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Tokyu Plaza Roof, Towards Shibuya

On top of Tokyu Plaza shopping center, at the crossroads of Omotesando and Meiji Dori, is a rooftop garden from where I took this shot of Tokyo looking south towards Shibuya.

May 5, 2017

Shrine, Omotesando, Tokyo, November 2016

I’m finally starting to process the shortlist of the photographs I took during our trip to Japan in November last year. From over 1500 photographs taken, more than 1110 passed muster and were pr…

May 1, 2017

Led By The Nose

Again we started Day Three in Kyoto early, heading in entirely the opposite direction as yesterday to go to Arashiyama to explore the bamboo groves there. But first, breakfast! Takagi Coffee We found …

November 14, 2016

The One With The Orange Gates

Fushimi Inari-Taisha Our second day in Kyoto started early. One of our top priorities whilst in Kyoto was to see Fushimi Inari-Taisha – the one with the orange gates. A ten minute walk from our …

November 14, 2016

Bullet To Kyoto

We left Tokyo on Friday morning, catching the shinkansen (“The Bullet Train”) from Shinagawa Station. With our Japan Rail passes, the shinkansen (and other JR trains) are free – we j…

November 14, 2016

The Food Isn’t Always Amazing In Tokyo!

Although we’ve been very lucky (and, like Jack Nicklaus said: “The more I practise, the luckier I get!” – that is, we did a lot of research beforehand), there were a couple of …

November 12, 2016

Okonomiyaki – DIY

Okonomiyaki, effectively Japanese omelettes, are a favourite of ours since we discovered the Abeno restaurant chain in London some years ago – we try to get to Abeno Too near Leicester Square wh…

November 9, 2016

Peripheral Information

One of my concerns when we started planning our trip to Japan was the completely alien-ness of the language and, more importantly, the writing. I am pretty good at picking up information peripherally …

November 7, 2016

Meiji Shrine and Yoyogi Gyoen

Sunday in Tokyo is very much like any other day. There are no religious reasons for shops and businesses to be closed and the streets are as busy as ever. But Gail and I felt like a quiet day was in o…

November 7, 2016

Maybe I Need A ‘Food’ Category?

Let’s get this straight – one of the main things Gail and I were looking to sample here in Japan was the food. So it’s with no real surprise I bring you another food related blog ent…

November 6, 2016

More Food: Ichiran Ramen and Tonkatsu Maisen

On our second day in Tokyo, having vanquished jetlag, we set off in search of shopping. First we headed to Yodobashi Camera in Shinjuku, a multi-floor electronics store where I had been advised I woul…

November 3, 2016

Harajuku Gyoza-Lo!

I love gyoza, it’s true! (I am infamous amongst a particular group of friends for sitting at the head of the conveyor belt at a certain Japanese restaurant in Barcelona and way-laying every sing…

November 2, 2016

Day One : Harajuku Apartment

Or is it Day 1.5? Or Day 0.5? Or Day Three even? I don’t fucking know! It’s currently 13:00 for us, and we’re some 9 hours ahead of GMT. We’ve been on a plane for 12 hours. We …

November 2, 2016

An Auspicious Start…

After a 2 hour delay leaving Granada due to a technical defect with the plane (which required an engineer to come up from Málaga to fix) – apparently the rear door wouldn’t close prope…

October 30, 2016

We’re Going To Japan!

I’m not a great traveler, so creating a new category with this 2016 relaunch of my blog is perhaps a bit optimistic. But it’s here for a very specific trip, at least initially – we&#…

October 28, 2016