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Japan & Bali 2025
  • Jo and JO Brooks-Caragata
  • Jo and JO Brooks-Caragata

Japan & Bali 2025

En 50-dags äventyr från Jo and JO Läs mer
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  • Jo and JO Brooks-CaragataJapan & Bali 2025Jo and JO Brooks-Caragata
    2

    Shukkeien Garden, Hiroshima

    1 maj 2025, Japan ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    Our first adventure in Hiroshima was to Shukkeien Garden. This is called a 'shrink scenery garden' style because it is designed to give the impression of being much larger than it really is. It was lovely to stroll around the garden, enjoying the various views.

    Construction of the garden began in 1620. Nope, not a typo.

    The garden was destroyed by the atomic bomb in 1945 but was rebuilt to its previous condition. Lucky for visitors who can still enjoy it today.    Läs mer

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  • Jo and JO Brooks-CaragataJapan & Bali 2025Jo and JO Brooks-Caragata
    2

    Hiroshima

    2 maj 2025, Japan ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    We had a lovely strolling day around Genbaku Domu - in English, the A Bomb Dome - and then taking a leisurely river cruise to see the main sights in the area near the Dome. No one would ever make bombs if they could see what happened here on August 6, 1945. Hiroshima today is a beautiful, green city, as well as a powerful reminder of the need for peace to prevail.Läs mer

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  • Jo and JO Brooks-CaragataJapan & Bali 2025Jo and JO Brooks-Caragata
    2

    Orizuru Tower, Hiroshima

    3 maj 2025, Japan ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    Hitomi came from Nishinomiya to spend a day with in Hiroshima. We started at Orizuru Tower, which has an observation deck on the top floor, looking out over Peace Park and down to the A Bomb Dome below, and exhibits on the 13th floor.
    We discovered that it is possible to take a spiral slide down to the bottom. Naturally, that's what I did. The other two were horrified, but there was no way I was taking an elevator when I could slide down.    Läs mer

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  • Jo and JO Brooks-CaragataJapan & Bali 2025Jo and JO Brooks-Caragata

    Random quirky things in Kobe

    4 maj 2025, Japan ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Japan is such a quirky, surprising, and off-beat country. Sometimes, things are so unexpected and often charming. Other times, they are just amazing. Here are a few things you would never see in Canada:

    First, this is something new to us: a vending machine that makes freshly-squeezed orange juice. The machine is stocked with actual oranges 🍊 which the machine will squeeze to produce a cup of juice. It must take an army of drivers to keep the machines stocked with fresh oranges every day. Hitomi told us the juice is good.

    Next, Kutsushitaya. It's a sock shop. That's right - an entire store just for socks. 🧦 I got my socks from this store for many years, and when we walked past it yesterday, my feet turned in, and there I was, buying socks again. You can see the buckets full of socks. Everything in those buckets used to be 3 pair for ¥1,000. There was no inflation. The price didn't change in all the years I shopped there. In our absence, inflation has reared its ugly head, and the price is now all the way up to 3 for ¥1,386. That's about C$13.50.

    The last photo is one of those things that just makes us laugh; it's so silly, but nonetheless, quite a common sight: bread made into animal shapes, but for everyone, not just children. How can you not love a country that thinks this is normal? ❤️    Läs mer

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  • Jo and JO Brooks-CaragataJapan & Bali 2025Jo and JO Brooks-Caragata

    Kobe

    4 maj 2025, Japan ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    Thanks to the magic of the morning Shinkansen trip from Hiroshima, we have popped up in Kobe. First on the Kobe agenda was Afternoon Tea with Mariko & Hisaki. (This is the Mariko #2 I mentioned some time ago.)
    They chose a top floor lounge in a newly-built hotel we didn't know about for our Afternoon Tea. It was amazing - the company, the Tea service, and the views over Kobe. Great afternoon.    Läs mer

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  • Jo and JO Brooks-CaragataJapan & Bali 2025Jo and JO Brooks-Caragata

    Nunobiki Herb Gardens, Kobe

    5 maj 2025, Japan ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Hitomi & her mother, Sanae, came to spend the day at Nunobiki Herb Gardens with us. In Kobe, we are quite close to Nishinomiya, so it was a short train ride for them.

    The entrance to the Ropeway up to the Gardens is quite literally outside of our hotel. Couldn't have been easier.

    The Gardens were packed because we are in Golden Week, a busy travel and vacation time for Japanese people. Once we got off the ropeway and into the gardens, the crowds dispersed, and it wasn't so bad.

