In the morning we got started a little on the early side, mainly because we weren’t sure exactly how many transfers we would have to manage today.  I also wanted to spend some serious shower time, since the shower we had here was about four times bigger than the tiny one back in London.

The morning was a little cloudy and it looked like it had rained during the night.  Instead of eating breakfast somewhere we walked around the abbey, going up and down the steps for exercise.  We went outside for a recon mission, and inspected the shuttle bus system.  Already there were buses full of tourists coming in, but we could see how easy it was to get back to where we wanted to go, so we walked back into the main island to finally go and see the abbey at the top.  We found ourselves on the same pathways, becoming more and more congested with tourists as time went on.  Luckily we knew a shortcut that we discovered the night before.  There was a tiny crack between two shops, almost impossible to notice – we had come down the hill last night and found ourselves emerging from that place, so it made sense to use it backwards and bypass the crowds.  It worked very well, and we made it to the top much more quickly.  We lined up and were admitted quite rapidly into the abbey itself.

We’ve been in one or two churches around Europe before, so we kind of felt like we’d seen it all.  We were therefore quite pleased with the understated and simple abbey.  Most of the stained glass windows used only light colors, and the predominant theme was shades of gray.  The interior was much larger than I expected, and the visitor’s path took us all over the abbey, popping out on ledges and balconies now and then.  It was one of the better visits that we’ve made, especially combined with the lack of tourists.  Once again, it pays to start early!  A couple of things surprised me – about half the tourists that we did meet were Japanese, which was a higher ratio than any other destination on this trip.  The other interesting point was that there was a gift shop right next to the main cathedral inside the abbey.  I’m used to a gift shop somewhere on the grounds, usually near the exit, but this one was literally in the next room from where people prayed.  A little too blatant for my tastes.  We spent about 45 minutes going through it all, and then went out the exit (which was under construction so that it was a little unclear how to get out).

We took a brief break in our room, and then rolled our big suitcases out of the room, down the cobblestones, and out to the shuttle buses.  The suitcases got a lot of looks, but I’m used to not caring what people think.  The shuttle took us to the main bus pickup area, and we were first at the bus stop with about 40 minutes to kill before our bus to Rennes arrived.  Kuniko waited by the luggage and I went over to a supermarket that we had passed earlier.  Unfortunately it was not really a supermarket – more of a convenience store combined with a gift shop.  I was able to find some small pastries to take back to share with Kuniko, but unfortunately no coffee.

When I came back to the bus stop, there was now a sizable line of people waiting also, predominantly Japanese.  The bus to Rennes finally showed up, and it parked a little ways from the bus stop, so suddenly we were not exactly in a good position.  I took our suitcases over and got them all loaded up underneath the bus, just like everyone else.  Once they were in I turned around nobody had boarded the bus yet.  All the Japanese people had realized that we were there first, and everyone was patiently waiting to make sure that we could also get on first.  Kuniko waved them on board – the bus wasn’t even going to be a quarter full, but I was really struck by the cultural differences.  I’m not sure if that would have happened if they had been a mix of other cultures and countries.  One of the nice things about Japanese manners, I guess.

The bus ride back to Rennes was pretty uneventful, and Kuniko caught up on some sleep.  We passed through rain and sun the whole trip back, so it was anybody’s guess as to the weather in Rennes and Paris.  Once we arrived at the station we bought some pastries – I had a cheese pizza that was mainly made of cheese, and Kuniko had a quiche that was pretty good too.  Both were delicious and reasonably priced.  We found some public seating in the middle of the station to settle down and eat our lunch.  Kuniko held down the fort and I went into a bar nearby to see if I could talk them into letting me buy some beers to eat outside of their establishment.  The bartender spoke zero English, but I did my best with sign language and a few choice French words, and she supplied me with two cold bottles of beer.  They were really good – maybe the best beer of the whole trip (and that includes London!)

After lunch we still had almost an hour to kill, so we decided to go into the bar since the bartender had been so patient and kind with us.  She was happy to serve us a big carafe of Bordeaux, and after we polished that off she suggested a Cote du Rhone.  She gave us some free hard salami, but we ordered a mixed cheese platter to go with our wine as well.  The salad that came with it was really good – walnuts, raisins, lettuce, tomato, vinaigrette, and maybe peanut oil?  The simple things are so much better in France.

Despite all the alcohol, we caught the TGV on time, and then we were headed back to Paris.  As we were boarding the ticket checker outside the train said that our ticket was for the wrong day, but it was indeed correct.  She was a little confused I guess, but she let us on anyway, and it made me wonder what exactly her job is for.  We found our seats, and once again we sat next to a passenger with a small dog.  This dog was pretty lonely, so I had a lot of chances to pet the dog and be friendly.  So cute!  The owner was neither friendly nor cute, however.  I could see why the dog was starved for attention.

We got a little bit of sleep on the train, and so we were well rested upon arrival at Montparnasse station.  We decided to spring for a taxi to take us to the hotel, since we were still dragging our bags around.  The taxi driver was a little strange – he ignored us completely, talking on his Bluetooth headset to someone in a Middle Eastern language, and clicking and unclicking his ballpoint pen.  He got us where we needed to go, however, and we found ourselves out front of the Hotel Malar soon enough.

The hotel design was quite nice, with a modern lobby and an artistic feel to it.  We checked in and the guy told us that our room was on the 3^rd floor (which in Europe means the 4^th), and then he gave us the bad news – no elevator.  We had to carry our bags up a lot of narrow steps, but I didn’t really mind.  It was much tougher for Kuniko, but in the end we made it to our room.  The room was also pretty small, but from the top floor we had a nice view of the rooftops across the street.  Again, we’re good in small spaces, so no worries. This hotel was just for one night.

