It was 18 months in the planning and now we are done. Monday saw us packing our bags and returning the camper before an afternoon flight back to Haneda. I will miss the Camper, it was great fun and suited our purpose perfectly, but I don’t think we’ll be dashing out to buy one. We…
We were initially on our own for the France v Wales match, only planning to meet up with others post match at the Fanzone. Tim & Gary had departed outrageously early for Tokyo and the Japan v South Africa match. We allowed ourselves the luxury of a slightly later start because of that and so…
I woke at 5.30am with the sort of headache that would fell a giant troll, I drank some water and lay back down and hoped it might lift – dream on. At 7.30am Robert gave up trying to sleep though my huffing & puffing, repeated drinks of water and wriggling about trying to get comfortable…
We woke bright and early and thought we would spend the best part of the day exploring Beppu but it was raining and so after a quick couple of hours, most of which were spent shopping in a dry mall, we decided to have one last soak before returning to our usual game day stomping…
I tested Robert’s patience first thing with a whistle-stop tour of Shimabara Castle before breakfast. I had sourced him a hot, black coffee from the castle cafe on the way back from one of my many treks to the loo, so he wasn’t entirely running on empty, however following the tour, he announced, in a…
We bid farewell to Nagasaki after another really average breakfast involving mystery meat disguised as sausages and the runniest scrambled egg I have ever encountered, which given the lack of western cutlery, we were going to have to tackle with chop sticks – I opted for a teaspoon and then gave up altogether. We descended…
I can’t really begin to describe the levels of anxiety reached today and it all started off so swimmingly, well that’s if you ignore my waking at 3.30 am needing the loo, fidgeting around until it got light, before trekking across the car park a couple of hours later. The overnight temperature has dropped too,…
It would be fair to say that given Japan’s fabulous win over Scotland, I was probably not the only person in Japan to wake with a crushing headache this morning. There is clearly a reason Tequila is off my drinks list, despite Margaritas being so delicious. I felt it was all a little unjust, as…
The trucks started rolling early on Sunday morning and so we were up, packed and on the road by 9.00am We wandered our way along the coast to a town called Karatsu, which is a pottery town, but in addition it has a lovely castle, which we pottered happily around. Far more entertaining however, was…
The onsen we used yesterday had a set of scales in the changing area, which I dutifully ignored, not wanting to spoil my holiday. While I wasn’t looking Robert hopped on them and gleefully announced that evening that he has lost 4 kilos while we’ve been travelling. I am pretty sure I haven’t lost anywhere…