Photo albums
Vietnam - First Steps in Hanoi 13+14 July 2006
9 images
Ridiculously hungover I rolled off the plane to Hanoi and hung around the airport waiting to be picked up by my pint-sized guest house manager/tour operator/con artist. After some decent kip I set out on a walking tour (never a good idea in summer) of Hanoi, taking in the lake, a temple on the lake (is the name important) and finally a good stagger round the Old Quater, by now sweating profusely.
In the evening it was off to the water puppets show for some wet muppet style action. Check the individual photo descriptions for more pearls of wisdom.
Secret Garden Party 2006
23 images
17th July arrive London Heathrow from Seoul at 18:00. Arrive in Peter borough at 20:00.
18th July 11:30 arrive at Secret Garden Party, near Huntingdon.
The rest is shown here
Inaka - J Countryside
10 images
To celebrate the very, very rare event of sharing a day off with my girlfriend (first time since New Year) we decided to go on a little hiking trip and then finish the day off with a BBQ.
I was actually a little shocked by the variety of wildlife I got to see in the space of a couple of hours. We encountered a snake, a raccoon, numerous lizards and got to see some Japanese farmers at work. All very interesting. The plant life was pretty cool too, lots of new takenoko (bamboo) and a small shitake (you know, those mushrooms) grove.
Anyway, lots of nice new pictures here.
Hanami
9 images
Spring time in Japan = hanami season. Sitting under the cherry blossom and eating and drinking until you realise that you have to wake up for work in 4 hours.
Miyajima
29 images
"one of Japan's three most scenic views" according to www.japan-guide.com which is obviously no stranger to the current obsession of ranking EVERYTHING UNTIL WE KNOW HOW GOOD EVERYTHING IN THE UNIVERSE IS.
But tis good to be true, a small island off the coast of Hiroshima, frequented by not very wild deer, monks and hoardes of day trippers. Its the home of the famous Itsukushima shrine and the bed red floating torii which is prominently displayed on most Japanese guide books.
You can marvel at the ancient wonders, (most of which is rebuilt every year after it gets destroyed by a typhoon), walk through a splendid park and do the momiji (looking at autumn leaves) thing, eat fresh oysters and hike up a mountain populated with monkeys.
Boarding Japan Mrk2 - A Weekend In the Mountains
10 images
The snow season has to be finished in style, and what better way than to spend a weekend in a lodge, good company, fine wines and chicken on a stick.
After a typically hectic day at the English factory we set off, car packed to the gunnels with beer, snacks and some token fruit. Destination: Mizuho http://www.mizuhohighland.com/top_e.htm , the biggest piste in the area. An unusually late flurry of snow hit on the way and didn't stop until we left. A blessing and a curse, great snow but terrible visibility.
Kurokawa Onsen and Aso-san July 2005
25 images
To really rub it in to everyone back home I had to publish more beautiful pictures of places I've been to. So here it is: Kurokawa Onsen. The jewel in the crown of Japanese onsen (hot springs); in the middle of the Kyushu countryside and only a little spoilt by development it really is wonderful.
In the middle of hot and sticky July we drove down and after much map confusion finally made it. After that a quick drive to Mount Aso, a very active volcano with beautiful rock striations.
Boarding Japan
14 images
First scuba diving and now snowboarding. I am steadily increasing my cool quota.
Pretty much every weekend I've been waking up at the crack of dawn (well, crack of dark, cold night) and heading of to one of the local sukiijo (ski run). Nearby Hiroshima-ken and Shimane-ken have some fairly decent runs including: Megahira, Osorakan (lit: scary place), Saioto, Mizuho, Daisen and Geihoku. The best ski/snowboard info site for Japan is http://www.snowjapan.com/e/ with daily snow reports and resort reviews.
Kyoto
28 images
August 2005 - Pale and knackered we set off for Kyoto at 4am. Drove there, with Akie and Oda, and staggered round all the sights that Kyoto has to offer.
Truly a lovely city, the atmosphere is pretty relaxed and as you wander through the normal city scenes you suddenly stumble into a marvellous time warp. Breathtaking old buildings surrounded by gift shops, oh and thousands of other people toting cameras.
The city heads down to the river in summertime and hangs out on the riverbank supping beer, quite surprising for a Japanese city...
Anyways, here are the pics of myself looking very battered and of course Noriko, Oda and Akie.
Yamaguchi-shi
9 images
Some pics of a sightseeing day out in Yamaguchi with Mike Saccucci san, my former partner in crime round these parts. Highlights include pictures of us with a rather confused train driver who we accosted and a grave decorated with rather fetching hats.
Mike has since buggered off home to Canada and is now romping in the wettest city on earth, Manchester.
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