    We enjoyed the flowers and herbs 🌿 , and worked up an appetite for lunch. It turned out the Café was having a strawberry event 🍓, so we had a very strawberry-y lunch. It was delicious. Japanese strawberries are very sweet.    Läs mer

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  • Jo and JO Brooks-CaragataJapan & Bali 2025Jo and JO Brooks-Caragata

    Okamoto

    7 maj 2025, Japan ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    We went to Okamoto because it is a nice area of Kobe, and I (Jo B) used to work there. JO C did, too, for a shorter time. I took the train to Okamoto Station and then walked to Konan University for many years. It was always a nice walk in a leafy, green neighbourhood. We looked for an English-style café we remembered, but it's gone. We went to Zenma, a small Vietnamese café we used to go to right outside the station. It's still there but with a new owner, so it's different. It was nice to sit on the outdoor patio and enjoy authentic Vietnamese coffee.

    A few photos inside a train station show what the stations typically look like.    Läs mer

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  • Jo and JO Brooks-CaragataJapan & Bali 2025Jo and JO Brooks-Caragata
    2

    Rakusai Bamboo Park

    8 maj 2025, Japan ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    There is a very famous bamboo grove in Arashiyama (part of Kyoto), but it has been so overrun with tourists recently that the experience has been ruined. We learned of another one that most tourists have not yet discovered, so we decided to go there instead of Arashiyama. Our friend, Estella, came with us. She had not been there either, so it was a fun, new experience for all of us.Läs mer

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  • Jo and JO Brooks-CaragataJapan & Bali 2025Jo and JO Brooks-Caragata
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    Rakusai Bamboo Park continued

    8 maj 2025, Japan ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    More photos from this beautiful park.

    As we had learned beforehand, there were almost no tourists there, just a few locals, and a class of elementary school students. It was a lovely, peaceful time.

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  • Jo and JO Brooks-CaragataJapan & Bali 2025Jo and JO Brooks-Caragata
    3

    Nakayama Dera

    9 maj 2025, Japan ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    This has always been one of our favorite temples. It's large, with many buildings, and now it has a beautiful new - and blue - pagoda. It's very impressive.

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  • Jo and JO Brooks-CaragataJapan & Bali 2025Jo and JO Brooks-Caragata

    Nakayama Dera continued

    9 maj 2025, Japan ⋅ 🌧 20 °C

    A few more photos from the temple.

    The final photo is at Nishinomiya Kitaguchi Station. Our home station. We went through it getting to and from Nakayama Dera.

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  • Jo and JO Brooks-CaragataJapan & Bali 2025Jo and JO Brooks-Caragata

    Oji Koen Shoutengai

    10 maj 2025, Japan ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    Oji Koen is a neighbourhood in Kobe. It has a shoutengai, which is a shopping street. They are typically covered, as is this one. Oji Koen always makes for an interesting stroll, to see the shops and maybe find some bargains. The stores here tend to have good prices because it is not a fancy neighborhood; it's pretty old-fashioned.

    About 1999 or so, we bought a blanket from a futon shop here. We still have it, but it is threadbare, and the binding along the top edge is frayed. We paid ¥6,000 for it. At the time, I regretted the purchase, thinking we'd paid way too much. Now more than 25 years later, it seems like an incredible bargain.

    We went back to that shop, told the shopkeeper our story, and asked if he had any more. He brought out two, and we liked the yellow one - the same colour as the original. The price tag said ¥6,800, but he said he'd sell it for ¥6,500. We bought it! It was only ¥500 more than the 25 or 26 year old price. Amazing! Apparently, Oji Koen has no inflation. No wonder we like shopping there.    Läs mer

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  • Jo and JO Brooks-CaragataJapan & Bali 2025Jo and JO Brooks-Caragata

    Kobe - on the City Loop Bus

    10 maj 2025, Japan ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    We took the City Loop Bus to and from Harborland to see the harbour area of Kobe, which we had missed up to this point. It very conveniently has a stop just outside our hotel. The harbour is a busy, touristy, but not overcrowded part of the city. There are lots of things there for children, such as an Anpanman Museum and play area. We skipped that, of course.

    We used to go once in a while to the Meriken Park Oriental Hotel for a special occasion buffet lunch. It was pretty good. We gazed from afar this time.    Läs mer

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  • Jo and JO Brooks-CaragataJapan & Bali 2025Jo and JO Brooks-Caragata

    A day with Yasuko in Kobe

    11 maj 2025, Japan ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    We met Yasuko for a relaxing visit, lunch a couple of shrines, and a coffee stop.

    Yasuko had chosen her favorite café for us to have lunch together, but we arrived to find that it was no longer there.

    No problem. We were near Morozoff Café, which was quite nice. They make very interesting sandwiches - the grilled cheese sandwich is made in a waffle machine, so it has a unique appearance.

