Japan 2023 - Day 8

Today was our last day of skiing the slopes of Madarao and the weather threw a little bit of everything at us short of blizzards and sleet. The day dawned overcast and snowing and before too long decided add a pretty decent amount of fog to the mix. It certainly made the skiing difficult.

Conditions were challenging enough that Caroline, coming to the end of one of our early runs of the day, she went to ski down to the lift for the next run only to find out she’d turned left a little bit early. Off the side of the run, into the deep powder and fwoof she was all but buried in it. There wasn’t a lot I could do to help as that would have involved either skiing into it myself or wading in it to try and assist with her retrieval and so she was left to extricate herself, skis off and wading back up the two metres onto the run. Hey, at least it provided me with some amusement and at least there was no injuries!

Today was also Saturday which meant lots of weekend skiers up for the day/weekend. There were actual lines to get onto a lift. Like, sometimes we had to wait like five minutes. We were definitely aware that we’d been spoiled over the prior two days with simply skiing up and pretty much getting straight onto a lift. It also meant the runs were cut up a lot earlier in the day.

The day’s skiing was challenging enough that Caroline, Emily and I decided and early break was in order and settled in for a drink and a crepe. Progressively pretty much the entire crew joined us and we decided we’d get in a little bit more skiing before heading to an on-mountain burger joint for lunch to see what it was like.

We managed to pretty much all meet up at the appointed time and found the place to have limited seating, so we staked the joint out, watching and hovering over people in the hope that it would encourage them to eat quicker and vacate their seats. After a while we decided to start ordering so that maybe we could coincide getting lunch with getting a seat. We were told the wait would be an hour. I think it’s a sign of how tired we all were that we agreed to stay and wait.

We did eventually get burgers and they were pretty good, but they were waaaay over-priced (compared to what else we could get on the mountain) and the wedges spiced within an inch of death so all in all, not what we were hoping for.

After lunch we decided to coordinate a trip across the other side of the mountain so some could again ski the natural half pipe. That turned out to be a long and painful exercise in herding cats that meant we didn’t end up doing a whole lot of skiing in the afternoon. The sun did come out though, which was as much curse as blessing as we started to get slushy snow and icy patches that detracted from the enjoyment a little.

We returned to our accommodation ahead of dinner and the younger members of the party decided that Michael and Oliva’s little slide would be a whole let better with a toboggan. And even better than sliding down with a toboggan, it would be better again if there was a jump. Caroline and I return from the mountain about the time the jump had been introduced, hearing gales of laughter coming from the rear of the building. We had to investigate of course. Apparently it was due to this:

Prose has always been my main means of conveying things in this blog, but sometimes words really can’t do justice to what you're seeing. I stayed outside long enough to witness these two amusing runs down the slide:

But, well it was cold, I was tired and I really wanted to get the ski boots off so I returned inside along with Caroline. The kids however weren’t done. By the time they were the jump was apparently about a metre high and resulted in the following. I'm sure you'll take as much joy from watching these as I did given I wasn't there to witness it first hand!

After that there was little to do but eat, compare aches and pains, pack and get ready for our transfer to Osaka the following day.

I have to say though, dinner included a visit to what has been my favourite Japanese toilet of the trip so far. I know I've detailed various aspects of the toilets here previously, but this is honestly the first time I came across one that was wifi enabled!

Now I'm not entirely sure what that does for anyone, but would guess that perhaps you can activate the toilet functions from your phone. That would mean you could scroll your socials and jet-clean your bum at the same time! Happy days!

Also, I have to say I loved the fact that there was no need to touch any component of the seat/lid if you didn't want to!

Japan 2023 - Day 7

Day 2 on the mountain dawned with snow still falling from the sky and by the time we were on the mountain it had in no way lessened. Of course, sometimes you don’t even make it to the mountain before your first little crash for the day.

Caroline has ever been an advocate for finding the path that is both the quickest and requires the least effort to get onto the mountain. In this case, she decided that was to walk to the point where things were down hill, then put her skis on and ski along the side of the road where the accumulated snow was. Unfortunately she didn’t take into account the fact that she would have to cross the road to get onto the run. Now, had there been as much snow on the road as there had been the night before, that wouldn’t have been a problem. Unfortunately the plough had been down the road and exposed some of the bitumen. She was only going slow, but that bit of bitumen was enough to stop her in her tracks and send her tumbling right in the middle of the road! Fortunately she wasn’t injured and no cars decided to add to her dilemma!

