Siberia and sakura

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Siberia and sakura Traveler
Gion by night
April 11, 2018 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C
Our previous evening visit to Gion was a quick march up the main street to get to the park with the sakura illuminations. This time we wandered the side streets in search of the picturesque (and a good udon restaurant). We found both.Read more
TravelerFrom a dry and sandy Amman it is nic
4/13/18Reply
Travelere to see wet and green. Good that you also found a good restaurant.
4/13/18Reply
TravelerIt was *very* wet, but not as wet as it was later for the walk from the subway back to the house.
4/13/18Reply
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Siberia and sakura Traveler
The red gates of Fushimi Inari
April 12, 2018 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C
It is possible to get a photo of the famous avenues of red gates without a crowd of people, but it's not a true reflection of the experience. Huge crowds, relentless steps, mosquitos, and all the maps along the route disagree with each other. I'm glad I went, but if I make a return visit it will be for the excellent dried fruit stall. Or to see the local cats playing at being jungle panthers in the surrounding woodland.

Other points of note in the area are the excellent vegan cafe and some odd plates in the roads. The former - Vegans Cafe - does fantastic crispy barbecue tofu, huge pizza, and delicious soya milkshakes.

The road plates are tiny metal labels embedded in the road surface. A few point to visible features like this stone or a small wooden post, but most have an arrow apparently pointing to nothing. Some I think translate as 'The city' but others had different wording that I couldn't work out.Read more
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Siberia and sakura Traveler
Osaka
April 13, 2018 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C
A much more high-rise city than Kyoto. No stopping, just passing through on the way to the airport.
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Siberia and sakura Traveler
Hong kong
April 13, 2018 in Hong Kong ⋅ 🌙 25 °C
Brief stop - just long enough to walk down to the harbour to see the lights and the buskers, then a few hours sleep before the next plane.

Hong Kong airport reeks of tea. The cuppa of the old Empire, rather than Kyoto's matcha with wafts of roasted green.

It also has a map problem - both in arrivals and departures. Most are just of a section, not the whole thing. So it's hard to get a sense of where you are, and where that is in relation to where you need to be. ''Ahead and left' on a map can mean 'right and right again to get to the bit where the map starts *then* ahead and left'. And some maps number gates, while others number things that are not gates, and relate to a key some distance away. Numbers on the map appear sequential, but then the sequence leaps wildly across to another segment for 2 numbers before hopping back to carry on.

It is a light and airy space, but not well designed for the traveller who has had too little sleep and just wants breakfast. Most people plumped for McDonalds or the place that offered 5 flavours of congee. Not up to a 3-turn queue and extensive conversations about which congee might be vegetarian, I hunted down the small (nominally French) supplier of Danish pastries.

On the way I discovered a more diverse selection of eating places than the average airport - from Chinese street food 're-imagined' by a chef with a tyre company star, to Goose to Go. Most of them don't open until 11, so if your airport requirements include the availability of whole rotisserie geese make sure you book a later flight.Read more
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Siberia and sakura Traveler
From the air
April 14, 2018 in Russia ⋅ ⛅ 0 °C
Passing over Novosibirsk and Omsk on the way home - a lot of the route goes directly over the ground we travelled on the train. Still quite snowy down there.
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Gion by night

The red gates of Fushimi Inari

Osaka

Hong kong

From the air