly for Mums, Dads and anyone seriously bored enough to take a look (Hi Mum and Dad!). It is also a nice little record to look back on from time to time or refer people to if they are planning to go to any of the same places. So here goes...

We made it to TORONTO. For this trip we start in Toronto and end in New York with a combination of buses, trains and cars in between - but mostly a road trip either side of the border. I am visiting my 40th country in my 40th year, I can't help but love the congruity.

We got in to Toronto just after lunch, sailed through the airport (super smooth, but sadly no passport stamp!), took the train and subway to Danforth, a suburb just east of downtown Toronto. After a few blue-dot-google-map mishaps, we found our Air BnB. It is in a pretty sweet residential area with lots of small houses, many of which are decked out in Halloween decorations.

After a quick freshen up (and power nap) we took the subway downtown. The subway system is really straightforward with only a couple of lines and there is a really good streetcar (tram) system overground. It is all tap on tap off with Apple pay/contactless cards which couldn't be easier.

We walked from Union station along to the CN tower. At 553 metres high it was the tallest structure in the world for many years, but it has now slipped to 10th place. We thought we would save going up the tower for another day. We passed by the aquarium, Rogers Centre (Baseball stadium) and the Railway museum and headed to the nearest streetcar stop to take us uptown. We jumped off at 'Graffiti Alley' to take a look around. It wasn't quite Hosier Lane in Melbourne, but there is much more street art in Toronto to take a look at later on. There was, however, a photo shoot happening of a swanky Ferrari in front of some of the graffiti, which had a very apt license plate 'LOFUNDS' (show off)...

After checking out the graffiti, we headed a few blocks further up to Chinatown for some dinner. We opted for a place with great reviews, 'Wok Theory'. It was full of Chinese customers, it sold XiaoLongBao (my absolute favourite food - soup dumplings) and it was nearby. It did not disappoint. The server was really interested in where we were from and giving us advice of what to do in Toronto which was nice. Aside from the food being excellent, the place was immaculately clean, and we were able to just sit for a minute and do some planning.

We moved on and took a stroll along Queen Street West, which was a hive of activity with people getting into the Saturday night spirit. With Cannabis very much legal and very much accessible in Canada, it was clearly popular with many night time revellers as we walked past various groups of people.

Kirstie and I were definitely not in the Saturday night spirit after a long day of travelling and were ready to head back for a sleep. We jumped on the subway and headed back to Danforth and popped in a supermarket to pick up a few bits for breakfast on the way.

We have three full days in Toronto to come (including a day at Niagara) so there was no need to rush!

Welcome to Toronto!

Choo choo! Toronto Subway.

CN Tower. Soz babes, I’ve seen bigger.

A little snapshot of Toronto. One of my shit pictures…

‘Graffiti Alley’. An alley with Graffiti. Toronto is literal.

More graffiti…

Dinner. Straightforward but delicious. Xiaolongbao (at bottom) Lovely.

CN tower and downtown Toronto by night…

Halloween in our neighbourhood…

Halloween in our neighbourhood 2

Tokyo & Okinawa Trip - Day 12 (02 March ‘20)

The last day of our trip has arrived. We had originally arranged 10 days in Tokyo and 10 days in Seoul, but with the Coronavirus picking up in South Korea and many things being closed in Seoul we decided to stay in Japan and spend the last ten days in Okinawa. Today was the day we fly from Okinawa to Seoul in order to catch our original flight from Seoul to London.

Before our flight today, we had booked a flight on Jet Star which was then cancelled. We then booked on an airline called Peach, which again was cancelled. Today we were relying on Asiana NOT to cancel the flight from Okinawa to Seoul. If we missed this flight we would miss our flight out of Seoul and would have to pay for another flight. At least if we make it to Seoul today, if BA cancel the flight from Seoul to London, we would be in their hands and not have to sort out our own flights back. We were nervously excited to see what would happen!

We got up, had our breakfast, jumped in the car, headed to a petrol station to fill up (in Japan you don’t have to get out of your car, the dudes at the garage do it all for you). We then got a bit lost finding the car rental place to return the car (oops), but got there in the end. We walked back to the hotel, packed our bags and headed to the Monorail to the airport. It was see you later Naha city. We had such a good time in Okinawa, and it was a really unexpected ‘summer holiday’ for us!

We arrived at the airport with our fingers and toes crossed that the flight wasn’t cancelled and sure enough they were checking people in. There were no queues and the airport was like a ghost town. The departure board showed the extent of the cancellations and we were on one of the only flights actually going.

We arrived in Incheon (which is where the Seoul airport is) and again it was like a ghost town. This coronavirus is really having an impact on things! Fortunately for us this meant no queues throughout the whole process of leaving the airport. We were both scanned for excess body heat (and passed). There was a special area for people arriving from China, but we were able to bypass that!

We jumped on the shuttle bus from the terminal to our hotel, which is basically at the airport. One thing that is noticeable is signs and notices in English are not as common as in Japan, so it wasn’t all that straight forward to figure out that we got on the right bus, but some smiles, nods and hand gestures we got there in the end! Of course, I don’t expect signs to be in English, but it is noticeable when they’re gone!

We checked in to our hotel. A bit of an odd place. As it is so quiet there is a feeling of The Shining about the hotel and the surrounding area. There are multiple hotels, restaurants and bars in the airport hotel complex, but the place is dead almost eery. We wandered around in the cold (the temperature in Okinawa was about 24 degrees here in Seoul it is 4 degrees) and amongst all the empty restaurants we opted for a pubby type place that had a bit of life in it. It served Korean fried chicken and had tables for us to play bananagrams on. Not a bad choice in the end as the food was really nice and the staff were pretty friendly too.

After dinner we headed back to our room along a dark and deserted corridor closed the door and double locked it. While the hotel is nice, and the room is immense (really clean, loads of space, a kitchenette and a sea view of sorts!), it does have a bit of a murdery vibe to it so better safe than sorry!

