https://stevedrice.net/ 2026-05-17T17:46:17+00:00 https://stevedrice.net/ https://stevedrice.net/_media/wiki/dokuwiki.svg text/html 2015-10-02T20:10:08+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/travel/asia/japan/journal2/day1 Wednesday, January 29th, 2014 A travel day. After checking-in for my flight last night with a short walk to my local tube station I am on my way to the airport. I have a single bag to check and a rucksack to carry onto the plane. The bag is well under weight but I am not so sure it will be on the way way. My wife, Mel, is not coming with me to the airport because she is working and finds it difficult to get away. I will miss her a lot and wish she was coming too but since she is not really… text/html 2015-10-02T20:10:09+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/travel/asia/japan/journal2/day2 Thursday, January 30th, 2014 Yeah, that was not a comfortable trip. I tried to sleep lying down on the two seats but that did not work as my head either hung out into the aisle or was resting on the metal of the arm rest against the window. I did manage a few hours but most of the time I had my eyes closed and decidedly NOT sleeping. text/html 2015-10-02T20:10:10+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/travel/asia/japan/journal2/day3 Friday, January 31st, 2014 It was not really ideal today. We are only here in Tokyo for two days so it left not a lot of choice when it came to setting up a visit to the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka. First, let me explain what it is: This is a museum devoted to the works of Studio Ghibli - A Japanese animation company whose founder Hayao Miyazaki is much revered in Japan. The films have been warmly received outside of Japan as well with John Lassester, founder of Pixar, known to be a huge fan and… text/html 2015-10-02T20:10:15+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/travel/asia/japan/journal2/day4 Saturday, February 1st, 2014 Too early going to bed last night. We were up very early this morning but, thankfully, we knew that the place we wanted to have breakfast: The local “Sukiya” where we ate the night we arrived. We had noticed that they served breakfast and opened at 5 every morning (including Sunday). Their breakfast menu was also quite inexpensive but looked pretty good… text/html 2015-10-02T20:10:10+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/travel/asia/japan/journal2/day5 Sunday, February 2nd, 2014 This was a day of travel so really not a lot to say. We started the day with a trip to Sukiya for breakfast again then made our way back to our room to pack for our trip to Kyoto. Checkout was simple and we caught the hotel shuttle to Hamamatsucho station. It is a different story visiting these places with luggage as we slowly made our way up the escalator out of the bus station, into an office building then past small restaurants and into the station proper. text/html 2015-10-10T20:58:27+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/travel/asia/japan/journal2/day6 Monday, February 3rd, 2014 It is nice not having to set any alarms and just get up whenever you like. I tend to let mother take the shower first as it means I get to sleep a bit longer. I am not sure if I have mentioned this but my mother is vegetarian (or, rather, tries to be - she will eat chicken and fish and even other meats if push comes to shove). Not only that she is not really a big eater so taking her to an “all you can eat” buffet is a bit of a waste as she does not really get her … text/html 2015-10-02T20:10:16+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/travel/asia/japan/journal2/day7 Tuesday, February 4th, 2014 Today was an “away day”. We always knew that with our JR Rail passes we would want to use them to explore places we had not previously visited and being here in Kyoto there are a number of places within easy travel that seemed to fit the bill. text/html 2015-10-02T20:10:10+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/travel/asia/japan/journal2/day8 Wednesday, February 5th, 2014 Well, I can’t say we were up with the sun today after our busy day yesterday. When we eventually emerged the sun was up...I had a quick call with my wife on Skype which was very nice even though it was midnight her time. text/html 2023-04-30T17:54:34+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/travel/asia/japan/journal2/day9 Thursday, February 6th, 2014 After our now customary continental breakfast in the cafe it did not look all that much warmer out today though the snow seems to have abated. [Breakfast - Not Much Different than Yesterday] Every night we have a bit of a debate as to what we would like to do for the following day. Having been to Kyoto before the conversation has been fairly easy as we have seen most of the big sites so it is a matter of figuring out from the rest what would be interesting to se… text/html 2015-10-02T20:10:05+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/travel/asia/japan/journal2/day10 Friday, February 7th, 2014 Well, we have finally made it to Hakuba for our third and final destination of this trip. This area was home to many of the skiing events from the 1998 Olympics when they were held in Nagano which is at the bottom of the valley a 45 minute drive away. We are all settled in the hotel and just relaxing after what has been a lot of travel. text/html 