Bel was a little more fortunate. She opted for the same approach, but attempted to cross the road a earlier than Caroline had. She also came in with a bit more speed. It meant she navigated the crossing of the road, but wasn’t quite at the right level of skill to get up off the road and onto the run. Instead she zipped up and tumbled, missing the point of entry. Again, fortunately there wasn’t any injury!

I’ve been following a number of the Japanese ski locations around Nagano on Instagram since we first started skiing here and had seen a run at Madarao that I really wanted to try … something of a natural half-pipe in amongst the trees. I’d suggested it would be something worth trying early in the day. Most people opted to join in the venture given there was a beginner run around the outside of it should it prove to be too difficult.

It was something of a task to get there, but that as done successfully. On seeing the entry through the trees I was having second thoughts. I have a couple of issues with skiing through trees. My tight turns aren’t typically coordinated enough to give me a lot of confidence and more importantly, trees don’t get out of your way and they’re a bit more on the solid side than a nice mound of powdered snow! Add to that my fear of injury and promise to myself to exercise caution and entering didn’t seem like entirely the smartest thing to do. But I’d seen videos of kids getting through there and was determined to do so even if it meant picking my way very carefully into the pipe, sans skis if it came to it!

I managed to get in there without resorting to removing my skis though certainly with zero elegance. If I’d been a better skier I would have loved that little run, but it was at that point for me, where fun was outweighed by lack of confidence, so although I managed to get through it, I wasn’t about to return! I wasn’t alone in that assessment.

As the day wore on the snow didn’t really abate and certainly presented some challenge after years without having hit the slopes. By the end of the day there was a lot of discussion about everyone’s aches and pains both from incidental crashes that people had endured and from using muscles that hadn’t been used in those ways in a long time if at all.

For dinner, we had a booking for seven at one restaurant and five at another. With the day being Jason and Bel’s wedding anniversary we opted for Caroline and I to join the five in the Rowland party. We had a lovely dinner that was mostly uneventful apart from Jason suffering either a back cramp or spasm that left him wondering what the hell was happening as he stiffened and flattened himself like a board in his seat while the rest of us wondered if he was actually having a cramp/spasm or was about to eject a particularly difficult poo! Fortunately it passed and he was okay. There was no poo involved. 

The restaurant did win my favourite translation error(s) though which was both charming and amusing:

I'm pretty sure its fried rice, you Plick! (kudos if you get the movie reference).

With dinner done, we headed back for more a little more quiet Qwixx and whiskey to finish off the day.

Tokyo 2023 - Day 6

We awoke to find the weather much like it had been the day before … overcast and snowing, which isn’t really anything to complain about when you’re planning to spend the day skiing! It took us a little bit to get on the mountain by the time we worked out the logistics of collecting remaining hire equipment and finding each other. Emily had offered to show those who hadn’t skied for 10+ year the ropes and at least get them started to a point where they’d survive a lift run. The location of our lodge meant that after a short walk down the road you actually skied down to get to the base of the lift, rather than starting there.

It took a bit but everyone did eventually get down, even if there were a few spills along the way. I think Cameron may have lead the count at about five, but hey, we’ve all done that when we’re learning! Having once had to save Cameron’s life in Bali when he came out of the raft and got stuck under a couple while white-water rafting, I wondered whether there might yet be another intervention needed, but he improved rapidly and I opted to ski somewhere else!

We’ve got a couple of different group chats going on while we’re over here to try and help with the coordination of who is where and doing what, because let’s face it, when there’s this many of us and everyone is actually an adult, splitting the party is now more common than ever before.

It didn’t take long for us to inundate each other with endless lift-selfies and scenic shots as we worked our way up and down and around the mountain skiing. As confidence grew, so did the extent of the mountain that was covered and I think I’m glad I wasn’t able to see where Thomas was skiing as he has definitely been covering more than the rest of us, especially in amongst the trees!

The conditions whilst not completely perfect were actually brilliant for a first day with lots of fresh snow to help cushion the impact for anyone that didn’t stay on their feet.

For lunch we hunted down one of our favourite places from our last trip here so that we could enjoy their sensational okonomiyaki. We were very fortunate that we were all able to be accommodated even if we at somewhat in shifts.

