Tony Galiani Posted March 14 Author Share Posted March 14 @kuro68000 - Good stuff and good to know I should double up - fuwafuwa. I often refer to our cat Smudge as Fuwafuwa since he is a fluff ball - happy to have the right usage! Tony 1 Link to comment
Tony Galiani Posted March 14 Author Share Posted March 14 Another day of wandering around Tokyo, then back to our hotel to check in with the airline and pack for our return flight. Friday also turned out to be fairly low key - happy to return to music and our pet crew but sad to leave Japan. After breakfast I suggested that the Princess visit Nippori Fabric Town as she had not been there yet on the trip. No ulterior motive here .... We headed up to Nippori on the Yamanote Line with the plan of going to Yanaka Ginza for cat tail donuts then I would find something to do while she went to look at fabrics. Yanaka Ginza was small but fun and we did stop for the obligatory cat tail donuts which were light and not too sweet. Definitely recommended. Then over to the bridge at Nippori for some train watching - Mira got a few pictures which I will post after I am home as they are on her phone. Surprisingly, she stayed a few minutes after I caught the JY train down towards Ueno. Apparently, one of the photographers there told her they were expecting a confluence of Shinkansen so were hoping for some good photo ops. Meanwhile I headed to Daiso but no luck with the Petit Blocks or any additional scenic diorama items. Since I was in the neighborhood, it seemed logical to stop at Tam Tam. So I did. Kato's production of Number 4 turnouts does not match my travel schedule - they had none. But I did pick up some containers, another tram, some Kokis and two TM-01R Tomytec power units for the two trams I had purchased on this trip. The Kokis were oddly priced - they had a Kato twin pack special price of Y1700 but then I found a Tomix twin pack for less than Y1600 so I bought that instead. They also had a Tomix four pack - at Y3300 so not as good a value. The other odd thing about the Tomix twin pack was that the numbers were not all different - four cars but only two numbers. The one minor disappointment in my shopping was a lack of cars and trucks to purchase. While all the shops had repackaged buses - lots of buses - there were very few trucks or cars and no low prices for them. Since I had walked from Ueno to Akihabara I decided to go the rest of the way to our hotel on foot and managed that despite being sort of tired at this point. After dropping off my goodies, I head back to Ueno (this time on the train!) to meet up with Mira. I literally staggered when I hefted her bag of fabric - good thing we have a large baggage allowance! Of course, being in Ueno means going to Anderson's for Danish Pastry - which, as usual, was really, really good. We were starting to fade so after dropping off the packages in our room, we headed down to Tokyo Station so Mira could take one last go around Maruzen for books then on to a tonkatsu curry shop in the station for a light dinner. We had gone to that particular place on one of our first trips and tried to use the ticket machine which only had Japanese at that time. As we worked at it and were on our third or fourth try, one of the staff came around from the counter to help us. Nowadays, the machine has an English option which makes it easy and we like going there just because. Food is pretty good as well. After a wander around the underground shopping area at the station we called it a day. So now we are packed up and just about ready to go. Our flight is not until late afternoon so we will likely take a walk around the area this morning before heading to Haneda. Ciao, Tony 6 Link to comment
Tony Galiani Posted March 14 Author Share Posted March 14 Seen up by Yanaka. Not a Kei truck but don't know what it is. The badge on the front says Mini Cooper - wonder if this is some sort of home grown vehicle. Looks tall enough for @cteno4! 5 2 Link to comment
bill937ca Posted March 14 Share Posted March 14 Its a Daihatsu Mira Walk-Through Van with a Mini face. This is a stylish Mira walk-through van with the front section swapped for that of a genuine Austin Mini MK1. The Mira walk-through van, which was included in the lineup from the first model that appeared in June 1980 to the fourth-generation model that ended in October 1998, offers a natural driving position and feel not found in light vans, which are mainly one-box cab-over models, as well as the convenience of being able to move easily from the driver's seat to the luggage compartment, making it the most complete model in its genre. https://enthuno-mori.com/others/20230422daihatsu/ 5 Link to comment
Tony Galiani Posted March 15 Author Share Posted March 15 Oh boy! Sign me up for one of those! My kind of style - and perfect for gigs and pets. If I could, I would buy one in the US for my wife Mira. Then Mira could be out with Mira. Perfect! Tony 2 Link to comment
chadbag Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 4 hours ago, Tony Galiani said: Oh boy! Sign me up for one of those! My kind of style - and perfect for gigs and pets. If I could, I would buy one in the US for my wife Mira. Then Mira could be out with Mira. Perfect! Tony They’re old enough to be importable. Probably not too much. 2 Link to comment
