Monthly Archives: November 2009

The Japanese Store That Sells Everything

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After beginning the day trying out the massage chair in the hotel (photograph 1), which managed to pummel my back into seventeen pieces and squeeze my feet so hard that the toes almost merged together (hey, cool – webbed feet), we left Kotohira to travel to Kobe the fifth largest city in Japan.

This blog post is going to be short and sweet and is all about… Donkey Hote – a Japanese store, with five floors, that sells just about anything you could desire, from thongs to bicycles and everything in between. No, I don’t just mean tracksuit bottoms, I wasn’t talking literally. Besides, who wears a thong when riding a bike… What’s that? You do?!? Continue reading →

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Japanese Onsen

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I took some photographs of the second Japanese Onsen that we visited during my time in Japan, so that you can get an idea of what they look like and how they are set up. Don’t worry, there are no naked bodies in the photographs anywhere.

If you remember from my previous blog post, Onsens are hot springs and are the old, traditional method that Japanese people used for bathing. However, the ones that we visited during my trip were more set up for attracting tourism. Continue reading →

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Japan – Sashami and Udon

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Today’s journey took us to the little town of Kotohira. Tonight, we are yet again staying in a Japanese Onsen Hotel. However, this one is considerably more up-market than last night’s one. Here I am, for example, sitting in the lounge, listening to jazz and drinking beer by the fire, whilst I write this blog.

Tonight’s blog post is about the sashami and udon that we consumed this evening. Our hotel booking included a “small dinner”, so we all went out to have udon beforehand. Udon is a type of thick wheat-flour noodle – thicker and chewier than normal noodles. Although it took a bit more effort to munch my way through, I actually found I preferred it to normal noodles. Just as Nagano is said to be the Soba capital of Japan, so Kotohira is the udon capital of Japan. Photograph 1 shows this evening’s udon dish – noodles with meat. Continue reading →

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Kyoto Station

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I’m just posting some of the night photographs that I took of Kyoto Station, and surrounding area, during our visit there a few days ago. The station itself was impressive on its own. But, it was surrounded by other fantastic pieces of architecture, such as the Kyoto Tower. Inside the station, the Christmas tree was especially magical – with Christmas music timed together with the lights on the tree. Crowds gathered on the steps, opposite the tree, to watch it.

Enjoy the photographs… (the first one is a typical ‘Ally’ night shot)

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Japan Day 13 – Japanese Onsen Hotel

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After leaving Osaka, we travelled through Himeji to an Onsen Hotel in Akaho. This was the first Onsen Hotel of two that we are staying at.

We had planned to go to the famous Himeji Castle during the day, yesterday, on our way to Akaho. But it was raining Japanese cats and dogs, so it wasn’t really a viable option. However, the weather cleared up later on to give a lovely sunset on the final part of our drive to the hotel. Continue reading →

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Half-English Breakfast

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This morning we ate breakfast in the hotel and I was pleasantly surprised to find a spread that included some nice looking fruit (photograph 1).

Tell me: why is that we, as humans, feel the need to saunter into a breakfast room, walk up to a table and move a chair about 2 inches before we go up and start drooling over the breakfast delights? I guess it is a form of staking ownership on territory. In the animal kingdom, of course, an animal will mark its territory by urinating around the edge of it – something that I think the restaurant manager, this morning, would undoubtedly have frowned upon. Continue reading →

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