Tomorrow we’ll be crossing our fingers that we can get back to London hassle free. Come on BA, don’t let us down!!

Okinawa airport. Mostly empty.

Ours is one of the very few flights that wasn’t cancelled.

There’s our trusty stead. Go on Asiana!!

IN IN IN INCHEON...

The view from our hotel window. You can see the sea!

Bananagrams and Korean Fried Chicken. That’ll do.

Tokyo & Okinawa Trip - Day 11 (01 March ‘20)

With just one day left in Okinawa, we thought we would keep it local. Our first stop was to Shikinaen Garden which was the site of one of the royal residences of the Ryukyu monarchy from the 18th century. It had to be restored after the war as it was destroyed by bombs. It has been designated a ‘Special Place of Scenic Beauty’ as part of its UNESCO World Heritage site listing. Seemed worth a look?

The residence was where the royal family used to entertain foreign dignitaries and it is really picturesque. We wandered around the building (shoes off!) and then around the traditional Okinawan style ornamental garden (shoes on!). It was really peaceful and well worth a visit (15 minutes from our hotel).

We then headed for a spot of lunch. As it was our last day we thought we’d go to Kirstie’s fave - Coco Curry House for a final katsu. That place never fails to disappoint. It was at the lunch table that we discovered our flight from Okinawa to Seoul had been cancelled (for the second time), so we had to quickly book another one. At this point we are sweating a little tiny bit that we might not make it to Seoul, in which case we may miss our flight home. Our new flight with a different airline is scheduled for tomorrow, so fingers firmly crossed that one doesn’t cancel on us. Wait until tomorrow for the next instalment!

Anyway, unperturbed we finished lunch and headed to a supermarket to grab some last minute shopping bits and then on to a retail park area that had a Daiso (Kirstie’s final visit to her favourite shop in the world!).

We then drove back to the hotel to have a bit of a breather before heading out for dinner. I was really keen to try some of the Wagyu Beef that we saw on the first night in the food hall. There was a particular stall that was selling the beef to be taken home or you could choose to have it cooked for you. We made our choice and watched the chap grab the steak from the display cabinet and shove it on the BBQ. It came served with a bowl of rice and on a stone plate with onions and sweetcorn. All I can say is wow. It was amazing. It was like slicing through butter and there was zero chewiness. It was a very odd texture in a really REALLY good way and it tasted incredible. So delicious.

After dinner we mooched around the shops for a little and then headed to the Okinawa Music Cafe to watch an Okinawan band play some traditional Okinawan music. It was really fun. Although the singer and us couldn’t understand each other, we were still able to follow what was happening and were able to get involved in the crowd participation (we were the only non-Japanese in there). We watched the music while sipping on a random cocktail that I chose (I still don’t know what it was). It was a great way to spend our last night in Okinawa!

The residence overlooking the pond. Beaut.

The ceremonial room which looks out over the pond and the gardens.

The old stone bridge.

Hexagonal Pavillion on its own little island.

Dinner time! The Wagyu Beef place.

BBQ man! Cheers pal. Loving your work.

The finished product. Big slap of meat with garlic flakes on top.

My haul in the grabber machine arcade. A little Mario Kart toy. Success on my first attempt!

The band. So good!

Tokyo & Okinawa Trip - Day 10 (29 February ‘20)

Our plan was to head up the western coast to Nago city and then explore the area around it. We ended up stopping quite quickly at a beach called ‘Ginowan Tropical Beach’. It was the classic light sandy beach with crystal clear blue water. It was quiet on the beach except for a group of kids racing each other on the sand. We carried on up the coast to Chatan Park which happened to be next to the ‘American Village’. The American Village is an area that looks a bit like Disney Land, presumably aimed to target the Americans staying on Okinawa, but actually it seemed pretty popular with Japanese too.

We walked through the American village and onto Chatan Harbour alongside. There were some really nice looking bars and restaurants overlooking the water. We wanted to grab lunch and so we opted for a little place with a couple of seats facing out over the water. It was a great spot, but an even better lunch. Wagyu Beef on Rice, sounds quite simple but it really was incredible. One of those meals you finish and think, shit that was amazing. I washed it down with a Passion Fruit and Hibiscus iced drink. Sitting there overlooking the blue water made us really feel like we were on a proper holiday rather than travelling.

After we finished, we headed back to the car to continue our journey up the coast toward Yagaji and Kouri islands. Both of which connected to the main island by bridges. Kouri had an ‘Ocean Tower’ which was basically a place to go up and take in the view of the islands and the water. We headed straight there.

Rather than walking up the hill, they had driverless golf buggies to escort tourists up to the tower. It was a bit weird sitting in the back, but there was a commentary and a pretty decent view. We got off and headed up to the top of the tower. The view was great as you could see for miles. There were bits of rock jutting out of the water in the bays, which made it look all the more photogenic. It reminded me a bit of Ha Long bay in Vietnam. This side of Japan (away from the mega cities, the anime and the food) is really under rated.

We headed down the tower, through the gift shop full of pineapple based snacks (we took took full advantage of the free samples!) and hit the road toward Nago. It was just coming to the end of the day and so we found a spot to watch the sunset (awww how romantic!). We found Seikinomori Beach, which was within a large park complex just on the outskirts of Nago City. As we were driving through the park to get to the beach, there were loads of baseball and football games being played. There was supposed to be a baseball game being played in one of the stadiums within the park complex, however they were playing them without the fans due to Coronavirus. It would have been great to catch a baseball game.

We parked up and headed to the beach. There was a great spot where I set up my phone for a time lapse (standard) and so we sat on the grass looking out over the water. It was really nice to just stop for a bit. The sunset did not disappoint either.

