Japan 2024 and the week of the JR Pass
Almost every day of our two-week trip included dining with relatives and/or friends, but with the aid of a JR pass (significantly discounted for short-term foreign visitors) we also worked in quite a few adventures, and stumbled across some pleasant surprises.
While still in Tokyo, we wandered into Ginza Six on our way to a unagi restaurant and the Big Cat Bang art installation was a most impressive!
(Additional info and photos; watch the video for the origin story)
The day trip on the Tōhoku shinkansen to the UNESCO World Heritage site of Hiraizumi (dubious designation) included seeing where Yoshitsune was buried in 1189 and the Konjikidô / Golden Hall where four generations of Fujiwara are enshrined beginning in 1124, but the walk down back down to the station via the Hiraizumi Nature Trail was more enjoyable, and the high point of the day was experiencing a Shinkansen train passing through the Ichinoseki Station at 320 kph / 199 mph. This was so impressive that on a later rainy day, we took a Tōkaidō shinkansen to Odawara and had a very good lunch of sushi and grilled vegetable take-out on the platform while watching another half dozen shinkansen come through. While trains on the Tōkaidō line only travel at 285 kph / 177 mph, the station is only half an hour from Tokyo, has frequent express trains coming through, and is on a gentle curve, so that you can see the trains coming and going too.
The day after visiting Hiraizumi (250 miles north of Tokyo) we headed 250 miles NW from Tokyo on the Hokuriku Shinkansen to Toyama. Toyama itself doesn’t have much to offer, but a short trolley ride towards the port had us in the amazing Iwase neighborhood. Iwase wasn’t destroyed during WW2, and includes several blocks with many beautiful old buildings (without a UNESCO World Heritage designation, but more worthy of one)
and we had a great lunch at Common Tenkado, which has a Taylor shop on the first floor (looks like a museum when you walk in) and dining upstairs. The proprietor is very friendly and the food is excellent. (The choices for lunch are curry rice or hayashi rice (a not-spicy beef stew-like curry). While eating, we met a Scotsman who was in town working to free a cargo ship grounded just outside the port, which we then walked out to see. After strolling the historic (unnamed) street we met a friend at the equally amazing Kobo Brew Pub, which is in a restored rice warehouse.
During our weekend in Kiyosato, Yamanashi, we met up with a friend that we originally met at a wedding in Mexico at the amazing Restaurant Tasha
and then spent the afternoon hiking, including an interesting ascent of Yamabokudai above Lake Mizugaki.
We had quite a few good weather days with Mt. Fuji on display
Departing Yamanashi, we took the Azusa express to Tokyo, a shinkansen to Omiya, a local train to Minami-Sakurai, and walked to The Metropolitan Outer Area Underground Discharge Channel / G-Cans / Ryukyukan, Showa drainage pump station, where we toured the control room, pump room, and the inside of the pressure regulating tank. While we were in the tank, there were strange noises coming from the immense shaft down to the deep tunnel. We asked the tour guide what the noise was, and she politely informed us that no, it wasn’t Godzilla (there is a skateboard park on top of the cap).
We also worked in a run with the Tokyo Hash House Harriers (TH3) and more than enough shopping, although Uniqlo was almost enjoyable.
There are some Japanese residential features that I would like in our house:
Our cats really missed us, and when the cat sitter wasn’t looking, our big boy raced out of the house to find us. Fortunately, he was meowing for us, so the sitter noticed and rounded him up.
Unfortunately, the Honda S660 never made it to the US. (The owner assured us that despite the small engine, it is a lot of fun to drive.)
An Alternate Reality not based on Fact
In “The Misinformation-Outrage Cycle”, Teri Kanfield, with the help of the writings from Dannagal Goldthwaite Young, does a great job explaining how a significant portion of the population ends up in a very unhappy place not grounded by fact or reality: https://terikanefield.com/conspiracytheoryconditions/
Teri and the Rabbit in Alice & Wonderland both recommend starting from the beginning, which opens with authoritarian tendencies:
Norway 2023
Our first major vacation in six years was an epic adventure in Norway.
Link to full size/interactive map of the trip
Details of our itinerary are here
If you just want to see the photos: Highlights / Medium Album / Full Album
We started with a day and a half in the beautiful city of Oslo. The Cappuccino Al Freddo at Tim Wendelboe was a great way to start our visit, as was a walk up for dinner and a beer at Frognerseteren (Cafe Seterstua) overlooking the city.
Coffee & pastry at Stockfleths the next morning was impressive, as was the Norsk Folkemuseum, the path along the Akerselva, and dinner at Elias mat & sånt.