I think my favourite moment of the afternoon (or possibly the next one as the days already begin to blur) was Belinda almost kamikazeing under a rope and onto a very steep (though powder covered and short) slope that she would never have skied down. Fortunately for her she only ended up with her skis under the rope and was able to abort that probably chaotic descent!

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring and skiing and a little bit of it trying to find somewhere to have dinner, though that was mostly done by Sam as he at least had limited phone time on his sim card and the ability to actually converse with the locals. He wasn’t very successful for that night, but at least got some bookings made for the following two nights.

Most of us opted to eat at the lodge again, while Michael, Sam and Olivia managed to get in somewhere else. Post dinner saw us reclaim the common room, play some Qwixx and demolish some of the wonderfully low-priced whiskey we’d purchased in Tokyo!

My personal goal for Madarao was to end each day with everything intact. After all, it was only about 14 months ago that I last ended up with a little hamstring problem;

Not to mention the fact that our last trip here was where I attempted to hit 100km/hr on skis only to convert the attempt to ‘near-death-by-snowboard’ at about 95km/hr. Both had been on my mind a lot during the day and led to a lot of caution. I think my max speed for the day was about 50km/hr and I almost exclusively avoided testing my limits too much. Ski-day 1 – success.

Japan 2023 - Day 5

Today was a travel day, with our itinerary set for us to travel from Tokyo to our first ski destination for the trip; Madarao.

It was the first time our full collective had travelled together with all our luggage in tow. We had two things in our favour. Sam, the super-organised one to help with navigation and tickets and the fact we’d made the trip before and knew to send our ski gear ahead of us. It mean that our skis, boots and ski-clothing had been shipped from the airport and would be waiting for our arrival in Madarao.

We lugged our collective possessions to the train station and up and down a few stairs (or in some cases, used the elevator) and after a bit of a false start all ended up in the same place, with tickets, ready to board the train. Almost miraculously, nothing went wrong and that’s exactly what we did. A transfer in Tokyo saw the Tembys on their first Shinkansen for the trip (having caught a local train from Haneda while the Rowlands had arrived into Narita and caught the Shinkansen to Tokyo).

I don’t think I’ll ever tire of travelling on the Shinkansen and can imagine one day simply purchasing the JR Pass and spending days just riding all over Japan. Our destination was Iiyama, where we transferred to a shuttle bus to take us up the mountain to Madarao itself.

We disembarked from the bus to be greeted by our first touchable snow of the trip, which for the Rowlands was the first time they’d seen it since they visited us in Canada. We collected our luggage and walked down the hill to our accommodation at Madarao Mountain Lodge to get checked in ahead of organising ski gear for all those who had to hire something.

I don’t think we’d been there for much more than an hour before Michael and Olivia had ventured out the back of the lodge and created a little slide and return stairway for themselves in the snow. Though short, the pitch was impressive! (don’t worry, you’ll see more on that in the days ahead since I’m playing catch up with this).

We were lucky that the lodge has a small restaurant and that dinner for the first night was sorted as Madarao, being small but busy, can prove difficult to book dinner reservations, and given there were twelve of us in total, we didn’t even expect to eat together every night.

Skis were hired and organised and we returned to the lodge. Thomas was itching to get out on his brand new skis and so went to the trouble of putting boots and skis on just to slide down the little run that Michael and Olivia had created earlier in the afternoon for their butts. He was pretty stoked to be the first of the party to get to ski.

The lodge has a small common room in the basement that we pretty much claimed for our own from that first night and thanks to a mix-up with dinner bookings, we ended up eating down there as well! It was definitely better than missing out altogether. After a couple of quiet drinks we decided to call it a day, ready to be up early to kit up and hit the slopes! There was even a small chance we’d see Sam in long pants for the first time on the trip!

Japan 2023 - Day 4

Today started with a run. Not everyone’s choice on holiday, but something I have been enjoying when I travel for a while now. On one of our previous trips to Japan when I was significantly fitter than I am currently, I discovered that there’s a loop around the Imperial Palace in Tokyo that’s about as close to five kilometres as one needs. There’s no traffic lights and only a relatively minor change in elevation, so a great place for a run. So I did it twice, because ten kilometres was what I was running at the time. It’s also quite a scenic run, so I had declared that I’d like to fit in a single lap this trip if I could. Thomas was keen to do it with me, while a few other members of the party said they’d be up to walk it.