It was heading toward dinner time so Kirstie googled highly recommended restaurants in Nago city and the two closest ones were really nearby. One was a restaurant we saw on the way to the park which had a ‘SOLD OUT’ sign outside - we knew that one was obviously popular, but the other place was place called ‘Cafe Captain Kangaroo’. I mean why not? We arrived and it was basically a burger place and it had a dive bar aesthetic to it. As Tripadvisor has never let us down before, we gave it a go and sure enough it was bloody excellent. The waiting staff were really friendly and we could see the chef cooking away right in front of us. He looked like someone that surfs by day and flips burgers by night. It was really busy with every table taken, but the food came out quick and it was immense.

After dinner, we got back in the car and drove through Nago City on our way back to our hotel. It was another full on day of touring the beautiful beaches of Okinawa. We had intended to visit the aquarium while up there, but sadly it has been closed due to Coronavirus fears - I guess because it is so busy they don’t want to risk the crowds spreading anything. A bit of a shame, but it certainly didn’t ruin the day.

We have one more day with the car tomorrow with no plan of what to do. I guess we’ll just hit the road and see.

Ginowan ‘Tropical Beach’

Chatan Park Beach.

American Village.

My lunch with a view. Stunning.

The boardwalk at the American Village.

The bridge to Kouri Island.

The view from the tower... my phone camera doesn’t do it justice.

Sunset innit.

Cafe Captain Kangaroo. Quirky but incredible.

Tokyo & Okinawa Trip - Day 9 (28 February ‘20)

Today became a bit of a lazy day, well kind of. We hit a wall of sorts and so we didn’t set off for the day until midday and thought we’d check out Okinawa city, which isn’t all that far from Naha where we are staying. That was our plan until we stumbled across an enormous mall. Initially planning only to pop in for a bit and then grab a quick lunch before moving on, we realised we had spent three hours there. I am really not sure what happened. I didn’t even buy anything.

As far as malls go it was pretty decent and you could tell it was there to serve the American military population as much as the local Okinawan population. After grabbing some lunch we popped into the Daiso store, which is one of Kirstie’s faves and then we headed on into Okinawa city. We ended up driving through it, and on to the coast to the Kaichu Road bridge which links the main island to Yonashiro island. It gave really nice views of the bay and the bridge itself was pretty good to look at. We drove around the island a little bit and took in some of the views and then as the sun was setting we headed back to the hotel for a chill evening in and an early night. We have a packed schedule tomorrow that we want to conserve some energy for.

Shortest. Blog Entry. Ever.

The AEON Mall.

Me getting in touch with my masculine side...

Slap an aquarium in the mall yeah?

Ah, Timelapse. I’ve missed you. My view of the drive to the island.

The pacific coastline of Yonashiro Island.

A view from the bridge to Yonashiro. Photo credit to Kirstie.

Almost sunset on Yonashiro Island.

The bridge to Yonashiro. Not a bad view for the driver.

Rounding off the day with a complimentary ice cream from the hotel. It’s a dangerous game leaving the ice cream freezer open for guests to use and abuse - especially when we’re about...

Tokyo & Okinawa Trip - Day 8 (27 February ‘20)

We started the day by going to pick up our car. We figured that the best way to see the island was by jumping in a car and heading to a few notable places and then just exploring everything in between at random at a relatively slow pace. It seemed to work out very well today. Especially because, as it turns out, driving in Japan is super easy. The other drivers are super polite and considerate and the road signs are really clear (except for the signs in Japanese!).

Our first stop was the Okinawa Peace Memorial Park. A pretty sombre and quiet place that was built on the site where the battle of Okinawa came to an end (TLDR: Huge battle between Japan and US forces in World War II. Enormous number of casualties, approximately 240,000).

The park is really well laid out right by the sea, with various monuments all promoting world peace in some way. There is also the ‘Cornerstone of Peace’ which is a semi circle of stones which have the names of all those who died engraved onto them - from various nationalities. In the centre of the stones is the flame of peace, which was fed by flames from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was a really interesting place to visit and was a very fitting way to highlight the futility of war.

We got back on the road and headed along the coast. We saw that there was an island that you could get to by bridge along the way so we thought it was worth a look. Ojima appeared to be a pretty sleep fishing village. There was a fish market a few little eatery type places and for every human we saw there must have been 5 cats. Cats everywhere. They all looked pretty healthy and pretty friendly. We wandered around a little bit and couldn’t believe how blue the water was. It was a pretty place but certainly not much going on (except cats). We sat in the sun for a little bit and carried on our journey.

With a taste for the beach (and it being a really nice sunny day), we carried on along the coast to Cape Chinen. We parked up and headed down to the beach. It was a nice sandy beach with a very photogenic rustic kind of swing and again crystal clear, blue water. As we were expecting to be in a chilly Seoul rather than a warm Okinawa we didn’t have any of the gear to go for a swim but it was great to spend a bit of time by the beach.

Once we finished by the beach we carried on to Murasaki Mura, which is a recreation of an old Okinawan village that was used for TV dramas, but is now a craft village. In the winter they host a Lantern Festival and I think it’s pretty obvious by now that Kirstie and I love anything with lights in it and so that was what we did. We arrived when it was still light and so we had a look around the village in the daylight and then parked ourselves down and played Bananagrams with a drink. We finished just in time for the entertainment on the stage which was a magician/fire juggler. I am not sure whether he was making loads of mistakes on purpose or not, but he was having a great time laughing at himself all the way through it. I thought he was hilarious and so I guess mission accomplished for him.

We then wandered around the village and had a look at the lanterns. There were the traditional ones that looked incredible, but there were also loads of lanterns that had been made presumably by local school kids and artists. Ranging from spongebob squarepants to a pregnant woman, to Taiko Drummers to all sorts of animals. It was a really nice way to spend the evening. After we had explored the village we headed on back to the hotel. We have another full day planned in the car...

Our whip for the day...

