Posts made by Steve

A day of neon, old Nintendo’s, lovely fruit and cream sandwiches, very bright toys and dog shops everywhere!

Back in Tokyo now for a couple of days after our rural exploring…

oh, and a few expected shots of Takayama and its surrounding area…

Last stop on road trip is Takayama - the ‘old town’ was our stay, and well worth it - gorgeous looking building along a river. The highlight was experiencing Hida beef - a brand of Wagyu - and it tastes soooo good!

If you ever get to this area make it a point to try it.

@goosehd I know Lynne wanted to spend a day doing a weaving course, and there was also an Indigo dyeing course she had her eye on - she might still manage one, but I think we probably needed a few more days (or weeks)!!!

@Shane-B thanks mate - and also congrats to you and Maria!!!

Finally we ended up at Chirihama Nagisa Driveway for sunset - This is the only place in Japan where you can drive right along the water’s edge - in any type of car (not just a 4x4).

It is an 8-km stretch of beach road — a type of road that would be hard to find anywhere else in the world. The unique sand of Chirihama makes it possible. The sand particles are small, a quarter of the size of ordinary ones. They have a uniform, angular shape, which makes the driveway hard when it absorbs water.

Seeing fishermen’s trucks for carrying unloaded fish at Chirihama, a local bus company employee tried driving a bus there in 1955. That is how Nagisa Driveway started.

End of lesson!

From there, we drove along the Hakusan Shirakawago White Road for 2+ hours - breathtaking is the only word I can find for the views! It’s swinging mountain road, 33km long and rises to above 1400m above sea level. You really do need to hire a car to see some of these places!

Kanazawa is indeed a ‘little’ Kyoto, and with our hire car we’ve explored a LOT - big up to @Lynne for finding all these places!

First up we went to Gokayama and the Ainokura Gassho Village - there’s only about 19 houses there, and has a Swiss Alps feel to the place.

Arrived in Kanazawa late today, quick walk around and first impressions is very similar to Kyoto, with less tourists!

Bit of a foodie day today - gyozas for lunch in Jingumae, followed by a feast of Udons, sushi, grilled pork, fried corn (and more) this evening at Tsuru Ton Tan in Ginza - both places @Alex has shown me before, that I can now share with @Lynne

Really hard to capture with a photo the hustle and bustle of Harmonica Yokocho - lots of narrow, dark, lantern lit alleyways, with even more small bars, almost every corner the smell of yakitori cooking and all packed with locals, music and chatter…

@Tago-Mago never gonna have a bad word said against 7-eleven, Lawson etc - where in the world can you find not just an egg sandwich - but a TRIPLE egg sandwich!!!

First day finished by a nightcap at Ginza Music Bar, a cool little bar, with a DJ playing Marvin Gaye etc

first day (sort off, we arrived in early morning, and managed to get into the hotel room 6 hours early!) then straight out to explore a bit of Ginza...

And not a bad view from the hotel room!

Tell me where you are, without telling me where you are...

@Brian cheers, we will!

@goosehd cheers Dennis, quick change in hotel, then we are out...

we've arrived!...