RWC 2019

11 Sept 2019 – 8 Nov 2019 · by shagga

Destinations

Narita International Airport, Japan

What can we say other than 1) #airnz you were like 💯 awesome, treated Kath like a rockstar for her birthday, even got the whole crew to sign a birthday card for her and a small gift ✈️👍 2)#jrnarita 🚅 staff couldn’t have been more helpful if they tried😊 3) even random people around the airport would stop out of the blue and say hi and can they help you😃 4) #hiltonnarita ..... wow! What a hotel and staff, free upgrade to their top “royal suite” on top floor, the checking guy was so stoked about gifting it.🏢 Back to the airport this morning to fly north to Sapporo and start to relax and enjoy😉
Sapporo, Japan

We finally arrived at our accommodation Hilton Narita before flying north next morning to Sapporo. On arrival as mentioned previously they upgraded us to the Royal Suite on floor 12. Had a very imperial style setting to it plus if you haven’t yet tried, it’s a must for shits and giggles...a Toto loo😳😂. Waking the next morning got to see what outside was like and to our surprise it was all forest and very green. There were signs below of the recent Typhoon that struck only a few days ago. We then headed back to airport for our flight north and couldn’t believe the structured boarding systems. They are strong on boarding order and give you an allocated row in terminal on your ticket and they call the number and you follow like sheep accordingly, fast and efficient that’s for sure. We had no idea of seat allocation and what plane was like but boy when we boarded we found out, like a 777-300 and we were in row 5 which is like business class (gotta love a travel agent when they arrange this stuff). The seats were able to fully extend to laying flat which was crazy for an internal flight but couldn’t complain at all. Once arrived in Sapporo got to our accommodation then headed out exploring for a bit and stumbled across its own version of our Hagley Park sort of. Kath in her own way took photos of random signs😊. The one thing you do notice straight away is the clean streets, no rubbish at all and can see why, forever taking pride in their surroundings. Today day 3 we are currently on route to Yoichi for a tour of Nikka Whiskey Distillery then back for lunch and a walk around the canals of Otaru. Up and away early to visit Nikka Whiskey Yoichi Distillery in a little township on the west coast of the Hokkaidō island. The main purpose of starting the trip up here was from an experience 3 years ago on Kohana’s school trip when at a location we stayed the host gave us an array of Japanese single malts to sample. Naturally there was one I took to, so studied it a bit more and then wanted to visit one day, and here we are now completing that goal. Set out on hectares of land which felt slightly smaller than a theme park, massive is an understatement. Warehouse after warehouse, kiln after kiln, tank after tank, building after building and so on. It would have been awesome to have an English tour guide but was only in Japanese, so we decided to venture around ourselves. Kath suggested that we should head straight to the tasting hall🤩, didn’t have to convince me twice! Was a great idea at 9:15am because by 9:30am the place was packed full of tour buses. All I can say is the place was an amazing experience and so worth the trip, samples taken away for the trip duration. Afterwards we made a quick relaxing stop at a very cool coffee shop for a refreshing break. Next stop on way back to Sapporo was Otaru which is a lovely town next to ocean and has some vibe about it with tourists. One location in particular is the canals and it’s restaurants. We took in lunch at a Japanese Charcoal BBQ place which was full of so many flavors. Quick walk around down near wharf area which was like any other wharf area where looks rundown. Finished off with a quite evening in-house. Saturday was sleep in for a little (6am lol) before sorting a plan of attack which included our make shift laundry day in bathroom. Plans changed quickly to just cruising the city area which turned out to be more a red light district and food bars and restaurants galore. Quick trip to 7th floor of a building to do Noria ferris wheel and get a city landscape perspective, felt like concrete walls to be honest from above but back on terra firma it had a vibe that made us want to go back that evening for the hustle and bustle of bright lights and experience the food. During the afternoon as per a previous post we took in a baseball game at the Sapporo Dome....what...an....experience that was and the atmosphere of the locals, loud and proud they were. Lasted nearly 4 hours and the amount of merchandise that was being purchased along the streets and in the dome by people was phenomenal. The seats were only 5 rows back from 1st base line so felt right close to action and were also seated above the away team. Unfortunately the locals lost that day but get another 2 chances to fix being a 3 game series. The subway ride to/from the game was crazy arse mad but so orderly, you just shuffle and move and eventually fill a spot like a piece of sand, funny enough though it never phased us. Just had to contend with Kath’s laugh when things were very quite😂. At end of the evening headed to a little food sake bar that seats 4 people on counter area, we were only ones in there for 90% of time. Had no idea what we were eating or ordering so said to owner to give us the chef special (by the way could speak a little English so made life entertaining) I personally love these little spots from past experience unlike the bigger venues with queues outside where they wait for someone to finish then go in. Kath has fallen in love with them now and understands why they are so much more intimate with the cook/owner with the personal touch, plus so much quieter. We thought we were getting a boil broth type main from some words we might have picked up him saying but turns out we had about 4 very small sample size dish’s (bout size of hard-boil egg holder). We kept waiting for the main so we kept on having sake😳 then he stepped outside for some more supplies so I stood up and looked at cooking area and to my surprise there was nothing being cooked...🙄 time to settle the bill before sake really kicked in. Today Sunday we are now on board first of our 3 trains heading to Aomori. Train 2 will take us under the ocean which will be something different. Sayonara for now
Aomori, Japan

Sapporo to Aomori As previously mentioned we had 3 trains to take, 1st was a reasonably paced train which took us to bottom area of Hokkaidō Island where we hopped on to our first of many Shinkansen bullet trains hitting speeds of 317km/hr at some points we measured. This took us to Shin-Aomori station via a tunnel which is 53.8 km long, 23.3 km of which lie under the Tsugaru Strait that separates Honshu the main Island from Hokkaidō. Construction of the tunnel began in 1964 and was completed in 1988. Lastly we caught a shit box train which thankfully was only 5 minutes so wasn’t too bad overall. Sunday it all seemed pretty quite when we arrived which was and felt like the old days in NZ where no one worked and spent time with families. We walked around for a bit taking in a triangle shaped building which had lots of information before settling into another cool little coffee shop for some refreshments. Later we explored around and unbeknown to us only 1 block away was the hustle and bustle and yip the peace and quite theory was soon gone. Monday was another quite day due to National Public Holiday for the over 60’s. We found on line a coffee shop that looked like did an awesome breakfast opening at 10am, we wondered around for a bit beforehand and stumbled across the fish type market we thought....yeah nah, was the best find we said to ourselves and flagged the coffee shop idea. It was a place called Nokke-Don which had lots of food stalls under one roof. The concept was to purchase 5 or 10 tickets at a counter and then collect a 1/2 filled bowl of rice then proceed to walk around looking at stalls and if wanted something it was either 1 or 2 tickets generally. We filled our boots with octopus, scallops, tuna, whitebait, egg, salmon eggs, white fish, salmon itself and mackerel. After all that we still needed a coffee but that place was still closed so thankfully we didn’t wait for a feed there and found another little shop. We needed to get some washing done so I managed to jimmy up a clothes line above our beds (very common in some places for large singles only and not double beds as per photo). The afternoon saw us walk 5km into the suburbs to no mans land where we visited the Aomori Museum of Art. All I can say is wow to the amazing pieces of work on display and the massive Aomori-Ken (dog) standing 8.5m tall and 6.7m wide. Tuesday was a day of shits and giggles and just rolling with the punches because we couldn’t change what was unfolding. We proceeded to hire from our hotel some electric bicycles. Now while they are power boosted and help out, there was still a fair amount of peddling to endure. We got the bikes and me not being a shorter Japanese person I raised the seat up and didn’t notice it was at its max point and beyond, sat on it and boom the seat comes off (I dear say it wasn’t the first time looking at it though). We spend the next 45 minutes on the footpath with hotel staff trying to piece this bloody thing back together with spanner and a hammer; bit if kiwi number 8 wire and some very black greasy hands and got it sorted leaving some parts off😂. We headed off and Kath goes your tyre looks flat (🤔) yip but luckily there was a garage over the road and they helped us get sorted before I kicked off the rear tail light which took another 10 minutes to fix.....all going great at this point I tell ya. Oh and that seat issue, as soon as we sat on it, it went straight to the bottom of its setting so we switched bikes which made for some very hard riding (for Kath). The plan was to bike out to the aquarium about 15+km away. Because these are powered you get to see your power that is left and they only gave us bikes with enough power to get there and back about 1km via some hills. We got about half way and stopped for a breather which happen to be a shrine. We parked up and locked the bikes, walked up, looked and came back down only to experience our next bike problem....damn lock on Kath’s bike wouldn’t unlock only because when we locked it the handle bars weren’t perfectly straight. After googling for videos and solutions Kath fluked unlocking it about 45 minutes later! Decided that yeah nah these bikes are jinxed and headed back to the hotel. We stopped for a ramen at a shop before arriving back and funny enough it was an omen we think as some fella walked in for a feed wearing a shirt saying “Bi-ke Service Systems”.....coincidence much🙄. The evenings and the foods we’ve tried have been breathe taking (in my opinion anyway aye Kath😉).
Sendai, Japan