The view through the cornerstones to the flame of peace. A pretty beautiful place.

The ‘Bell of Peace’ which is rung on international peace days and memorial occasions.

The engraved cornerstones. Full of names of people from many different countries.

The bridge to Ojima. The water was incredibly clear.

A beach on the Cape of Chinen.

Some dude on a swing. I didn’t stay on for long. I wasn’t confident it could hold me for too long.

The lanterns in the old village buildings.

A wall of lanterns.

One of the entries for the best Lantern competition. Pretty decent effort with the silhouette of the baby and the heart shape made by her hands.

The path back to the car.

Tokyo & Okinawa Trip - Day 7 (26 February ‘20)

Ohayo Okinawa! We made it, just.

We arrived on time to Narita Airport (having got up at 4.30am) and made our way to the terminal to find long queues for the bag drop. The staff were frantically rushing people through to the front of the queue in order to catch their flights, and so we ended up having to wait ages until we became the ones that needed to be rushed through. We had to rush to the gate at quite a pace, but no sweat (well maybe a little) we made it. The thing I found quite funny is that much of the floor is marked out like an athletics track, presumably as a tribute to the Tokyo Olympics, and so rushing down a 100m track made me feel particularly athletic for that time in the morning.

Anyway, after sleeping hard on the plane, we arrived into Okinawa, grabbed our bags and hit the famous Monorail into central Naha. The temperature was 23 degrees and so it was pretty sweaty - especially considering we’d only packed clothes for a much cooler Tokyo and Seoul, but I’m definitely not complaining about warm weather!

We found our hotel which was a bit swankier than our usual accommodation choices, but hotels in Okinawa were quite cheap. We dumped our bags and popped out to grab some lunch. We basically headed in the wrong direction and found ourselves in quite an industrial area near what I guessed was a commercial ferry port. It certainly wasn’t the holiday destination we were expecting. We couldn’t really find anywhere to have lunch and so we decided to go for one of the only places in the area that was open. As we approached the door, we saw a sign that read ‘Due to the Coronavirus, we refuse visitors from overseas and also customers who have a fever or a cough. We all appreciate your understanding and cooperation’. Kirstie thought it would be funny to walk in anyway and see what happened, so we did. Rather than get booted out, we were met with a big smile and a raised glass of beer from some old boy who was in there. Having been made to feel welcome, we sat down and ordered our food. We soon realised that it was a magazine cafe with floor to ceiling bookcases full of glossy magazines that the rest of the customers were reading at their tables. It had quite a chilled, cosy vibe. After finishing our lunch, we headed back to the hotel to check in and chill out for a bit.

Having actually bothered to check the map, we headed to Kokusai-dori street. This is where the life and soul of Naha is. The street is lined with shops, bars and restaurants and certainly livelier than a pretty dead industrial ferry port. Phew.

We fancied something non-Japanese for a change and so we found an indoor food hall which had lots of small restaurants packed in. The majority of the eateries were selling Wagyu beef in various forms, but we opted for a Taco place. It looked fun and had a prime viewpoint for people watching.

We had a couple of regular tacos and then decided to try their ‘Okinawa Taco’, which was a deep fried version of a taco with minced beef and lettuce - rather delicious. We left the food hall with a firm commitment to come back and sample some of the incredibly looking Wagyu Beef.

We wandered along Kokusai-dori street slowly, meandering in and out of the some of the places, taking it all in. We were coaxed into a shop that sold an Okinawan delicacy, the Beni-Imo Tart. It was vivid purple in colour and tasted a bit like a Bakewell tart, but the purple was a particular variety of sweet potato. Not bad at all!

When we reached the end of the street (via a quick dip into Daiso), we walked back to the hotel. We decided to hire a car for a few days so we can see the rest of the island(s) so we needed to head back, sort out our plans and book the car. Japan also drives on the left so it can’t be that hard, can it?

Taking some precautions on the flight. The guy over my shoulder doesn’t seem fussed. But then he looks as hard as nails. Okinawan Phil Mitchell?

Yep. I sure do love a time lapse. This is Naha from the Monorail.

Katsudon thank you please. It was much more delicious than it looks.

A small selection of the huge number of magazines, books and comics on offer.

Here is the indoor food hall. So many good smells. We’ll be back for the Wagyu Beef.

In the Mexican restaurant we went to, we saw this lovely little notice. I wanted to tell them never to apologise - their English is far superior to my Japanese!

The Okinawan Tacos - again, more delicious than they look. Maybe food photography is not my thing.

In indoor shopping area just off Kokusai-dori. I think we missed the rush.

Tokyo & Seoul Trip - Day 6 (25 February ‘20)

Today is our last day in Tokyo...drum roll... but not in Japan. We have decided NOT to go to Seoul for a week. We are not massively fearful of catching the Coronavirus in Seoul, but we are aware of the South Korean government’s advice for people to work from home and avoid crowded places. This will probably disrupt the trip and we’d rather spend the rest of our time away enjoying ourselves! We have therefore decided to fly to Okinawa instead. It is one of the southern islands of Japan with a warm sub tropical climate and so we we will revert to holiday mode rather than travel mode. We’ll stay there a few days and then fly to Seoul in order to catch the flight home we were going to catch anyway.

Seoul. We’ll have to see you another time!

Back to today. Kirstie spent much of the day working with various meetings and appointments to attend to. I went for a run to in order to keep up my prep for the Hampton Court Palace half marathon, burn a few calories and explore Yoyogi Park which is near where we are staying. It wasn’t the fastest or furthest run, but it was pretty enjoyable (as far as runs go!). In the park I saw some more Cherry Blossom (and people taking pictures of it), a dance class where the students were learning the routine for ‘This Is Me’ from the Greatest Showman and there was a designated cycling route for bikes only. There were a fair few runners too.

