“Japan 2024 trip - Sept 2-4”

Japan 2024 trip - We took a tour of Japan operated by Inside Japan, Sept 2-18, 2024

 

9-2-24 8:30 am

We are at SFO, in the United Business class Polaris lounge restaurant waiting for a light breakfast. 

The last several days have been hectic. We were scheduled to depart 8-31-24, but heard about a typhoon hitting Japan so we delayed our trip.  I spent a lot of time on the phone & email to change reservations for our flight, transportation from the airport in Osaka to our hotel in Kyoto, and changing arrival date at the hotel.  Another concern is that the weather in Kyoto and the other places we are going will be hot - 85 degrees & humid has been another concern.

Marge at SFO Polaris Lounge

Flight: Our flight was only about 1/3 full.  I had read that a lot of people would be traveling over Labor Day which is today, so I was thinking the airport and flights would be crowded.  I’m pleasantly surprised that there wasn’t much traffic to the airport and that there aren’t many people on our flight.

9-3-24 Osaka/Kyoto 

We landed in Osaka in the early afternoon, and were able to find our transportation to the hotel in Kyoto exactly where our instructions had directed us.  The hotel is in Kyoto, which was about a 1.5 hr drive.  Normally, the driver from Osaka has several passengers going to different hotels, but we were the only passengers, so we were driven directly to our hotel in Kyoto.

The hotel is located in a very good area in terms of restaurants and shopping, yet our room on the 9th/top floor is quiet because we don’t hear any noise from the street.

We had dinner at a restaurant named Chao Chao, which Pat & Dick recommended from their trip in April.  We were glad that we had that recommendation because it was about a block away, was very good, and we didn’t have to do any research.  We were really tired from the flight so having a restaurant recommendation made it easy.

9-4-24 Kyoto all day

The weather prediction for today is a high temperature of 89 degrees & humid, starting around 75 after breakfast.  

We were able to meet with our tour guide after breakfast and he pointed out some places that might be interesting.  

We had wanted to check out the oldest sweet shop in Kyoto, but when I checked the hours for Wednesday, I saw that they were closed.  We decided to go check out the food floor at a big department store, so we set off for Daimaru.  When we were Tokyo years ago, we discovered that big department stores have a food floor with lots of food stalls, including my favorite- pastry stalls.

Our course took us along a covered street known as Nishiki Market, full of food stalls, but most didn’t open until 10 am, and we were walking through at 9:30 am.  I had read that the prices in Nishiki were inflated, so no loss. 

Here’s a photo of Nishiki. Normally, it would probably be very crowded, but not before 10 am

 

On our walk, we passed a Lawsons convenience store and went in to check out their food. Convenience stores like Lawsons & 7-11 carry a lot of tasty foods like sandwiches, sushi, etc. Here’s a photo of some tempting sandwiches & sushi:

At Daimaru, I had a couple of my favorite Japanese sweets called manju.

Daimaru also has restaurants in the top floor, so we shared a bowl of ramen for an early lunch.

After lunch, it was 85 degrees, but it was only a 16 minute walk back, so we walked. Luckily, the sidewalks on the way were shaded by big overhangs. There is a Uniglo store a block from our hotel, so we went in.  Marge bought an Airism top and I bought sleep shorts.  

This afternoon it was 89 degrees, so thankfully we are resting in our room. 

Tonight we treated our tour guide, Van, out to dinner.  He took us to an izakaya, where we had a number of small dishes.  Here are some photos:

 

      Small bites                                                                       sashimi

 

                                                     Tour guide Van with small bites

Van & Marge had several glasses of what were probably very good sake, which is probably why the meal cost $90.

Grand Tetons & Yellowstone May 2023

Since I retired from my law practice in January 2023, I have wanted to do more road trips. 

This is a write up of our trip to the Grand Teton mountains in Jackson, Wy and Yellowstone, 5-21-23 to 6-5-23, just over 2 weeks.