So we (mostly) worked out the logistics for a start time that would get us back in time for the second group of go-karters to go have their fun. If there’s one thing that’s consistent with travelling with a larger group, it’s the cat-herding effect that even the simplest tasks seem to generate. But we got there. Now in my mind there was a very clear plan. Thomas and I run around the loop and when we get tot the end, we walk back to where everyone else was walking around. That should have had them about three-quarters of the way around and we could all walk the last quarter together and return.

That was what I thought the plan was. And apparently I was right. But the plan changed. I mean it makes sense that when you’ve gone to all the effort of visiting the palace and have the opportunity to go into the gardens, that you do so. Which was fine other than the fact that by the time Thomas and I had walked back to meet them, we’d basically walked 2/3rds of the way around and were getting short on time for the go-kart booking (which Thomas was part of). No issue, we’d just go straight there and everything would be good (other than Thomas not getting a shower and possibly being a little on the stinky side). And at no point did I google map the wrong hotel and nearly send us an hour out the way. Didn’t happen and even if it did, I realised before we got on the wrong train!

So with correct directions allegedly sorted I, being the sanitary one,  opted to return to the hotel to shower and then meet up with the pack later after they’d dropped off the go-karters. I was successful and the other half of the party was mostly successful in getting to the go-karting with only a minor detour.

The rest of us met up with Sam, Michael and Olive and opted for a yummy yakiniku lunch. There were a couple of items on the menu that were listed as having ‘death sauce’ so even though I like a bit of spice, I opted not to try them. Apparently Michael was a little more adventurous, but given we were split across a couple of tables, I wasn’t aware of this until right at the end of the lunch he offered me a bit of death-sauced chicken to try. Let’s just say that it was appropriately named! It’s okay, and by the time we made I through to have crepes some 15 minutes later, I could almost taste mine.

With lunch out of the way, we ascended to the 9^th floor of Yodabashi camera where it turns out there’s both a golf driving range and a baseball batting set-up. It wasn’t something we’d ever tried before so we gave it a go. Pitching speeds varied from 90km/hr up to 150km/hr on the cages we were using. During my turn I started at 110 and managed to scare a few balls before connecting with a couple. On my second go around I ramped it up to 130 and quickly stepped out the way of the first pitch with my tail between my legs. Michael had attempted a 150km/hr pitch and having stood behind it, I really didn’t need to subject myself to that madness!

With our batting cage fun over we linked up with the rest of the group and immediately split up so that Caroline could shop for a new helmet (with me in tow) while others went to visit Senso-Ji and the adjacent market before we would all link up again to visit the Tokyo Skytree (which included a mandatory trip to a Pokémon store, though amazingly compared to previous trips it is so far the only one we’ve been to)! We were up the top of the Skytree over dusk and into evening which provided some awesome views.

Our plan for dinner was to visit a restaurant we’d eaten at twice on our last visit because a) its close to the hotel and b) we thought it could probably accommodate all twelve of us. That part of things was successful.

Jason and I ordered whiskey’s and because I was anticipating a bit of a wait before we’d get to order a second, I suggested we double up, which we did. Then we were asked what size we’d like to which we answered big ones, but given the size of the drinks we’d seen Caroline suggested that maybe we didn’t actually need two drinks each. We bowed to her superior intelligence and attempted to amend our order. Something was a little lost in translation though … we ended up with two each anyway … one with coke, one with soda. And the girls, not to be outdone opted for their drinks large sized too!

We battled through …

Of course the highlight of the meal was the secret delivery of the very special extra dish. It was something I thought I’d probably only ever order once in my life, but given the chance to share the joy with our friends, I ordered it again. Now if you want your friends to eat something and no think there’s anything wrong with it, you either eat it and hold all breath/expression or other sign of anything untoward (like Michael did with me with the death sauce) or you simply eat it with them. What we ate wasn’t overly hot or anything, so that wasn’t an issue.

Bel had a bit of a taste and wasn’t impressed, so left the rest of hers for Jason. Jason ate his and like me, determined that it wasn’t terrible, but neither was it something you’d join a long line to purchase. Which of course was the time to let everyone that was trying it to know what it was they were eating.