After getting back to the hotel, I got myself ready to go out to meet my old friend/former student/former colleague Kyoko. She had lived in the UK a while and then moved to Kyoto and then moved back to Tokyo, which is where she is from. She invited me to see her neighbourhood which is Kichijoji a very ‘cosy’ suburb which felt more like a small town rather than a big city. It was lovely wandering around the area catching up. We stopped off at a super popular Yakitori place, which has long queues at the weekend. I tried some of the more ‘interesting’ parts of the menu including intestines, chicken liver as well as other delicious bits. We washed it down with some iced oolong tea. The restaurant had been there for over 80 years and had a very busy atmosphere. We then mooched around a bit more, popped into the park and then Kyoko took me to a place famous for its Takoyaki which is basically octopus that has been fried inside a ball of batter. It is served with a delicious sauce and fish flakes. It was absolutely delicious. This was washed down with a yuzu drink - which is a Japanese citrus fruit, the taste is similar to lemon but not quite as sharp. Eventually we had to head back to Shinjuku as Kyoko had to go to work and I had to pop back to the hotel to meet Kirstie to sort out the logistics for the next few days.

After putting a plan in place, Kirstie and I decided to spend our last night in Shibuya. Kirstie was very mindful of the fact it was pancake day and so we headed to a pancake place. Japanese pancakes are super thick, super fluffy and particularly nice and where we went we could see them making them. They did not disappoint.

After pancakes we made one last stop in ‘Tokyu Hands’ a department store we had visited elsewhere in Tokyo, but this particular one in Shibuya is well designed because it is spread across six floors, but similar to Ikea you are taken through the shop section by section. Kirstie did get a few bits and then we headed for a stroll around the area in all its noisy neon glory.

Then it was the bus back, blog and bed. We have to get up super early tomorrow to catch our flight to Okinawa!!!

Mid run photo stop. Pink cheeks match the pink blossom!

乾杯! So lovely to catch up with Kyoko!

Dumplings, intestines, assorted yakitori. So tasty.

Kichijōji lake. It wasn’t quite the right time for a go on the swan pedalos.

Takoyaki- so delicious!

Pancakes mid cook!

Kirstie pre-pancake. Happy pancake day!

In all their glory. One with banana and one with syrup and honey ice cream.

Shibuya-bye-bye

Tokyo & Seoul Trip - Day 5 (24 February ‘20)

This morning we were up and out as we had to check out in order to check back in to a new room later (which turned out to be much bigger/nicer!).

Before heading out we thought we would look at what options we might have if we wanted to skip going to Seoul. Though all of the cases of Coronavirus are concentrated in the southern cities and associated with a religious cult we have no plan to join, we have been keeping an eye on the updates and it looks like Seoul is getting increasingly spooked by the situation and public transport has been affected and many people are being asked to stay at home. With this in mind we feel it might be best to tackle Seoul another time in the future. We are now considering our options and think we might be set on extending in Japan, taking a trip to Okinawa and then catching our original flight out of Seoul by flying from Okinawa through Seoul on to London a week from now. If we can cancel/change our Seoul flight to another city we may well do. We are waiting to see what happens. All part of the adventure!

Aaaaanyway, once we left the hotel feeling strangely excited about the uncertainty of where we would be on Wednesday night we headed on to Tsukiji Fish market. It was somewhere we went last time, and remembered how cool it was to wander around all of the stalls, taking in the atmosphere. We also had incredible Sushi which we thought would make great lunch plans. However, when we got there neither of us were really feeling up for sushi so we instead decided to join the longest queue for a stall and see what it was all about. It turns out you can make a fortune selling omelette cuboids - who knew? To be fair it was delicious and I get why there was such a queue. Tamagoyaki (which is what it is called) was certainly a bigger seller than any of the seafood related items at the fish market! After eating our Tamagoyaki we continued wandering around the market. They were selling sushi, eel, octopus, squid in various forms as well as Wagyu Beef at £14 a stick.

We left the market and decided to head to Ueno park as it was such a sunny day. On the way, we popped into a cool little place tucked away in the basement for some lunch. Half price yakitori always goes down well!

After lunch, we arrived at the park to find people going wild for the Cherry Blossom. I knew how much of a big deal Cherry Blossom was in Japan, but to be honest had no idea it was the season for it. We wandered around the park and through a Japanese Traditional Culture festival which happened be on. This mainly consisted of food stalls and a stage with some entertainment (as we wandered by it was a chap doing keepie ups). As we left the festival, we grabbed a starbucks (how very 'Japanese Traditional Culture' of us) and sat in the sunshine. To be fair, our drinks were served in a Cherry Blossom themed cup and it was a Royal Milk Tea frappe - so not completely devoid of local touches. We sat for a while enjoying the sunshine and the people watching and then continued our stroll through the park. We popped into the Ueno Toshogu Shrine area to have a quick look. The main building is covered in gold leaf trimming and there is also a five storey pagoda just next to it. Although it is located in a park, it was particularly quiet and peaceful as shrines and temples tend to be. We left the shrine area and headed toward the lake. We thought about hiring a pedalo but they were just packing up when we arrived. We carried on and walked toward Akihabara, which is the Manga/Anime centre of Tokyo. Kirstie's brother is a big fan of anime so we went into a couple of shops to seek out some of the bits that he is most into and had mixed success, but it was good fun to wander around these places because they are so 'in your face'. Pumping J-Pop music and the dialogue from adverts playing all around you. It is hard to explain, but let's just say at any point you can hear sound coming from 5 or 6 different places within the same shop floor. Nuts.

We carried on going until it was time to head back to the hotel. Kirstie has work to do - in light of the cancelled work fair that she was supposed to be doing, she will be meeting her contacts in various locations. As for me, I will be meeting up with a former student who became a work colleague who became a friend. She has suggested we meet in an area of Tokyo slightly off the beaten track, which will be nice.

I'll fill you in tomorrow.

Caption not required.