    After lunch, we went to the nearby Sannomiya Shrine. It's a small one, but is in a surprising location - right in the centre of big buildings and across the street from Daimaru Department Store.

    Next up was Ikuta Jinja. It's quite a bit bigger, with many people there. We always enjoyed walking through it whenever we were in Sannomiya (the main downtown area of Kobe).

    Like many shrines, there are lucky charms for sale. It's always a good idea to have the protection of these charms, so I bought three. We are now protected from traffic accidents, and calamities will be warded off . We are also sure to come into money. What's not to like?

    After spending some time at Ikuta Jinja, we decided it was coffee time. We went to Nishimura's Coffee, a longtime mainstay of Kobe. There is nothing modern about it, and yet it remains as popular as ever. It was crowded and we had to wait a few minutes before getting a table. It was good, albeit with their own spin on things, such as cappuccino with whipped cream and a huge cinnamon stick. ☕️ And why not?    Läs mer

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  • Jo and JO Brooks-CaragataJapan & Bali 2025Jo and JO Brooks-Caragata

    Wakamizu Ryokan with Kuniko & Yoshiaki

    12 maj 2025, Japan ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    We spent a day with Kuniko & Yoshiaki. They invited us to Wakamizu Ryokan in Takarazuka, just north of Nishinomiya.

    We started with a wonderful multi-course lunch of beautifully-presented Japanese dishes. It was all delicious.

    Then we went to the onsen, which is a public bath, a very Japanese thing to do. It's very relaxing. Of course, there are no photos of us there.

    After that, it was coffee time in the Takarazuka Hotel, unrecognizable to us as it's been completely redone since we last saw it.

    We ended the day with a casual dinner at Kuniko and Yoshiaki's condo. It was a great day with great friends!    Läs mer

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  • Jo and JO Brooks-CaragataJapan & Bali 2025Jo and JO Brooks-Caragata

    Kobe Grocers

    14 maj 2025, Japan ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    We finally had a day with no fixed commitments, so we decided to stroll around the Kitano area of Kobe. It's near our hotel and we remembered the streets being quite interesting with many little cafés and unique shops. Well, were we surprised. Most of what we remember is gone, replaced with high rise apartment/condo buildings all densely packed together.

    Some of it was still familiar, though, and at one point, JO C said she thought we were close to Kobe Grocers. This was a small grocery store that stocked a lot of imported food, which gave it a strong following among the ex-pat community.

    For years, we'd go there every couple of months, stock up on lots of items unavailable elsewhere, and they'd deliver it to us on Tuesday evenings. If we had bought frozen items, they would keep them in their freezer for us until Tuesday. Customers in Kobe had daily delivery, but the store only delivered to Nishinomiya once a week.

    Here we were, back in their neighborhood. We hadn't planned to go there; we don't need imported groceries from them anymore, but once we realized we were close, we decided to see if it was still there. We rounded a corner and saw their yellow awning and knew we'd found it.

    In we went and one of the owners, who was in the store at the time, recognized us right away, as we did him. We were having a nice chat when we commented that the interior looked very different, with wider aisles and new upright freezers. It felt more spacious. He told us something shocking: three years ago, they had had a fire! Everything was destroyed. We were very sorry to hear that. The exterior still looks the same, but the interior is all new. We were glad to hear that everyone was safe and that they had been able to recover. What a shock that must have been for them.    Läs mer

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  • Jo and JO Brooks-CaragataJapan & Bali 2025Jo and JO Brooks-Caragata
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    Toyama, day trip to nearby Takaoka

    16 maj 2025, Japan ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C

    We have said goodbye for now to Kansai, and here we are in Toyama, our last destination before Bali. We are here to visit Mari. The last time we saw her was when she visited us in Nishinomiya, so that was a long time ago.

    We started the day with a visit to the Nousaku Tin Factory in Takaoka, a nearby town. This was a new experience for all of us. It turned out to be quite interesting, and at the end of the tour, we participated in a workshop where we each made a chopstick rest out of tin.    Läs mer

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  • Jo and JO Brooks-CaragataJapan & Bali 2025Jo and JO Brooks-Caragata
    1

    Glass Art Museum, Toyama

    17 maj 2025, Japan ⋅ 🌧 23 °C

    We went to Toyama 's Glass Art Museum. It's in a very impressive building, which also incorporates a public library. The multi-level escalator rides to get up to the exhibit space on the 6th floor were eye-popping. That was before we'd even seen any of the glass works.

    The library is pretty impressive, too. It looks like a cool place to find a good book, or just hang out.    Läs mer

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