Wednesday has seen us move on to Sendai again via Shinkansen. The best part and no regrets is purchasing the green 21 day JR pass, this allows you to reserve good seats and only 2 wide so lots of space, already paid for itself with a further 14 days to go on it before starting our second 21 day pass. Once we checked in just after 2pm to accommodation we quickly scoffed down an awesome pre made Kath salad that was very much needed then raced back to train station to catch a 3pm train and hour inland to a little town called Yamadera to go and visit Hojuzan Risshaku Temple. Sooooo a little mishap along the way which was my fault, I was writing this blog on the train and yeah well aye missed the stop and ended up at next station 9km away😳. Yes a stuff up on my part but like any old kiwi (well me) I made some friends within 3 minutes of being at the station which had no one there apart from some young couple pulled in to station I think getting their bearings. To paint a picture, there is nothing around....the end!😂 Anyway I went up to the car and asked if speak English and to my delight the young lady could a little. I explained our predicament and within a minute or two the young guy was moving stuff around in the car and she offered to take us back to our place to visit.....couldn’t thank them enough so flicked them about the only piece of kiwiana I had with us which was my coin bag plus slipped in some money which they never wanted anything to start with, really appreciative couple. Ok so we found where and what we had come to see and had to get our skates on because it was closing and we had 1 hour to climb the 1000 steps, take photos, soak up what we were witnessing and admiring. Only one word to describe this place......WOW....... I’ve never seen anything like it! It was so like the movie Kung Fu Panda🐼 The temples and history associated with it is amazeballs. We managed to get to the top in 20 minutes which was the lookout and known as Godai-do. We planted on the rock wall a coin for good luck plus a business card which was the thing to do as there were 1000’s of them. We soaked it all up and cruise back down at our pace still leaving time at the end. The best part was all the tour buses were leaving so we had the whole hill to ourselves, so peaceful and quite and still. It’s a place that makes you think twice about the rat race we all live in and why do we rush around like there’s no tomorrow, here it’s just take as it comes and nothings a problem. Loved every minute and would love to come back and visit again one day. Sendai Station is a one stop shop for trains, buses and taxis in one hit, busy, busy. Fnished off the evening after the temple countryside trip with an amazing experience across the road cooking our own corn fritter style bbq at the table. It was a nice way to relax from a busy day plus got to interact with a family dining next to us and their 11yr son. Our meal was too big so offered some to the boy and before we knew it the family had him bring us 2 beers as a thank you; it was a struggle as we were full as a bull but you can’t say no out of respect. The next day we relaxed by doing a city loop bus hop on/off style checking out a few locations like the Sendai Castle that was once there (lol) but what was amazing was a statue of an eagle like bird called a bronzed black kite which during the 2011 earthquake fell off the stone tower it rested on and was badly damaged. Over the years they have repaired it but left it now placed at the bottom of the stone tower. Took in an art gallery as well that had some amazing pieces on display. Later that day we finally stumbled across the first real signed of the RWC in a British bar and the bar guys naturally wanted a photo with a wannabe AB! For the wall of course😉
Tokyo, Japan

Day 10 Friday was moving day to Tokyo for sumo wrestling experience...wow! The culture and tradition surrounding this sport is out of this world. The shear size of these (fat) strong guys was impressive, so impressive one of them that had just lost wanted a photo with me so I said yes of course😂. It’s a must do for anyone traveling to Japan in the future, so hard to describe how drawn into you become from the big leg stomping to the throwing of rice and the stand offs only to back away to corners again to put their opponent off, then come together and grab/push for mere seconds before one face plants the ground or pushed outside the rope area. While there we got chatting to a lovely couple young from Wales and England in our group which added to the laughter throughout the day and eventually hung out together for train ride to fan zone near Tokyo Station. The fan zone was a joke to say the least, would have been a couple thousand fans lurking around trying to get into what seemed like a space for 150 people, not managed that part the best on opening night unfortunately. Kath and I headed back to our accommodation area which was a couple stations back in Shimbashi. We manage to find the smallest craziest Irish bar the size of a standard bedroom called “Joker” which funny enough didn’t have any resemblance to the Irish anywhere, not even a Guinness. What was cool about it though was they were fully loaded for the Japan v Russia game of rugby and then this All Blacks dress bloke rocks up and they just loved the two us so much; couldn’t welcome us in (or outside on road) more if they tried. They were so engaging in every aspect of NZ and rugby and AB’s it wasn’t funny. To say we didn’t enjoy our whole day would be an understatement. Game day has finally arrived!! RWC19 Japan, Yokohama Stadium All Blacks vs Springboks. I (me) was up dressed ready to go like a kid in a candy shop (plenty of those around) while Kath was still going through the wake up phase lol. We headed down to the Yokohama area early to explore a little and soak up some atmosphere. Met some cool people along the way during the day and especially getting to chat with lots of other English speaking people was refreshing for a change. Arrived at stadium to what was very impressive, with awesome seats and a fabulous hospitality gift package with memorabilia to take home. The game itself and the Haka....wow....so intense; don’t know what it was like back home but the game took forever so certainly felt like got every cents worth out of the experience. Great start by the AB’s 23-13 win.
Kumamoto, Japan

Sunday morning seen us fly south to the bottom island Kyushu where we headed to Kumamoto and into Japan’s 17th Typhoon for the season...yikes! We were lucky to get out because every other flight after us was cancelled. We arrived safely albeit was bumpy only in the last 20 minutes. It was a massive shift in temperature to warmer climate and high 80’s humidity, find shade at every opportunity was the call. The typhoon winds hit hard around 8pm until early hours next day. We were top floor and sounded like roof was lifting off and the banging of a drum sound. Monday we used as a chill day with minimal exploring, just walking around and checking our a few things here and there and a bit of horse for breakfast. the Kumamoto castle is under repair due to the large earthquake they had in 2016 (0/2 for castle visits so far). Only a couple blocks away from us we found a brand new multilevel mall cinema complex that had an awesome outdoor greenery vibe going on, way cool and top effort by the designers. Finished off the evening with some western food where found an American burger bar next to hotel that was full off Coca-cola stuff, the Japanese owners so love their American merchandise they have collected for their setup. Tuesday (today) sees us jumping on a bus for 3.5hrs off to a gorge to hope on a river boat (hopefully due but due to typhoon it’s probably not likely🤞🏽) for 2-3 people and then return later that evening. Funny story woke to today was Japanese TV explaining how the rugby positions work. Tuesday saw us head for the mountains to a little township called Takachiho on a 3.5hr bus ride where we were hoping to jump on board some 2-3 people boats and basically kayak down through the Takachiho Gorge. Unfortunately when we arrived to get tickets it was closed for that activity due to the recent typhoon, which in all honest we expected it to be hit and miss. End result was still a pretty awesome day being able to go down to the gorge and do a massive walk all around the tracks that loop throughout the whole area. Think we did another million steps climbing back up😫. The gorge itself was beautiful and the history surrounding how it evolved is pretty cool. The shapes grooved onto the rock walls were something special as well. It is formed by columnar jointing, the result of the rapid cooling of an ancient lava flow. At the end of the gorge walk was another fabulous shrine & structures. It was a place that we both said the whole day with the two long bus rides was worth the experience.
Fukuoka, Japan

Wednesday moving day again to Fukuoka on the west side of Kyushu. A very lazy day once arrived chilling then headed out for another meal in the bright lights big city vibe. Found a unique little upmarket restaurant with a great view of the canal. Had some ribs finally but not the way I’d expect to have ribs...small tongs and scissors to cut the meat off the bone🤔. The accommodation building was like house of black and white from Game of Thrones where was windowless in the front, and massive everything on the inside. Thursday up bright and early and headed off to Nokonoshima Island to explore the gardens and scenery. Quick fully loaded bus until the end where had to ourselves which was rear over here that’s for sure, then a short ferry ride before another short bus trip. Was another one of those wonderful moments where when arrived at the park it had what felt like the whole the place to ourselves again. No wind and very peaceful. In amongst the gardens was even a small par 9 chip and put golf course with the scenery made for Augusta on the last hole. On return from island we stopped by the museum before lunch up top the Fukuoka Tower. Later we tried a fanzone out for both the games of rugby. Again felt like only tourists in the venue cause all others were at the game in the city. Was grabbing us a drink and this little voice further down pipes up saying good to see another kiwi....and that’s where it all started aye Tina😉. We had the best time chatting away and finding out lived in Chch for a while studying long time ago and even worked at the good old Chancery back in the day, small world sometimes. Before we knew it we had the TV crews lurking around and yip it only took 16 days to end up on Japanese TV sports new, slightly longer than the comm games😂 It’s was handy that Tina learnt to speak the language cause at some point they wanted us up on a stage and that was never going to happen. Was very entertaining and the locals around us enjoyed the action taking place as well. Another great few days had. Off to Hiroshima today which will be something unreal. Sayonara🏉
Hiroshima, Japan