A brief time lapse of the market (sorry I love a time lapse).

Tamagoyaki. Looks unassuming but it was from a stall with the biggest queue and was delicious!

My lunch. Chicken, raw egg, rice, miso soup and salads. What isn’t pictured is the selection of Yakitori (yum).

People going wild for Cherry Blossom.

This is Kirstie’s shot of the blossom (to be fair we had to have it verified because there are many types of blossom this time of year!)

5 Storey Pagoda.

The rear of the shrine reflected in the lake. I’m so artistic.

The front of the golden leaf covered shrine.

Akihabara by night. Anime/Manga central.

Tokyo & Seoul Trip - Day 4 (23 February ‘20)

We finally made it to Mount Fuji! Well not quite the mountain itself, but a great place that offers a pretty decent view of it. Lake Kawaguchiko is a village/small town on a lake that is overlooked by the mountain. It is pretty touristy, but anything popular with tourists is so for a reason.

Getting to the Lake involved taking two trains. The first of which got us out of Tokyo from Shinjuku Station. Shinjuku station is absolutely enormous with over 50 platforms for underground and trains and has almost 4 million passengers use it per day. It is a great place to get lost! After successfully locating the correct platform, we got the train out to Otsuki in order to change onto the Fuji express, a Thomas the Tank Engine themed train. The seats were upholstered with Thomas fabric and each station along the route was named after a different character. Very cool but not necessarily the reason we chose this route!

As soon as we arrived into Lake Kawaguchiko we wandered slowly from the station to the lake. We got on a boat that took us into the middle of the lake. It was pretty cold and windy, but it was well worth it for the stunning views. After the boat trip we queued up for the ‘Ropeway’ which is a cable car type thing that takes you to the top of a hill that again offers fantastic views of Mt Fuji and the surrounding scenery. At the top of the mountain there is also a small shrine and somewhere to sit and warm up. The view really was incredible. Once we headed down we mooched around the village for a bit, popping in and out of the little shops and then headed back into Tokyo.

We thought we’d have a relatively quiet night so we headed to a cinema in the Shinjuku area to watch ‘Bombshell’. Not a bad film at all. The cinema was enormous and absolutely packed full of people.

After the film, we headed for some dinner at the nearest ‘Coco Curry House’ which is probably Kirstie’s favourite restaurant in Japan. It is basically Katsu Curry, but you build your own. You choose the meat, the size of the rice portion, the spiciness of the sauce and the accompanying vegetables. It is always really good. They have not long opened one in London - it is well worth checking out if Katsu is your thing!

After getting dinner out of the way, we walked around the utter carnage that is Shinjuku by night. Neon, music and people all coming at you from different angles. It was completely opposite to the calm and serene environment of Lake Kawaguchiko.

After a while we decided to call it a day and head back to the hotel.

The route in and out of shinjuku on time lapse. Shoddy/shaky camera work aside, it give a good idea.

All aboard the Thomas Train!

Our Thomas the Tank Engine train in the foreground of the rather beautiful looking Mt Fuji.

A GIF I made of the mountain and the lake. Such a stunner.

A view from the top of the the cable car overlooking the lake.

The shrine at the top of the hill.

Mt Fuji poking out behind the town of Lake Kawaguchiko.

Shinjuku. Look. At. It.

Katsu! With Pork, spinach and sweetcorn! utterly delicious.

A snapshot of the carnage in Shinjuku.

Tokyo & Seoul Trip - Day 3 (22 February ‘20)

I woke up this morning still reeling a bit from the teamLab Borderless experience. If I thought I had had enough sound and light to last a lifetime, then this afternoon was only going to fry my brain even more. More on that later.

After having a bit of breakfast in our room, we headed over to Shinjuku to visit the Hanazono-jinja Shrine. It might make me sound a bit philistine, but my attitude to shrines, temples and other places of worship is that seeing one or two is quite enough thanks. I wouldn’t recommend to visitors to Britain to go to every church in an entire city, though I would possibly recommend one or two at a push. As we had been to Tokyo before and visited the more famous shrines (which were impressive), we thought we would drop by this one as it was on our way to our afternoon activity. In amongst the hustle and bustle of Shinjuku, the shrine was like an oasis of calm. It was very quiet both in terms of the number of people there and the noise. We strolled around its quite compact grounds and gardens and headed to the little shop to buy an ‘O-mikuji‘ which is a slip of paper which tells your fortune. Mine read:

‘Your motivation to succeed will be rapidly enhanced. Say to yourself, “I want to be more competent, intelligent and successful.” Advance in accordance with your profound motivation. Set ambitious goals and you will achieve them immediately’.

Interesting. After tying it to a tree (for good luck) we headed for lunch. We weren’t massively hungry so we opted to share a Katsu curry with some Chinese Dumplings and a Miso Soup. It was pretty damn good and more than enough for the both of us. We washed it down with a cocktail each, which also acted as dutch courage in preparation for the afternoon activity which was a visit to the ‘Robot Restaurant’ for its (in)famous show. While it says its restaurant and food is available, actually it is an entertainment show which is utterly wacky and bonkers. I mean, who has heard the words wacky and bonkers since the days of Timmy Mallet, but seriously these adjectives are incredibly appropriate. It is one of the top rated attractions and it showcases the more unusual aspects of Japanese culture. I’m sure you’ve seen the weird Japanese TV game shows like Takeshi’s castle, well this is that on steroids.

If Walt Disney had moved to Tokyo and taken loads of psychoactive drugs, this is what his Disney parade would have looked like. I can’t begin to describe it without sounding like a nutjob, but basically shove 200 tourists in a room facing into a central area. Send out Taiko drummers on wheels, then dancers in neon/costumes armed with lasers, then add 7ft robots, dragons and other characters on parade floats, then create some bizarre story line about Robots vs Humans vs Divine Beings all played out in a room with flashing lights and pumping music. Then pause for a break. Then send out parade floats and dancers decked out with flags from all over the world, add in a dash of the ‘It’s a small world after all’ happy vibes and then say its all over.