2015-10-02T20:10:06+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/travel/asia/japan/journal2/day11 Saturday, February 8th, 2014 We had arranged for our breakfast to be served at 8 pm so we were up at 7:30 to have a quick shower. Last night we received some snow and it is very pretty outside of our window with the trees covered with a thick layer of white. text/html 2015-10-02T20:10:18+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/travel/asia/japan/journal2/day12 Sunday, February 9th, 2014 The staff call our room every time we have a booking in the restaurant. So, at 8:00 the phone rang to let us know our table was ready. Yesterday we had told them that today we would try the western breakfast which was not really very western - Which suited us! As always, it was beautifully presented - A fried egg, fried tofu and some fruit with some bread on the side (as well the obligatory tea). text/html 2015-10-02T20:10:18+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/travel/asia/japan/journal2/day13 Monday, February 10th, 2014 It was the western breakfast again this morning. Today instead of tofu I got some wonderful local sausage and a hash brown. They have figured out that mother is a vegetarian so they have been making sure that every meal she gets either fish or vegetables text/html 2015-10-02T20:10:06+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/travel/asia/japan/journal2/day14 Tuesday, February 11th, 2014 The hotel and the material we have read has given us a good idea of what to expect from each of the ski areas in Hakuba. Today we skied in “Goryu/Hakuba 47” which is actually two resorts: “Goryu” (on the left), which is basically for skiing, and “Hakuba 7” (on the right) which is more for boarders and beginners. We had been told that “Goryu” had the most difficult skiing of all of the resorts in the valley so we had saved this for the last day before our break tom… text/html 2015-10-02T20:10:17+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/travel/asia/japan/journal2/day15 Wednesday, February 12th, 2014 Monkey day! And, thankfully, a bit of a break from the skiing. We have never done this on a ski trip before but with a six day ski pass we both agreed it was a good idea to take a break and what better way than to see the famous Jigokudani Snow Monkeys. text/html 2015-10-02T20:10:11+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/travel/asia/japan/journal2/day16 Thursday, February 13th, 2014 It has been snowing over night and it still coming down when we got up this morning. Should be interesting for skiing. Because of the weather and the facet we don’t really want to end our trip with a lot of hard work so we decided today to head over to the “Tsugaike Kogen” ski area which is known for being quite an easy resort to ski. text/html 2015-10-02T20:10:16+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/travel/asia/japan/journal2/day17 Friday, February 14th, 2014 Another “English” breakfast (scrambled eggs with sausage this time). Still much better than most English breakfasts I have ever had in the UK… [Japanese Breakfast] Our last day and we headed to our local resort again: Happo One. The snow has been coming down still so it has been tricky skiing all day. We took the hotel shuttle to the lift at about 9. text/html 2015-10-02T20:10:11+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/travel/asia/japan/journal2/day18 Saturday, February 15th, 2014 It has been a crazy, crazy day. Very uncomfortable and very nervous about things now. I am not sure we are going to make our flight tomorrow, but I guess we can only hope. The day started with our looking out the balcony window to see the trees draped in an amazing amount of snow and it was still coming down - this time in big clumps. We could not see the ski hills to the right. The ground is covered in at least eight inches of the stuff since last night. I… text/html 2015-10-02T20:10:17+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/travel/asia/japan/journal2/day19 Sunday, February 16th, 2014 The morning came way too fast but the adrenaline was kicking in as we packed up and made our way to the front desk. We were met there by the owner who told us her father was still in bed so it would be her taking us to the train station! Wow, what customer service. text/html 2015-10-02T20:10:18+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/travel/asia/japan/journal2/introduction Japan Journal 2014 Introduction I last visited Japan as part of a trip my mother and I did where we were in Japan for the World Science Fiction Convention in 2007. After Japan we took a ferry over to Beijing then took trains through China to Hong Kong. A four week epic trip that left us exhausted but satisfied. This trip is not as ambitious but it does combine two of our interests: Japan and skiing. text/html 2015-10-02T20:10:11+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://stevedrice.net/travel/asia/japan/journal2/sidebar * Japan Journal 2014 London * Wednesday, January 29th, 2014 Tokyo * Thursday, January 30th, 2014 * Friday, January 31st, 2014 * Saturday, February 1st, 2014 Kyoto * Sunday, February 2nd, 2014 * Monday, February 3rd, 2014 * Tuesday, February 4th, 2014 (Takayama field trip) * Wednesday, February 5th, 2014 * Thursday, February 6th, 2014 Hakuba * Friday, February 7th, 2014 * Saturday, February 8th, 2014 * Sunday, February 9th, 2014 * Monday, February 10th, 2014 * …