Some jokes will never get old. Like Bel letting Jason eat her rectum …

It’s hard to top that for a night out, but we gave it a go. One of the things on our list of stuff to do for the trip was karaoke. Caroline opted for sense and sleep and Sam was good enough to come along to at least get us through the door and set up to sing. Well maybe sing is over-stating things. All in all we had a good time, though I think there was more butchery than karaoke, especially when yours truly was allowed near a microphone!

 

Japan 2023 - Day 3

 The first order of business for the day (after a local bakery breakfast) was trying to coordinate when Emily and Tom would make it to the hotel after their arrival into Tokyo. We’d planned to head to Team Labs (hyperlink) once they’d arrived, but it was something of an unknown as to when they’d actually get to the hotel after going through all required steps to get there. In the end they made pretty good time and now with a posse of seven, we headed out to find Team Labs  to experience something a bit different.

We trekked our way out to the Tokyo bay area where team labs is and given the time of day, decided to find something to eat before we went through (given the recommended 2 hour duration to explore the experience).

Michael found us a place that did katsu which became the plan. We trooped in and were given a table that unfortunately only seated 6 people. Thomas was directed to a separate table. I took pity on him and thought I’d completely ruin it for him by making him suffer my company as well.

There was a Japanese woman and man at the table between Thomas and I and the rest of the family. They offered to swap but looked way too settled to disturb them to that extent given there was a divider between them and the rest of our family so we declined their offer. After a couple of minutes they asked Thomas and I where we were from. When they heard we were from Australia we began a very stilted exchange of words that certainly couldn’t be rated as a conversation which basically became a rundown of things they either knew of or had visited in Australia and we had to work out what they were … Koala, Sydney Harbour Bridge, Opera House … you get the idea.

After a while they started asking about sake. We managed to work out they were asking if we were okay with drinking sake and when we said yes, a very large bottle of sake appeared on the table and was being poured. My prior very limited experience with sake saw it essentially poured into a shot glass (probably wrongly to) but this was a very large pour. I approached it with some trepidation because like most things, there’s good quality sake and poor quality as well. It turned out to be delicious. After a little while Sam joined in and actually had a bit of a conversation with them which resulted in us finding out another word they knew … present. They gifted the family three small bottles of sake to take with us. Throughout the whole exchange though it wasn’t quite clear whether the guy was trying to ascertain whether we thought the woman was attractive, trying to set her up with one of us or maybe just trying to sell her. Sam seemed to think that she was perhaps lonely, didn’t have a lot of friends and he was trying to help her out. We never quiet established what the relationship between them was. Again, according to Sam, they offered to show us around that night because they guy had grown up in the area we were staying in. We didn’t take them up on the offer as it would basically have subjected Sam to even more interpreting than he’d already been doing. Based on what we saw though it would have been a boozy night!

Having conquered and won at lunch, we headed off to team labs where we had a great time exploring the exhibits. 

I’d certainly recommend it if you’re in Tokyo and looking for something to do.

One of the things I’ve had on my list of ‘want to do in Tokyo’ is to go go-karting through the streets. A friend had done it around the time of our first trip and the Telfords did it during our last trip, but this was the first time that Emily has been old enough and licensed enough to do it. Unfortunately, because of COVID and the size of our assault on Tokyo, booking everyone in one go wasn’t ever going to happen. The most they’d take at once was four, so we’ve split ourselves over three groups. Today was the day for the first group; Michael, Olivia, Samuel and Emily. So after getting out of team labs we headed back to Akihabara to drop them off to go-kart.

While the first four were lucky enough to explore Tokyo on four very small wheels, the last three of us met up with a friend of Tom’s who was on his last day in Tokyo. We went through BIC camera quickly in search of some whiskey to bring home. That was accomplished and then we headed out to find some dinner ahead of the impending Rowland invasion. We found a ramen joint with zero English where you selected your meal outside and paid via vending machine to produce a ticket. It wasn’t the greatest meal I’ve ever had in Japan, nor was it the worse and it did what it was supposed to do and filled us up. Unfortunately Thomas’ friend had some sort of medical issue and after an extended trip to the bathroom announced he had food lodged in his throat and would need to seek medical attention! He didn’t appear particularly distressed, but at the same time, we were a little worried and sent Tom with him while Caroline and I headed back to meet up with the Rowlands who had made it to Tokyo.

We met them at the hotel and took them down the road for dinner at a local little family restaurant and the settled I for our first combined assault on the land of the rising sun. Oh and we did receive notification that Finn had managed to dislodge the food stuck in his throat without medical intervention much to our collective relief!

