Blog

  • Sunday, 4th May

    Tokyo to London (HND to LHR)

  • Saturday, 3rd May

    Tokyo: early lap of Ueno lake, Taito Game Station, Ueno park, Tokyo National Museum

    Taiko no tatsujin: found a great arcade almost next door to the hotel with an English version of the game and in a slightly less thunderous corner …

    Woodcut exhibition

  • Friday, 2 May 2025

    Hokusai museum

  • Thursday, 1st May

    Kyoto to Tokyo

    Nozomi

    Street food in Ueno Park

  • Wednesday, 30th April

    Bus to Takao and Gingoji temple

    Back in Kyoto

  • Tuesday, 29th April

    Early walk by river, Daikakuji temple complex, cactus garden, kaiseki lunch, jazz café

    Daikakuji temple

    Bonsai garden (for JB)

    Kaiseki lunch

    Jazz café

  • Monday, 28th April

    Osaka Expo 2025

  • Sunday, 27th April

    Nijo castle and Nishiki market

  • Saturday, 26th April

    Nansen-ji temple complex

  • Friday, 25th April

    Ryoanji temple and stone garden

  • Thursday, 24th April

    Hike from Kurama to Kibune

  • Wednesday, 23rd April

  • Tuesday, 22nd April

  • Monday, 21st April

  • Kyoto, Friday, 18th April

  • 17th April, Kyoto

  • Japan 2025

    Japan 2025

    15-16 April: London to Kyoto

  • River ride with Michael

    Along the river (Avon) towpath, under the suspension bridge, through Pill, over the motorway bridge and back along the other side. Lovely bright morning.

  • Weekend chilling at Elaine’s

    No sign of the sun for days then this treat:

  • Brighton with Anne

    Brighton with Anne

    We boldly set out to join the local Park Run only to find that it was cancelled due to the wild weather. It was blowing a serious gale so we instead did our own shorter version up and down the sea front. A modest 3.1km on Strava

    Bright blue sky on Sunday, though a cold wind still blowing at over 30km/h. Along the front, past the Upside-down house. Eggs Benedict for brunch then searched for pebbles with holes and watched some acrobatic kite surfers.

  • Las Vegas, across Death Valley …

    Las Vegas, across Death Valley …

    Having negotiated our way out of Vegas in the morning rush hour traffic we headed north-west, across vast empty  desert:

    highway

    Some novelty items when we stopped for fuel:

    Zabriskie Point was an essential stop:Zab point

     

    At the motel, Si chatted to some fellow petrol-heads about their vintage hot rod:

  • Day 4 – leaving Joshua Tree (from the sublime to the ridiculous) …

    The photos of the Park that I have posted are a bit random so, as we are leaving today, here are a couple more  of rocks and trees to fill out the picture of quite how magical and impressive it is:

     

     

     

    And what an ideal base the house was:

    jthouse

    A final rock stack:

    stack2

    We then set the controls for Las Vegas (160 miles):

    open road 2

    Stopped at Roy’s Diner for early lunch and to break the fast, consisting of a tasty mash up of fried potatoes, bacon, onion, with cheese and avocado on top. Oh, forgot to mention the pancakes …

    Breakfast

    Vegas is even more trashy, tacky and totally tasteless than I remembered. Two views from out hotel room and Trump Tower:

    To my amazement, the Trump hotel – compared to most of the competition – is actually modern looking, simple, and almost elegant, with the reflection constantly changing. Never thought I would ever compliment the Chump on a matter of taste!

     

    In the evening we went to a Cirque du Soleil show. To my delight, it opened with Japanese Taiko drumming, with the special twist that several of the drummers were on trapezes being lowered from the ceiling of the theatre! All the acrobatic turns were stunning and very dramatic, but the comedy/clowning interludes were naff, verging on the embarrassing. 

    cirqu

  • Joshua Tree

    Joshua Tree

    Up at first light (6:15) for a first look at our (stunning) surroundings, as we had arrived in the dark:

     

    The Quail platoon trotted through:

     

    Then we headed back into the Park, stopping first to try (and failing)  to get the allegedly easy Roadrunner at the Oasis site, then up to the Cholla cactus “garden”. Extraordinary thing is that it occupies a very small and specific location, with the cacti found nowhere else in the Park:

    Same applies to the Joshua Tree, though it is much more locally widespread:

    The house with a small rock stack:

    jthouse

  • The Plan

    The Plan

    map of the route
    Route planner

    the time plan
    Day planner

    Chilling
    The driver and crew. Here chilling after a day on the road.

    Wheels
    Our wheels. (Note the precise parking.)

  • Marciac 2018

    Marciac 2018