Once we had sorted out our stuff we decided to go out for a walk and try to find a nearby supermarket where we could get some supplies.  We found a small Carrefour market a few blocks away, and had a lot of fun shopping there.  We found plenty of cassoulet, pate, and other yummy stuff, but unfortunately no canned foie gras.  When we were checking out the clerks were giggling to each other about something to do with Kuniko and me, and so our clerk wasn’t paying attention and dropped one of the coins from my change.  It slid under the cash register and desk in some way as to be pretty inaccessible.  The cashier seemed to get angry at me, maybe because she was hoping that I’d say “don’t worry about it” and let her off the hook.  But I don’t know how to say “don’t worry about it” in French, and even if I did, I’m on vacation and this is entertainment for me.  So get that coin!  Eventually she gave up and called a manager and they opened the register and got the replacement coin out for me, and I gave them a big smile and “Merci!”

We walked around the neighborhood of the Eiffel Tower, and found a little farmer’s market.  One of the booths there was selling cognac spiked with grape juice, and canned foie gras.  We were able to taste several kinds and then buy some to take back to Japan.  Mission accomplished!  I took some pictures of the Tower, and then we went back to the hotel to do a little research on restaurants for dinner.  Unfortunately, the ones I wanted to try were either booked up or closed.  The hotel clerk called one for us, but they were booked up as well.  I was starting to feel stressed – Friday night in Paris and I didn’t want to settle for some fast food!  We decided to just hit the road and find a place at random, and choosing the place caused a little more friction between me and Kuniko.  Luckily we calmed down and avoided a fight.  Usually about once a trip we either have a fight or get dangerously close – hopefully this was the only time this trip…

Finally we settled on a corner restaurant that looked just upscale enough to have a memorable dinner.  We sat at first outside and then realized there were heavy smokers and both sides of our table, so we moved inside.  Dinner was quite good actually – better than I expected.  We shared an appetizer billed as tepid lentils with truffle sauce and a crisped poached egg.  I had a sirloin steak with béarnaise sauce and frites, and Kuniko had seared sea bream with basil gnocchi and vegetables.  I ordered an expensive (for us) bottle of wine off the wine list, and we had a great meal.  It was hard to believe, but outside the two smokers seemed to be trying to compete with each other to make the biggest cloud of smoke.  One of them, an old lady, broke out a cigar and we were even smelling it inside the restaurant.  We were glad we weren’t out there dealing with it.

During the evening rain would start to fall off and on.  We were luckily inside the restaurant during the heaviest part, so no problem.  There is something about rain in Paris that didn’t seem to bother us that much.  Maybe because it was summer and a little warmer than usual, but it was actually quite refreshing.

Once we finished dinner, we walked out to the Eiffel Tower, and we arrived just a few minutes before the top of the hour.  I had heard that the tower was illuminated with a sparkling effect every hour at night, so we had perfect timing to see it.  We stood in a secluded park on the western side of the tower with very few people around, held each other, and enjoyed a quiet romantic moment.  It made up for the earlier fight, and also was a moment of quiet to put in the bank, because I had a feeling that the next time we were here with my family quiet romantic moments would be hard to find.

We wandered back to our hotel, bought some bottled water at the local convenience store, climbed up the stairs, and crashed out right away.

Our alarms went off very early on Thursday morning.  The original plan was to pack the night before our departure from London, but since we kind of slept through the evening we had to pack things up in the morning. Luckily packing was quick, we checked out painlessly, and we were rolling our suitcases to King’s Cross station to have breakfast.  We found a place in the station that was open and had some egg sandwiches and coffees.  While we were there, we noticed there wasn’t a line for Platform 9 3/4 (since it was so damn early) so we took a few souvenir shots.  Fun!

We wandered slowly over to St. Pancras to catch the Eurostar to Paris, and we were surprised to find that they were already getting ready to depart.  We hustled through security and passport control, and then got onto our carriage and found some space for our suitcases in the baggage area.  Success!  We walked over to our seats, but there were two guys sitting in them.  I double checked out tickets, and then asked the guys.  Their response was interesting – they said, “Somebody is in our seats, so you can probably go and sit anywhere.”  We walked down the length of the car, but it seemed like most seats were filling up.  There was no staff at the end of the car, so we went back and I politely asked them to move.  They sighed and got up and left, and we settled in to the seats we purchased.  Finally we could relax. Luckily the two guys got a spine and confronted the people in their seats, and it turned out they were in the wrong carriage, so I guess everyone could sit on the journey.  Good news.

From St. Pancras station to Paris Gare du Nord it is about two and half hours by the Eurostar train.  As we pulled away from London we started to see some more countryside scenery, but before you knew it the train was going underground.  Following that we spent a surprisingly short time in the dark going under the channel tunnel, and then we came up in France.  I think the total time under the channel was less than 30 minutes, but I’m not sure.  Anyway, we sped through northern France, and the weather continued to alternate between bright clear skies, sudden rainstorms, and clouds.

Once we arrived at Gare du Nord we caught a taxi to take us to Gare Montparnasse station.  It is perfectly reasonable to catch a metro to take us to the station, and theoretically we had plenty of time to get there to catch our TGV train, but we thought it would be easier to deal with our suitcases, and we’d have a chance to enjoy the sights of the city.  I’m glad we decided on this method – it nice to look around as we traveled.  The total cost was only about 16 euros, so very reasonable.  We had a short break at Gare Montparnasse, so we used the toilets (an interesting pay system that required tokens), bought some snacks for the train at a bakery (called “Paul”), and then we waited around for the station to announce the platform for our train.  Once they did we lugged our bags into the correct carriage, and sat down in very comfortable seats.

Our seats were in first class so they had plenty of reclining and leg room.  We sat across from each other, and next to us was a set of four seats facing each other.  A lady in that group had a tiny Chihuahua that she produced now and then to drink water or walk around a bit.  The guy next to her struck up a conversation (in French), and even though I don’t speak French it became apparent that she had a serious speech impediment.  They wrote each other notes on paper, but I could tell the guy was wishing he didn’t start the conversation – it was taking a lot of effort to continue it.