Japan 2023 - Day 2

 We didn’t’ have too many plans for the day today other than a dinner booking for the kids to take Caroline and I out for dinner for her birthday. That left us with a pretty open schedule for the day that we decided to start filling with a walk to Akihabara for breakfast deliciousness from a bakery.

Prior to making it there Mike was kind enough to call to wish Caroline a happy birthday from the UK and mentioned the chocolate bread he’d loved when he’d visited Japan. I’m surprised that we hadn’t found it during our previous trips, but when the bakery we went to had it, it became a must try item. And I fully endorse its deliciousness.

Having indulged in that and a few other choice pastries, we had a quick walk through Yodabashi Camera, just to  remind ourselves of how extensive and crazy the offerings there are. I managed to walk out without indulging in any additions to the model train collection, especially given it was our first full day in the country and we’d have to carry anything we bought with us for the next 3 weeks!

With Thomas, Emily and the Rowlands all due to arrive at different times on the 6^th we decided to seize the opportunity to check out some of Tokyo’s ski shops for things that we might need up the mountain. Things we might have perhaps grown out of, or worn out or in the case of helmets, might be life expired, or worse, already tested in enough of a crash (https://davesdrift.blogspot.com/2019/01/japan-2019-day-5.html) to make one wonder about its future head-saving potential.

The five of us walked out to an area in Tokyo with something of a concentration of ski-shops and made our way through them looking the things we needed. On entering one store, I saw a rack of gloves and remembered that I’d left my day-to-day gloves back in Oz. Given the price of these was about seven dollars I figured it was enough of a bargain that it was worth investing in them. I grabbed them and threw them in with Caroline’s shopping. It was only after she’d paid and questioned what we’d bough that cost so much that I realised I’d managed to make a very poor currency conversion and was out but a fact of 10. My bargain seven dollar gloves had cost me more like sixty five! Not much one can do but suck it up, laugh about it and pray I don’t lose them and become even more of a laughing stock!

We split up at that point, Caroline and I heading back to the hotel while Michael, Olivia and Sam went in search of things they wanted. Given we had some time before we had to meet up for dinner, Caroline and I decided to go find a garden or something to walk through. I googled the local area and there was one within a ten minute walk, so off we went.

We stayed at the same hotel we’re at this year on our last trip back in 2019 and had always predominantly travelled about by train; either on the metro or the JR lines. It turns ou the thing we’d never done was walk about five minutes from the hotel to find the Sumida River. It’s funny how the convenience of travel can take away your appreciation for what’s around you if you can’t actually see any of it. Given we’d found it, we took advantage of it. We walked around the small garden we found and then out to the river and along it for a while. As it was dusk when we were walking, we stayed long enough for it to get dark and to appreciate the views. It was one of those unplanned moments that becomes and accidental highlight of the day.

  

For dinner, the kids took us out for Yakiniku near the hotel.

 It was a fabulous meal though has always the menu had some interesting options that we decided not to pursue. Namely offal, or as it seems to be collectively called in this restaurant, Numbles. There’s clearly a market for offal here, but I’m okay with leaving it for the locals. What amused me on this occasion was more the different classifications of offal. I mean, premium offal? There’s not part of offal that seems to require the word premium to be used in my mind. I did insist that it wouldn’t be fair to leave without having tried something off the numbles menu, knowing as I said to everyone that there was the option for cheek meat. It was worth seeing the look on everyone’s face just to say I wanted some numbles.

Post dinner, we headed back into Akihabara just to see it in its night time glory and to find some dessert in the form of a Japanese crepe. Successful on both counts, we had a quick look at the local Don Quixote store in search of a well-priced bottle of whiskey to drink while we’re travelling about.

I found a bottle that I’d bought on a previous trip and after the debacle with the gloves had to check with Caroline if  was doing the math conversion right. After all, it was either in the order of a hundred dollars, which seemed way over-priced for what it was, or it was in the order of ten dollars which seemed a little on the ridiculously cheap side. I wasn’t trusting myself to that math again in case it was actually a hundred dollars. With confirmation that it was in fact in the range of ten dollars, I quickly grabbed a bottle to purchase, feeling like I was getting away with theft!

That simply left us to make our way back to the hotel to sleep in preparation for the following day’s arrivals.

