Japan

On the Brompton…

Posted on by helenhmk

The aim of today was to see Mt Fuji – with our Bromptons.  

Reading the weather forecast yesterday, we saw it was going to be 21 degrees and clear skies until the afternoon – perfect time to go!

We got up early… And left hotel by 7am… To make the train to Shinjuku… And a very quick change to a limited express (which runs infrequently) to Otsuki. It took 2 hours to reach Lake Kawaguchiko, but we didn’t mind as the view was spectacular.


We decided to cycle around the entire lake (approx 20kms).  It was a combination of cycle/walking paths to roads. Even when we had to go on the roads, the drivers gave us over 1 meter of space. Nice! Majority of the paths were in good condition, only rough in a few places.

We stopped in a couple of spots to take photos, and eat lunch. We finished the day by going up the rope way for a view of Mt Fuji. 


All round the weather was fabulous, and the views magnificent.  We can now say we have seen Mt Fuji… finally!  Another bonus was we also made it back in time for the train with good connections back to Tokyo.

So here’s something that happened…

Posted on by helenhmk

I won the female category in the endurance race, at the Japan Brompton World Championship 

Believe it or not. Here is the proof. I did the most laps and fastest speed.

The endurance race involved competitors cycling on a car race track for two hours. The track it self was undulating. Had a few great downhills… But the uphill section could really take it out of you. I know this as I started off the ride too hard, for the first lap, which then exhausted me for the first couple of laps. Kym suggested at one point (around the 45 minute mark) we could go in take arrest, or only use one tag. Thankfully, we didn’t and stayed out there.. just going round, round, and round the track. I will acknowledge I had no idea I was winning until I was told with two laps to go I was in the lead of the female solo riders. Nothing like that type of news to keep you going! When we finally crossed the line two hours later, I was really pleased to get off the bike.

After the race, as you have just got off the bike, every participant received a medal. The medal for the endurance race was silver, and gold for the Race. At the presentation ceremony each of the top three, received a Brompton prize, and mine was a bag. Woo-hoo! Not bad result given cycling 40+km the day before.

We had a really great day. It was good fun, and we met some great people. 

 

A funny thing happened at the check-in counter…

Posted on by helenhmk

Today has been one of those hot and sticky days.  When you walk, the sweat is literally dripping from you – okay I was pulling a couple of bags but I have never sweated so much.  I will acknowledge now, I will never move to a location with humid weather.

After enjoying a Japanese breakfast, repacking the packing from the previous night replacing the suitcase and wandering around Coredo (building and shopping complex highlighting traditional Japanese fare), enjoying lunch and saying goodbye to Gaku, we bought another small suitcase – sorry mum I hope it’s going to fit in the car.  We then lugged the suitcases (two large bike cases and two smaller cases), and the bike bag on three trains, up and down escalators after 1.5+ hours we made it to the airport checkin.  Hooray.

After a short conversation about our bags (yes the air is out of the tyres, and we do have one fragile item in a bags) we were regretfully informed the flight was full, and we have had our seats changed – to business.  She hoped we didn’t mind.  Given the pulling of the bags, we are more than happy to take the upgrade – thanks Qantas!

See you the other side of the pond. 

 

If that’s your petite fours selection, then I am moving to Japan.

Posted on by kymdt

We visited Les Creations de Narisawa last night for dinner.

There weren’t too many decisions to be had, other than whether or not to go for the wine pairing. I am not sure that was really a hard decision! The wine pairing involved an exploration of Japanese, French and German wines over a 35 year period! Wow!

In any case, all this simplicity and lack of decision making was blow away at the end when the petite four trolley was brought over for us to choose some.

The tiny tasting light of macarons? The Apricot jelly? Green tea mochi? Seasonal macarons. Cigar biscuits, oh oh oh so many I can’t even remember them all. This must be part of the selection criteria for the waiters.

Have a look for yourself – it was so big we couldn’t fit it into a single photo. It was taken with out Lytro – so you can refocus it by pointing to the part you want to focus on.

https://pictures.lytro.com/k_d_t/pictures/794326/embed

https://pictures.lytro.com/k_d_t/pictures/794323/embed

Oh, and did forget to tell you this was after our two dessert courses.

https://pictures.lytro.com/k_d_t/pictures/794329/embed

and

https://pictures.lytro.com/k_d_t/pictures/794331/embed.

Are we on a train?

Posted on by kymdt

At about 4:00am yesterday morning Helen and I woke up to a gentle rocking. In our half awake state it felt like we were on an overnight train. But we weren’t! It was an earthquake. The map from the Japanese Meteorological Agency shows the extent.

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If you check out their site you can see many earthquakes each day in the North East.

We checked out the instructions from the hotel. They said wait for instructions over the p.a. There were none so we went back to sleep. Hotel Niwa is very new and has state of the art foundations. Check them out at http://www.hotelniwa.jp/english/info/seismically_isolated.html . The result was a gentle side to side rocking motion.