One thing we noticed right away was the train announcements were only made in French – no English at all, so we were hoping we’d be able to hear the announcement for our stop, Rennes.  Luckily things were clear enough to understand and we were able to get off at the correct station.  We went out of the north gate, turned right, and found the bus stop area.  I was led to believe that the bus departures were timed with the arrival of the TGV from Paris, but we found out that this was not exactly the case.  We had two hours to wait.  Luckily, we are really good at waiting around – especially in Europe.

I ran back over to the train station and went into a place that had a cooler.  I picked up a couple of beers to bring back and drink at the bus station, but the cashier pantomimed that I’d need to buy some food if I wanted the beers.  No problem – I bought a sandwich, and took everything back to enjoy with Kuniko.  We toasted our success, and Kuniko almost dropped the beer leading to a minor beer explosion.  We moved out suitcases out of the way and then we were fine.  Sitting on a bench at the bus station means that a lot of people will come and go.  The bench next to ours became occupied with a young couple who took out pouches of tobacco and rolled their own cigarettes.  Then they started smoking away.  We had nowhere to run, so we had to sit and take it.  Ugh.  Another pair of faces we saw were Japanese, and Kuniko told me that they looked a little disappointed to bump into another Japanese person.  Oh, well!  We ended up seeing them pretty often during our short journey to and from Mont St. Michel.

Finally, our bus arrived, and we took about an hour’s ride to the north coast.  We enjoyed the scenery during the ride, and I really liked seeing the French countryside.  Lots of agriculture and open space.  The bus dropped us off at a sort of way-station, and then we took a tram from there to the foot of Mont St. Michel.  It was a pretty dramatic view – the old abbey perched on top of rocks and a small town below it.  There was a lot of construction on the peninsula leading from the main part of the continent, but it looked about 60% complete.  I imagine that in a few years the approach will be completely different.

We were some of the only tourists heading in rolling along our suitcases – we still hadn’t been to a hotel since London, so it was a little strange.  We had thought about this issue when we planned the trip, but ended up deciding that we should just go ahead and drag them on in.  Inside Mont St. Michel there were narrow cobblestone streets and lots of tourists walking around, so that made maneuvering the suitcases that much more difficult.  After a five minute walk we found our hotel, and they checked us in from the counter of their restaurant.  They were nice enough to dispatch staff to carry our suitcases to our hotel room, which was up a small set of stairs and down a narrow alley.  We weren’t sure what the room would be like, but it turned out to be completely renovated and modern.  It seemed like the renovations were done within a few months before – very clean and comfortable.  We ditched our suitcases and headed out the door to check out the island.

At the time the tide was out so we could walk around about half the island on wet sand and mud, and that gave us some nice views of the Abbey.  The smell of sea was strong, but we couldn’t really see the ocean – it was strange.  We decided to go back in and explore the village inside, and eventually ended up at our hotel restaurant for drinks.  I ordered two beers from the menu at random, and one turned out to be a beer spiked with framboise, so it had a sweet berry taste.  Oops.  We killed them anyway, and spent the rest of the afternoon walking up and down the steps and hillsides taking pictures of just about every nook and cranny of the place.

Dinner was at a small restaurant that was one of the only places that stayed open after 8 pm.  The food was pretty good, but the restaurant itself was quite touristy.  Kuniko had grilled lamb, I had some local crab (all body and very tiny legs!), and I also had a side dish of ratatouille that hit the spot.  Complete with red wine and a cheese platter for dessert – we were happy to be back in France.

As usual Kuniko made lots of attempts at communication in the local language, and as usual the servers were charmed by her efforts.  The way she laughs and smiles at her own attempts, success or failure, somehow always wins the servers to our side.  It is one of my favorite things about traveling with her.

With dinner out of the way we walked back out into the darkness to get some pictures of the abbey at night.  It still was barely getting dark at 10 pm, so it took a while to get the shots I wanted.  Finally we came back to the hotel and called it a night.  We went to bed at the latest hour so far! It had been a busy day in two countries!

We woke up to a rainy morning, which seemed like a bad omen for our trip to see Stonehenge out in the countryside.  Since we weren’t looking to rent a car during this trip, we decided to arrange a tour through H.I.S., a Japanese tour company.  The meetup point was actually right across from where we had afternoon tea the other day, so it was still fresh in our memory and easy to find. We arrived a few minutes early and bought some juice for the bus ride, and then went to wait with about 30 Japanese tourists also going on the same trip.  The tour guide, a Japanese middle aged lady, showed up and started to review the paperwork for each of the tour members.  She was a little perturbed that Kuniko didn’t print out the receipt of our reservation, but Kuniko pointed to her name on the tour guide’s list, showed her ID, and everything was fine.

We climbed on to the big coach they had arranged for us, and found some comfortable seats in the middle. We had about a two hour bus ride to Stonehenge, with a break in the middle at a rest area.  The first hour we sipped juice and absolutely devoured some shortbread cookies that we had bought the previous evening.  While we rode on the bus, the tour guide gave a complete lecture on all the countries of the UK, and she related each of the countries to famous Hollywood stars to bring it home for the tour members.  When she reached the topic of Jane Austen, the tour guide really showed a lot of enthusiasm and went on and on.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t turn off the speakers on the bus and had to just get through the lecture.  It was kind of cute, though.

Finally we arrived at Stonehenge, parking in a bus (coach) lot next to the new visitors’ center.  This visitors’ center was completely different from the one I visited when I was here last, and I thought the design was quite nice.  We assembled outside the tour group station, and the tour guide distributed audio guides to everyone.  I declined mine – I have a strict “no audio guide” policy – but that kind of freaked out the tour guide.  I think I was the first person to ever decline.  Anyway, finally we got organized and walked to the visitor’s center, and we were loaded onto trams that took us on a 5 minute ride to Stonehenge itself.  The ride was quite nice – through some beautiful fields.  There was a UK National Trust trail that ran nearby, and there was also a walkway if you didn’t feel like using the tram.  The sun was coming out – the clouds disappeared, and it was just a perfect day to visit.