Next was the train to Bergen, which almost didn’t happen, as a week prior to our trip, storm Hans caused major flooding, a dam failure, and stopped all ground transportation between Oslo and Bergen. Fortunately, the train resumed service just in time for our booked trip, and took only half an hour longer than usual.
Bergen is another beautiful city, and immediately after checking into our hotel, we took the Fløibanen part way up Fløyen and walked the rest of the way to the top. While checking into the hotel, the mother of the family in front of us told her two young daughters that they needed to behave and stay with their dad and listen to him. She immediately turned and walked off, and I bent down, and in a stage-whisper said “OK, you go this way and you go that way”, and their grandfather standing next to them started laughing. (They promptly moved closer to their dad.)
The next day we met up with a local guide and had a great walk around the city. (Her recommendations of the Reindeer meat sausage dog at Trekroneren and ice cream at Hallaisen were much appreciated.) She used to work as a Northern Lights guide in Tromsø, which prompted me to look north and point up. (It turns out most of the work is figuring out where to go that will have dark, clear skies, a view to the north, and the bus can safely pull off to wait…)
We then picked up our rental car and headed inland. The hike along Nedre (lower) Buarbreen into Folgefonna National Park was beautiful, and followed immediately be an amazing farm to table dinner at Buer restaurant.
And the video better shows the torrent
The next day we hiked from Lofthus/Ullansvang up the Monks Steps into the Hardangervidda national park and then proceeded on to Voss for the night.
And on the drive to Voss
Following a coffee with a great view from Stalheim, we proceeded to Gudvangen and took the car ferry through the narrow Nærøyfjord to Kaupanger, and continued on to Skei for the night.
With a stretch of bad weather about to move in, we juggled our plans, and headed straight to Loen to climb the via ferrata 3,200’ up Hoven.
And the video better shows the dynamics
We then settled in for 5 nights in Stryn at the wonderful Stryn House Hotel & Apartments, which was a short walk to the wonderful Stryn Kaffebar & Vertshus, where we had coffee every morning, and dinner every night.
With marginal weather, we opted for a very enjoyable lower altitude local hike up Gryta that was recommended by the ever helpful Anders at the hotel. (There were two marked routes on the steep final ascent to the summit. We followed the one corresponding to the old AllTrails map, which ended up being quite sketchy in the wet (and has since been updated based on our input to match the route shown on UT.no).
The next day was another great recommendation from Anders, which was a drive along 613 above Innvikfjorden, walk up Stølselva, and return via Nordfjordeid, where we found the great Minibakeriet.
There were several hikes that we really wanted to do, but with low clouds and rain moving in, we next opted for a loop drive that included a car ferry through the UNESCO listed Geiranger Fjord. While it was pretty, low clouds limited the views.
The next day, with continued low clouds, we headed west to Måløy and the Kråkenes Lighthouse in an unsuccessful search for better weather.
The final drive was on to the beautiful city of Ålesund, where we hiked up Aksla and then around town.
And two days after returning home, we both came down with a nasty case of COVID-19, and it wasn’t from the flight, as we wore N-95 masks on the planes. We blame the cruise ship passenger concentration in Ålesund.
Almost Epic
Our hike up past Lake Eleanor and through Grand Park to have lunch facing Mt. Rainier was glorious, but almost epic. We enjoyed lunch in the sun, and ~ 5 minutes after heading back down passed a large pile of bear scat that hadn’t been there on our way up. We cleared Grand Park before the light rain began, and were in the car one minute before the deluge and hail began (and continued for 15 minutes). (We had rain gear, and could have used trees and our backpacks for cover, so once we were clear of Grand Park, it would have just been a nuisance.)
Pubs
England has a lot of amazing pubs, and if you happen to be near Farnborough, The Squirrel is a great example. Great food, beer on cask, great atmosphere, and dog friendly if you are so inclined.
Not My Monarchy 10k
While I was in England for the Coronation, I chose to stay away from London and the festivities, but the following day I ran a glorious 10k, and dedicated it to the protesters that were detained the day prior. Salisbury Cathedral to Old Sarum, Stratford sub Castle, and the River Avon back into town. My outing was far more enjoyable than that of Sergei and Yulia Skripol five years earlier, although they did stop for a beer Bishops Mill, which I ran just ran by on this occasion.
Bad Blood
Bad Blood (by John Carreyrou) was a great read (except I stayed up too late reading it)! After reading it, it’s great to see that Elizabeth Holmes and Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani have since been convicted of fraud. However, why haven’t they and David Boies of Boies Schiller Flexner, also been charged with racketeering? (18 U.S. Code § 1961 section 1512 (relating to tampering with a witness, victim, or an informant) and section 1513 (relating to retaliating against a witness, victim, or an informant)). Their aggressively trying to intimidate and ruin anyone telling the truth to government regulators under the specious cover of “Trade Secrets” was egregious! (You can’t get a competitive advantage with processes and equipment that don’t work.)
