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Global Wanderings 2017

April - September 2017
A 128-day adventure by Barrable Travels Read more
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  • Barrable TravelsGlobal Wanderings 2017
    1
    Day 22

    Nagoya

    May 18, 2017 in Japan ⋅ 🌙 18 °C

    Not much to say about Nagoya; lovely city, great architecture and a really nice hotel, I primarily used it as a base to go out on day trips elsewhere. Visited the Castle and a Temple but that was about it. Enjoyed the luxury of the Hotel and three nights in the same place after moving so much over the last two (almost 3 now) weeks.

    Oh and the brilliant Railway Museum but thats covered in a seperate post :-)    Read more

  • Barrable TravelsGlobal Wanderings 2017
    Day 24

    Nagoya, Yokahama, Shimizu...

    May 20, 2017 in Japan ⋅ 🌙 19 °C

    Mainly a Shinkansen travel day today... wanted to see Yokahama so went there first and wandered around the port area then got another Shinkansen back down to Shizuoka and a local train to Shimizu and the coast.

    The architecture in Nagoya was pretty cool with a twisty corkscrew kind of a skyscraper and other large towers clustered around the train station. The urban cityscapes of japan can also be beautiful in thier own way, especially when all lit up at night. Visited Nagoya Castle which is a reconstruction slightly older than Osaka - rebuild in the late 50's through early 70's - and all the better for it. Age and patina create the atmosphere in these places and anything to shiny and new just doesnt feel right. There is a brand new reconstruction of the Palace right next to the Castle and it just feels wierd with its shiny new wood.

    Arrived in Shimizu quite late so not much to photograph but more on Shimizu in my next post...    Read more

  • Barrable TravelsGlobal Wanderings 2017
    Day 25

    Kunozan Toshogu & Disappearing Mt Fuji

    May 21, 2017 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    Came to Shimizu primarly as I had heard that it was a great place to get views of Mt Fuji especially from Miho Beach to the east of the town. Unfortunatly although it was a bright sunny day it was very hazy so views of Fuji where largely totally obscured. However you could glimpse the snow capped peak floating in the sky which was very atmospheric, if hard to photograph.

    I took a local bus out to Miho beach and then walked a cfew kms up the beach and around to the 'waterbus' which ferries people between Shimizu port and the swimming beaches on the northen tip of the Miho peninsula.

    Travelled on later in the day back to Shizuoka and the an hour by local bus out to Nihondaira plataeu south of the city; another spot famous for its Fuji views but this time it was also fogged in by low clouds so no views of Fuji at all. Still a great place though and my other reason for coming was to visit Kunozan Toshogu the shrine of the great Shogun Togugawa who united Japan and created the Bafaku feudal system that ruled for over 200 years. This is his actual Shrine were he was buried at his request although now only of secondary importance to the great Togugawa Shrine at Nikko which is were most people go. I have been to both and much prefered this one with its wonderful location high up on a mountain overlooking the sea and lack of tourists. Took the cable car down from the plataeu to the Shrine which is a pretty spectacular ride, then walked the 1000 steps down to the sea (well I wasn't going to walk up them in the 27C heat :-)

    below the whole coastine is covered in greenhouses full of strawberries and there are little cafes everywhere were you ca get strawberry smoothies or icecream or just about anything strawberry. All of which was very refreshing after another hot day of walking and sightseeing and long local bus rides. Speaking of which it was another local busride back to Shimizu but this time only about 30 mins of standing up and bouncing around... the seats are too small and legroom non existanat so I cant sit down :-)

    All in all a great day with Kunozan Toshugu the highlight.    Read more

  • Barrable TravelsGlobal Wanderings 2017
    Day 27

    Sayonara Japan

    May 23, 2017 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    My last day in Japan was spent back in Tokyo, mainly in picking up the formal wedding suit I ordered on my way in... I'm going to look like a right penguin :-)

    Also went out and explored the city at night and had some wonderful Sushimi and Sushi at a small restaurant tucked away on a side street... absolutely amazing. Love japanese food but now after so many weeks in Japan I will never be able to eat what passes for Japanese food in the west. Most of the so called Sushi shops in NZ and elsewhere are actually run by Chinese who know that they can charge a premiuim over cheap Chinese food.

    Saw the Tokyo Tower all lit up with Zozoji Temple dark in the foreground. Saw Mario Cart racers screaming around the streets drivers all kitted out in costume. Saw flowers and Shrines and illuminated temples and buildings. Tokyo, and Japan in general, is so safe clean and the people so friendly and respectful thatI can sefely say it is the safest and claenest country I have ever travelled in. Reminds me a lot of Switzerland of all places. Maybe also because the splendour of nature is so ever present; mountains and forests cover about 80% of Japans land and the 120 million people live crammed together in the remaining 20%.