Friday was a casual slow start leaving Fukuoka to Hiroshima due to Shinkansen train booking at 1:15pm (had to book days in advance just to get a seat as sells out fast; now looking to book remaining travel so secured). Arrived in Hiroshima to accommodation bout 3pm which was an apartment and not hotel like all others to date, took a bit to sort out but eventually we gained access. Because of apartment style it allowed us to get some groceries and cook (well Kath to cook😉). Fresh vegetable chicken stir fry...yum! While out and about grabbing supplies Kath’s sharp eye spotted a contemporary art gallery (only small but unique). The curator & artist were on site so we got to have some one on one time with him. Later on we tried to watch some TV and couldn’t stop laughing at American sitcom translated to Japanese🤪 Saturday we were up bright and early off exploring around the Hiroshima castle plus the dome and memorial park where the atomic bomb went off back on August 6th 1945 at 8:15am. Firstly the castle, was a very peaceful time of the morning to be there walking around soaking it all up waltzing through the outer park area and across the moat bridges which have a shitload of catfish in them (remembered the same thing from 3 years ago at Matsumoto castle). Was even one in their wearing the Japanese flag symbol on its body lol plus some turtles....hmmm dinner!. Onto the A-bomb sites. Wow!!! In awe of what transpired here so long again. Kath made a comment when we sat down to reflect and how the Christchurch recent earthquakes were natural disasters but with this destruction it’s all man made. So sad that someone back then could do what they did....now look at trump and jong-un.....fingers crossed the world doesn’t experience this sort of thing again. This would be in my top 3 things so far on our trip to see. Unfortunately throughout the last few days Kath got quite sick with a strange virus that pretty much wiped her out so the afternoon had me out exploring on my own. I found a sports bar with AFL GF on plus RWC games, spare ribs and crafty’s! Bar was full of many nationalities here for RWC so didn’t take me long to meet some great people to talk to again😂 How good was the game between Japan and Ireland! Japan played out of their skin for that now famous victory 19-12, congrats to them but I feel now that will liven up Ireland to come back harder than ever.... watch this space I’d say. Kon ni chi wa Day 19: Sunday Kath was still not 100% so continued to rest and shake of the bugs which left me to explore Hiroshima further. Before doing this though we did manage to go out across the road to Shukkeien Garden which all I can say is wow, manicured to the max. It was another memorial site for the victims of the A-bomb. Once we got back and had some lunch I headed out to Miyajima Island to explore the Torii Gate and shrine before jumping on 2 cable cars to the top of the island for some breath-taking scenery albeit the atmosphere had clouded (smog) so was a little hard to capture some good photos; still it was a pretty awesome place to be. Nara deer just wonder the streets freely and don’t get spooked by the tourists at all, crazy to think an animal can be so calm when literally thousands around daily. The Torri Gate has been planned for a while now to get R&M on it since earthquakes and wear and tear etc so is covered in scaffolding unfortunately, but hey when all else fails cover up with an emoji aye🤣. I ran into some poms who were heading off to a local sports bar on the island to watch the Oz vs Welsh game, was pretty crazy as they knew people there and when we walked into about 20 odd people it was “hey this is Jase” and it was game on from there, great people. On the return back to accommodation popped into the JR rail pass counter and booked rest of our main rail trips which was so worth it considering a couple had planned were sold out, crazy to think that 2 weeks out they are full huh. Monday sees us moving on to Kochi. Sayonara
Kochi, Japan

So the trip to Kochi was interesting where we caught the Shinkansen train first to Okayama then hopped onto an old rattle box train for 2hrs 40. We boarded early and settled in which allowed time to sort facilities like toilet etc. this is where shit got funny, the toilet cubicle wasn’t like any of the others we’ve been on before! The female loo was a step up and squat forward holding onto the rail while rattling along the track and for the blokes stand and hold on tight and hope your aim is good😂. Kath freaked out 😳 and said nope I’m not peeing in to a loo that looks like a vajaja🤣 or climb it like a monkey so wasn’t going to drink any water for the next 2 hours!🤣🤣 That all said and done the scenery when crossed the bridge from the main island to Kochi was spectacular and a very busy shipping lane area. In the evening we managed to locate another Irish bar a few doors from hotel that was showing the rugby so we knew we had Wednesday night covered for the AB’s game against Canada. Monday we headed off to Ryugado Cave which was approx an hour and a half by bud toward the mountains. It’s been many years since I’ve been into a cave and this one was pretty spectacular from the walk through to the lighting used to highlight the cave walls and the amazing media art film displayed at the end. Let’s just say some of the small tunnel gaps weren’t made for western people which made for a few interesting maneuvers😳. (Kath said no more beersies or wine...😂) After the cave we had a good hour to kill with nothing to do except have a late bite for lunch so we stumbled across the only food place that was open which served a soba noodle dish. This was Kath’s first time doing soba noodle Japanese style where you just suck it up with a massive slurp and that is considered normal and is cheered if a good suck🤪. The hosts were amazing people and engaged with us for nearly an hour (probably cause no one else around...maybe🤔). The chef kept encouraging us to ‘Choo Choo I think he was saying chew in English!?!) In the evening I managed to grab what I thought was going to be a quick haircut.....oh no it was the full treatment....hair washed 3 times, then a head massage before back to the chair for a full neck and shoulder massage...wtf!....ladies you need to lift your game back home now, what an experience. While getting my cut Kath researched food places in Kochi, wouldn’t believe it but just down the road she found one of the best seafood restaurant in Kochi; experience like no other to date. Fresh tuna that looked like little lamb cutlets, sake to die for and the locals were all a part of the experience around us plus the chef and his mum were so engaging in every way; best dining to date that’s for sure. Wednesday-So continuing on from Kath’s research the day before, she managed to book us in for a SUP adventure (stand up paddle) out country cruising the Niyodo Blue River for a few hours with Niyodo Outdoor Adventures (Suggio Sports) The river has been declared cleanest in all of Japan and we could see why. Our guide and owner, Hiromichi Nutzo Rangi Sasaki (aka just Rangi) was an amazing host! We were picked up from the train station in his NZ gears and from there it was just non stop conversation. Rangi spoke really good English, this was due to many years living in NZ going to school and being involved in surf life saving at various beaches across the NI. It was funny because at times you would hear the kiwi accent then an Aussie before a Maori then American then his native language, was very cool. We had so much fun away from all the hustle and bustle just relaxing and paddling, not a care in the world for those few hours, total bliss. After we finished SUP Rangi had a cancellation for the afternoon so offered to take us up into the mountains and show us around if we liked...all over this like a kid in a candy shop as we planned a quiet afternoon anyway. The best day we’ve probably had all trip, we were both in total awe of the scenery and the clarity of the river and waterfalls!!!!! I’m pretty sure Kath will elaborate more on this at a later date. We were so grateful for Rangi’s hospitality that we just couldn’t help but gift him a new AB’s top to add to his collection; he was fully overwhelmed in the end (not captured on video). He is a man of many talents starting own business Suggoi which is a record label, clothing label plus his sporting adventures, a bloke that knows a lot of great names in the music and sports industries. In the evening we headed back to the local Irish bar for the AB’s game on big screen, to our surprise we were the only ones watching it in that specific area until....wait for it...Rangi and his mate aka bro turned up, this seriously changed our whole evening. Originally planned for rugby then home to pack and prep for trip to Takamatsu but this all changed where after rugby we headed off to another another top seafood restaurant where the owner turned up (the hunter and gatherer for his place) and had us cook the food outside on footpath area before it was sent to kitchen for final preparation before delivery to our table. Bonito was the fish and was epic, so fresh and all caught that day. After dinner Rangi then guided us to another of his friend’s bar. This was no ordinary place, it was a crazy arse one that had ever inch covered in gimmicky stuff that you just wouldn’t believe was possible (blew my old man cave to pieces!). Karaoke was on hand which kept the 1/2 dozen or so in the small establishment on their toes with lots of laughter. The surprise of Rangi turning up again just added to an already jam packed action day. It was ‘brilliant’ which was a favorite word that Rangi’s mate loved when he heard me say it - that combined with his Japanese accent made it even funnier when he said it over and over throughout the night. 🤟🏽
Takamatsu, Japan