cteno4 Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 Wow perfect for my headroom along with a pile of layout stuff! ironic that tony and i ended up with Neros around the same time. jeff 2 Link to comment
Kingmeow Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 Tony, it was fun "traveling" with you! Have a safe flight back! It's always hard to leave Japan. For us, about 3 days before leaving we start to feel the sadness. I might give you call when you are back and settled in. Wife mentioned "Fukuoka"! What a coincidence! We are now digging deeper into the flights for end of September. Seems to be about $2500 for Premium Economy for Japan + Taiwan. Flight between Japan and Taiwan is Economy since it's only 2 hours. 2 Link to comment
cteno4 Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 Yes thank you so much for the travelogue tony! Always so much fun to read and love the snack stops and the princess’s adventures as well. Thanks for taking the time while traveling to do the posts. cheers jeff 2 Link to comment
bill937ca Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 16 hours ago, Tony Galiani said: If I could, I would buy one in the US for my wife Mira. Then Mira could be out with Mira. Perfect! Tony It can be done! 2 Link to comment
Tony Galiani Posted March 16 Author Share Posted March 16 Some random notes before a few more wrap up posts. @Kingmeow - happy to discuss Fukuoka and I can certainly tell you were to get donuts and great tonkatsu! @cteno4 - I think we both got our Niros around the same time. Found our first recall notice when I got home yesterday - have you gotten one yet? As I unpacked last night, I seem to have bought more stuff than I realized. I was pretty disciplined with my list, finding two of the three items I wanted but there seems to have been some mission creep as the stack on my table turns out to be bigger than I expected. No wonder we had to check three bags. Took a taxi to the airport yesterday and noted an interesting driving behavior. There was a bit of a traffic jam on the highway and one lane was going much faster than the other - but there was no lane jumping. Everyone seemed to stay in their lane and it actually seemed to be okay in terms of flow - it got slow a lot but kept moving. In my part of the world, people would be jumping from lane to lane to try and get a few car lengths ahead. Ciao, Tony 3 Link to comment
Tony Galiani Posted March 16 Author Share Posted March 16 Yesterday was, sadly, our last day in Japan for this trip. We had a light breakfast at the hotel then got our stuff together as we had to check out by 11:00 AM. Since our flight was not until 4:50 PM, we left our stuff at the hotel and went for a walk down by the Imperial Gardens. It was coolish but pleasant and we enjoyed our stroll - except there were a lot of people jogging around the street outside the gardens which always makes us feel like slugs. The gardens were pretty busy with lots of foreign tourists - they were all there instead of being in neat places like Kochi and Fukuoka. Finally, we headed back to the hotel to get our luggage and pick up a ride to Haneda. Relatively easy ride to the airport and, since it was still a bit too early to check in, we headed over to Haneda Gardens to go to the Hokkaido shop to get some excellent Hokkaido ice cream - only to find out it was gone! Crisis and disappointment. We consoled ourselves with a stop at Sugi for their soft serve ice cream which is pretty good. I had plain but Canadian Mira (as with many Canadians I know) cannot resist anything with the words maple syrup in them so she had hers topped with maple syrup and honey. (On one of my first visits to her home town, her parents took us to a place that served a maple/something pasta dish - I should have run out screaming then and not looked back!) Flight was not too bad albeit twelve hours long (which was shorter than booked due to a tailwind). However, the first two hours were pretty turbulent - not bad but not enjoyable either since I was stuck in the seat. Later in the flight, I was able to take an exercise stroll around the plane and it was pretty full though some empty seats up front which has not been the norm on past flights. Smattering of empty seats in the back so not sure if the slowdown in demand for flights has caught on for Japan. Pretty beat when we got home. Mainly due to jet lag but also our flight from DC to RDU was delayed an hour. I guess there has been bad weather on the east coast of the US and I noted lots of delayed, and some cancelled, flights both at Washington and at RDU. So guess I cannot complain about the delay. Already missing Japan and thinking about the future. Since I am obsessed with timing out on travel I plan to work on another trip later this year and Mira and I have also talked about a February trip to northern Japan for next winter. Hope I can pull all that off. Ciao, Tony 8 Link to comment
