Skip to main content

Japan, Sydney

I felt very Japanese at the end of last week. On Thursday I dined at Japanese restaurants for both lunch and dinner, then a couple of Japanese ladies sat opposite us in the train on the East Hills line, a rare sight. Friday morning saw us preparing for our trip with a visit to the Japanese consulate for B's visa and to the JNTO tourism office in Australia Square. While waiting at Wynyard station we overhead a Japanese guys talking loudly on his mobile phone.

The JNTO is a very useful source of information on cultural interests, self-guided walks, accommodation, maps and tours. The office was highlighting beautiful Kanazawa, which we visited last year. I highly recommend Kanazawa during the cherry blossom season and, evening if it is cold and wet, a nighttime walk through the Kenroku-en gardens is not to be missed.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

One night in Canberra

It's the April school holidays and we are too busy to have a break but need one because of that. And because it's the Easter weekend the options are limited, so we just drive down to Canberra for the night. No, this isn't our first trip for 2023. I wrote about Japan on another site .  I refuse to wake up early so we depart after 8.30 AM. There is not much to say about the drive except that the clouds seem so low and Lake George is very full. We stop at a rest area and at the lookout up the hill to take it all in. Everyone is hungry so we first stop in Dickson and then can't think of anything to eat, so I drive us to Civic, where we can't decide and end up eating at the Singaporean Killiney Kopitiam branch.  The Canberra Centre has nice shops. I dream of getting an iPad from the Apple Store, we buy a blanket and toothbrushes from Muji and wish that Lego wasn't so expensive. Nothing we can't get in Sydney, but then we rarely go out shopping in the city. It'

A selection of jams

We're home now. The last two days of our Brisbane trip involved a lot of driving but not always much movement. On Wednesday we arranged to met Sis and her family at Robina Town Centre, a massive shopping mall. That meant a drive down towards the Gold Coast along the same motorway we'd driven up along. What should have taken an hour took twice that due to the holiday traffic along the 3 and 4 lane road. Lots of people taking the turn-offs to three of the "Worlds" (Wet'n'Wild, Movie World and Dreamworld).  The Town Centre hosts Artvo , a trick photography gallery where you use perspectives to make subjects look like they are part of the artwork. It was surprisingly fun, despite the aversion of we males to being the subjects of photos. Afterwards we had a long chat over lunch, which was sourced from a variety of eateries. I had roti and chicken curry from Roti and Buns . Passable, though the curry was more laksa like. We later took Sis to Daiso and she and her h