Actually this is more on the day in general.

Did you known that the Cite des Europe in Calais is closed on a Sunday ? No, well neither did we until we got there. Worse still followed. I needed petrol, one thing that is still cheaper over here. Guess what, the petrol station there is only 24 hour for Frnech credit cards and the cash pumps (where you can use foreign cards) was closed for emergency repairs. We eventually filled up at the same place we grabbed lunch, about half an hour to the east.

The hotel we ended up in is the Grand Hotel Continental, a 3 star rated hotel, but with a lot of character. The rooms were comfy and rather atmospheric.

Well the new holiday has now started. Set off around 8 a.m. this morning with Pak, destination Dover, then France. 10 hours later and we are now in the Hotel Continental in Reims, just on a nice stretch of restaurants and hotels.
Been a long drive today – just over 350 miles with one stop for petrol, the car was well up to the task, though in France it has attracted a lot of attention (of a good sort, though not yet of suitably aged mademoiselles). My favorate was the renault 5 driver who started taking phone pictures of us at ~110 kmh, who then started to look round the car (I let him), while there were lots of waves then some egging on. I didn’t leave him dissapointed ;).

Got a new toy that has certainly made life easier. I’ve been toying with a Sat Nav for a while now, but not liked the prices, especially when you take in to account the European maps (which are a requirement for me). I’ve been watching eBay for about a month now and on Wednesday picked up a Navman CNi630, complete with full Euro maps (140 euros extra normally). At Calais I stuck Reims down as a destination and it got us right to the Catherdral. We even got to the hotel through it.

What we’re going to do tomorrow and where we’re going to head we’ve not yet decided. All I know is we’ve got free public parking until 9 tomorrow morning, but it’s only around 6 euros for the whole day. Suppose it all depends on where we decide to.

Well we’re back in the UK now and feeling tired. It was not too early a start, but we still went straight from the hotel to Shinjuku station, then on to Narita. As we both felt we’d spent less than we expected so we treated ourselves to upgrades to World Traveler Plus (30,000 yen each, about £150). For me it was worth it as you get extra room, and full leg supports. I got the feeling that while Dave was happy for the extra room, it wasn’t such good value for him, but then he paid the penalty for being some what taller than me.

Got a few more pictures I’m hoping to upload tonight, then that will be it. In the end I’ve got 333 on my hard drive, and probably deleted another 60-70 more. Some, like an action series from the baseball game, were never going to be put online.

Tonight our original intentions were to see a live baseball game, especially if the Yomura Giants were playing at home (they have one player who is on 499 home runs), however all three Tojyo teams were playing away. Instead we decided to hit a popular sushi bar recommended in one of the guides. Unfortunately, probably due to my mental winding down (due to the holiday coming to the end) I was jsut not hungry (also the large lunch wouldn’t have helped).

From the sushi restaurant we went for a walk and ended up at one of the Kirin chain of bars, where we stayed for a couple of hours having a few relaxing draft beers. Next stop was a coffee house across the road for a final coffee and cake (or ko-he to ca-ke in Japanese). It was not a cheap place, but my cake was effectively a whole load of layers of thin pankakes and double cream. Very rich, very fattening, and very very nice.

Strangely enough we ended up back at the baseball alley for a few more rounds on the batting machines.

Unagi (eal) is an expensive and popular dish in Japan. It is also expensive, with some restaurants jsut specialising in it. The parents of Dave’s Japanese teacher, Kaori, happen to own one restaurant in a residential area, Eitaibashi. On the way there Dave started to work out what to say, assuming they wouldn’t be expecting us, not would be able to speak English.

We eventually found the restaurant, walked in and found Kaori had warned them we’d probably be coming at some point. Also her Mother spoke better English than our Japanese. The meal was all eal course, and nice, though I’m no longer used to large lunches (as a whole) and ran out of steam. Also I think I had jsut a tad too much eal, even though it was nice.

We stayed for some conversation, then photos, and then went to leave. We tried to pay, but Kaori’s parent’s refused, even though we offered a few times. This was very generous of them as eel is not cheap, the menu outside had set emals starting at ~1400 yen and rising to over 3k, and we were certain they had cooked for us the top one.

Well we’ve made it back to Tokyo and have spent the afternoon shopping. In the evenign we decided to go for some yakitori at a izakya round the corner from the hotel. Bad move. The menu board outside meant ordering was easy, however there was much neither of us particularly liked and some I couldn’t eat beyond a taste – too much grissle and bone for me.

A wander round lead to some more pitching/batting practice at the local baseball arcade, followed by a wander. We decided to hit a small bar and it seemed nice until we noticed the costs – 1000 yen per drink – about a fiver. By this stage we were on drinks 4 and 5 total so after that left and went for coffee and cake.

Shinkansen seats were reserved last night so as per usual we jsut need to turn up in time.

I’ve uploaded a couple of photos from Gion from last night in to the last pictures gallary.

There was a company eating/drinking do going on in the dumpling place. The junior was instructed to talk to us, though he kept having to ask his colleagues for help on English. As Dave was by them, he was the one who kept getting hassled. It was a bit of a pain for a while until suddenly they started passing round beer ….

Well tonight, as planned, we took the shinkansen from Kobe to Kyoto, then the subway round to Gion. Wish we’d come here when we were in Kyoto as I had the wrong camera with me so only got a couple of photos (might trim out some Himeji pictures so I can post them). Day time tbhis place would have been good, but in the evening, in the central part jsut of Shinbashi, it is superb. Really atmospheric. We both got to see a maiko (trainee geisha) this time, but she was too far ahead to ask for a picture. Also along side the stream that runs through the quarters, we saw a Geiko (full geisha) entertaining a couple of business men, but it would have been rude to take a picture at that point.

We found the restaurant we wanted. All it serves is gyoza, the Japanese take on fried Chinese dumplings (Shanghai dumplings ?). 50 each, plus two bears each and the total bill still only came to about £35.

Back to Tokyo tomorrow and using a cyber cafe to hit the ‘Net.

I needed to get a WEP key from reception, but I’m now back online.

Kobe is not too bad, we wandered down to the centre for lunch. There’s a lot. Due to going to Kyoto tonight and booking our seats there on the shinkansen, we didn’t have too long. Lunch ended up being an Indian curry. Not too bad.