Kingmeow Posted March 16 Share Posted March 16 @Tony Galiani shall we have Tonkatsu again in Tokyo Station? 😁 Maybe we can plan it again? Perhaps even at other locations in the country. We are SLOWLY firming up our trip later this year. We're thinking last week in September to leave. 5 weeks but we're not sure how to split it, mostly likely 2+3 week split, but how many for each? Right now it looks like 2 for Taiwan and 3 for Japan or maybe 2.5 each. Also, which location first? Yeah, First World problems! Because of the Taiwan addition, this introduces a TON of permutations and combinations on how to get there. How to connect the dots, what airline(s) to use and the pricing ramification is a massive puzzle! So I let my wife figure it out! 🤣 2 Link to comment
Kingmeow Posted March 16 Share Posted March 16 34 minutes ago, Tony Galiani said: Took a taxi to the airport yesterday and noted an interesting driving behavior. There was a bit of a traffic jam on the highway and one lane was going much faster than the other - but there was no lane jumping. Everyone seemed to stay in their lane and it actually seemed to be okay in terms of flow - it got slow a lot but kept moving. In my part of the world, people would be jumping from lane to lane to try and get a few car lengths ahead. Ciao, Tony ...or use the shoulder! 🤣 We noticed the law abiding drivers on our previous trip when we had to bus around to places. Very few lane changes to get ahead of the other guy and everyone seems to be doing the speed limit! 2 Link to comment
Tony Galiani Posted March 16 Author Share Posted March 16 @Kingmeow - to complicate your planning - Fukuoka airport has international flights to Taiwan IIRC. So possibly fly into Fukuoka from Taiwan then head north in Japan. As opposed to flying to Tokyo and backtracking. And only two stops to Hakata Station and your IC card works in Fukuoka. 3 Link to comment
Tony Galiani Posted March 16 Author Share Posted March 16 Shots from Nippori Station bridge. Lots of interest in the Tohoku Shinkansen as it decoupled at speed again last week. 6 Link to comment
Tony Galiani Posted March 16 Author Share Posted March 16 Trainspotting signs at Nippori Station and a carefully made cattail donut - note the paw pad imprints! 5 Link to comment
Tony Galiani Posted March 16 Author Share Posted March 16 Some random shots around Tokyo including one of the shopping bag officially endorsed by Mira, @Kingmeow and @ED75-775! 4 Link to comment
Tony Galiani Posted March 16 Author Share Posted March 16 BTW - thanks to all the Forum members who offered suggestions and insights around my travels. Much appreciated and a real enhancement to my trip. Ciao, Tony 4 Link to comment
RS18U Posted March 16 Share Posted March 16 (edited) 2 hours ago, Tony Galiani said: I had plain but Canadian Mira (as with many Canadians I know) cannot resist anything with the words maple syrup in them so she had hers topped with maple syrup and honey. (On one of my first visits to her home town, her parents took us to a place that served a maple/something pasta dish - I should have run out screaming then and not looked back!) Maple everything is the best! 😁 Glad you made it home OK as there seems to have been some wild weather in parts of the US these last few days. Looking forward to your next planning/trip post since I too learn a lot and we are thinking of heading over sometime in 2026. Edited March 16 by RS18U 1 Link to comment
Tony Galiani Posted March 16 Author Share Posted March 16 @Kingmeow - to complicate your planning - Fukuoka airport has international flights to Taiwan IIRC. So possibly fly into Fukuoka from Taiwan then head north in Japan. As opposed to flying to Tokyo and backtracking. And only two stops to Hakata Station and your IC card works in Fukuoka. And, now we have more tonkatsu options - Saboten in Shinjuku is pretty good as well. Tony 1 Link to comment
Tony Galiani Posted March 16 Author Share Posted March 16 Turns out I lucked out with the two Tomytec trams I purchased on the trip. I thought the first one was in the color scheme I had noted on the Tosaden web site and the second one matches the one on a Shikoku promotional sign we saw in Tokyo. Tony 5 Link to comment
Tony Galiani Posted March 16 Author Share Posted March 16 Oh no! Just found this: https://tokyo-in-nscale.blogspot.com/ - Tomix World by Kanda station. We went by there multiple times on the Yamanote Line and we ate at a gyoza restaurant right around the corner. Having no idea about this, I never got there. Maybe next trip. Tony 3 Link to comment
Little-Kinder Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 1 hour ago, Tony Galiani said: Oh no! Just found this: https://tokyo-in-nscale.blogspot.com/ - Tomix World by Kanda station. We went by there multiple times on the Yamanote Line and we ate at a gyoza restaurant right around the corner. Having no idea about this, I never got there. Maybe next trip. Tony FYI, it's quite small and they don't have much, you didn't miss much really (especially compared to the kato hobby center in tokyo) 1 Link to comment
Tony Galiani Posted March 17 Author Share Posted March 17 @Little-Kinder - Good to know. Thanks. Link to comment
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