Owyhigh Lakes Trail on to the Summit of Tamanos Mountain
The weather was a bit cloudy, humid, and hazy for our hike up Tamanos Mountain, but the views were still amazing. Other than two couples backpacking down, we had the trail to ourselves until we passed Owyhigh Lakes on the way down. The upper meadows were in full bloom, and had views reminiscent of the best of the Alps, with the main difference being the tenor of the bear bells versus cow bells. And speaking of bears, as we descended the upper meadow a juvenile black bear started walking towards us until a loud yell convinced it to head a different direction. Near the top, a large marmot with rather exotic coloring crossed the trail in front of us. 5 1/2 hours, 10 miles, and 3,000′ elevation made for a very enjoyable day, although mile 4 gained 1,500’ on a rather strenuous section.
Commonwealth Basin
Christmas came a day early to Commonwealth Basin above Snoqualmie Pass with lots of snow, no wind, and moderate temperatures
10k Stroll Through Magnolia
Our holiday family get-together in Chicago was abruptly cancelled when my nephew joined a couple hundred thousand people testing positive putting 1/3 of the family in quarantine, leaving another 1/3 without a place to stay, and all of us thinking that now was not a good time to gather with my 90-year-old dad. The weather in the mountains was miserable, so we opted for a very enjoyable 10k stroll through Magnolia on a gray, 35-degree day followed by a great lunch at Pink Salt (https://pinksaltseattle.com/). There was a wide variety of architecture, although as usual, much of it was an embarrassment to the profession. There was one exceptionally well executed turn of the century mansion and two modern houses we found interesting. We also spotted a submarine that appeared to be heading towards Bremerton.
Lunch with a View on Fay Peak
After lunch, we traversed the ridge, Flash Peak, and East Fay before dropping down to Knapsack Pass and returning to Mowich Lake. We had the peak and the ridge to ourselves, and had clear views of Mt. St. Helens, Glacier Peak, Kulshan (Mt. Baker), and of course Tahoma (Mt. Rainier) in our face.
Rental Car Return
On a recent business trip, after a cab ride from work to the airport, I walked up to the AVIS counter and explained that I was returning my rental car, but I didn’t have the keys and didn’t know where the car was. The AVIS employee took this quite well, took my rental agreement number, typed notes into the system, and went into the back room to call his manager to discuss it with her.
The hotel I had been staying at didn’t have any on-site self-parking, and since I wasn’t familiar with the area, I just opted for the valet parking. On day three, I got to the work site, and when I put the rental car in park, a set of keys popped out of the gear shift boot. I drove back to the hotel and gave them to the valet figuring that somebody wanted their car. The next morning at 5 am I got a call from the hotel manager asking if I had my car keys. I asked her if my car was still parked in front of the front door. (The answer to both questions was no.) She arranged for a cab to take me to the work site and later that afternoon the same cab driver picked up my suitcase at the hotel, and picked me up. The whole drive to the airport I tried to get in touch with the valet manager to see if they had found my keys, but never got past eternal hold (I don’t think he wanted to talk to me).
As the AVIS employee was finishing up with me, I finally got through to the valet manager, who claimed to have found the keys. I told him to have the valet drop the car off at AVIS in the next hour (to make the return time) and text me when it was done. After I landed, there was nothing from the valet manager, but there was a voicemail from the AVIS manager. The valet hadn’t found my keys, so AVIS had arranged to have my car towed back to their lot. The next day, the valet manager told me that they had found the keys and dropped them off at the car return, but when I called the AVIS manager, she didn’t know where they were. The next day, she had the keys, but couldn’t find my car (she was standing in their impound lot where it was supposed to be). She was able to determine that the tow company had dropped it off at the Enterprise impound lot, which was closed for the weekend. On Monday, the car and keys were reunited, and my bill closed out as if I had returned the car when I walked up to the counter. (I have no idea how much the hotel/valet paid AVIS, but the hotel did comp. the valet charges and paid the cab driver directly.)
Sourdough Gap for Lunch
(It’s a location, not an entrée)
We climbed up via the Crystal Lakes trail, which we had almost to ourselves
Vacation
In a break from our usual hiking vacations, we enjoyed visiting family and the Chicago area.
It was odd to run 3.6 miles and only log 28’ of elevation gain, which I attribute to 56 curbs.
A great west coast style IPA brewed in the town that formerly had the headquarters of the WCTU
Studio Gang’s new tower
Chicago Architecture Center boat tour’s best quote; Frank Lloyd Wright referred to Skidmore, Owings & Merrill as the Three Blind Mies (van der Rohe)
The Pinky Update 