We walked around Stonehenge and took some pictures, took in the rocks, and avoided as much as possible all the tourists buzzing around the area.  Kuniko seemed to enjoy seeing it, and it brought back good memories from the last time I was here.  We moved around Stonehenge at what I think was faster than average speed, and reached the line to get on the trams for the ride back to the visitor’s center.  Since it was a gorgeous day and we had wrapped up our visit pretty quickly, we decided to walk along the trail and enjoy the views.  We’re always looking for ways to walk and burn some calories, so it was a natural choice for us.

We ambled along the roadway, and took lots of pictures of the green fields.  After the rainy morning I had expected to be under an umbrella all day.  It was a very pleasant feeling.  A couple of trams went by us and I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the passengers – they were totally missing out on this feeling.  Kuniko posed for some pictures near a picturesque gate, and I pulled out my phone to check the time and-

HOLY CRAP! We had only 15 minutes before our bus was due to leave!  We started hustling down the road – walking hard.  Kuniko hates to be late so she started to outdistance me and leave me behind.  I hate to rush anywhere, so I kept it to a brisk walk.  More trams went by and now I had completely different feelings about those passengers.  Smart people – every one of them.

We made it to our bus one minute late, and we jumped on.  I was expecting everyone to be there already – Japanese people tend to be very punctual – but as it turned out only about half the people were there.  We sat down and caught our breath.  We made it!

The tour guide was busy watching for the rest of her flock, and a couple of people came in late and said that they saw other members of our tour walking (actually walking!) instead of using the tram.  The tour guide kind of freaked out about that saying that it is more than a 20 minute walk.  I realized that they were talking about seeing us, though, when they mentioned that they saw “the foreign guy”.  We kept our mouths shut behind them and eventually they turned around and saw that we were already there.  We beat you guys!

Once everyone showed up about ten minutes later, we took a short bus ride to the town of Bath.  This was another “second timer” for me, and it was very similar to how I remember it.  We toured the Roman Baths, I think I took pictures from exactly the same spots, and then we walked around town a bit.  Since we had some extra time we had sandwiches and beers at “The Huntsman”, a restaurant/pub right near the tour bus pick up point.  Kuniko had a ham hock and chutney sandwich, and I had a brie and smoked bacon sandwich – both excellent.

Everybody was on time at the bus stop, so we made our way to the last stop of the trip, a tiny little town called “Lacock”, which was slightly famous because it was the place where the first photo ever was taken, and also because they had filmed some Harry Potter scenes there.  We weren’t really interested in either of those two draws, and instead went to the store to buy a wine opener for later, and some Flake ice cream, and then to the Red Lion pub to drink some beers there.  While we waited for the bus to come back we chatted a little with the tour guide.  She was a little quirky but nice.  You could clearly tell she loves her job.  She said she only works four days a week – that’s a nice schedule!

On the bus ride back she was thankfully much quieter, and I think the whole bus except for her and the driver were asleep.  Once we got back into the outskirts of London she started pointing thinks out on the microphone, but I was really glad to have a chance to get in a nap on the bus.

We left the tour behind near Harrod’s, bought some cheesy souvenirs at a cheesy souvenir shop, and then headed back to the hotel.  For some reason I had a brutal headache, so I took some aspirin and lay down to wait for it to take effect.  Kuniko laid down for a nap, and the next thing I knew I woke up around 10 pm.  I still had a slight headache, I wasn’t really hungry, and Kuniko was completely asleep, so I made an executive decision to not go out to dinner tonight.  Instead, I went right back to sleep.

On Tuesday we continued our sightseeing of London, and headed out to see the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge.  We took the Circle line to the Tower Hill station, and then walked a little ways to the Tower of London.  We arrived a bit early so we decided to walk across the Tower Bridge and explore the other side of the river.  We were still full from dinner the previous night, so we decided to skip breakfast, and do a lot of walking instead.

The Tower Bridge was interesting for me to walk across, since I had somehow missed the experience the last time I was in London.  The weather was clear and sunny, and we were treated to beautiful views of the London skyline.  You could really appreciate the unusual architecture that is common in the downtown area – very different from Kobe. Back at the Tower of London we were able to see red ceramic poppies being “planted” around and on the walls of the tower and in the dry moat area.  They were an artistic exhibit meant to symbolize all the blood that had run through the tower through history.  Pretty heavy.

We were able to pick up our tickets easily enough, but the entrance to the Tower had apparently changed recently, and we had to walk almost all the way around following guides to another entrance.  Once there it was easy enough to get in, and we set about exploring all the museums and exhibits.  Again, our relatively early start paid off and we could look around with very few tourists getting in our way.  The busiest section was the area were we could view the crown jewels close up, but for some reason they weren’t as striking to me this time around.  Kuniko wasn’t so impressed either.  But overall the visit was interesting, and I think we were both glad we came.

On the way out we shyly asked a Beefeater for a picture, and he politely said yes.  I think 90% of his job is posing for pictures with tourists, so it wasn’t really unusual for him.  Thanks, Beefeater guy!

Our next stop was Notting Hill.  Kuniko was really interested in exploring the neighborhood.  I remember going there years ago, but the day I was there everything was closed.  This time everything was quite open, and we had fun poking through the unusual shops and avoiding the really touristy ones.  I had fun looking around in a spice store, and Kuniko led us to various famous spots from the Hugh Grant/Julia Roberts movie “Notting Hill”.  We even went into the bookstore that was in the movie, and it was a little weird to be in there considering I’d seen the scene once or twice on DVD – kind of a reality meets Hollywood moment.

Moving on from Notting Hill we took the underground to Marble Arch station.  Back in 2000, I stayed at a hotel near this station with my dad and uncle, and it was nice way to bring back the memories and walk around the Marble Arch itself.  I couldn’t exactly find the hotel by looking around, so I think it either went of business or I am mis-remembering the exact location.  Both of these are equally possible.