Thursday....today...a day to really forget as was moving day. Had a train scheduled from Kochi to Takamatsu at 9:13am. The weather was horrendous, was so bad that the torrential rain caused the trains to stop that route due to a gorge area being of concern. Rescheduled for 10:13, 12:13, 16:13, 17:13.....🤯. In the end we weren’t waiting around any longer for the 18:36 so decided to catch a bus at 17:40. So as this post goes to air we are on board it right now🙄 Pleased just to be moving and get settled for tomorrow’s adventures of Kath and Jase😉 Friday day trip didn’t quite work out due to not doing enough homework prior to travels. Plan was to visit Neoshima Art Island. Unbeknown to us was the Art Festival Setouchi Triennale 2019, spread across 12 of the Seto Islands which required booking online well in advance and take up to 3 days to view - attracting masses of people from all over the world. All bookings for the 3 Art Museums we hoped to go were restricted to numbers and in some instances 15 min time slots !! In the end we decided it was way too much hassle to try and make it work when we only had less than a day to explore the island and going to Osaka next day. Although slightly disappointed at our lack of research it was no biggie to Kath as the volume of people would not have made for a very enjoyable experience. The ferry was at capacity and the public transport was apparently known for its ‘island time’ and walking times were variable depending on fitness levels tackling up and down hills in 30 degree heat - sounds inviting aye! Not. End result was a total rest day just chilling and having a good catch up on a few things.
Osaka, Japan

Saturday was moving day to Ōsaka traveling back over the Great Seto Bridge which has some amazing sea views of the surrounding ‘art’ islands. We were looking forward to Ōsaka because we had an apartment arranged for 6 nights - a chance to spread out and use as a home base allowing us to just explore the city at our pace plus have a day trip to Kobe. After a quick check in and getting ourselves sorted we headed out in our Japan gears to support the locals and mingle for the rugby game against Samoa - it was a brilliant game which we throughly enjoyed and had fun engaging with the people around us. Sunday after 1 night in accommodation as mentioned in another post, we agreed it wasn’t what we expected and decided to move on rather than stay and found another more relaxing and comfortable place —- at the Hilton! We spent the day basically just setting ourselves up and enjoying some of the facilities the Hilton has to offer; all I can say is it’s a different world and blown away with the volume of people that stay and pass through the Hotel on a daily basis. From our conversation with Hilton staff - who all spoke English, came as a relief for us both and Kath also received a gift left in our room as a surprise belated birthday present. From our 29th floor window view the evening sunset was just gorgeous from start to finish. Monday we got into a wee groove again for 1/2 a day and went off exploring an area known as Dotonbori. Famous for its street clothing & food markets! This place is as crazy as it looks, every street and every corner is just non stop action and the head space wasn’t keeping up with what eyes and ears were taking in (and this was daylight hours, we’re going back Tuesday night to a Japanese theatre show and another look at nightlife I’d say). When I was here in Tokyo 3 years ago with Kohana’s school trip we became fixated on a shop called Don Quijote which I guess is a bit like “The Warehouse” in NZ but out of all the ones I had seen this was another level! It was multi-storied and jam packed with almost anything and everything material known to mankind. From the outside it looks like an amusement park - there was what Kath called a rickety old ferris wheel which freaked her out when I made her go on it with me - she hyper ventilated a lot but I think handled it well😬), Once inside it was at least 10 floors I think of wall to wall items, you could hardly move through their skinny aisles. If had time and wanted to, you could spend hours in there buying cheap ‘stuff’. Previously I spent an hour in one alone in Hiroshima on way to watch rugby game when Kath was back at accommodation; only reason I left was had to get to see the game lol. After the ride and quick look in the shop Kath was keen to try some octopus balls, a very popular Osaka dish found almost every 3rd food stall - bloody yummy. As we exited one shop a local Japanese person and definite rugby fan who absolutely loooooves NZ (and Oz...🤔🤣) spotted us walking out and me in AB’s top (like every other day) and yells out All Blacks😳😳. His English was awesome and he started taking about knowing Ritchie McCaw like he was his long time best mate....but then states it was Ritchie’s brother (but we weren’t sure if Ritchie even had a brother?) that he was referring to and excitedly showed us photos of them having drinks and dinner together. Later we queried google and Richie only has a sister! Bahahaha too funny!!! Then he out of the blue, started singing and I recorded it after we got him to turn his wallabies cap around so it couldn’t be seen - he sung our National anthem in Maori in the middle of the street before starting on a haka....he was one hell of a fanatic supporter that’s for sure. We caught metro train back to hotel and caught up on chores (washing) and ate more free food from Hilton lounge The rest of the day was spent just chilling and catching up with all our kids on FaceTime which was cool plus setting up my favorite travel item....the portable clothes line....in the Hilton....wtf lol😂 That’s all for now folks Sayonara Konichiwa Day 28 (for the little and big kids at heart) Tuesday we headed off to the Osaka Aquarium. What a setup (apart from every man and there dog (nb Kath: that’s because it’s an aquarium Jase)), an amazing structure on the inside. Travelling an escalator up approx 50-75m high, we then started to make the 800m descent spiraling back down around the aquarium tanks which allowed you to see many of the Pacific Ocean fish species, from their performances on top of the water to mid way and then hanging out at the bottom of the tank. There was one massive tank in particular that had a large selection from whale sharks to hammerheads to very large groper plus many more. The aquarium is situated at Osaka Port harbor area which also has a small shopping complex, Legoland Museum but we were not allowed in as the condition was you needed a child under 15 to be with you to access😞 - (Kath suggested stealing one but refrained as we didn’t want to cause a scene) plus situated in the middle of everything is Tempozan Ferris Wheel, one of the world’s largest.... Unfortunately the queue was ridiculously slow moving so this big kid was not able to convince Kath to stay and wait to get on to ride it😫🤣. In the evening we were entertained by 45 minutes of Japanese theatre which was uummmmm very interesting and something ticked off Kath’s bucket list (not sure it was on mine though hun....just say’in😉 but was worth the experience). After the show we headed back to hotel and just stayed in-house at MySpace bar/cafe chilling to some live music and chatting to others around us. It’s hard to believe 4 weeks have passed already, where did that time go aye Kath? So we found ourselves on Wednesday making a full day of exploring down in the city of Kobe. From the time we arrived to the time we left, we both thoroughly enjoyed this wonderful city. It felt like it had a totally different vibe to all other locations visited to date, and in my opinion for now I would have to say it is my favorite city. By the ocean, nice warm breeze was blowing around 23°. It was very much like Sydney in a roundabout way with the inner harbour area to some of the very old styled buildings. I managed to be a big kid again at Harborland down at Takahama Quay and go for a ride on the ferris wheel there lol. As we walked around we couldn’t help but notice a very cool drawbridge plus a submarine getting some R&M done on it, that was an interesting site. We then headed off to Hakutsuru Sake Brewery Museum for a look and sample. We really enjoyed this place because before we left for Japan we watched a cool documentary on Japan’s Sake Guild and craftsmanship. It was interesting to compare how much the art of traditional sake making has changed with technology! After this I finally got to try some wonderful Kobe wagyu beef, which just melts in your mouth nom nom. Late in the afternoon we decided that we were long overdue for some mosquito bites 😂 so headed for the mountains for a ride on the Mt Rokko Cablecar! . Last time I went on a cablecar was the one in Wellington about 30 years ago maybe...? Was a pretty cool experience as we travelled vertically up the mountain rail trail, which seemed to go on forever. Eventually as expected the mosquito’s hit us once again (little 💩’s!!), the thing is the bites take 24hours before they flare up and become intensely itchy with no relief despite using antihistamine tankers and cream!!! The view was simply stunning and left you speechless. Kath’s words were wow, phenomenal view that stretched as far as you could see over Kobe to Osaka and down towards Wakayama! It was hard to truly capture in a photo but tried with a panoramic view. We then jumped on the local shuttle bus to explore the other sights. We attempted to catch the ropeway which took you down the other side of the mountain but we were a fraction too late in the day, which was a blessing after researching the timetables to get back to Osaka that night; if we had taken the last ropeway ride we would have got stuck with endless bus rides and train connections to get back to a town that looked familiar. So we decided to venture around the other touristy spots and found Rokko Shidare Observatory; another cool place with a great architectural space to view its conceptual design and sculptural artworks. Only problem was the old nipples were on highbeam🤣 (nb:- Kath wants me to clarify this sentence - they were my nipples on high beam not hers (sorry kids) as I had on my white AB top lol and the temp changed to 12° just like that and I had no jacket!. Once got back down the temp shot back up to 22° instantly and was more my liking....rather than raspberries, things turned back to cherry.... Thursday was a very relaxing chill day where didn’t venture out till 2:30pm. First to tick off the list was the Alice Tea Party in-house at the Hilton. OMG I’ve never seen deserts like it. Two things to say about this...1) yes there were lots of other blokes there (tagging along aye Kath🤪) and 2) it is true that holiday calories don’t count!!🤣. After this we needed to walk off our food babies and sugar high so went to the Umeda Sky Building about a kilometre away. Pretty impressive design and the process to get to the top was very different to most towers. You crossed over to the other side going up (or down) via an escalator structure. Once up the view was pretty cool albeit a bit hazy on the horizon. Tomorrow (Friday) sees us heading to Nagoya and bunkering down for Typhoon Hagibis. I think the F1 at Suzuka will be a miss on Saturday and all go for Sunday. Sayonara 🏎
Nagoya, Japan