It. Was. Intense.

When Kirstie and I left the venue and returned to the street, we looked at each other and wondered what the hell we had just experienced for the last 2 hours. Whatever it was we LOVED it and would recommend it to anyone.

We headed back to Harajuku to have a mooch around and for Kirstie to visit her beloved Daiso shop. It was early evening and so the place was much busier and lively than yesterday. We had a cheeky dessert each. Kirstie had a crepe and I had an ice that looked like a cute pig.

After a browse of the stalls and the shops we headed back to the hotel for an early-ish night. We are up in the morning to head to Mount Fuji - we are committed now as we have bought the train tickets!

Hanazono-jinja shrine, nestled in amongst the commercial buildings of Shinjuku. Very serene.

A Torii tunnel leading to another shrine.

Chicken Katsu, Miso, Dumplings. LOVELY STUFF.

Washing our Katsu down with a smirnoff cocktail. 乾杯 (Cheers!).

Me sat in a Robot’s lap. On our way in.

Taiko drummers way up high.

LOOK AT THIS CARNAGE.

Drummer girl having a great time...

Kirstie and I post blown minds on our way out.

A piggy about to eat a pig. Kawaiiiiii.

teamLab Borderless (part 3)

In this room, you were able to choose the outline of a living creature to colour in with crayon. Once you’d finished, a member of staff would scan it and then your creation was turned into an animation which you had to go and find in the room. Mine was a salamander which was scurrying around on the floor amongst hundreds of other people’s creations.

teamLab Borderless (part 2)

In the tea room, I had Yuzu tea. The light projected onto the drink and showed a visual of the Yuzu flower growing in it. Wherever you placed the drink the visual followed. Each tea had a different visual.

In this room it was hundreds of dangling lights changing colours in a room with mirrored walls, floors and ceilings. It actually felt like you were floating.

In this room there were hundreds of lily pads sticking out from the ground. You had to wade through some of them. Again the lights and colours changed as you walked through.

In this room it was just millions of moving flowers and butterflies being projected all over the place. With more mirrored walls it was hard to get a sense of how big the room was.

teamLab Borderless (part 1)

This area was filled with dangling strips of LED lights. The colours, flashing and sound seemed random until we stumbled across an iPad which controlled it. Anyone could use it to choose how the room behaved.

This room was filled with balloons that changed colour as you moved around.

This room had the sound of the sea playing with the projection of waves completely surrounding you. There were super comfy beanbags in the centre of the room for you to lie on. I may or may not have nodded off.

Tokyo & Seoul Trip - Day 2 (21 February ‘20)

And here we are on day 2. Instead of getting up and heading out to Mount Fuji which was the vaguest of vague plans, we both spent the morning, well, fast asleep. We woke up at around 11.30am (oops). Either way, it’s probably best to catch up on the missed sleep and this is supposed to be a holiday!

After using what can only be described as the perfect shower, we headed out and grabbed a quick packed lunch to have en route to ‘teamLab Borderless’, a digital art museum in the Odaiba area of Tokyo - on the waterfront. The museum was in ‘Palette Town’ which is something of an entertainment district which also has a concert hall (we saw lots of teens getting excited over some boyband who were playing), a Ferris wheel, a race track for go Karts and a race track for real cars as well as a show room for futuristic autonomous vehicles from Toyota. Pretty cool stuff. We thought we would spend one or two hours in teamLab but it sucked us right in and so we ended up spending 4 hours in there. It is pretty difficult to explain what teamLab is exactly, it is something you definitely have to experience for yourself. Yes it is lots of large rooms with pretty sound and light installations with interactive elements to it, but it really was so much more than that. I’m not a massive fan of those descriptions of art that sound unbelievably pretentious, but the description pictured below does capture the experience quite well. You do really feel part of what is going on around you. I will make a subsequent photo only post which will give you a flavour of what was in there. But if anyone reading this goes to Tokyo, you really should put this on your ‘must do’ list. Oh unless you suffer from Photosensitive Epilepsy or similar. In which case, definitely DEFINITELY don’t go.

It was dark by the time we left. We thought we’d swing by Harajuku for a quick mooch and some dinner. It was all closing down by the time we got there, so we will head back another time, but Harajuku is sort of like the alternative culture centre of Tokyo. While it wasn’t as crowded as we have seen it before, there were still plenty of people about with very interesting clothes and hair colours. It reminds me of how Camden used to be 20 years ago until it was taken over by tourists with cameras and more mainstream shops and restaurants - I am not sure if Harajuku will head that way, but I guess people like me would be part of the reason!

It was then time for dinner. We tried one place that had good reviews, but when we arrived, there was a queue to get seated and the restaurant absolutely stank of cigarettes - which was really off putting. Strange really, because that is what pubs and restaurants used to be like in the UK. It’s made me quite thankful for the smoking ban (even if I am occasionally left deserted at the dinner table after a meal). We headed down a couple of floors to another restaurant that basically served different varieties of meat accompanied by a set meal. Similar I suppose to bento box, but just not served in a bento box.

I had pork loin as my meat choice (predictable) which was served with rice, Tororo (grated up yam formed into a sticky yoghurty substance, served cold), a clear Oxtail soup and a small dish of pickles. The pork was just incredible it had been marinaded in a light miso paste - so good. The pickles and the Oxtail soup were pretty delicious too. The tororo was not really to my liking. It looked like it was supposed to be mixed in with the rice (that’s what our neighbours were doing), but I wasn’t particularly keen on it so I ditched it. All in all another great meal.

After dinner we meandered back to Harajuku station and then took a subway to Shinjuku. We then walked the 20 minutes back to our hotel to walk off the dinner and relax the brains after they’d been blown away by the 4 hours spent in teamLab.