Japan 2023 - Here we go again (day 1)

The Temby’s are once again taking off to Japan though this time things are a little different. We’ve split the party before even leaving the country! Due to logistics and tight-arsery, we’re not travelling in a pack this time.

Michael and Olivia have headed off early and will only cross-over with us for a few days at the start of the trip. Sam has moved to Sydney and so has flown direct on his own and beaten us there by 12 hours or so and Thomas and Emily got diddled and don’t fly out until tomorrow because that was what was available when I was cashing in the frequent flyer points for them.

And if that wasn’t enough of a logistical challenge, the Rowlands are also coming, but flying in via Hong Kong in a day or so. What could possibly go wrong? So far, nothing. Simply amazing.

Caroline and I have made it as far as Brisbekistan and are currently relaxing in the lounge, waiting for the hours to tick away until we can board for Tokyo and enjoying our third breakfast of the day. And hey, its 5 o’clock somewhere, so it is totally fine to start drinking Bundy while the opportunity presents.

Well, we’ve now made it to Tokyo after a nice uneventful flight, survived immigration, sent the ski gear ahead of us to Madarao and trained our way to the hotel. Mission accomplished. Having arrived quite late in the evening, there’s not really anything to do other than settle in to the hotel and sleep ahead of Caroline’s birthday tomorrow.

I'd just like to point out one last thing from this trip that I've never seen before ... anywhere or ever. My whole life I've been told you shouldn't put your head in a plastic bag ... but in our hotel apparently this is now a life-saving practice ... in the event of a fire, scoop the bag full of air and close it over your head and use it while you navigate the terror of a smoke-filled corridor!!!

Dobby versus the Dog

Don’t worry, I haven’t decided to start writing Harry Potter Fan Fiction. And yeah, it’s been a rather long time since I bothered to put fingers to keys to add to this blog, but sometimes life throws things at you that simply need to be shared. Well, They make me want to share them, you might disagree.

Anyway, I digress before I’ve ever started.

Way back at Christmas, our thoughtful offspring gave us a robot vacuum as a gift. Now I can’t say with certainty whether that was intended to be a labour-savour, to look after us as we head toward our dotage or commentary of what they think of the general hygiene standards in our house. Either way, at least they were thoughtful enough to get us gift!

Not long after it was first set up, I nicknamed the vacuum Dobby. It provides for fun moments when you lift it off the floor mid-vacuum and the announcement comes over the google speaker “Someone has picked Dobby up. Put Dobby down!” Yes, I’m easily amused.

Like most house elves, Dobby generally goes about his business in the morning before there’s too much activity around the place and without any real appreciation for his efforts (unless one walks around barefoot).

Of course before we had Dobby, we had a dog. Elise didn’t really know what to think of Dobby initially, but before long, learned that if she just ignored it, there wasn’t really any issue.

It’s my fault we have a dog. I was the one that wanted one and I was the one that like all small children, promised to feed it and clean up after it and do everything required. Which mostly (more often that not, but not as often as Caroline would like), happens.

It certainly means if there’s any little accidents around the house, I am guaranteed to be cleaning it up unless I’ve managed to escape interstate for work or something.

Elise’s most annoying bad habit is probably because she’s a terrier and not exactly high on the IQ scale. If she sees or senses something in the back yard, especially say a lizard or possum, she barks at it (Thunder too, because its been proven if you bark long enough at Thunder it stops. Every. Single. Time) and she has the single-minded focus I can only assume comes with small-dog sized intelligence. That’s lead to a few notes in letter boxes and complaints from neighbours when she’s been particularly vigilant in defending our territory when we’re not home.

To circumvent this, we usually leave her inside when we’re out for an evening (she gets to watch whatever she wants on TV though and we pretend she doesn’t ever sleep on the couch when we’re not home).

Saturday night was one of those nights. We went to a function and came home late, let her out then put her to bed and headed that way ourselves. After something of a sleep in (partying is getting harder and we need recovery I tell you) we went about the business of Sunday.

Emily was getting her clothes from the airer when she claimed something smelled a bit like off cheese or something. I told her about the dog-vomit I’d found (and cleaned up – Yee-haw) when I first got up and suggested that could have been it, though I couldn’t smell anything anymore and hadn’t seen anything else to concern me.

