Category: Travel
-
Sugoku Kawai!
This is the car I rented for four days, to visit Kirishima National Park. It is a Nissan March. It is sugoku kawai! (extremely/exceptionally/unbelievably cute.) Kawai rhymes with Hawai’i. I think I ended up with this car because, at the rental company, the girl at the counter could point outside at the only blue car…
-
Moving On
I ride the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) from Tokyo to Kagoshima, tomorrow. Actually, it is four trains. The distance is half the length of Japan! I revisited Ginza, Shinjuku, and Shibuya today. One word of advice: if you are a compulsive clothes shopper, do not go to Tokyo! You will quickly become broke, for two reasons:…
-
Tokyo is Great!
Out of all of the cities I’ve visited on this trip, Tokyo is by far the best. Tokyo is the city that Shanghai wants to be. It has a long way to go. The big difference is: Tokyo pays attention to the details, and it keeps working at them until they are 100% correct. 99%…
-
Kabuki
I went to see some Kabuki theatre, yesterday, and was very enjoyable. Kabuki is a traditional form of theatre. It is very stylized, but it is also a theatre “for the masses”. I went to the Kabuki-za theatre in mid-afternoon. I thought I would just buy a ticket for another day, but a performance was…
-
Tokyo – First Day
I’ve already had one action-packed day in Tokyo. I first went to the Senso-ji Temple, near where I am staying. I discovered there that some cherry blossoms have already started. It is very early! Apparently, this was the first winter in 136 years in which Tokyo got no snowfall. Then, I took a short cruise…
-
Tokyo Time
I arrived in Tokyo, last evening. I have only travelled from the airport to the ryokan where I am staying, so I don’t have much to say about Tokyo, yet. I had to wake up in Auckland at 5:00am, which was 2:00am Tokyo time. I finally arrived at my ryokan at 7:00pm. It was a…
-
Auckland
Auckland is an ugly city! The parts I’ve seen, at least, are strikingly unattractive – especially the CBD (downtown) area. I guess no one in Auckland bothered to hire a good architect. I am just chilling out, and mostly planning and making arrangements for Japan. I have booked my lodging in Tokyo. I will get…
-
Sailing
In the Bay of Islands, I went sailing on the R. Tucker Thompson. It is a two-masted tall ship. Here it is arriving to pick up the passengers: The crew up in the rigging, getting some sails ready: My turn to climb the rigging: And yes, I did actually climb up to that point in…
-
Northern Peninsulas: More Bad Weather
I’ve been touring around the Coromandel Peninsula and Northlands, but it has been very windy and rainy for the last few days. The forecast is for it to continue. It only rains in brief showers, but the winds have been quite high, with even higher gusts. A tourist was injured in Auckland, yesterday, when a…
-
Bad Weather: No White Island Trip
My boat trip to White Island (a very active volcano) was cancelled, due to bad weather. It looks like the weather will not improve for a few days, so my chance of getting to the island is slim. Too bad. I was looking forward to it. This device is used by the Kiwis for crossing…
Michael Chmilar's Travels 