Our first stop was South Lake Tahoe where I had a Probate Referee Convention on May 21 and 22nd.  

We departed South Lake Tahoe late morning on the 22nd, and stopped for the night in Wells, Nevada, about a 6 hr drive including charging stops.  I picked Wells only because that is the town in Nevada where you have to turn north to head towards Jackson, Wyoming and the Grand Teton mountains.  If you haven’t heard of Wells, you haven’t missed anything.

After Wells, we stopped to charge in Twin Falls, Idaho, where I took this photo of the bridge over the Snake River.  I just missed getting a shot of base jumpers, people with parachutes, jumping from the bridge and landing on the bank of the river.

I realized that we had an extra day before our stay at the Jackson Lake Lodge started, so we stopped for a night in Driggs, Idaho. This is a cute little town on the other side of the mountains from Jackson, Wyoming.   The business area of the town is about 3 blocks long.

On our way to Driggs, we suddenly encountered a hail storm which quickly covered the road with hale; fortunately we were able to drive through without problems, but it made a great photo:

In Jackson, Wyoming, we stayed 3 nights at one of our favorite hotels, the Jackson Lake Lodge.  It has a gorgeous view of the Grand Teton mountains, and is a very nice hotel.

Here are some photos around Jackson

Our toast on the patio of our cabin on our 1st night

A view of the mountains from our cabin at sunset on a cloudy evening

The Lodge has a great view of the mountains from the great room

Waiting for dinner at the Lodge

No trip to the Tetons would be complete without a photo of the old Moulton’s barn with the Tetons in the background

A stream next to the barn

Here’s a photo from Signal Mountain, near Jackson Lake

Wild flowers near the Tetons

A small frozen lake on the way to Yellowstone

After our stay at the Jackson Lake Lodge, we headed to West Yellowstone for one night. I picked West Yellowstone for our 1st night near the park because I wanted to charge the car before our stay in the park.  West Yellowstone  has a Tesla supercharger right across the street from the hotel I picked.  The town also has more restaurants and better food than any restaurant in the park

On the way to West Yellowstone, we visited the geyser areas, including Old Faithful.  We saw it erupt, although the eruption wasn’t as high as we saw it the last time we were here many years ago.

Here’s a mineral hot pool with lots of colors

Another shot of the mineral pool

Another geyser area

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone #2

Our next stay was at the Lake Yellowstone Lodge, right in the middle of Yellowstone, on the shore of Lake Yellowstone. Here’s a photo of the hotel

The front of the hotel was a grazing area for this Bison

Here’s Marge watching an elk grazing in front of the hotel

Sunset with a rainbow at Lake Yellowstone

Marge getting ready to take a photo of a mountain sheep

The Lamar Valley is famous for wifdlife, like bison, wolves, coyotes & bears.  Here’s a herd of bison crossing the road

Hayden Valley is another area of Yellowstone that has lots of wildlife, and was not far from Lake Yellowstone.   We took a drive after dinner one night and got this photo of a herd of bison.  I liked how the grass was made vibrant by the evening sun, contrasted with the bison.

Hayden Valley #2

A reflection off of the Yellowstone River

I liked the contrast of this marshy area of the Lake with the cloudy sky

After Yellowstone, our next stop was Coeur d’Alene, Idahoe, however, to break up that drive, we stayed a night in Missoula, Montana.

We stayed two nights in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, so Marge could visit with her friend Kathy, who Marge has known since high school.

After Coeur d’Alene, our next stop was Klamath, Falls, Oregon, which is over halfway between Coeur d’Alene and Hayward.  It was about a 10 hr drive with nice scenery.

The trip was about 3200 miles and took 15 days.  We drove my Tesla because I can charge it for free at Tesla Super Chargers.  We were able to charge at Super Chargers the whole trip, except for our time at Lake Yellowstone, where I found a free charger about two blocks from the hotel.  When I drive, I use auto pilot which does a good job of driving the car, although I always have my hands on the steering wheel.  This allows me to relax a bit and enjoy the scenery.

