East Asia

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Exploring the Hakone area, minus views of Mt Fuji

Hakone area After a day of shopping and pounding the pavements of the city, I left Tokyo. It was another early start with the alarm for 0600 for a shower, breakfast and packing up after 5 nights at the Tsukiji Business Ban Hotel. I left at 0700 and got to Shinjuku Station rather quickly but […]

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Shopping

Above: Escape sling from high-rise department store. Today was the day that had been allocated to rest and shopping. While I don’t normally have much brand loyalty, I do rather like some of the cheaper-end stuff Uniqlo (a Japanese value fashion brand). I had been told about GU, their budget brand just the day before, […]

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Washed out in Nikko

I had set the alarm for 0640. I downed a simple breakfast with canned coffee, warmed up in a bain marie of boiling water. I was tired but I tried hard not to waste too much time getting ready. I made my way to Asakusa station by metro, which required a walk to the train […]

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Cycling & Harajuku area

Cycling I woke to a lovely clear sunny day, in fact, the only nice day forecast for my entire stay in Japan. It was perfect for cycling around the Palace moat area, something that’s only possible on dry Sundays. I took the tube to Nijubashimae and found the place for borrowing free bicycles near exit […]

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Tsukiji Tuna Auction & Shinjuku

Tsukiji Tuna Auction & Fish Market The alarm rang at 0240. I got ready quickly and walked in the drizzle to the Tsukiji Fish Market’s Fish Information Centre. There were about 10 people waiting for me in the queue at 0300. We were each given a high-viz jerkin to indicate that we had been confirmed […]

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Ueno, Asakusa and Akihabara

Leaving Haneda I started the day with a buffet breakfast in the hotel. It was a sumptuous Japanese and Western spread. EVA Airways crew were there and they didn’t hold back. Gotta have the energy to work I guess. I left the hotel for the metro station a few minutes away by foot at 1000. […]

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Arriving at the Big Smoke … make that the Biggest Smoke

Above:  Waiting to leave my hometown Kuching. I left Kuching at a civilised time of 1040 for Tokyo via Kuala Lumpur on AirAsia and then AirAsia X. The two hour transit in KL gave me enough time to fit in a quick light lunch at the lounge before boarding the flight to Tokyo, the world’s […]

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Diving and day on the water

It’s not easy to find other people to dive with, in Biak.  I was lucky to be able to join a party of dive journalists and dive the fabulous Wundi Cave.  You can read about my day here where you’ll also find tips on trying to make a dive-trip happen. Packing that night, I thought I […]

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Urban pleasures of Hong Kong

As our departure to Auckland was 1920 in the evening, we didn’t need to leave the city till 1530.  That meant we had time for picking up a few bargains from the shops around Wan Chai and having a long massage.  We didn’t set out to buy anything but there are too many quality items […]

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Japanese germ warfare

This morning, we had better luck with taxis getting the Japanese Germ Warfare Experimental Base, which was in the south side of Harbin city. The ride took about 45 minutes and upon reaching there, we decided to get the taxi driver to wait and keep the meter running; it wasn’t the kind of place we […]

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