We continued down the main street, past lots of shopping areas and brand stores, and then made a random right turn and came across a pub for lunch.  Kuniko had venison pie, I had fish and chips, and we washed it all down with several beers.  Kuniko really liked the Portabello Ale that was common in London pubs – I think it was her favorite beer during the stay.  I tried so many beers I can’t remember a particular favorite, but I do know I drank way more stouts than I usually do.

While we were inside the pub the weather outside changed to cloudy and windy, but the temperature remained very comfortable.  I think this was the first time that we saw clouds during our London stay – so I guess we were lucky to enjoy very unusual weather (to me).

Now that we were full of calories we decided to get some exercise by walking from the pub all the way to Leicester Square, walking at top speed and dodging tourists as we went.  By now there were a startling amount of tourists walking around, so it made for an exciting obstacle course as we walked.  Leicester Square was an easier station to use (fewer transfers), so we made good time back to our hotel.  Once again we made time for our late afternoon nap.  We ended up sleeping a little later than we had planned, so we decided to go to St. Pancras station to try some wine by the glass.  Three or four days of beer had us looking to wine for a break.  We had a couple of nice glasses of sauvignon blanc, along with some great artichoke dip (we had to ask the staff to identify the dip).  Instead of going out to eat again, we decided to do some shopping at the M&S in the station, and we picked up sweet peppers stuffed with goat cheese, salami, diablo pepper cheese slices, and a bottle of Cava.  The Cava was an inspiration of Kuniko’s – we couldn’t find a place selling wine openers, and sparkling is always easy to open.  We brought it all back to our room and drank the Cava out of coffee cups.  It was nice to have a slow night in, since we are off to Stonehenge tomorrow.

We were still a bit tired out from the day before, so we decided to stay in and sleep as late as we could.  It still wasn’t very long though – we were leaving the hotel by 7 a.m.  Our first stop was to find a supermarket in Camden Town.  We took a train there and then walked a block or two to a big American-sized supermarket called Sainsbury’s.  We love to explore supermarkets when we go to other countries, and this was a good one.  I was really surprised how many of the items were pre-packaged/ready to eat foods.  They had ingredients and such also, but the prepackaged foods took up a considerable percentage of the store shelf space.  The buzzwords in London seemed to be “fair trade” and “organic”, with just about every item having some seal proclaiming these words.  We also saw some big packages full of scotch eggs – I love those!  I didn’t know they were so popular in England.

After looking at all the food on the shelves it was time to go get some breakfast.  Across from the train station we found a little corner sandwich shop that was also serving breakfast, and we had an omelette and a ham/cheese panini.  It was filling, but not altogether exciting.  It was very nice to take a slow breakfast on a busy street corner and watch London passing by outside the windows.

We dropped off our groceries at the hotel, and then got back on the train and made our way to the British Museum.  I was surprised to find that all the museums in London are free of charge, and with the British Museum you get a lot of cost performance out of your zero pounds.  We spent more than an hour there covering only some highlights of the museum, but it was clear that it could take days and days to completely see everything.  The main hall was especially well designed and impressive, and we also made our way to the Japan section, even though we just came from the real thing a few days ago.  There were so many interesting exhibits, but my favorites were the Ramses II statue, a statue from Easter Island, and also we could see a big piece of the Rosetta Stone. Those Brits are real collectors!

We had pretty tired feet by the end of that, so we stopped at a pub right outside the museum to recharge ourselves with beer.  They had an interesting toilet that was located underground beneath the ground-level pub.  While I was in there I noticed a big poster to give information to people about premature ejaculation and new treatments that were available.  I was startled later when Kuniko mentioned that the same poster was in the women’s bathroom.  Interesting conversation ensued!

Next stop was Piccadilly Circus, where we went to afternoon tea at a hotel restaurant called “Brumus”.  Kuniko had found out about it in her Japanese guidebook, and since we had made a reservation the previous day it was easy to get a table.  We had dressed up a bit compared to our usual casual attire, but we needn’t have bothered – almost every other customer in there was dressed extremely casually.  I sensed the atmosphere was a little different from what Kuniko expected, but we still had a great time and really enjoyed the champagne, tea and snacks.  The food was especially well chosen to match the tea and champagne, and it was nice to eat upscale for a change.  Among the bite-sized dishes we enjoyed were lobster rolls, cherry tomatoes filled with chutney, and scones with jam and clotted cream.  It was a very impressive meal!

Once again we were a little tired after all the tea (and champagne) so we made it back to our hotel for a late afternoon nap.  I was really happy with the location of our hotel – being near King’s Cross station made transportation all over London a snap.  One bad point was that there was a playground nearby, so the kids would run around screaming and freaking out during the afternoon, which cut into our nap time a little.

After our short sleep in the room we decided to keep dinner local, and we walked a little to the southwest to visit a pub that was more out-of-the-way than some of the touristy ones we’d been to already.  This pub was definitely a local’s place, with gruff owners and lots of people talking with friends both inside and out.  We had roast lamb and chicken mushroom pie, along with our cold beers.  I liked the atmosphere of the place, kind of like what you imagine a local pub to be like.  Quite a bit different from Applebee’s!

After the heavy dinner we decided to be active and take the train to see the night versions of Big Ben and the houses of Parliament.  The subway system served us well again – we took the Circle Line around to Westminster.  The advertisements in the tube stations were really well done.  Some had big digital screens with interesting video ads; others were simple eye-catching displays along the escalator.  We even saw an ad for Martin Freeman playing Richard III in a play in London – not just a hobbit anymore.

We arrived on the river Thames and walked across it to a little park where we could observe the buildings as darkness fell.  Unfortunately darkness was falling a little slower than we expected, and it was a little cool while we waited on the park bench.  More opportunity for us to snuggle, though! It finally became dark enough for them to turn on the lights around 8:45 pm, and we were finally rewarded for our patience. I could take a few pictures, and then we walked on.

