sleepy tiger

On 19th July we visited Cambridge. As we travel to Bury St Edmunds to see parents-in-law, we used King’s Cross station and took the train for King’s Lynn. The weather wasn’t quite promising on 19th July; we both umbrellas and I wore a raincoat. As it was raining when we arrived at Cambridge station, we decided to catch the bus for the town centre. We saw the bus going was going through high streets, town centre, but realized that the bus didn’t seem to stop at the bus terminal and seemed to be going to outskirts of Cambridge. We got off at one of the Commons near the edge of the town centre. Having followed the maps and signs, we reached Fitzwilliam Museum on Trumpington Street. Like London’s British Museum, the building of Fitzwilliam Museum was ... read more

We visited Wisley Garden, Surrey on 17 July 2019. The last time we visited there was 2007; we’d heard that there had been a lot of extension work in the garden. We remembered taking South West train to Kingston and bus between Kingston and Wisley Garden. We were annoyed and confused with the announcement of South West train - …Freedom Pass, Oyster Cards are not valid on this train and you will be asked to pay for penalty faire if you fail to show the valid ticket… We got off at Vauxhall once and asked if we could travel to Kingston, Zone 6 with Oyster card. We were told by the railway staff that Oyster card would be valid for us to travel to Kingston. The train was also delayed by signal failure and it made ... read more

Exploring Kagurazaka There were several maps containing attractions in the neighbourhood at the hotel. We decided to visit Kagurazaka near Iidabashi station. We took the Sōbu (yellow train) line from Shinjuku. We got off at Iidabashi and used West Exit. We saw a lovely shopping street, Kagurazaka, soon after we left the station. Miyagi Michio Memorial Hall We planed visiting Miyagi Michio Memorial Hall. This museum was standing in the middle of the residential area. We paid ¥400 for the admission charge and started looking round exhibition rooms. We could hear his masterpiece ‘Haru no Umi (Spring Sea)’ playing in the exhibition rooms. Miyagi Michio is known as the composer and the distinguished ‘Koto’ performer. The exhibition rooms housed the outstanding 80-string Koto – reproduction of the instrument invented by Miyagi, Brail... read more

Hagi Domain Meirinkan School As we left the Hagi Grand Hotel Tenku, we walked down on Yoshida-cho Dori. We popped in the pottery shop and walked past historic buildings. It took approximately 25 minutes on foot from our hotel to Meirinkan School. We entered the ground from Kantoku Gate and started looking round Yūbikan Building. A volunteer guide was there and showed and explained to me that this wooden building was used for military training and tournaments with spears and swords and historic buildings e.g. South Gate, Suiren Pool and Meirin Gakusha on the site. Historic wooden building of Former Hagi Domain School looked beautiful from any angle. I was told that No.1 and No.2 buildings are designated as Tangible Cultural Property and these buildings were used as school fairly recently and have recently become the ... read more

Kaikyo Yume Tower We decided to go to Kaikyo Yume Tower, which is one of the landmark towers in Shimonoseki. We went to the reception to buy the tickets. The receptionist heard that I was telling Mark that the ticket was ¥600. She told me that the foreign national is half price; Mark was asked to pay ¥300. I told her that I’ve got British passport. She said, ‘Wow!’ And she asked me if I could show my passport. She asked me how I got British citizenship. I told her that I’d married to British husband and have been living in Britain for nearly 20 years, and became a British citizen in 2006. She asked me if I took the test. I told her that I managed to avoid the citizenship exam, which was introduced a ... read more