Did you hear the one about the Welshman, the Scotsman, the Kiwi and the Aussie? This sound like it should be the first line of a particularly poor joke, but it actually describes a group of blokes we met at the New Zealand v Canada game in Oita (great stadium by the way). They met…
It’s camper van time, something I have simultaneously been looking forward to, but also quietly dreading. The thought of 21 days together in a very confined space, is only off set by the travel flexibility the vehicle will give us. The first challenge was finding the rental office, which we managed with surprising ease and…
I am not going to dwell on the night we spent in the Relief Hotel in Kokura, suffice to say it was clean and functional and for 5,000 Yen i should not have expected any more. The combination of poor air conditioning, a rock hard bed and Robert’s, recently developed, irritating cough (to add to…
I have wanted to visit Naoshima for the longest time. It’s probably best described as an art island and Bennesse House, which is at its heart, is part hotel and part museum. If you are staying at the hotel you can wander round the museum after hours and each bedroom has different work or works…
I didn’t know what to expect when visiting Hiroshima. The other war memorials I have visited (Ground Zero in New York and the military graveyards in Northern France) moved me to tears and I always cry during the Last Post on Remembrance Sunday (actually whenever I hear that piece of music) but I was totally…
We decided not to travel too far today, so thought we would explore downtown Osaka. We both like a big smelly market and so we headed for Kuromon Ichiba Market. The selection of fish was amazing and so, given that we are currently avoiding all things pig, we had a healthy fish breakfast. The Dontonbori…
The day had gone swimmingly well, apart from the 20 minutes of torrential rain, but even that didn’t bother us too much. We returned to the shoe box armed with beer, wine and a suitable collection of snacks to watch England v Tonga on the TV. The France v Argentina game had been on the…
Our first game – very exciting. The morning was spent at Osaka Castle, largely because it was on the way to the stadium. It is an imposing edifice originally built in the 1500’s, but restored and rebuilt several times since then. We headed out early to the game in case we got lost or delayed.…
After the NZ v SA game we decided to grab some food before heading back to our shoe box, and having walked past any number of perfectly acceptable looking places, we made a decision on an authentic looking bar/grill. On entering we were told that they only served pig, but that was fine, lots of…
We had a great evening watching the opening ceremony of the Rugby World Cup and then Japan v Russia in a sports bar in Roppongi – the place doesn’t change much, still roughly a thousand Yen a drink, same as it was 20 years ago, Lord it was expensive back then. It was time to…