So we were the lucky ones to have pre booked our rail passes to travel Friday morning ex Osaka to Nagoya because once the afternoon hit all stations Osaka north past Tokyo went into overdrive with pending Typhoon Hagibis and trains stopping till Sunday at the earliest. We arrived to a very sticky humid 28° which at times wasn’t that comfortable. After checkin we headed off to the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology. What an awesome interactive museum this was. We were both so stoked we made the effort to get out and see it, I don’t think I could crowbar the smile off Kath’s face if I tried she loved it that much😊. Kath dabbled in metal work at uni creating her sculptural installations in mild steel using basic blacksmith skills and was totally in awe of Toyota’s beginnings and industrial development and now robotic systems! Our tour started with a walk through the textile factory. Because of the time of day we arrived we flew through this part quickly with every intention to return at the end. The industrial weaving machinery was incredible and passing through we saw some demonstrations. But our aim was to move on to the automotive section of this massive site. As it happened time got away on us and used up our 2 hours in the automotive technology museum without being able to get back to it. It was amazing though to see the processes that go into the fabrics on the fast walk through that eventually ends up in the cars from car seats to carpet floors to boot liners and much more. Going through the beginnings, the car company was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda in 1937, as a spinoff from his father's textile company. At 27yrs old a skilled engineer and entrepreneur Kiichiro developed Toyota Industries to create their own passenger cars, utes. Three years earlier, in 1934, while still a department of Toyota Industries, it created its first product, the Type A engine, and its first passenger car in 1936, the Toyota AA. The interaction with staff to all the moving robots that Toyota created as well was mind blowing. The history of their first car through to current and future pathway was a very memorable one (especially for this Toyota driver of 25+ years). On our walk back we spotted the funniest thing, the biggest diamond ring sculpture you’ve ever seen.....for some unbeknown reason Kath became really fixated on this 💍object...not sure why hun😘. It was impressive and Yes I took note...(last part written by Kath l) Later our evening involved venturing out to find the Ozzie’s rugby game and as it would happen Kath (not me) found a Hooters bar. The way I saw it, it would be a shame to come all this way and not at least have a look inside...correct...yip😊. The site use to be the home of the Hard Rock Cafe before that closed down which did explain the layout inside a little bit more. The venue has been well setup as a sports bar hosting approx 20 tv screens so if you ever complained you couldn’t see, you’d probably be kicked out. A group of very solid built blokes arrived and one couldn’t help but notice how toned and massive they were .... (Kath especially said there had to be some other perks to the view at ‘hooters’ and quite happy for the dining interruption haha). It turned out it was the Italian rugby team ‘popping in for a feed’ even though they are staying in Toyota City. This game as we know between us AB’s and Italy had been cancelled - not far from our location in Aichi, Nagoya. I got talking with one of them who turns out was from Whangarei. He said the team was pretty gutted the game wasn’t going ahead and some of the senior guys retiring had taken the cancellation pretty hard because they saw it as their swan song. I mentioned to Kath when we arrived that I bet someone out there will say put a picture on the wall, well we did the next best thing and wrote on their entrance wall next to a couple of the rugby players - the bar staff were pretty stoked about it all and we had enjoyed talking to the girls over the night about our trip - they were all very friendly and curious about where we had been and having come from NZ. Anyone else who has been lucky enough to sign the walls are on the other side on a stairwell so to be so visible was probably about as good as we (well me mostly haha as Kath wasn’t as in awe or in keeping with the tradition of marking walls and adding photos haha) It was more than I could have wished for 👍 haha - go the Hooters Nagoya. Today Saturday is bunker down for the storm, just about nothing is operating. Still it has been good enough right now to pop out for a walk in the rain and have some lunch. Day 32 Saturday (Aichi, Nagoya)....typhoon day😳 We followed all the warnings & advice given on what to do and prepare for. Kath sent me out for water supplies and what you see is basically all one could get as the shelves were nearly empty. In the morning the weather was more just light showery rain and not much wind at all so we headed out for a look around and into the train station where it was dead empty basically. These places are literally non-stop bumper to bumper full of people and endlessly crowded shops. To see it so empty was a real eye opener at understanding how serious it was for the safety of locals and their families. It was mostly us tourists out and about! End result luckily for us was nothing more that compared to a normal southerly back home except 20° warmer. We got off very lucky in deed unlike the poor folks in Tokyo where we will be come Friday to start our tour with #HCBTravel. During the day I stumbled across some other lovely kiwis staying in our hotel which wasn’t far from the cancelled AB’s game in Toyota City. One of them happened to be this wonderful kind spirited lady who as it turns out after having a conversation for while was Mrs Hansen (AB’s coach wife) who was stepping away to catch up with some friends for a few days. I was able to locate a steak house bar that was open just around the corner which had a large projector screen that I was able to convince the staff to play the Irish game. We then arranged to meet up for dinner there to watch the game which was perfect because her friend was Irish. When we met up it was OMG I know you! Turns out it was a couple who live in Rangiora who I use to see regularly at the gym years ago...what a small world to travel to a remote part of this planet and run into someone back home. The 5 of us had an enjoyable dinner before venturing out to experience Pachinko & Pachislot across the road from hotel. None of us had a clue what to do and it was so funny watching the girls pushing and turning every single button and dial and see the little silver steel balls bouncing around (these are their pokies basically). Kath struck gold at one point and the machine went nuts for like 15 minutes until we could get help to find out how to cash in whatever it was we had managed to get. We started with ¥1000 ($15 approx) and that one spin turned it onto ¥10,500 ($150 approx) whoop whoop. We went to the counter to get money and they gave us these strange blocks which confused the hell out of us, then the lady escorted us outside to a little hole in the wall next door😳. You put your blocks in this little window and a person inside takes and hands money back to you it was the most bizarre thing I’ve seen to date I’d say. It was a great evening had by all and so nice to meet wonderful people along the way. Sunday Formula 1 Grand Prix Suzuka !!! yusssss!! Only stress was figuring out transport there and back - to say it was disorganized is an understatement. When I had booked tickets in NZ I received an email informing me that we could not pre-purchase return bus tickets but buy them from a location outside the main Nagoya train station, and a picture of a water fountain was provided as a picture landmark.... So I headed down to sort out at 6:30am and around 7am a guy puts on a high viz jacket which gave me a bit more confidence. The confusing part was this same spot was also a landmark for many other random tour groups to meet too, so the place was in utter chaos with hundreds of people starting to gather and queue for who knows what and once on the move I ensured I got it sussed. Sales for tickets was first in first served and what I later found out was the locals could pre order theirs! We were told pay cash on day and good luck on understanding next steps. Haha I decided to take control of the situation (as only one could being bigger lol) and pushed way to an English speaking sales person who luckily was able to sell us tickets which then allowed us to jump the queue and we ended up being the last 2 people to board the first bus down to Suzuka (whoop whoop anxiety levels start to drop back to semi normal levels albeit had to sort the process for returning as they take ticket off you, but we got that figured out in the end thankfully). Traveling by bus was so the best way in the end after arriving at the track and seeing 100,000+ people which the majority would have been via train jammed in like sardines standing only (stuff that!). WOW!!! What an amazing setup. The track sits next to a theme park which has an overflow of a massive ferris wheel aye Kath😂. From merchandise stalls to food stalls, they were everywhere, couldn’t walk 20m without there being another something. The seats we had were epic being on starting grid opposite the garages so got to see all the action taking place when the cars come in for fuel and tyres. The locals were just as loud as the baseball game in Sapporo except we also had the cars to contend with. Speaking of cars....a tad faster than my TRD just say’in🤪. The race itself was pretty much incident free until the last lap but that didn’t change the outcome with V. Bottas the winner. Awesome day at the track and another moment where it was hard to take the smile off Kath’s face😊. We managed to get on bus #2 returning back to Nagoya to get freshened up and make our way back to Hooters. Their large dining space and multiple screens meant it was going to be a good place to set up and watch what is now a legendary win for Japan who beat Scotland in final pool play game. The place was buzzing and the staff were only letting people in with a reservation which we didn’t have.... but me to the rescue and thankfully fame ie celebrity status already established from the other night, we sneakily sought out the waitress who knew us and bought a drink - tactic being, no we had no reservation but happy to stand where we were not noticed with glasses in hand — so we were staying put and the maitre d couldn’t kick us out like others were haha ! eventually the staff and all the diners bent over backwards, giving us cheers each time Japan scored, drinks, and one table even offered their left over food...haha mate - we were so set. Then without telling a lie we would have had a minimum 20 selfie photos taken with the local rugby fans. We certainly made some great FB friends that night, amazing people.
Matsumoto, Japan