On our walk to Victoria station we passed Westminster Abbey and it appeared that there was some kind of big event going on.  There were many men and women in various military uniforms all lined up on the street to go inside, and later we found out that the night was the hundredth anniversary of the first World War.  The media was there as well, covering the event and taking pictures of some of the Royals inside.

Back at King’s Cross station we did a little shopping for juice and waters for the next morning, and I lined up at the local convenience store, M&S (Marks and Spencer).  A little pudgy kid bypassed the line and went all the way to the front.  He even looked over at me standing in the front of the line, but still put his items in front of the cashier.  Luckily the cashier sent him to the back of the line, but I was really surprised that the kid tried that move.  Most stores in London had a great system where the first person in line had only to wait for a digital sign to flash saying which number register was available, and then you just walked up to it.  You didn’t have to check the progress of each of the registers to determine when they would be available.  It was a nice system that let you turn off your brain, and I’m all for it happening more often in Japan.

Finally we made our way back to the hotel to conclude the day.  We’ve been really active out on the street, so we’re coming home tired every night.  That’s got to be a good thing considering the calories we’re taking in!

I’m not sure if it was because of the time difference, or if it was because we are used to getting up early, but we both found ourselves up and awake around 5 a.m. the next day.  We decided to go ahead and explore some of the famous sightseeing spots of London while it was early, and we rolled out of the hotel around seven in the morning. We took the tube to Victoria station, and from there walked east past Westminster Abbey to Big Ben and the houses of Parliament.  On the way we were asked by some other tourists if we could help them find something, so I guess we looked like we knew what we were doing. We spent several hours walking around the area taking in the sights – Buckingham Palace, the Guards Barracks, some beautiful parks, a cottage next to a pond with pelicans swimming everywhere.  Finally we ended up at Trafalgar Square, and it reminded me of my previous visit, and how many pigeons there were at the time.  Now it seemed like they had the pigeon population under control.

We felt a little hungry after walking so much, so we decided to go for breakfast, and found a nice little restaurant called La Roche, down the street from the Square near some theaters.  We both ordered coffee and a full English breakfast, and I reacquainted myself with the traditional eggs, bacon, sausage, tomatoes, beans and toast.  Just as before, the first one is really good and makes a big impression, but after 3-4 of these in a row they get to be a bit much.

After breakfast we were ready to get walking again, and we walked clear to Piccadilly Circus, then along the shopping streets until we reached Green Park, and sat on the lawn under some trees and took in the beautiful weather.  There was sun shining in London, and it was nice to see the good weather, especially considering the last time I was in London it was only gray and cloudy.  Green Park was filling up with people cutting across to go check out Buckingham Palace, and we realized that we missed a lot of crowds with our very early start.

Our next stop was a hotel that specialized in afternoon tea service, so we made a reservation for the following day, and then made our way to Covent Garden.  Unfortunately we arrived before noon, and apparently noon is the time when all the stores open and the pubs start serving alcohol (at least on Sunday).  We killed a little time in a pub sipping on a mango juice drink, and then at noon all the stores opened and we could do some shopping.

It was apparent that the weather was going to be on the cool side during our stay in London, and Kuniko had forgotten to bring some cool weather clothing.  I wanted to get some socks since I didn’t see many opportunities for flip-flops in London (and as it turned out, elsewhere either).  Even though the sun was shining and we had blue skies, it was just a bit cold.  We found what we needed at a couple of stores in the area, and then we stopped at a pub for beers and a small snack to serve as our lunch.  The pub had “jacket potatoes” on the menu, and we picked one flavor, BBQ pork, and it was interesting.  It was just a regular baked potato with different fillings that you could choose.  I’m not so sure BBQ is a good match for this dish, but it was fun to try it out.

By this time Kuniko was starting to get pretty tired, so we headed back to the hotel to take a break and get some rest.  I made a reservation through the internet for our dinner at a place called Tom’s Kitchen in South Kensington.

Before heading to the restaurant we walked over to Harrod’s department store to walk through their food sections.  They had some pretty exotic stuff, and we marveled at the caviar bar where you could sit and enjoy various types of caviar.  A little rich for us, but maybe next time! We arrived at our restaurant a bit early for our reservation, so we sat in an adjacent park and watched families playing outside in the beautiful weather.  One thing I did notice more than last time in London was the abundance of public parks and areas to sit and relax.  I guess I don’t see them as much in our area of Japan.

I enjoyed the dinner – I had pork belly, and Kuniko had fish and chips.  She was a little disappointed in the presentation – it was served in a modern style, but I think she was hoping for something a little more traditional.  The food was a little pricey here for what we got, so overall we weren’t too thrilled with the place.

We were both pretty whipped after the big day, so we headed directly back to our hotel for some much needed rest.

We got a very early start in the morning, thanks to not being able to find a cab to drive us to Nishi Akashi station.  Instead we drove our car to Kobe airport, parked there, and took a ferry across to the Kansai Airport.  We had done something similar before when we went to Taiwan, so we were already familiar with the procedure.  The parking is unlimited and free, so that was a big plus.  It was also nice to be able to drive and stay cool and dry on a rainy day like today.

We arrived at Kansai airport on time, did a quick and easy check-in at the counter of Air China, and then breezed through immigration and security.  Usually our routine is to have a pre-trip cocktail, but seven in the morning is a little too early even for us. We substituted coffee and a hot dog, and then caught the two and half hour flight to Beijing.

When we arrived at Beijing I was surprised by the amount of air pollution. We had been to Beijing before for a weekend trip and were lucky enough to have blue skies and clear weather, which I understand now to be sort of a rarity.  Since we had about three hours to kill before our next flight, we hit the bar for draft McKilney beers (something a little hard to find in Japan) and an appetizer of sausages wrapped in bacon.  Getting that big calorie hit right up front!

