Lepod's Blog

We got up at 6:30am which is not our favorite time of day I have to say, walked to the station and jumped on the airport express train to Incheon airport. Plane was delayed two hours so we mooched about and had some toasted ham and tomato sandwiches for lunch which turned out to be spicy but were nice. Plane ride was very long, possibly because we had to skirt around russia and Ukraine etc. As per usual with Air France the drinks were top notch and the cabin crew were extremely charming. The flight was not at all full so we got a row of four seats to ourselves. It’s still a long flight though (13 hours 41 minutes) and we were pleased to get it over. We checked in to the Ibis CDG for a well earned sleep. Next morning I was delighted to see they had a pancake machine, only the second one I’ve ever seen. Today we are on the TGV to Rennes. Pleasant trip so far, enjoying our sandwiches.

It’s an interesting place Seoul. Quite a contrast of old and new. Parts of it reminded me of Singapore back in the ’80s, little shops in ramshackle buildings, rumpety motorcycles and scooters carrying improbable loads. It’s a very wealthy country but there’s clearly a way to go yet for some of them. Great place though, people are friendly and the food is awesome. We’d definitely come back.

We had a very full on day yesterday getting the boat to Busan which took six hours, then the fast train to Seoul. We left about 10 in the morning and got to our hotel about 10:45 in the pm.

It’s great to have some clean clothes. We had a relaxed morning then in the afternoon since the weather was so nice, thirteen degrees, we got an uber to Ōhori park which is a big park in the middle of the city, nice place for a walk and admire the ducks and etc.

(From wikipedia:) “Fukuoka (Japanese: 福岡市, Fukuoka-shi, [ɸɯ̥kɯokaꜜɕi] ⓘ) is the sixth-largest city in Japan and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancient times. The area has long been considered the gateway to the country, as it is the nearest point among Japan’s main islands to the Asian mainland”

We had a bit of an explore of the city yesterday and a rather nice lunch.

Today we wanted to get out into the countryside a bit and do some forest bathing. Pauline found a promising looking forest: Sasaguri Forest of Kyushu University
篠栗九大の森

We took a local train and hiked about 25 minutes to the forest and then walked about a kilometer in a loop, it was nice to be away from the city for a bit.

The most famous cat island in Japan is Aoshima but we were unlikely to be heading that way so I searched for one near Okayama and found Manabe island, and it sounded like a good excuse to do a spot of boating so we decided to visit on the way to Fukuoka, making it quite a big day but why not? The previous day we’d had a lazy day as it was raining, we went to the post office and mailed some stuff back home like our bento boxes, save us carrying them all round the world. The post office reminded me of the old NZPO, the people were lovely and extremely helpful but they didn’t speak any English so we had a bit of fun getting it all sorted. Anyway, this morning we started out fairly early and jumped on the fast train to Fukuyama and stashed our luggage there, then took a local train to Kasaoka where the ferry leaves to Manabe. Kasaoka was a charming little town, we bought sandwiches and ate them in the square next to a memorial to an 800 year old war. The ferry was awesome, it reminded me a bit of a torpedo boat and it certainly honked along.

We backtracked to Fukuyama and picked up our stuff, and took the train to Fukuoka, our last stop in Japan. Luckily we managed to get some bento boxes for our tea on the way 😋

This was a long day and we got to hotel about 9 or so, fairly well knackered at least I certainly was. The cats were a little bit of a disappointment, I suspect most of them were at home in front of the fire as it is the middle of winter let’s face it.

Mihoko was a PhD student in the Pharmacy School when I was working there and also when Pauline was there, we both got on well with her. We thought it would be great to catch up since she’d been back in Japan about twelve years or so now. So we took the fast train to Okayama and she met us at the station. We dropped our luggage at the hotel and took a taxi to the Okayama Korakuen Gardens which were quite stunning. From Wikipedia: “Kōraku-en is a Japanese garden located in Okayama, Okayama Prefecture. It is one of the Three Great Gardens of Japan, along with Kenroku-en and Kairaku-en. Korakuen was built in 1700 by Ikeda Tsunamasa, lord of Okayama. The garden reached its modern form in 1863.”

Okayama Castle was right next door so that was the next on our agenda. Unfortunately the Americans flattened it in 1945.

From Wikipedia: “Okayama Castle is a Japanese castle in the city of Okayama in Okayama Prefecture in Japan. The main tower was completed in 1597, destroyed in 1945 and replicated in concrete in 1966.”

It was a stunning day, the first day in Japan we hadn’t had to wear our coats and hats! It was very nice indeed to catch up with Mihoko, and thanks very much for taking the trouble to come and see us!

We had a great day, most enjoyable.

Pauline was keen to get our northern hemisphere flu vaccinations so we took an uber to an English speaking clinic where we’d made an appointment and got jabbed.

We got an uber back to the railway station and headed off on a local train to Arashiyama for the bamboo forest and hopefully the monkey park also. There were a lot of tourists at Arashiyama, mostly Japanese and a lot of them dressed up in traditional Japanese clothes which you could hire there.

After the bamboo forest we walked to the monkey park, this was quite a steep climb but it was great to get some exercise in the countryside and the view was spectacular, to say nothing of the monkeys!

This was quite a big day, but we returned to the hotel extremely satisfied with our efforts, and had pizza for dinner at the hotel restaurant which, oddly, was Italian. Next day, off to Okayama!

After a couple of pleasant days in Tokyo we jumped on the Shinkansen to Kyoto. The highlight of this trip was the little boy in the seat next to us, he was about two, had a Thomas The Tank Engine top on and a backpack, and in his hand was what we thought was a toy Shinkansen but come lunchtime it became clear that this was in fact his bento box.

The hotel was the Mercure Kyoto Station and it was really quite lovely, about 10 minutes walk and in a very quiet neighbourhood down some tiny streets.

That afternoon we walked to and explored the To-Ji temple which includes a 5 storied wooden pagoda, the tallest of it’s kind in Japan.

Day two in Kyoto was quite cold and rainy so we took the hop on hop off bus for a tour around the city, getting off at the Imperial Palace which was quite impressive and we learned a bit of history about the various Emperors and the Shogun era. Kyoto used to be the capital of Japan from 794 to 1868.

The next day we went to the Kyoto Railway museum which was about 20 minutes walk from the hotel, and is where we bought our bento boxes.

In the afternoon after eating our bento lunch we took a look at this working Buddhist temple which was just around the road from the hotel and was at least as impressive as all the others but only 5 mins walk away 😀

In the evening we took a guided Kyoto foodie tour which was in the Gion Shiju historic area of Kyoto. The guide was a young student and she was very charming and took us to three different places, a small restaurant to start with, then a tiny bar where I had sake and some meat skewers, and a desert restaurant. We learned a bit about chopstick etiquette!