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We caught the Burrett Traino which took about 2.5 hours and was a pleasure to ride. I think Lorna has managed to see absolutely everything in Kyoto, although I am sure there is another trip in the planning?
We finished off Kyoto with the Samurai Movie Land Studio, which is a theme park and a working film studio where you can see all the sets and actors.
Today we have dumped our bags and are on the way to see a ball game at the Tokyo Dome, who rocks, we rock.
What have we done since Hong Kong, well flew into Osaka, stayed the night at the airport hotel, then caught the Nozomi Shinkanzen to Hiroshima. We visited the Abomb dome, the rememberance to the people and city destroyed becuase some idiots had a bomb and wanted to try it out somewhere (away from their own land), the museum is quite harrowing in places and what has the world learnt since?
We chatted to a man who lost his brother and father when he was 16, yet he blames no-one just wishes that the world would find peace.
We stopped the night at the AIOI Ryokan hotel, which is a theme hotel based on traditional Ryokans, so no shoes, you eat a massive banquet of Japanese food served in your room, then sleep on a futon on tatami mats. You bathe in the public bath, butt naked after washing yourself on the traditional midgets milking stools (now that is an experience).
We travelled today from Hiroshima to Kyoto where we will stay for 6 nights and do a bit more sightseeing. We met up with our good friends Stuart and Jenny who are on their world tour and enjoyed a meal with them, hearing all about Singapore, Beijing and their travels so far. Tomorrow we are all going out to the best traditional Japanese restaurant in Kyoto, with traditional seating and fare, served in our own tatami room.
The rest of the week, we will see where Lorna has decided to take us both, we then catch back up with Stu and Jen in Tokyo for the Mount Fuji trip, before we head back home and they head off to Australia.
Its been a very swift visit to HK this time, but we managed time to visit the Bank Of China building, the Peak, going up the great Peak Tram, oh and we visited Forrest Gump at his restaurant Bubba Gumps at the top of the Peak for shrimps, shrimps and more shrimps - oh and several margueritas for Craig to wash it all down!
So Japan here we come, and I'm sure this will not be the last time we visit Hong Kong - the home to the worlds best skyline (well we might have to go see some more just to check)
Hello to everyone reading this.
The house is empty, save for a campbed each and te/ coffee facilities. All our goods are winging their merry way to the North Yorkshire area, where we will be resident for a while, or until we become bored.
Tonight we finished the night at the New Inn, Llangynog, with really nice food, good wine, champagne and excellent company (each other of course). A fitting end to 12 months of peace, tranquility and solitude, with nothing but the Welsh countryside for company.
What does the future hold for us, like so many, who knows, but we will be together which is so much more important than where.
In 6 days time we go back to visit Japan and meet up with Stu and Jen, whilst visiting, Hiroshima, Kyoto, Tokyo and all the beauty of Japan.
In October we have a new member in the family, Sasha (come and see the pictures), then in Jan it is Craigs 39th Anniversary, so we are going to St.Lucia to celebrate this and 3 wonderful years of marriage (well we did get married there in 2004).
The One Big Adventure still continues, since it it very much a part of our lives.
Life is an Adventure, live it.
Craig & Lorna.
Unfortunately the skies were not clear enough to see the Meteors, but given the amount of alcohol consumed we probably all saw stars of some description!
So, a big thank you to our friends for making the weekend a brilliant farewell to Llangynog, and of course, a huge GOOD LUCK to Stu & Jen as they get ready to embark on their world tour next week.
Our next updates will see us back and closer to suburbia in a small village north of York - oh how we will cope with having neighbours again?
In June Lorna gave notice to the Managers position she was filling and decided it was better to do something where you ca actually make a difference.
So in June we had a little more time to wander around, visiting Stu and Jen and going round a country home (in glorious weather), enjoying tasting some lovelly food and riding ona kiddy train.
We went over to Ireland to see the folks again (and it rained all the time), then they came over to stay with us for a week and get this tally, between all four of us we managed to consume 44 bottles of beer and 45 bottles of wine (who says old folk cant drink).
July saw Lorna's birthday, so to celebrate we went to the Lakeside Hotel in Newby Bridge, stayed in an exclusive cottage, drank champagne and Lorna had an all over body massge (a very relaxing couple of days). Lorna has just finished sitting a week long PRINCE2 training course to complement her Foundation exam with the Practitioner (only got 12 weeks to wait for the result now).
Next up is our Meteor Shower BBQ in August, when Allan, Bel, Hazel, Stuart and Jen will be joining us for alcohol and plenty of food, whilst we watch the skies.
And now the bad news, looks like we are moving on from this beautiful location after almost a year to explore new pastures. Craig is providing his considerable Project Management talents to a firm and setting them up a Project Office.