Monday we travelled to Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture further inland. It’s a city that I visited 3 years ago and loved due to its mountainous region and experiences with Kohana on her school trip. We travelled by train for approximately 2 hours and arrived to a much cooler temp and wintry weather - enough to put jumpers on for warmth. It was a big change coming from the humidity in Nagoya! We arrived at our accommodation surprised at its villa type decor and was stunning and roomy except perhaps for the paper thin walls... Kath said not quite the Hilton but wonderfully set up and spacious! After checking in we grabbed some umbrellas and went for a quick stroll to get out bearings and came across a little area known as Frog Lane which had a nice feel to it away from bright city lights. Later that evening it was time for Kai as Kath was getting hangre and managed to pop our heads into a little bar/restaurant (always a gamble) that ended up being yet another most wonderful dining experience. The host plus a local spoke very good English so the conversation was easy and fun. Highly recommend Fukazake if ever in the area. They have an exceptional range of local made sake and part of the dining experience was matching the sake with the food and the host would also explain its origins which was very interesting. The food was amazing and each small dish we shared just exploded and melted in your mouth. I somehow managed to get Kath to try one of their delicacies on the menu - horse sashimi.....served raw and very finely sliced with soy, fresh ginger and garlic - it was surprisingly oishii (delicious). Following day Tuesday we headed off to explore the Matsumoto Castle, something I did last time but it was with lots of tourists around. This time though we came across the offer of a free guided tour in English!! So worth it and lasted just over an hour and a half. The one thing I didn’t recall from the school trip was it is the oldest standing castle in Japan. Our guide gave us the full history of this national treasure which the people of Matsumoto are very proud of. Our tour guide was an elderly man but loved using his one liner jokes that even Kath understood! For those of you who know her, telling of and getting jokes is not one of her areas of forte / talent ....hahaha In the afternoon not far from our hotel was Aeon shopping mall so we popped down for a look and some groceries supplies. Then Kath went back to hotel and with Typhoon Hagibis causing damage and ongoing issues, I decided to pop back to the train station to put plan B in place just incase our Shinkansen was affected: as it happens it is out of action till end of the month due to lines and trains being submerged from major flooding. So we will need to go back to a different main station, Nagoya to connect onto Tokyo. Start your engines🚙 After the day at the track on Sunday, we found ourselves renting a car for the day on Wednesday to head to the mountains. (Sadly peeps it was just a corolla 1800 cc....) Driving in Japan is basically the same as NZ road rules except you have to watch out for cyclists, pedestrians and oh other drivers who do their own thang despite traffic 😳. It was a very cool experience driving through the mountainous area in an automatic that liked to add additional revs! Haha The road up was narrow and windy with mirrors on almost every turn, plus at times very rough and bouncy. Their roads were interesting in parts, like cobblestones on a main drag full of cracks and filled with dirt and weeds. We were travelling to a place called Utsukushigahara Open-Air Museum 2000m above sea level. The landscape literally spread out with over 250 outdoor sculptures. They ranged from artists works dating back to the 1950’s ranging from small to (super large) large scale works in a range of steel, metals, bronze casts, marble, etc... most of them would have to be incredibly robust to survive their weather extremities like snow, wind, rain and the value of these pieces by famous artists would be way up there for sure! Kath had her critical art eyes open and observing and we spent 2.5hrs walking around the art trail taking photos and taking it all in as well as the panoramic Mountain View. On the way back to drop the car off we made the decision it was time after 5 weeks that we needed to get an extra piece of luggage so invested in a suitcase to lighten the load of items accrued up to date (can confirm this is now full of my stuff and might let Kath have a wee spending spree by end of trip in next 3 weeks 😉). Thursday our last full day in Nagano prefecture, so we headed off to a place called Narai-juku. This little township holds good memories and one that I visited 3 years ago on Kohana’s school trip and unlike the previous trip that was too rushed & full of tourists, this time it was like a ghost town at times with only small pockets of tourists throughout the afternoon which made for a really enjoyable experience. Narai-juku is famous for its one main street historical row of edo period houses and is now maintained by the government grant system. Most of the houses now have iron sheets on roofs but back in the day it was timber slats and held down by large rocks. When I mentioned to Kohana that I was going back there and did she remember, the one thing she said was isn’t that where we ate crickets🦗 (bang on). Well one couldn’t go back and not try again and of course get Kath to try much to her horror. I found the smallest one there and the two old Japanese ladies were laughing lots as I kept repeating oiichi (delicious) But to her credit she gave it a go and the expressions I videoed were hilarious! Kath flinched a little took the small brown cricket on the toothpick, closed her eyes and crunched..., omg look then the maybe it’s ok look but nah! Too much, hahaha I could tell it wasn’t her most favorite snack item since being on holiday. But, Lets say that this won’t be the last we see of the crickets as I brought a tray of them to take on tour🤪. We spent approx 5hrs there just strolling around exploring and talking to the locals and bumped into other RWC kiwi tourists. Throughly enjoyable day and highly recommend the visit. On the way back to hotel I managed to grab a second haircut before tour starts and like the first one, you get the high class treatment. Only difference was this time I had a guy who could follow instructions and at times even used the 💈blade. Day 38 is the start of our rugby tour and have a couple of long train trips to get to Tokyo, but these are quite relaxing and a time to catchup. Sayonara
Tokyo, Japan

Day 38 Friday we travelled back to Tokyo to start our tour. It was an early start due to having to backtrack to Nagoya to then move to Tokyo due to the landslide from Typhoon Hagibis. 3 train rides later we arrived at our very luxurious accommodation “The Prince on Park Tokyo”. You name it, they had it but, it came with a price tag as we all found out later in the evening at one of the many in-house bars and restaurants. Approx 6pm we started to meet some of our tour group along with the first of our two hosts Andy Ellis. For the first week we start out with just 15 in the group then jump to 35 by Friday 25th. Saturday we were all up early and had the morning catchup over a wonderful buffet breakfast. It didn’t take much to get caught up in the RWC buzz and many conversations in between grabbing our buffet breakfast. Our second tour host for the duration arrived being Scott (Razor) Robinson. It only took him a few minutes to workout the trouble makers and I think somehow I may have floated to the top although there are some pretty good contenders for this role. After breakfast we headed off on our bus tour to Hamarikyu gardens Shioiri-no-ike (seawater tidal pond). Was another one of Japan’s many beautiful gardens and noted it was also the stunning view for the All Blacks from their hotel next to this park. After the gardens we headed to Tsukiji Market. OMG this place was slightly out of control with people everywhere in small alleyway streets full of market food stalls and the odd other shop. The food was mind blowing and at one point I even managed to have a fish on a kebab stick the same as when Kohana caught, prepped and cooked them up in the mountains....yum! The afternoon was some free time so I headed off in search of a laundromat to get some washing done. On the way to the lift I ran in to Joel Stransky and his lovely wife Karen (former Springbok who broke our hearts in the 1995 World Cup final). What an amazing couple. We chatted for a while before going our own ways but as chance had it we came together about 3 minutes later at a set of lights. Joel asked where I was heading and once I said to do the washing, he said that he’ll show me as he had to do the same a couple days early. The 3 of us headed off and chatted for about 10-15 minutes on a casual stroll as they shared some amazing personal stories about them and what’s been happening recently while away back home and kids etc. It was certainly a small highlight moment. Game time: Abs vs Ireland quarter final Tokyo Stadium (46-14) We had an hour bus ride through the city and could get as close as the fanzone. From there it was a quick train ride where you end up not far from the stadium. The fanzone itself was packed to the brim so Razor got his phone out and we created our own mini fanzone watching the England/Australia game. Eventually we headed to the train and for most on the tour it was their first experience of being squeezed into a sardine can....we were literally pushed in (had to tell Kath to get her butt in so the doors could close 😂). The game seemed to go on for hours it was that good. The Irish sung their hearts out and very gracious in their defeat. We punched on until about 2am at an Irish bar in Roppongi where team building shits and giggles continued. Sunday was a free day until we headed off earlier to the game due to wanting to find somewhere to have a feed and watch a bit of the Wales/France game. We spent the morning just cruising and eventually headed out to the Shibuya Crossing, the worlds busiest. What a mental place and will be somewhere we will go back and have another look when have more time. Rugby time arrived and we were off to Japan/SA game. First stop as it happened was another sports bar called Hooters😉😉😂. Our bus had a few extra strays tag along for the journey which was pretty cool; Matt from the ITM fishing show (aka can spin a yarn) and Rob Penny former Canterbury coach who won several titles before razor carried on before taking over the Crusaders⚔️. While on route to the game after Hooters, Kath and I along with another lovely couple hijacked the entertainment on the bus. We served everyone honey soy crickets (yes real insects dry roasted!) with a shot of sake to wash down the legs)! it went down a treat and got the party started. Because we were at the same stadium the day before it become an easy place to navigate. The added bonus was we were taken right to the stadium and picked up from it so didn’t have to worry about the trains and thousands of people. The stands were a sea of red and white and the chant “Leitch” was chanted every time he touched the ball, it was a very emotional ending after they lost the game as the RWC hosts departed the rest of the competition🙁.
Hakone, Japan

