Left yesterday(?) morning on a Virgin Atlantic flight to get to Chicago for a friend’s wedding celebration. Lovely all around. Flight wasn’t too packed (got a whole three seat row to myself!) and arrived at a reasonable hour. Can’t wait since I’ve never been here before.
Tube drivers with humour
On the tube just now… This tube will attempt to stop at all stations. This will be going to … stopping all stations except for Cannon Street (pause) due to a lack of complete interest. How can you not have a laugh at that?
Goodbye Marlow
It’s been about nine months since I’ve been based out in Marlow in Buckinghamshire. It’s not particularly the easiest of places to get to involving both the tube network, Chiltern railways and a taxi to finish it off but it’s been a great team and some interesting work. I’m leaving the project with mixed feelings, definitely glad I won’t miss the commute though will definitely miss other aspects.
Like these views from the hotel that I’d been staying at particularly with the wonderful weather lately. It’s based by a lock, directly opposite a church dotted with headstones nestled amongst well kept jade green grass.
It certainly makes waking up a much easier task…
Weekend in York
Last weekend I finally headed up to York to visit a couple of friend Toni and Claire who have been living up there since late last year sometime. I’d promised to visit them sometime this year and finally got a weekend that worked for all of us. It was great seeing both of them and they were fantastic hosts for the weekend.
Getting to York was surprisingly easy. Even though it’s very close to the north most part of England, it only took two hours to get there from Kings Cross station via one of the National Express trains. I booked my tickets in advance but didn’t really get a super cheap fare but at least I managed to reserve my seats which made a huge difference heading up there on a manically busy Friday evening at Kings Cross station. Better yet you get to choose what sort of seat you had, including whether or not you have a table and powerpoint (helpful to plugin in if you need to charge your phone or laptop!)
Yorkshire is, of course, well known for its tea and there are plenty of places to choose from to sit and have a pot. Fortunately Claire knew the best place to go in York… Bettys Cafe Tea Rooms. It was obviously popular with locals with lots of “ladies lunching”, as well as quite a few groups of tourists. We waited outside in a queue for a table upstairs and it didn’t take too long as they seemed to have enough turn around.
One of the other significant places to visit is the York Minster, apparently the largest gothic cathedral in Europe. Regardless of whether or not their claim is true, it certainly is impressive and the £6 is worth walking around inside. They even have a huge tower that you can climb up for a marginal cost but we decided to skip it with the queue not looking like it was moving and stretching quite some distance inside.
We also visited Harrogate and it took me a while to make the connection with the Harrogate Spa Water that you sometimes see around. The country is absolutely gorgeous with large lush green fields all over the place and very clean tasting waters. It was a great place to take Claire and Toni’s energetic labrador for a walk and a place to socialise with many other dogs. We couldn’t help but stop and laugh (and take a photo) of the following on the way back:
It was a great weekend to spend in the country and well worth heading up there for a weekend break. It certainly beat the crazy rush to get to airports and then arrive late in some European country. Oh, and it didn’t seem so grim up north.
Kyoto
Kyoto seems like a bit of a distant memory now that a couple of weeks have passed. I’m going to try to summarise it in a short post listing some of the more memorable parts of our trip. The city isn’t as big as Osaka, or at least it seems a bit more of a suburban and touristy in comparison. The Lonely Planet provided some level of help, but there are frankly far too many temples and shrines that they say are the “most remarkable”. I think it’s better to pick the few that interest you and focus on spending a bit more time there rather than trying to hit all the different ones that they recommend. Here’s a list of a few different things we got up to:
Arashiyama – Monkey Park
Located high up in the mountains, Arashiyama is a lovely place that seems even more natural and remote than other parts of the city. We came up here to have a look at a bamboo grove that looked like it was out of a scene from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and to also visit the Monkey Park, even further up the mountain. The monkey park wasn’t free but gave you access to an environment where the monkeys roam in their own little habitat, with plenty of signs telling you not to show them any food. Good thing that too, because we saw them turn into aggressive demanding monsters when we saw people feeding them at the only hut where you can serve them food from behind steel bars.
Fushimi-Inari-Taisha
We tried getting here by bus (the easiest way to get around most of Kyoto) and ended up on a large hike to get there. It wasn’t very well signed although we found out that JR has a train stop almost directly in front of this amazing site. Located in the hills around Kyoto, this area is best known for the winding pathways up the mountain lined with brightly coloured Torii, making for an eerie but photographic setting particularly at sundown. At significant points, they also have large statues of foxes, considered messengers of the gods. It’s hard to describe what it’s like walking through all the paths, but it’s definitely worth it for something completely different.
Kyoto Tower
We didn’t go up Kyoto Tower because we had already been up quite a few tall buildings on our trip, but it’s definitely a nice site at night time when the it all lights up and almost looks like a UFO pierced by a rather larget toothpick.
Ryōan-ji
One of the many shrines in Kyoto, this one was under going maintenance although the biggest attraction is the rock garden used to help people meditate and reflect.