If only it had stayed that way. Half an hour or so later when I was a bit more active, I found the cause. Apparently in some sort of protest about poor-treatment and a lack of opposable thumbs to operate the TV remote, the dog had crapped inside as well. It wasn’t overly extensive, but given it was by this time at least 12 hours old, it was disturbingly still wet. She’d even managed to drop it on the old rug we had out to protect the floor from the office chair Caroline had been using when working from home.

Armed with disinfectant and paper towel, I sucked things up and cleaned up, surprised to find that it had been smeared over the floorboards as well. At that point I would quite happily have throttled the dog or fed her to a rabid goat. Lucky for her I couldn’t find a goat and didn’t want any more mess to clean up. I was most puzzled as to how she’d managed to smear it all over the place though not in a mood to ask polite questions. I had places to be. I sucked it up and kept cleaning.

Fast forward to Monday morning and as I was getting for work, poor unappreciated Dobby was going about his business with his usual vigour and noise. Something was a bit different this morning though. There was something of an unpleasant odour wafting around the little bugger.

I didn’t immediately put two and two together (though I’m sure you witty lot are already cringing in anticipation of what comes next). It was only when I was just about to leave for work that it dawned on me. Horribly, smelly, gut-wrenching recollections solidified in my mind and joined together to paint a Pro-Hart-esque picture. The sort of picture smeared across our glorious floorboards.

When I’d made it out of bed on Sunday it was after Dobby had finished his morning routine. Yes, Dobby had been dutifully cleaning before I found the dog’s delightful surprise. Needless to say I high-tailed it off to work.

Not entirely heartless though, I warned Caroline and knew that I’d get to look forward to it when I came home.

Now I should wax lyrical about the joys of that exercise, but I won’t paint the full Pro-Hart-esque beauty that Dobby left for me. Let me just say that until Sunday, Dobby’s greatest enemy was hair. When one has a daughter with fourteen foot long blonde tresses its really a daily hazard for all of us. But when you’re the one that bothers to clean the floor, it is your unavoidable foe. So for the final image, just picture me pulling apart Dobby to get to his insides … the brushes and rollers and surfaces that have both cleared the floor of those lovely blonde tresses that lost the will to hang on to Emily’s head … and dutifully attempted, though failed to clear the floor of the dog’s delightful gift.

Your welcome.

Oops I did it again …

 Many many many years ago (like 30 or so) I had great delight in playing summer hockey with Caroline and assorted other friends at Adelaide Uni Hockey Club. In addition to that I occasionally and with good goal-scoring success filled in for the lowest tier of the men’s teams during winter. 

For a long time hat was the sum of my hockey career. About 5 years (probably more but hey the memory isn’t what it used to be) ago I drove across Adelaide after a game of soccer to fill in again. I made it for half time and thanks to the time spent cooling down in the car lasted all of 5-10mins before pinging a hamstring.

Last summer I went and played a game of summer hockey with Michael and gave thought to playing for the proper season just to play in his team. Due to changes in the association though, Michael jumped up to the Div 5 team and there was no way I’d be playing at that level with him. 

After watching Emily and Michael play all year, Caroline decided it was time for another crack at summer hockey ahead of her possible return to the game next winter (after all, who needs knees). With this in mind we linked up with a couple of other families and aging hockey friends to field a summer team. 

Week 1 saw us go down 1-0, truly surpassing all my expectations and importantly, I walked off the pitch sans injuries. 

Bring on week 2 …

The game was going okay. We were under the hammer a bit at the back but we hadn’t conceded any goals. Now halves are only 20 mins long and we weren’t at the half way mark when running back to defend, I went to stop. Unfortunately my left foot slipped on the turf and my leg was thrown out in front of me savagely enough (which let’s face it probably wasn’t really very savagely at all) to tear a hamstring. I say tear but I haven’t had it analysed or anything yet because a) I hurt and b) life is busy. 

My evidence that it could possibly be torn is below:

Other than not having the right skills or fitness to join Michael playing hockey last year, was the concern that if I did happen to injure a hamstring (fair chance based on history) I’d bugger up my running consistency (I was on track for 100kms run per month this year) and I’d suffer a lot because of work travel etc. Seems like that might have been a smart move …

Think this might my offical retirement from any team sports. I’m a bit worried that even lawn bowls might be beyond the body unless I was launching bowls. I’ll have to stick to running … just as soon as I get back to actually walking normally.