Monday was moving day to Hakone via Yokohama where we visited Minato Mirai 21 area which is a space down around the waterfront. Unfortunately we missed out on their recently held OctoberFest (some weren’t happy....). Andy and Razor headed off for a usual Starbucks coffee while the rest of us had a look around before returning back to the bus just after 11:30am. This is where the fun began, they were late by 1 minute so as time was up we (me as stand in tour leader🤣) kindly asked if we could move the bus to another part of the parking area to see how the lads reacted. Our driver Tommo was very happy to do this kind gesture so off we went around the block and then crawled slowly down the road watching them freak out. Hands were in the air wondering which one we were on; Andy went as far as thinking one might be our bus so proceed to board it but yeah nah, not that one. Eventually we got close enough for them to see us and let’s say it was a MasterCard moment.....priceless🤣. (I feel already there is payback being planned lol). After this stop we headed to Yokohama Chinatown for a couple hours looking around and a bite to eat before continuing our drive to “The Prince Hakone” Lake Ashinoko. Kath and I found a caricature artist who was very cool to sit and pose for. With yet another typhoon (tropical cyclone more like it due on Tuesday), our guide brought forward a trip we were due to do on a pirate cruise ship to this afternoon which was pretty cool way to arrive at our accommodation. The hotel was a pretty cool place but a lot of things were closed on arrival cause of the inbound typhoon. The hotel itself had parts that were still trying to dry out from Hagibis over a week later. Tuesday we woke to some full on narly weather being the aftermath of typhoon no.21! But as kiwi troopers we headed out to braved the elements of wind and rain to Hakone Open Air Museum. Large scale Sculptures by late Henry Moore, Picasso and other internationally contemporary recognised artists had works situated throughout the landscaped garden and the layout was totally different from our previous experience and Kath loved it more than the site in Matsumoto where it was rough countryside tussock (unkept and lacking in execution of works being Kath’s words). Each place had its own merits and no doubt challenges for funding, conservation and curating a good exhibition. Later in the afternoon we got back to our hotel and ventured up the ropeway as the weather had cleared which provided some amazing views. The rain had stopped but the wind was blowing a gale hard out over the top of the mountains and clouds moved over us which didn’t allow us to see Mt Fuji unfortunately. Kath ventured further around the corner and struck some serious gusts of wind (not mine🤣) where she could only just stay on her feet. As Kath said it was invigorating but the chill factor definitely cut the trip short!). The rest of the day was chill time where we hung out with some of our tour group and then head out for dinner to an Italian restaurant. The food was oishii (delicious)😁. As the last bus ended at 6pm on the dot - The ride back was via the townships one taxi who did 3 shuttle runs and I kid you not, you would have thought he was test driving for F1 spot......fast and mental on the narrow roads😳🙄💩!!
Takayama, Japan

Wednesday was a very long day of travel by bus, heading across to Takayama, situated near our recent visit to Matsumoto where we were last week, but each place is so diverse and the views of the mountain trees changing in to their autumn colours was gorgeous! Along the way our luck changed toward viewing Mt Fuji opened up, so we stopped at a spot and got the most amazing views of Mt Fuji, breathtaking is an understatement - majestic! Kath was targeted by Tommo the bus driver to dong the Buddhists Bonsho Bell but the first one failed which was hilarious because it was so big and heavy! But he took her to a smaller one and away she went. The meaning of the Bonsho bell basically represents world peace but also a call for warnings and other meanings. So she got to play with a Bonsho donger (🤣). We carried on to Lake Suwa for lunch and it wasn’t until we pulled up and I had a look on other side of building that I realized it is where we stopped on way back to Tokyo 3 years ago on our school trip, lovely view. Next stop was a wasabi farm and nothing like you would expect. It’s actually grown in river beds and was pretty cool. The workers were raking the stones; It’s kept well manicured and even temperatures somehow. I had a few samples of the fresh product and it leaves the crap we get served at home for dead; you can eat it by the spoonful and not get the burning nose and eyes sensations happening. It’s fresh and organic oishii! The trip to Takayama was 5 hours driving but made it to our next hotel and on arrival a few of us went for a walk just to stretch the legs and try and remove the cabin fever from bus trip. The evening finished off with a group dinner before calling it a night. Sayonara Thursday we tackled a few sites in Takayama. Firstly we went to Miyagawa morning market for a quick 45 minute stroll along the river. I couldn’t help but buy Andy the lama looking hat to wear because of all his blunders along the way over first 5 days (suits him I’d say). After that we moved on to an old merchants house from the EDO period, this was a very cool experience. The last part of morning was a visit to a sake brewery site for a few samples. A little disappointing for those on tour not to be able to see the process like Kath and I did back in Kobe; nevertheless we all enjoyed the samples. The afternoon was free time so we had a quick walk around and struck a very cool old shop where owner was 95 years old!Some of us got together for a Korean bbq style lunch. The food was once again awesome from very delicious steak cuts, salads plus an offal fix with hearts, liver and stomach. After lunch we looked at each other and said why don’t we try to hire bicycles again and look around which was so the best thing to do. From the time we arrived to hire them, the old man that owned the shop couldn’t stop touching my arms and legs saying BIG biiig ohhhh - Kath couldn’t stop laughing as he just kept on - then we sat for a photo and gave me the umbrella laughing at this big white kiwi fella and All Blacks gear on. He gave us their bigger sturdy bikes checking we didn’t need a helmet and that we understood the lock system! Kath was nervous based on last experience - but all was good in the hood! As we took off down the street he was so delighted and waving. Kath then smiled at a local who was also cycling and he calls out chasing to catch up asking where were we from. He goes wow new zealand! Then hits on my lady saying Kath looks like a film star and very very beautiful- not to mention that this totally made her day! So off we went and over the next 2 hours we cycled merrily through the back streets of Takayama following their local walking circuit and sites of interest. We popped into a museum and Takayama is famous for its traditional floats and festivals. They are housed in their own storage sheds spread throughout their township. The detail that goes into them is incredible! We then tracked around their temples and shines at the base of the mountains. It was, out of the many temples we hv seen, by far the most impressive - having 7 massive temples situated in a row we followed the circuit on our bikes together and each place revealed its historical significance and generations of family grave sites sat in between the temples and extended further back into the forest. As we arrived at each one the wow factor grew. It was truly the best afternoon and after two hours we were thirsty and finished the trip off with a 15 minute sake tasting spree - hmmmm delicious as Kath put it - she has definitely acquired a taste for Sake as have our RWC friends! We dropped off the bikes ready for more sake and fun with the team before joining the second part of our RWC tour group. We were going from ‘the first 15’ team to include additional reserves for the 10 day tour group - which meant 35+ or so altogether.
Tokyo, Japan