Osaka
Our stay in Osaka seems a bit like a whirlwind visit thinking about it now, though we did manage to cram in quite a bit. It helped that we bough the Osaka Unlimited Pass, available only to tourists and giving free access to many of the sights around Osaka including the following:
WTC Cosmo Tower Observation Deck
A large tower with a huge vantage point over the entire area giving you a good idea about what Osaka looks like from a bird’s eye view.
The Floating Garden Observatory
Another large tower, this time located in the northern part of Osaka. This one is stylish and comfortable on the inside and is definitely a great place to stay for twilight, only to see the city light up at night.
Osaka Maritime Museum
A museum that showcases Osaka’s important role as a harbour town and the role it’s played on society.
Osaka Castle
One of the most important castles that helped unify Japan a long time ago. It’s surrounded by lush gardens and is worth walking around even if you don’t go into the castle itself.
Nara
Nara is another place we visited, just a short train ride away from Osaka. It’s very popular with visitors since its has some large sprawling parkland, home to free roaming deer. The sheer amount of greenery provides such a contrast to the densely populated cities that surround it. Like many of the popular destinations we visited, Nara also had plenty of temples, the biggest being the massive Todaiji Temple, home to Japan’s largest statue of Buddha.
Lots of Japanese temples have little wooden blocks that you can buy. I think they are either used for telling your fortune, or sometimes you get to write on them as a wish and then hang them for someone to hopefully grant at some stage. I was amazed to see just how many people bought, and the swarm of them hanging, and blowing in the wind.
We spent the day walking around the park, taking in all the sights, and if you’re really interested in the history and the different temples, I’m sure it’d be easy to spend quite a few days. Expect to pay to enter some of the temples but there are plenty of areas you get a good idea about their pristine environment.
The final thing I’d warn people about are the deer that roam around free. Considered as sacred animals, apparently seen as messengers from the gods, they roam free following people around in the hope for food. Fortunately all their antlers have been ground down to little stumps, but that doesn’t really stop them from following you.
You can even buy deer biscuits for ¥150 although the deer are smart enough to recognise when you start carrying them. Don’t bother holding the stack of them in the open, otherwise expect a constant barrage (literally!) from all angles as they try to take it from your hand. I couldn’t help but laugh at the number of tourists who ended up running, or throwing their stack of biscuits in an attempt to stop them headbutting them.
Japanese Food
John asked me to post a review about some sushi in Japan and thought I’d try to cover a little bit more. Admittedly we ate loads of different things, and I’m pleased that the rest of the family were also happy to try lots of different things.
Sushi
I only had sushi for two (or three?) meals. We ended up at a sushi kaiten (train) place so we got a big variety, although I think most other sushi places were the make-as-you-order variety. The latter also means that you end up ordering lots of small pieces, and the price adds up very quickly. Many places also serve the recognisable onigiri sushi (triangle sushi rice wrapped with seaweed and filled with something) such as the first hotel where a large variety of it was served for breakfast.
One noticeable thing about the sushi is that all of the toppings are super fresh. You can get that here in London, though it can be really expensive. Fresh fish and toppings are super critical to the Japanese and I nothing ever seemed to smell the slightest bit fishy (a huge indicator it’s off). It’s hard for me to conclude whether or not it was better, after all I’ve had some good sushi in London as well (Yo Sushi doesn’t count).
Takoyaki
Octopus balls are the quintessential Osaka prefecture delicacy. It’s almost like fast food with so many little stalls set up to serve the gooey balls covered in a salty brown sauce and topped off with seaweed and bonito flakes. I think it’s an interesting process to watch them make it, pouring a batter on to a black iron cast pan that looks very much like a Poffertjes pan and then quickly turning each individual ball with an elongated toothpick as it sets and seeding it with a touch of octopus in the middle.
I enjoyed trying it but I can’t say that I would have lots more of it. I think I was expecting something a bit more on the lines of a fishball, yet turned out a bit too gooey for my tastes.
Okonomiyaki
I love okonomiyaki, yet another regional speciality. I love it so much, I’ve even made it a few times at home (it’s not really that hard!) It’s hard to describe and frankly the common description of a savoury pancake doesn’t really do it that much justice. It’s fascinating to watch the chefs make it on the griddle (although they also have a number of places you can do it yourself), expertly forming it into a round shape, and cooking it well through before drizzling Japanese mayonnaise in fine drizzles and okonomiyaki sauce before topping with the seaweed and bonito flakes again.
Unagi (Eel) Don (Rice bowl)
Anyone who’s gone out to eat sushi with me will know of my long standing obsession for the unagi nigiri. Succulent eel meat, grilled and then glazed with a nice sauce makes for such a tasty treat that I don’t think I ever resisted an opportunity to have the larger version whilst in Japan, the Unagi-Don.
Unagi is a speciality and considered a bit more of a luxury dish, therefore it tends to be a bit pricier than other typical Japanese dishes. Compared to the costs of it here in England though, it’s relatively better value.
Other dishes
Of course we had a huge amount of lots of other different Japanese dishes (ramen, udon, katsudon, bento), but the ones above were definitely the highlights of the trip.