Adventures of Trent & Jane

 We decided to stay in Narita the night before our flight. Jane found some shops etc that she wanted to check out. Flight from Naha was late, train too far, cab! The Richmond Hotel Narita (where does she find these western named places?) is comfy but definitely a Japanese hotel. Quaint little room, small bath/shower and the ubiquitous bidet. A thought occurred to Jane the other day, ‘we should have documented all the different toilets and bidets we have seen in our travels’, or maybe not. I thought we should have brought samples of toilet paper from all the places, I guess we have our minds in the toilet a little too much! The town is different than you expect. The airport is close so I guess we expected something like a commercial hotel filled tourist void. It is no such thing. It’s quaint, clean, older than expected and really quite lovely on a snowy morning. There is a great market street, a beautiful temple/shrine and a lot of eel restaurants. You can watch them kill, gut and p...

 Another bus ride, this time a local. Lots of stops but we get to see the south side of Okinawa. Not unpleasant but a bit long. We arrive at Renaissance Hotel on the coast and jump the resort bus to the Nikko Alivila, our home away from home. Nice property but at this time of year there are some repairs being done, that said, the pool is empty.  The room is large and has good amenities. We are on the beach and the weather is good. There are a number of restaurants but the hours take a little getting used to. Sunny days and a lie on the beach. We got restless though and decided to walk to the Point Zanpa Lighthouse, about 30 minutes. We took the beach route which proved a little more difficult, not all sand and shells. There is a lot of coral washed up and much of the ‘beach’ is made of lava rock, slick if there is sea grass growing on it. We made it though. The lighthouse isn’t really all that special but it gave us a purpose to walk. It is near the Mercure Hotel, a sister res...

 We landed in Okinawa and was greeted at the airport by 100+ orchids , definitely knew we were in the subtropics .    We then caught the monorail to our hotel on Kokusai street , also known as the shopping street.  It is a great area to explore with many shops and markets selling everything from souvenirs to high end clothes to fresh vegetables, fish and meat.   We had a great seafood lunch that we cooked over the burner! We wandered the area extensively, found a lot of nice things, some weird things and a lot of restaurants. Apparently tacos are big here but we found the closest taco emporium closed. It a busy place, especially since they close the street on Sunday afternoons to create a walking mall. There are musicians about and some restaurants advertise music in the evenings. The castle is calling. Time to view the 14th century castle that housed the early independent kingdom of Ryukyu. Okinawa became officially a part of Japan in 1879. It is an extensiv...

After one last ski day, a lovely day at Iwatake, we make ready to hit the road again. There was lots of fresh powder and sunshine and not very busy. Managed over 2000 metres vertical in a couple hours. Apres Ski we relax, Jane hits the onsen then dinner of Shabu Shabu with Wagyu beef. Shabu means wash, so you wash the meet and veggies in hot water, delicious! We also made a number of new friends. Terry and Angela from Squamish. A fun couple. And Olly, a nice young bloke from Australia. Moving day.  Pay the hotel bill, catch our cab and to the bus! It’s about 1.5 hours on the bus to the train station, then on to Tokyo once more. We are going to meet Ying and Juan in Tokyo for lunch. The ride is fine, Shinkansen are great. And the country is quite lovely. At Tokyo Central station we connect with Ying and Juan. Lunch is calling, we have a nice visit and lunch. Tokyo in daylight, especially in an area we are not familiar with is a little overwhelming. Lots of people but maybe that’s be...