For all those commenting on us not wearing face masks, well here you go. Thanks to our secret supplier who pilfered them from her work. Having done some reading up on the subject they don’t actually do very much and while there are more people wearing face masks than usual in Tokyo, actually loads of people aren’t bothering. What we are doing is regularly sanitizing our hands and we will use them when in crowded indoor spaces. They are more effective as a way to stop people with Coronavirus passing it on.

teamLab in Pallette town. With the Teleport bridge tower in the background.

Here is the description of teamLab Borderless...

There I am... They say it’s a very instagrammable place. It’s true. Shame I’m not the most instagrammable person. But there you go.

Mirrored floors, walls and ceilings. Easy to get lost in it.

Palette Town wheel in all its glory.

Harajuku main shopping street...

Utterly delicious (and the food). Clear oxtail soup, rice, marinaded meat and a small bowl of pickles. On mine you can see the bowl of Tororo... not for me.

Look at the state of these ice creams (Kawaiiiiiii). I’ll get one next time and enjoy licking the face of a cute pig.

Another reason I love Japan. Look at this example of politeness. Tube users all stand to the right in an orderly queue to let alighting passengers off. No bundles, no shoving. 😍

Tokyo & Seoul Trip - Day 1 (20 February ‘20)

And so here it is, the highly anticipated return of my shit travel blog. Its absence for the last two years has been the hole in your life you didn’t know you had. Fear not my friends and random users of tumblr hashtags (does anybody actually look at tumblr these days?), it’s back to cover our two week jaunt to Tokyo and Seoul. For those avid followers of my blog (of which there are none), you’ll remember previous instalments of the blog covering Tokyo and so on this particular trip we’ll try and see new bits!

It is worth noting that this trip excellently coincides with the Coronavirus outbreak and also Kirstie’s work trip to ICEF (an international education fair). We decided to take the risk of continuing with our trip, however after just a few hours of being in Tokyo, Kirstie received notification that ICEF cancelled the fair because of Coronavirus. Perhaps we shouldn’t have travelled? If you read this and I have been the victim of Coronavirus, then you know the answer.

Anyway, back to business. We arrived into Tokyo early this morning having had a great flight (thanks BA!). The airport was pretty quiet. We got ushered straight through the quarantine zone where presumably some people will have been checked for symptoms of the virus - not us. We sailed through the most gentle, friendly and polite passport control and into the main airport. We grabbed our train ticket which took us to Shinjuku (where we are staying), we arrived at the hotel, left our luggage and got on with the day. If I make it sound too easy it’s because it really is. Japan works, it just works. No delays, hardly any queues, smooth, slick and efficient. For a city with 13.5 million people it is utterly mind blowing. Tokyo makes London feel slobby, slow and all a bit faffy.

After leaving the hotel we headed to a nearby shop, grabbed a drink and a couple of snacks and headed to the park next to the hotel. It was under quite a lot of redevelopment, but we found a spot next to a water feature where we watched a group of local high school kids practising some song and dance routine involving three or four skipping ropes. Pretty impressive.

We thought about how best to spend the day with time to kill before check in and with quite low energy levels, so we headed up to the Observation Deck of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building. No queues, great views, a friendly tour guide pointing things out to us and all for the grand sum of nothing. Free to go up. Thanks Tokyo! We spent a while looking out over Tokyo and trying to get a sense of the scale of the place. It’s urban landscape as far as the eye can see - though punctuated with the occasionally parkland. It was good reintroduction to the city! We headed down to the ground floor and mooched around the Tokyo Olympics exhibition. I had my picture taken with the Olympics mascots (Miraitowa & Someity) and we saw the official Olympic flag on display. After this with an hour or two to kill before check in we headed to ‘Tokyo Hands’ a famous department store nearby. It is one that Kirstie particularly likes and one that I find reasonably tolerable. After heading back to the hotel in time for Check In we popped up to the room, freshened up took a quick nap and then headed over to Shibuya - one of the more popular shopping/commercial districts. We decided to take the local bus, which appeared to be quite complicated on the face of it, but turned out to be remarkably simple. Pretty much door to door service!

We grabbed a bite to eat in a small casual eatery - where the other diners were the ‘just finished work’ crowd. We ordered using the machine at the entry point, exchanged money for tickets, gave the tickets to the waiter, the waiter gave them to the kitchen and within a couple of minutes the food arrived. We had Ramen and Gyoza which was pretty stereotypical food for Japan, but it was delicious. We contributed to the restaurant ambience by noisily slurping our way through the noodles, finished up and explored the area. We were both getting pretty tired so we popped into Daiso (a 100 Yen Shop - 70p per item) and another 100 Yen shop and then called it a day.

Here I am now back in the hotel room ready to hit the hay. We’ve not quite decided the POA for tomorrow - but it looks like we might jump on a train and head out toward Mount Fuji - who doesn’t want fresh air and stunning scenery!

Thanks for reading this far!

Welcome to Japan, you rough looking maskless travellers.

The calm and quiet train carriage into central Tokyo.

The organised chaos of Shinjuku Train Station.

Our reflection in front of the tower we went up.

Tokyo, as far as the eye can see. 🤯

The historic Olympic Flag!

L-R: Miraitowa (Olympic Mascot), Simon Talbot (stupid foreign tourist), Someity (Paralympic Mascot)

High Tech Toilet Cubicle. More buttons than my car. I’ll leave you to guess what the ‘front’ and ‘rear’ buttons do. 💦

Menù Del Dìa - Tokyo Style. Put your money in. Push the buttons to say what food you want. Collect change and ticket. Hand ticket to waiter, sit down, wait for food to arrive.

Stupid Foreign Tourist tucking into delicious Ramen, Gyoza, ‘seasoned meat & Cabbage’ and Rice - after successfully navigating an ordering system as weird as Argos.

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