    The transport systems are amazing, the cities vibrant and clean, the people friendly and the sights to be seen are spectacular!

    Japan, I will miss you!

    But I'm sure I'll be back soon :-)    Read more

  • Barrable TravelsGlobal Wanderings 2017
    1
    Day 27

    Hello London!

    May 23, 2017 in England ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    Arrived in London and straight to my daughters place in North London. Great to see Cleo again after almost 4 years. Still the same, still just as beautiful and lovely as ever and it feels like we only saw each other yesterday. Always enjoy spending time with my beautiful daughter :-)

    Also took a wander around central London and got my culture fix by visiting a couple of Museums and Exhibitions.

    London feels so noisy, crowded and dirty after Japan. Tokyo may be crowded but it doesn't feel that way and everything is spotlessly clean, which London is most definately not.

    Returning to the country of my birth always reminds me of why I left in the first place...

    That siad London is a wonderfully green city with lots of parks and open spaces and lots of tree lined streets with many Roses and other flowers in peoples gardens. Not all bad... and I certainly feel the comfort of being around the familiar. Such a cosmopolitan city, London, with an amazing mix of people, cultures and languages all around. I walked through the streets of my old haunts of my youth with my daughter - Hampstead, Belsize Park, Finchley - and everything seems pretty much the same as it was 35 years ago.

    So Hello London... different but the same as it ever was :-)    Read more

  • Barrable TravelsGlobal Wanderings 2017
    Day 29

    Hokusai, British Museum &The Japan House

    May 25, 2017 in England ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    I think I'm still in Japan despite arriving in London two days ago. I spent all my time at two exhibitions; the first at the British Museum - Hokusai; Beyond The Great Wave. Lots of wonderful works by the famous woodblock artist Hokusai. I found his paintings just as impressive as the more famous woodblock prints like Red Fuji and The Great Wave which were also present.

    I then wandered off over to the Barbican Centre for an exhibition called The Japan House about Japanese architecture since 1945. Very cool. They had a bunch of exhibition rooms upstairs and downstairs had recreated the famous Moriyama House (2005), designed in Tokyo by Ryue Nishizawa and inhabited by Yasuo Moriyama, an enigmatic urban hermit. You could just wander around in the house which was brilliant and full of strange and wonderful things like the green lit 'garden' complete with 'tree house'.

    I'll probably arrive in the UK eventually but for now my sprit continues to inhabit Japan :-)    Read more

  • Barrable TravelsGlobal Wanderings 2017
    Day 30

    Hanging Out in Hastings

    May 26, 2017 in England ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    Spent a few days hanging out in the lovely seaside town of Hastings in East Sussex. My sister, Claire, lives here and I also have other relatives who live here and nearby. I like Hastings a lot; not yet ruined by an influx of rich Londoners or day commuters, like Brighton, and still full of wonderful old streets, interesting shops and a working fishing port area.

    they have a new pier too which I really enjoyed. Very modern and architecturally designed it is full of space, spaces, wonderful architecture, reflections and a deep seaside feel with multi-coloured flags fluttering in the sea breeze.

    If I ever were to return to the UK (highly unlikely) I could quite happily live here in Hastings :-)    Read more

  • Barrable TravelsGlobal Wanderings 2017
    Day 32

    Dungeness Dreaming

    May 28, 2017 in England ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    The surreal and post-apocalyptic landscape of Dungeness home of the Dungeness Nuclear Power Station, Derek Jarman's house - Prospect Cottage - and a mixture of semi derelict old converted rail carriage cottages and sleek all black or ultra modern creations.

    I have always loved Dungeness and so along with my local Hastings relatives - Auntie Chris, Cousin Helga and Sister Claire - took a trip there by public transport. A bus runs from Hastings to Dymchurch (1hr45mins) from where you can catch the wonderful minature steam railway trains that run from Dymchurch to Dungeness (40 mins). The bus is a double decker so although a long journey it winds its way through some magnificent countryside and small villages on the E Sussex and Kent coasts, the views from the upper deck are great.

    Once there its like stepping out into another world; the shingle peninsula is very flat and on one side looms the Dungeness Nuclear Power Station and on the other the shingle falls off to the English Channel, the white cliffs of Dover visible across the water.

    A large part of the peninsula is a Nature Reserve and includes over 30% of all UK flora and lots of birds and other fauna, some very rare. The rest is that odd mixture of tumble down buildings, ultra modern arty creations - Holiday homes for the London rich - and abandoned fishing boats and sheds high and dry on the shingle far from the shore.

    The Dungeness Railway Station has a cafe called 'The End of the Line'... "more like The End of the World" said Peter, Helga's husband, when he came to pick us up later in the day. The drive back by car was much quicker and we were soon back in Hastings.

    All in all a wonderful day :-)    Read more

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