Portugal

 We are going to Portugal, Mar 19 - Apr 1. 

Oregon coast road trip July 2021

I've been wanting to do a road trip to the Oregon coast.  We had planned to do this drive this past May, but since Oregon was under Covid lock down then, we limited that trip to the northern Calif coast - Fortuna, Ferndale & Eureka.   

Oregon was out of lock down by July, so we departed for Oregon on 7-6-21.  

Our 1st night was in Fortuna, CA at the Redwood Riverwalk Hotel which has a Tesla destination charger.  When we road trip, my preference is to stay at hotels that have a place to plug my car in so I have plenty of miles in the morning.  

We bought our current Tesla model S in late 2016 because I wanted to do more road trips and the care  came with free supercharging & autopilot. On road trips, I drive most of the time and use autopilot, which allows me to glance at the scenery (I keep both hands on the steering wheel in case the car does something stupid).  We stop to plug the car in at Tesla superchargers about every 100 miles, which allows us to go to the bathroom, have something to eat or drink and to walk around a bit.  With this relaxed schedule, I can drive for hours and not be exhausted when we arrive at our destination.

Our 2d night was in Port Orford in southern Oregon at a VRBO cabin.  I would have preferred staying in Bandon or Brookings, but there were no places available in either town.  Our VRBO cabin was brand new, and I think we might have been the 1st people to stay there.   The cabin was very nice, with new furnishings, and had a nice view of a nearby lake.   The nearby small town of Port Orford however was a big disappointment - there were a couple of seafood restaurants in town, but they were packed and we ended up just ordering fish & chips to go.

Our next 3 nights were at the Salishan Resort in Glenedon Beach, Or, which is about the middle of the Oregon coast.  The Salishan Resort is one of our favorite places to stay - the rooms are large and well furnished, it has Tesla destination chargers, there are several restaurants, the grounds are nicely landscaped, and it is surrounded by a golf course.  

The Oregon coast is green, pretty and cool but windy. There were many other travelers there, so restaurants were crowded.  In the larger towns along the coast we ran into stop & go traffic. There always seemed to be a cold wind blowing, so whenever we went for a walk I had to wear a couple of layers of warm clothes.  

Here's a photo of beaches I took while on a hike at Cape Lookout.

After our stay at the Salishan, we headed home, staying overnight in Crescent City, CA.  There is a Tesla supercharger not far from the hotel we stayed.  Although Crescent City is a decent sized town, it lacks many decent restaurants.  Fortunately, Marge found a good Mexican restaurant near the Tesla supercharger where we had a nice dinner.

Kyoto - Arashiyama temple & garden

These are photos from our visit to Kyoto. 

Sushi making

Here are some photos of a sushi making class we took.  We got to eat what we made, and it was good.

Kyoto - visit to Kyoto temples

Kyoto had a number of beautiful temples

I don't remember the name of this temple, but it had a lot of cherry trees in the courtyard.  I don't remember the explanation for the bright orange paint frequently used in temples, but the orange does make for nice photos.

The pond was full of cherry blossoms:

Here are photos of our meal:

This is a soup made with sweet azuki beans and mochi.  Japanese comfort food.

We had a series of dishes that were exquisitely arranged and were just as tasty:

These are photos of our visit to the Kinkaku-ji (the golden pavilion).  The golden color is from extensive use of gold leaf.  There were throngs of people, so we were lucky to be able to get some photos wo the hordes.

Better view of the Golden Pavilion:

We had dinner at a restaurant that specializes in Okonomiyake, similar to an omelette, but with a lot of filings, like cabbage, noodles, and bonito flakes, and cooked on a griddle in the middle of each table.  It's fun to watch as well as to eat.  Here are 3 of them in different stages of preparation.  After a while, the server turns them over to finish.

The Fushimi Inari Shrine is known for its thousands of red torii gates over a network of trails that run through a forest along the side of Mount Inari.  There were a lot of people so I had to be patient to get this photo.