Blogs from Chiba, Japan, Asia

After yesterday's long excursion, we decided to have a lazy, local day today. I've been intending to walk to the canal nearby: it's only about 3 blocks behind this building, in a direction we've not explored yet, but I was thinking I might then turn left and follow the canal about 2km down to the coast. I'm not sure if it's a beach or a port or what kind of waterfront there is down there, but it shouldn't be too far to walk and find out. So out loud, today's plan was to see the canal, but in my head I was also thinking, "and maybe walk to the sea." We had a nice leisurely get-up, with breakfast and coffee and a bit of reading and then some research for tomorrow, and meanwhile Stephen started doing ... read more

It had to be done. We weren't really sure if it was for us these days, but how would we know if we didn't try it? We'd seen the old one, a long time ago, but now there's a new one. Is it better? Or is it the same, and we're old, so it's the same old, same old? Today we went to Tokyo Disneyland. Except not Disneyland, exactly, but its newer, younger more up-to-date version, Tokyo Disneysea. Built in the same general area, and these days surrounded by Disney Resorts and Hotels. As I have mentioned, until yesterday it has been a summer holiday period for many businesses here, but today was back to normal - although it's still summer holidays for schools. And I suppose there could have been more than a few people ... read more

On the way home last night, Stephen pointed out that our plan to alternate local and long trips was somewhat meaningless, as both are pretty exhausting, since both involve walking several kilometres to, from, between and around stations, not to mention the walking at the destination. He said he'd just like to have a day at home today. So that's what we've done. I privately resolved to walk to the canal, and maybe to the sea, depending on the weather, as a way to explore the local neighbourhood, but then when morning came, it was a drab, drizzly day. A fine, misty rain, although not particularly cold. I put aside my thoughts of a walk to the canal, but suggested we walk to the supermarket we found the other day, in order to get something for ... read more

Another good night's sleep. After an exhausting morning of showering, breakfasting and reading, we were both ready for a nap before heading out. There were no time constraints today, although we were expecting today's trip to take at least an hour one way. We thought we'd break the trip somewhere along the way for lunch, since we had two changes of train and therefore we had no reason to leave until close to a lunch-like time. Two days ago in Tokyo Station, we saw a poster advertising an Art Museum in Chiba with some names of some artists we like (Monet, Chagall, Renoir). We looked it up and found it wasn't too far, and that it would be open today (we checked because it's a holiday, one of several new ones instituted by the government a ... read more

7 August, 8.30pm (but posted at 3.30pm the following day. Still having problems getting photos up tho, sorry.) Well, we’re here. We’ve been looking forward to this for so long, and the day finally arrived. We had three alarms set to get us up before 4 this morning, and they all worked, and we got up fine. Showers, final items in the bags, check everything, close and lock the suitcases… oops, the old one looks a bit broken. Oops, the old one has a 6-inch hole in the bottom seam. Oops, we have to find another bag and throw everything into it, now! Luckily we had another bag, a bigger one, so that was fine. We just got a bit behind on time, so no breakfast. The taxi got to the pickup spot before we did ... read more