Our travels – Page 2 – Our travel blog

By Roger on Japan, Travel tagged fukuoka- Leave a comment

Fukuoka Nights

After I left Takamatsu, I headed straight to Fukuoka. I was excited as I was hoping to meet with my friends from last time.

Unfortunately, everyone was busy. Even my friends in Kumamoto were busy (one of them was in the hospital for being sick).

Even though I was crushed, I took the time to explore Fukuoka on foot. I walked to Canal City and checked out Kawabata Shopping arcade.

I walked a few blocks to JR Hakata station. In all honesty, I was blown away how huge Hakata station. I’ve only seen it from the inside mainly, but coming from the outside.. how it is huge. I was talking with Mitch (Showa Elite) and I trying to see if we can schedule something with Misaki-san and others… but it didn’t work out.

So I continued exploring.

Having missed a religious site in Kyoto, I did visit a Shinto Shrine here in Fukuoka.

Reisen Crane Shrine and Kushida Shrine Shinmon

It was night time, but it was a Friday night, people were out having a good time and the food stalls were packed!

I walked around til about 230am. I really loved exploring Fukuoka. I just love this place!

By Roger on Japan, trains, Travel tagged hiace, sunport, takamatsu, vankulture- Leave a comment

Takamatsu Nights and VANKulture.

The last couple of times I came to Takamatsu, they were in the evening because I would arrive late.

This time, it was late, but I had just gotten done spending time with my brothers.

I decided to go walk around Takamatsu Sunport.

I started walking towards the Sunport area. It was a good night, not windy or cold. It was perfect. I remember one of the spots I wanted to go to was the Red lighthouse.

I cut through Takamatsu station.

I went across the street where Sunport Hall Takamatsu was located.

Cut through headed to the port.

Now at the “pier” section.

As I was walking back to my rental, I saw a couple of cars drive by. I was kinda excited as taking some car pictures is a good night cap.

Once I saw it was an older Toyota Hiace van and Toyota Crown, I had to ask if I could take pictures! I love these older cars.

I talked to the owner and showed them Vankulture. They were not on any SNS (Social network service aka social media). After showing them, he jumped on Instagram.

The older Hiace vans with that VIP style… that is the style I fell in love with in 2002.

After that small meeting, I walked to the local train station to check out the local train line.

Having a calming night walk and just enjoying it was pretty cool. I loved it.

By Roger on Japan tagged meiji jingu, meiji shrine, shinto shrine, shintoismwith 1 Comment

Meiji Jingu Shrine

One of the popular shrines in Tokyo, is the Meiji Jingu. It is surrounded by forest and also near the Harajuku area (Takeshita street/shopping area).

I have always wanted to visit this shrine and so I had to make time for it.

I’m always taken back by how Japan keeps many of it’s historic places clean and welcoming. The place is amazing and so much history!!!

By Roger on Uncategorized with 1 Comment

Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building observation room

Pretty massive is the Tokyo Metro building.

panoramic view attempt

I crossed an elevated bridge and walked inside.

The staff told me the observation room doesn’t open until 9:30am. So I had 45 minutes to look around. I found the promotional spots for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and took pictures with the mascots.

I was part of the 1st group to go up. Before I could check the views, I saw a ton of souvenirs for sale, but Godzilla captured my eyes!

Then I started to check out the views!

I’ve been going up high buildings and take photos. At least this observation experience was FREE!!!

Afterwards, I headed down to the subway system to get to Meiji Shrine.

By Roger on Japan tagged shinjuku, tokyowith 1 Comment

Shinjuku Niagara Falls

Just west of Shinjuku station were 2 goals I did not accomplish last time.

One being Shinjuku Niagara Falls and the other Tokyo Metro building observatory.

I work up early as today was gonna be busy (Shinjuku, Meiji shrine, Odaiba, then Kawagoe).

My first goal was to walk to Shinjuku Niagara Falls. Had I went to Minoo Waterfalls in Osaka, I would have made this trip waterfall themed lol.

As I was walking toward Shinjuku Chuo Park, it was kinda nice to see the buildings and people heading into work.

After passing the Tokyo Metro gov building, the waterfalls weren’t far.

While not as majestic as a natural waterfall, having a spot to go and relax while on break is pretty nice.

By Roger on Uncategorized - Leave a comment

The Little Prince Museum

I am a fan of the Le Petit Prince and was fortunate to see cool stuff in Paris relating to him.

When I was planning for Hakone, I wanted to see what was around where we were staying and I couldn’t believe a 10 minute walk would be at the Petit Prince Museum in Hakone!!!

When I arrived to our hotel, I decided to go check it out quick… unfortunately, it was closed. I had arrived at that time where maybe they closed up early?

Nonetheless, I still took a couple pictures of the outside.

By Roger on Japan, Travel - Leave a comment

Sunday – Shizuoka hotel and F31 meeting > Yokohama

Sunday morning, I woke up early to get breakfast with everyone. Last night I took a good long shower and I was so tired, I turned off the lights by taking out the key card for room out of the slot.

I didn’t realize this, but that pretty much cut ALL electricity to the room… So my cellphone and power banks did not charge.

During breakfast, Uchida-san and Ito-san let me borrow a cable and power bank. Pretty much saved me and did the job for the day. My LG had horrible charging and the battery life sucked.

The day was focused on the Leopard Meeting. Pictures here : https://www.f31club.com/2017/10/06/31st-all-japan-leopard-festival-october-2017/

After the meeting, Okuni-san took me to the nearby station where I would get on and transfer to the Shinkansen. I would stop by Mishima station where I would meet my aunt again. I had stuff that have been left at her place and I wanted to get it all.

It was definitely a pain to carry back to Yokohama (flying out of Haneda).

What was worse is that the capsule hotel, I was looking forward to enjoying, turned me down due to my tattoo (barely showing).

So I had to stay at another hotel for the night, which was better anyway. I had to repack stuff.

By Roger on Uncategorized - Leave a comment

Hakone by train

I was going to Hakone, but a different route as Mt Hakone erupted, there was closure of some of the roads.

Kuze-san said he would pick me up at Gora station.

I took the Shinkansen from Nagoya station to Odawara station

At Odawara station, I had get on Odakyu’s Hakone Tozan line.

Once on, it was about a 20 minute ride to Hakone-Yumoto station, in which we get on another train for Gora station.

If you see the sign, it says that we mus transfer at Hakone-Yumoto station to get to Gora Station

At Hakone-Yumoto station, there was a welcome sign.

Since everyone was transferring, there was a small line, but nothing too bad.

I had to stand as I was one of the last people to get on. But at least my luggage was stored in this small spot.

As we were going up, I didn’t realize that Gora Station was on the mountain side, so there were a lot of switchbacks, meaning, changing direction as we were getting higher.