Japan Trip 2019, Day 16: A Tale of two Kannons

Remember last night’s friendly izakaya? Well, this morning on our walk (aka, trundle) to the station, we took the route that passed this izakaya so I could get a daytime shot. I did that and we trundled off. A few minutes – and a few blocks – later, we heard a noise, and there, running … Read more

Japan Trip 2019, Day 15: Mostly Museums

The day began … with a delicious Japanese breakfast buffet to fortify us for our busy day. We then handed in our “Eco plan” sheet to reception. This meant no change of towels or sheets, but gave us in return, two coffee vouchers at the hotel’s cafe. The Japanese, we are learning, are very literal. … Read more

Japan Trip 2019, Day 12: Photogenic Kanazawa

Stop Press! Apologies to our early morning readers for today’s later edition. We were out socialising last night and ran out of puff! Before we get to today’s activities, I want to share some snippets gleaned from the Japan Times over breakfast. News topics included: a panel to discuss joint custody after divorce. It referenced … Read more

Japan Trip 2019, Day 11: Kanazawa Choo Choo

It’s silly really! We’ve been waiting, waiting, waiting for the shinkansen route to be completed to Kanazawa, which it finally was after our last visit here in 2011. Woo hoo, we thought, a lovely shinkansen ride to our favourite Japanese city. And then what did we do? We organised an itinerary that had us coming … Read more

Japan Trip 2019, Day 10: Driving, driving, driving

Driving-wise, today’s trip was, you would think, a walk in the park, it being just 159 km from Taiji back to Wakayama City. Google said would take 2hrs 33m. This is, in fact, quite slow given over half of it was freeway, which might give you a sense of the roads here – and why, … Read more