The next flight to London was a little bumpy but no big problems.  Most of the passengers were noisy, so it was a little hard to sleep.  I spent most of the time watching movies, but I did get an hour or two of sleep. The food wasn’t bad, actually.  This was our first time on China Air, so I didn’t really know what to expect.

Arrival in Heathrow was followed by a very long walk to the immigration and customs areas.  It seemed like we walked for 20 minutes, with the occasional help from the people mover runways.  The immigration booths were pretty empty and there was no waiting for us to pass through.  Our immigration officer looked a little bored and chit-chatted with us as we went through.  He asked about our jobs and teased me that the correct spelling of “labor” is actually “labour”.  Even though immigration was quick, picking up our suitcases took a long time.  The system at Heathrow airport is automated so that if the carousel is full, no new suitcases will come out.  That means that you can either wait for passengers to pull off their bags, or the passengers can arrange and sort the bags already on the carousel so that there is space available for new bags.  It was a strange system, and it took maybe 30 minutes to get our bags and get out of there.

From the airport we caught a train on the Piccadilly Line using our Oyster cards that I had sent away for previously.  It was nice to be back on the London Underground.  We put our suitcases next to us and had a peaceful journey into town.  I was enjoyed the landscape as we went along – it was very green and all the houses and villages we passed looked very British.  It was Kuniko’s first time to see the landscape, so I thought it was a good way to get a first impression of England.  We arrived at King’s Cross station after about an hour.  My only previous experience with King’s Cross station was 14 years ago when my father and uncle and I traveled in England, and we had passed the station to rent a car.  I still have a vivid memory of some drunken homeless guy puking all over the pavement outside the station.  Luckily there wasn’t a repeat episode, and we could find out hotel without much trouble.   We stayed in the Montana Excel Hotel, on a street with a little row of hotels.  It was a pretty small hotel, and we were on the third floor, so we had to lug our bags up the narrow stairs, and pull them down the narrow hallway and into our narrow room.  The room was a bit smaller than we are used to, but we are very flexible about things like that, and we settled in quickly.

We thought it would be good to go out and find a pub for a bite to eat and some beers, so we backtracked to the station and found one in the back of the station.  It was next to “Platform 9 3/4”, of Harry Potter fame.  The station had built a little photo opportunity area, and there were a huge amount of people lined up waiting to take a picture there.  We didn’t feel like waiting so we passed and went right into the Parcel Yard pub.  We managed to find a table away from other patrons and I ordered us a couple of pints.  At our table we also ordered some food, and had a very nice beef pie that came with excellent mashed potatoes, and also we had some chickpea croquettes that were delicious.

Even though we had picked a table away from the crowds a large group of British guys took the big table next to us, and started carrying on.  They also had come in past the long line of tourists at the Platform 9 3/4, and one guy loudly said the line was “full of Chinks”.  His friends belatedly looked over, saw Kuniko, and tried to get the guy to shut up.  I pointedly looked over and caught one of the guys’ eyes, and he flushed with embarrassment.  I think they were all pretty ashamed, but no apologies.  We didn’t really care so much, and later I explained the situation to Kuniko who hadn’t noticed at all.  I guess there are racists wherever you go.

Anyway, after dinner we were feeling the effects of all that travel, so we headed back to the hotel and went straight to bed.  It was a big first day!

Yesterday I did my last production lesson before the holidays, and today and tomorrow are packed with lots of individual lessons for students. I’m starting to get items together to pack for the trip, and we’ve got just a few tiny items to buy before we go. The house is clean, the bottle of champagne is in the fridge for when we return from our trip, and we are just about ready to go.

As for Kuniko, she also has a busy schedule leading up to departure, but I think this is usually the case. Friday night when she gets home late will be the first chance for her to really relax in a very long time.

During this week I’ve been riding the exercise bike every night, and it sure makes me sleep soundly, even in this heat. I wake up every morning with pleasantly sore legs. Hopefully all that leg exercise will pay off while we are walking all over London next week.

Well, one thing that is very nice about going back to work is the abundance of air conditioning. Last week I was at home most of the time and I think I was running one air conditioner or another for almost 24 hours a day. It is nice to let my company pick up the bill this week.

I’m enjoying my classes this week. My students are telling me about their holidays and I’m trying to get them speaking as much as possible before I leave them for two weeks to go on my own holiday.

During this week I am also casually planning my next term with the person in charge of English classes for next term. I’m trying to make sure I have enough time to plan lessons and do a good job for each of my students and also to teach as many classes as possible. Working out that balance is important to my mental health over the term, so I hope we get it right.

One change next term is that I think I’ll have a chance to teach a business English writing class, which is something I haven’t done for this company yet. I’m really looking forward to making up a curriculum and getting started with some motivated students!

Today is Friday, it is 7:58 am, and I’m relaxing at home.  This past week has been a holiday week for me, and I think I’ve used my time wisely.

Firstly, this past week has been brutally hot.  The rainy season is long gone and so now we get the all the humidity with none of the clouds, and each day I’ve tried to go out only in the early mornings.  Still, it is over 30 degrees even at 7 am, and the humidity is right near 90%.  That means a wet T-shirt after about five minutes of walking around.

Mainly I’ve been doing tasks and things that I have been meaning to do for a long time but had no chance.  Scanning photos, organizing the home server, preparing for our trip, reading books and watching movies, cooking interesting meals, and playing video games.  It has been great!

Today I’ll go into Kobe to buy some currency and some other items for the upcoming trip,  and I’m sure it’ll be  very hot there, too.  Luckily most people will be at work so the crowds should be reasonable.  I’ll have to figure out what to get for lunch…

Tomorrow Kuniko has the day off, and then she’ll go to work on Sunday.  Then I’ll just have to do one week of classes and we’re off.  We’re traveling through China this time, and I’ve heard that there are a lot of delays these days, so hopefully it won’t affect our schedule too much.  We’ve built in a short buffer, just in case, but who knows?  Maybe a hotel in Beijing or Shanghai is in our future?

