blinking heck and blimey

Tuesday, December 29

driving home from Northumberland

driving home from Northumberland, originally uploaded by fylde bus driver.

Ma n pa, newbiggin, boxing day

Ma n pa, newbiggin, boxing day, originally uploaded by fylde bus driver.

Saturday, December 26

Boxing day swim, Newbiggin by the Sea, 11am, -4°

Boxing day swim, Newbiggin by the Sea, 11am, -4°, originally uploaded by fylde bus driver.

Friday, December 25

mismatched chairs so it must be Christmas day at me mothers.

mismatched chairs so it must be Christmas day at me mothers., originally uploaded by fylde bus driver.

Thursday, December 24

Not seen Edward for 28 days but get some peaches n herb later today. Can't wait.

Not seen Edward for 28 days but get some peaches n herb later today. Can't wait., originally uploaded by fylde bus driver.

7.59am Christmas Eve. At work.

7.59am Christmas Eve. At work., originally uploaded by fylde bus driver.

7.30am Christmas eve. At work.

7.30am Christmas eve. At work., originally uploaded by fylde bus driver.

Monday, December 21

There are lots of parks and gardens throughout Tokyo and even in December they were a riot of colour. The classic time to visit is the spring when each park explodes in cherry blossom. The gardens of the Imperial Palace were closed the day we visited (so we went window shopping) but Gyoen Park and Shinjuku Park were both open on the sunny days we stopped by. In the middle of one of the most hectic cities on earth were people strolling, sketching, meditating and taking pictures of leaves:

Saturday, December 19

There are at least four amusement parks within the Tokyo city limits (not counting Disneyland). We visited two of them, Yomiuriland in the Western suburbs and La Qua in the city centre. La Qua is located at the Tokyo Dome which is an enormous arena for sporting and musical events. There is a big shopping centre (surprise surprise) and a collection of rides surrounding the Dome. We rode the GIGANTIC ferris wheel and the brilliant and GIGANTIC roller coaster Thunder Dolphin. TD was stunning: fast, smooth, comfortable and with fantastic city views as it flew over the rooftops of central Tokyo. At one point it zooms through the centre of the ferris wheel as if just to prove that the wheel is centreless (it is).

On a dry, cold but sunny Thursday we took the train West to Yomiuriland. We practically had the park to ourselves all day. Several times that day I was the only rider on various attractions. I was excited to ride Bandit and wasn't disappointed. It covers most of the park and takes a meandering trail through the trees and over the hilly terrain of the park. I rode the worlds first stand-up coaster and the worlds roughest and most uncomfortable wooden coaster (White Canyon). The ferris wheel at Yomiuriland was even bigger than the one at La Qua and we were the only riders on board. Look at the lack of punters in these pics:

Friday, December 18

It wasn't all window shopping and pop culture in Tokyo. We did hit the temple trail a few times. Don't ask me their names or their thing (shinto or budhism). We saw a wedding at one temple/shrine which was nice. Didn't get invited to the buffet though.

Thursday, December 17

Some observations:
Japanese folk in Tokyo are very VERY polite. Bowing, nodding, smiling and using pleasant verbal introductions are done everywhere; in shops (by staff and customers), on trains, on the street, just everywhere.
Japanese folk in Tokyo love to shop. They really really love to shop. I thought America had a consumer based/lead society but theirs is nothing compared to Japan. Gadgets, fashion and food are BIG business. Every borough and area of Tokyo we visited (and we crammed a lot into ten days) was overrun with high-end department stores, couture and top-end fashion stores, boutique confectioners, beautiful flower shops and gadget stores. We never saw charity shops, 100yen shops or Primark type clothes shops (Uniqlo is as low as they go).
Japan is VERY expensive. Eating out and shopping will suck your wallet dry. Even if the shops had stocked clothes in our sizes (they didn't) we couldn't have afforded them. When I fingered a t-shirt that I like and then looked at the price and then got my calculator out to convert yen into £'s I would often drop my jaw and the calculator in shock at the cost. Late in the holiday someone explained to us that the Japanese love and devour QUALITY and LUXURY items because they work hard and often live in tiny cramped homes which they fill with beautiful things. Their homes are often one room units and so their local neighbourhoods become their living-rooms and their kitchens (they eat out a lot). Book shops and coffee shops are everywhere and a lot of leisure time is spent away from the home and usually in shops. That picture above was taken in a coffee shop on the top floor of a shop in Ginza which sold the type of clothes that usually makes mothers say "who the hell is going to wear THAT?" 2000yen for two coffees and two boutique chocolates (£18). Well, when in Rome etc.

We stayed at the Tokyo Hilton for ten nights, on the 27th floor (with full executive privileges because of our 'extended' stay). Lovely view of Shinjuku from our room window:

Our room was big (rare in Tokyo hotels apparently):

The view from the executive lounge (free breakfast and free evening cocktails!) was, on a clear day, STUNNING:

We used the subway and the trains everyday and only got lost/got on the wrong train/got caught in rush-hour a few times. Actually it was a nightmare sometimes. The tunnels connecting the various lines and stations went on for miles and MILES and were filled with millions of Japanese folk swiftly going about their business while trying not to bump into two fat gaijins walking at a snails pace and reading a subway map. I lived in London for over 20 years and sometimes thought the underground system there was horrible but now know it really wasn't (and yes, that picture below doesn't show a single person on the platform and I'm at a complete loss to explain how that happened).

At least the signs in the subway were interesting:

Wednesday, December 16

It was all a jetlagged blur but highly enjoyable nevertheless. Now that we're back home, back at work and looking at our holiday snaps it's hard to believe that we've been to the far east on a trip that always seemed to be one of those "we'll do it next year or the year after" type of trips.
After a long flight to Tokyo (premium economy, nice, but dunno if it's worth the extra dough) we arrived on a beautiful sunny winters morning. Our first four nights were spent at Disneyland at the Hotel Miracosta which is inside the Disneysea theme park. Because we own some Disney property in Florida we got these four nights free as a swap for our annual Florida trip. Good thing too as this hotel was over £400 per night! and that's way over our budget. Anyway, it was plush, comfortable, highly themed (classic Italy, we were in the Tuscany wing) and inside a theme park so were more than happy. Here's a view of the hotel from inside the park:

We spent the next four days exploring the two Disney theme parks while trying to recover from the jetlag (we never did). Both Disneyland and Disneysea were brilliant as we expected. The themeing at Disneysea was was stunning (Disneysea is unique to Japan) and the subtle changes for the Japanese market at Disneyland (essentially the same park as Floridas Magic Kingdom) made it seem 'new-ish' to us. Here's some Disneysea pictures:

And here's some Disneyland pictures:

Inbetween exploring the theme parks we bimbled around the other Disney hotels, the onsite Ikspiari shopping mall, saw a Cirque Du Soleil show (disappointing) and rode the monrail for kicks. Our next ten days were spent in Tokyo but more of this later.