This page is about Ramblings of the geographical type
February 3rd, 2012
I really need to find this pattern!!!
I’ll just put on my thinking cap and get right back to you…
January 25th, 2012
(Source: just-keep-going-on, via cocon-ut-bliss)
November 5th, 2011
Taking a break in the shade with Oxalis and Dianella.
I’m trusting this pretty pink oxalis not to take advantage of my guarded welcome and admiration. My idea is that it will spread in the occasional spot around the place with no rampant exhibitions carpeting and smothering metre upon metre like the wicked New Zealand Christmas Bells or Tradescantia.
October 7th, 2011
Bog Garden
September 11th, 2011
Journey up into the tree house.
Also bit of an epic achievement due to aforementioned…recovering broken leg.
September 11th, 2011
Exiting the local supermarket…point being….supermarket entry/exit exceedingly dull….view upon exit….always a joy…well more trees would have been nice….but they left long ago.
September 5th, 2011
Journey to the clothesline.
Explanation may be required: this is a bit of an epic journey as I’ve been incapacitated with a broken leg for several months.
September 5th, 2011
April 4th, 2010
April 3rd, 2010
Day 1: Arrive Narita: check in, wander around, eat and look for nightlife
Arrived Narita Airport 8.20 pm. Cleared customs quickly and waited outside airport for hotel shuttle. There are signs showing where to wait for your respective shuttle. We had to wait for quite a while. Long enough to get to know a bit about another couple who were on the same flight and going to the same hotel.
If we had read the sign we might have realised that the hotel shuttle schedule is a bit intermittent. Given the evening arrival it might have been worth catching the train from the airport into the Narita-Kesei station.
We were to stay at the Mercure Hotel Narita. A modern hotel located in Narita town itself. There are a few hotels out near the airport but we wanted to walk around after arriving and didnt want to have to catch train back out to airport hotels afterwards.
Rate of Y$12500 included accommodation of maximum two people with buffet breakfast with a choice of Japanese and Western Style food. We enjoyed the breakfast. The hotel was bland but clean and room was, of course, small.
We booked this hotel through Wotif but it’s worth checking directly with the hotel itself and other online accommodation sites such as Japanican, Rakuten and Agoda as there are often different packages available.
The area the hotel is located is convenient to walk around the historic Ometesando Street area and an easy distance to the sights of Narita and the JR and Keisei Station
Many travelers give Narita a miss and head straight for Tokyo. I think that Narita was a really good introduction to a different side of Japan that you wouldn’t experience if only staying in the big cities.
Getting Something to Eat:
Ometesando Street is a traditional shopping street with a style still of the Edo period. When we arrived there were many Japanese restaurants still open but we took so long to decide that when we did they were close to closing. Need to choose from pictures and choose carefully - as not much English speaking here. Surprisingly,for a town with a major international airport, most traditional restaurants weren’t geared for the English speaking tourist. I accidently ended up with a half cabbage lightly grilled on a hotplate. I wasn’t sure of what approach to take with it given that I had only a set of chopsticks to wield.
Unfortunately I had yet to replace my camera so I cant show you our bemused faces and tasty cabbage half.
As I had no pictures of my I own for Narita I had to source these pictures from:
http://www.mustlovejapan.com/subject/narita_omotesando/
After eating, as it was a Saturday night, we went looking for some night life.
It can be expensive to just wander into establishment in Japan as there may be a cover charged that can be applied to the cost of the first drink you buy. Alcohol is not cheap in Japan to begin with. I did some googling first to see where the places I might want to try were located. There were a few in the area.
It was late by the time we got round to paying a visit
Here are a two places we went to in the area:
Barge-Inn, on Omote-sandō - a big ‘British Pub”
Although getting late this place was large and lively.
We didn’t eat there so cant comment on the food.
The JetLag Club - cant remember where we found this small bar but it is described in several places in the www as being about 50 yards from The Barge Inn.
Full of plane memorabilia and according to flytalk legend the Belgian owner Vince is an ex pilot and the place is popular with airline crew on stop-overs.
This place had a lot of character but it was near to closing time and we were the only customers there and felt a too tired to be chatty with the owner and staff.
At the time of writing the last review of Jet Lag Club spotted was October 2010 so presume the place is still going. The www.jetlagclub.com address appears to have no relationship to the bar.
Here’s some links to nightlife discussions :
Jet Lag Club: Airline crew pit stop
and night-life as well as Narita in general