There is nothing quite like a Friday before nine days off. Even better, I only have to work five days out of the next thirty, so I should have a lot more time than what I am used to.

The reason for the next nine days off is a little complex, actually. Next Monday is a public holiday. Tuesday and Wednesday are holidays only for my company, as they are shutting down to save electricity. Companies in the area rotate these holidays to take pressure off the local utilities. Finally, Thursday and Friday are personal holidays for me – just a way to burn some of the holidays that I have saved up over the last few years.

I’ll go back to work on July 28th, and after that regular five day week we’re off to Europe for a two week vacation.

The timing of this upcoming long holiday is really quite helpful. I can organize for the trip, take care of all kinds of tasks that have added up, and also have plenty of free time to read, relax, and exercise. Maybe I’ll have some time to blog while I’m at it…

On Saturday I decided to make the trek out to Futami to walk around town and see what is new and what is the same. Turns out, most of it hasn’t changed much.

I started off taking the Sanyo Railway from Nakayagi station in the south part of Okubo, and it was a 15 minute ride to Higashi Futami station. The station looked the same, but the surrounding buildings seemed to have changed quite a bit. The area was pretty run down the last time I was there, but it seemed like things were improving a bit.

Then I continued on the local train to Nishi Futami station, and walked right into Ito Yokado. A few stores had changed, but really it was just about exactly how I remembered it. I walked through the supermarket, and it was surprising to see the selection. I remembered when Ito Yokado first opened and I walked through the supermarket thinking that I had died and gone to heaven. Up until Ito Yokado came, I was limited to a few basic groceries at a local supermarket, or a long trek north to Carrefour.

Now walking through the supermarket I felt like it didn’t have much compared to what we have access to in Okubo. No imported food store, no wine selection, no craft beer aisle. Sometimes I forget how good we have it.

After a thorough patrol of IY I walked outside and followed my old footpath back to my first home in Japan, the teacher apartments next door. They looked just as old and depressing as I remember, and it looked like my old place was occupied. I didn’t hang out too long, though, and headed down the street to visit the Denya yakitori.

At the yakitori I was the only customer, but I did arrive a bit on the early side. The master was surprised and seemed happy to see me, and we talked about his new situation. He got re-married in March, and his new wife has a junior high school age son from a previous marriage, which makes the master a step father. Also, his wife is pregnant and is due later this year, so he has a son on the way as well. He’s a busy guy!

He called some of the Denya regulars and three of the old gang showed up to drink and talk with me. It was a lot of fun to catch up with them, and we spent an hour or so eating, drinking and talking about old times. They gave me a lift back to Tsuchiyama station, so it worked out pretty well for me.

The rest of the weekend was spent in our usual pattern – resting up at home watching movies. It was a rainy, muggy day outside, so it was perfect for us to relax indoors. We didn’t even go shopping – instead drawing from our pantry stores. Kuniko even squeezed in a nap.

This week I have a pretty standard schedule, but I’m looking forward to the end of the week because I’ll kick off nine days off in a row. It should be rainy on and off this week but Kuniko said she’s driving to work every day, so I should be sheltered from some of the rain. Sounds like an easy week!

We’ve been crunching through this week, keeping busy at work and dealing with rain on the commute just about every day. The humidity has been brutal, and with the oncoming typhoon the weather was pretty unpredictable.

The typhoon weakened significantly as it hit Kyushu, so by the time it got near us it was just a storm, the wind had pretty much died down, and it passed well to the south of us. Crisis averted!

Now we’re just about to the weekend, and we’ve got different plans for Saturday. Kuniko is working during the day and then she’ll go out to dinner with her friend Kori in the evening. I’m considering a pilgrimage to Futami to revisit some of my old haunts.

Next week will be the last work week before I get a whole week off, so it should be an easy run. I’m still working on what I should do with all that time off…

On Saturday night we invited over a couple of my former students for a Mexican dinner. Both of them are quite young, one of them is my coworker in the same department, and I wanted to thank him for taking care of me the last year.

They seemed to really like the carnitas that we served, and after they saw my music setup they were excited to play some of their own music from their iphones over the stereo system. It was kind of like they were guest DJs, and it was fun to listen to some new music.

One thing that was a little odd was that they were really caught up in their smartphones during the evening, and sometimes Kuniko and I were left to just look at each other and roll our eyes when they got distracted by some email message, social network post, or a blog post. Kuniko and I both enjoy our smartphones, but these guys were locked in.

Still, it was a good night, and they enjoyed some cocktails made in our kitchen and headed home at a reasonable hour. One of them was off to Singapore the next day on business, so it was early to bed for him.

Sunday was spent completely indoors watching movies and eating leftovers, and then it was back to work on Monday. I had totally forgotten that I had to attend a mental health seminar that is compulsory for all third year employees. Even though I’ve been working there for longer than three years, I have only been an official employee at the company for three years, so my time had come.

There were about a hundred attendees, and the seminar was given by a very nice guy who is a professor at a university in Osaka. I wasn’t impressed with the organization of the presentation and materials, and it felt like way too much information crammed into two and a half hours. I teach how to do presentations (in English) for a living, so I wanted to give this guy some pointers. However, everyone worked hard to make things easy for me. One of the medical staff gave me an English version of some of the handouts, and even the lecturer stopped by to check on me and see how everything was going. We did some pair work once or twice and luckily I had a former student as a partner and he tried his best to speak in English during our discussion.

In the end I think that it was probably not such a great use of our time, but it had to be done to satisfy the human resources department. Maybe my stress level will go up in the future and the information may become more meaningful.

Tonight Kuniko got roped into attending an informal wine tasting at a French restaurant in Kobe. She’s not a big fan of French wine, and she’s already pretty tired out on Tuesday, so I think she’ll probably be home early tonight. I’ll be digging into the leftovers trying to clear some space in our fridge.