Articles from this Category
23 November 2023
Chureito Pagoda Today we make an excursion by organised day-tour to the Chureito Pagoda and other points in the Mount Fuji area. I had checked the weather forecast about 10 days in advance before selecting today’s date. With long-range forecasts not being accurate and a cancellation deadline of one-week beforehand, there’s a lot dependent on […]
22 November 2023
Cup Noodle Museum The plan for the day was go to Yokohama, which has a Chinatown. As with previous days, we left the hotel around 0930 so as to avoid the rush hour in the rail and metro. Our hotel is connected to a station which served Yokohama directly. At Yokohama station, we had trouble […]
21 November 2023
Gotokuji Temple The target for the day was Gotokuji Temple, famous for its numerous maneki-neko or happy cat statuettes. We left the hotel at 0930 by train and arrived about an hour later. The forecast sunny weather appeared to be a lie when we arrived. Fortunately, the skies brightened up considerably towards the end of […]
20 November 2023
Smoke protection This morning, I noticed that the inside of my hotel room door had a plastic bag attached to it. Instructions suggested that it is to be used over the had, puffed out with air, during fire evacuation as protection from smoke. It really goes against all the things we’ve been taught with plastic […]
19 November 2023
Moving to Tokyo I woke around 0530 and met Alice for breakfast at 0700. We wanted to have a somewhat early start so we could get to Tokyo to meet Jacqueline who had come from Vancouver, so she wouldn’t be alone all day. We hopped on the 0917 JR train to the city and got […]
13 August 2023
I’m approaching the end of my stay in Kuching. This time it is a little different as I’ve given my up my apartment for eight of the ten nights to family visiting from Birmingham. I’m camping with my brother, sleeping on the mattress in the living room without aircon and having cold showers. During the […]
28 July 2023
Flying to Malta We left our Nicosia hotel around 0815 by rideshare-ordered taxi for the Kapnos shuttle on the edge of the city where we would change to a shuttle to Larnaca’s airport at 0900. I had booked the shuttle online, which was just as well as there was only one spare seat. Getting to […]
27 July 2023
North Nicosia With no natural light in our room, we were rudely awakened by my daily 0700 alarm. Then my hope to doze for a few minutes were dashed with problems with a tenant’s garage door at home. Our hotel supplied an awesome breakfast and soon after that, we departed for a walk on the […]
26 July 2023
Above: People dining on Farenomeni Square. Today we return to “the south” or the Republic of Cyprus. We departed our lovely apartment in Gazimagusa’s old city around 0930 for the 1h drive to Ledra Palace Crossing. We managed to find parking without too much difficulty or circling around. Once parked, we waited for the car […]
25 July 2023
Ancient city of Salamis Our plan for the day was to go to the ancient city of Salamis as early as possible, then swim in the evening. Information on Salamis’s opening hours were hard to find but I guessed it would be 0900. Getting there soon after 0900, I noticed that it was 0800. While […]