Friday was a long day of travel back to Tokyo via Nagoya and Shinkansen. It rained non stop most of the way, and on arrival into Tokyo station all train services were suspended due to torrential downpours and instability of rivers flooding and landslides still recovering from typhoon damage... as you can imagine this caused havoc everywhere. With the trains out, it also created a big problem for the rest of our new RWC tour group because the only option out of Narita airport was bus, but the roads and toll gates ended up closed as well! It added 3hours to their initial travel plan on top of the AirNZ flight circling to land for a 2hr period as well. We were meant to all try and meet at the local Hub sports bar and missed most people as it got late but we enjoyed chatting to other international visitors and our rivals and later called it a night. We would be meeting up with everyone at breakfast instead. Saturday the bus was full which was a big change from the first 15 over the first week. We headed off to Asakusa for a walk around Nakamise-dori and Senso-ji temple. I was very familiar with this location because it was the same spot stayed at previous on Kohana’s school trip. Because I had done all this before I was able to show Kath around a few things of interest a lot faster based on time allocation before we had to be back to bus. As we strolled around looking at some similar items that we’ve seen lots of, we decided to change it up a gear or two and went into Tokyo’s oldest amusement theme park which I looked at every morning on previous stay. It was a crack up ducking in for 30 minutes and jumping on the rollercoaster and having a general look around, very enjoyable and sorted out any back issues😂. We moved on to a shopping district in Harajuku for lunch and what was also discovered...black ice cream....couldn’t not have seen it was All Blacks game day. All Blacks game time so it was time to get everyone on the trains down to Yokohama Stadium. With Andy now floating as ambassador for HCB Travel, Razor was on his own with his lovely wife Jane to manage the large group. It didn’t take long before the promotion came moving from 3IC to 2IC and Blair got promoted to 3IC (we now have names of Senior and Junior). It was and still is to this moment a privilege helping out a legend ensuring we are getting everyone moving along in the right direction. AB’s vs England..... Massive crowd, massive game, massive loss😥. Unfortunately rest is history because we all know the outcome so no more said about that. The good news is the sun came up and we know that we still get to see the AB’s play Friday against Wales, so we will get up for that for sure. Sunday was free day to explore Tokyo and then meet for Wales v SA game. A small group of 6 (Blair, Bec, Lois, Alan, us) booked tickets for TeamLab which is a massive digital art display. This was seriously one of the coolest things we have done, quite mind blowing. The lighting and music throughout each installation was pieces together beautifully. As we exited the show there just “happened” to be a ferris wheel so couldn’t miss the chance to go for a ride, amazing views of Tokyo Bay. Next door we stumbled across the Tokyo motor show. This was spread out over two massive sites within 1km of each other. We’ve never seen so many vehicles or people in one place at the same time, mind blowing. At a quick guess 300,000+ people moving around non stop. We gave ourselves just over 2 hours to punch both sites and then headed back to hotel to get ready for Wales v SA semi final. Not the most exciting game but another entertaining night all the same. The evening finished off getting everyone back to hotel in 3 groups the fastest way possible due to massive crowds and a train track issue right when game was finishing, luckily we mainly avoided albeit one fella ended up at the wrong place and then had a pretty expensive taxi ride back to hotel. We finished the night off on the 33rd floor celebrating 3IC’s birthday with some stunning views of Tokyo.
Kyoto, Japan

Monday was moving day from Tokyo to Kyoto for 4 nights. so it was back on Shinkansen arriving around lunchtime at Arashiyama district down by Togetsukyo bridge which is a pretty busy tourist hotspot. After a quick feed we went for a stroll up the road to the famous Bamboo forest. Very cool spot but like most of these locations they get pretty crazy with the tourists so you end up moving around at snail pace. After this it was time to check in at hotel and have a free evening. First thing we did was go find the laundromat and catch up on washing before chilling out. Tuesday we jumped on bus for about an hour and headed out to Todaiji Temple for a tour of the worlds largest wooden building in Nara district. Nara was for 74 years during the 8th century the capital of Japan. What a structure; quite hard to believe these types of buildings could be constructed hundreds of years ago. I’m pretty sure this one left most in awe. What was more impressive was stepping inside and seeing the massive Buddha statue plus the few others in there....wow! In the afternoon we headed out to The Fushimi-Inari shrine one of most famous in Japan for the thousands of vermilion torii gates (and again a tourist hotspot). Regardless of all the people, it was a lovely stroll part way up the hill, pretty impressive site. Wednesday (start of week 8 of our awesome trip...where did that go Kath🙄) we headed off to Kinkaku-ji Golden Pavilion Kyoto’s most famous temple (although we hv found all regions are unique and claim their own historical prestige.) But as Kath noted it was worse than the xmas shopping queues in Akld supermarkets! In fact, it was more intriguing watching the employees of this most famously congested tourist site manage moving people along bus load by bus load! We did manage however to get some lovely photos as it was a clear sunny day reflecting the beautiful colours of autumn (that is above the heads of all the people haha - ps this part above was edited by Kath not me in case you were wondering.... ). My version - This is one hustle and bustle place but the turn around is pretty quick. Outside there is a massive bus park setup in lanes where they pretty much rack and stack them with 3-4 in a row and 15 rows. Once we were inside on a perfectly calm still morning the site of the pavilion was just spectacular...words can’t really describe it as it reflected off the lake. We then moved on briefly to Ryoan-ji a popular zen meditation garden, yet again another amazing manicured garden. At the very end we even came across a guy sitting up in a tree where he would probably be all day just grooming it. Lastly we participated in a traditional tea ceremony. Truly an amazing ritual they go through just for a cuppa aye. At the end a couple of the tour got up and had a go from start to finish and how you address and serve the person it’s being given to. Quite a process where the cup/bowl had to be twisted and turned facing the correct way and held in correct position as part of worshipping the Buddhist religion. The person drinking it had to bow and drink in such a way that when got to the last mouthful it was ok and traditional to give a slurp. I miss heard that part as Kath posted previously and went hard out slurping the first one🙄🤣. I got the elbow in the rib and ‘the look’ from Kath telling me off. 😂 From about lunchtime onwards for next day and 1/2 it was free time to explore at our own leisure. We opted to just chill and relax before meeting down in the bar/restaurant area. We made contact again with Greg who happened to be in Kyoto so we all ventured out for a lovely dinner along the river area of Kyoto - always good to catch up with old friends! Thursday we had a sleep in then a late breakfast (9am not usual 7am) due to a nice relaxing day ahead. The bulk of our crew decided to head to Hiroshima but because we had been there, us and a few others we just stayed local. Kath and her expertise for google searching places was put to the test and she pulled another rabbit from the hat👌🏽. Not far from our Hotel, Kath found a Samurai and Ninja Museum which was very cool and interactive. We learned and understood more about the political ruling of Japan and role of both Samurai and Ninja’s! We watched the Samurai sword performance followed by a tour explaining the history and then lastly a bit of action and dress up😳. It was us plus same crew from car show day Bec, Blair, Lois and Alan. The history dated back to the Kofun Period year 250 (wow!). When we got to the action parts firstly we had some throwing practice with ninja stars then a small competition between about 20 that attended....bullseye dick here nailed that one👊🏽. Second comp was a blow dart which again nailed that with 2 others👊🏽👊🏽. Lastly we dressed up as samurai’s for a while. After this we then moved on to walk around the nearby Gion district which was a nice chilled spot of Kyoto. Out of the blue we spotted a small Hard Rock Cafe there so stopped in for lunch before strolling back for the evening.
Tokyo, Japan

Friday game day for AB’s to get up over Wales in the Bronze medal match. We all had to be up early and luggage down to lobby for a private truck transfer back to Tokyo because we couldn’t checkin prior to game. Unbeknown to all of us we were scheduled for a 9:35am Shinkansen but our transfer host was rushing us and turned out we were changed to 9:21am....helta scalta😬, just made it with couple minutes to spare....phew! Time to chill for couple hours. We managed to clocked the train in at 327km/hr at one point. On arrival into Tokyo we got transferred to Ginza shopping district which is like bling bling and all the money in the world shops basically....crazy as cause its out of our league. As chance had it we stumbled across another Hooters so had a long lunch. 3:30pm rolled around and it was game face on and off we went. Arrived at the stadium to an absolute sea of black....go you good thing! Proud to be a kiwi and will be proud again at final on Saturday night regardless of the two finalists. The AB’s played a very clinical game and thoroughly deserved their win. The best part is there are some exciting times ahead with a changing of the guard, new faces and young players coming through which will only make the current young ones even more hungrier to win Webby in France! Saturday....RWC2019 finals day.... Had a nice slow lazy start to the day, sun shining which will hopefully make for a good game to watch. Time to catch up on hopefully the last laundry wash. Funny who you run into in these places....John McBeth (radio and TV sports present of the past). We stood and chatted for about 1/2 about all his travels and experience plus this trip.....what a top guy. Being a free day for most there was a heap of kiwis there doing their thing; one lad even went away and brought a $50 suitcase to fill and carry back he had so much...choker-block! On return to hotel Kath, Bec and I headed off on a walk to Mori Art Museum on Roppongi Hill. On arrival a particular exhibition had just finished but luckily there was another one on show....Jean-Michel Basquiat. Kath really enjoyed this exhibition because she had read lots about his work over the years, but nothing could compared to seeing them physically; very impressive. Later we transferred by trains for the last time to Yokohama stadium for the grand final of RWC3019 Japan. What a journey it’s been and all down to the last game (SA v England). The crowd was full of barmy army with pockets of Springbok supporters and a shit load of AB supporters whether a kiwi or a Japanese person who just loves the AB’s. SA played out of their skins and shut the poms down with solid defense and great second half attacking to blow the poms off the park.....congratulations to them and to all my SA friends, well played. Sunday morning was a free day until later in the day when our tour group and Wayne Smith’s tour party came together for a combined @hcbtravel private function. A few of us brought over to Japan a international drivers license which was required to do Street Karts (formerly Maricar or Mario Cars). Basically a go cart that is all blinged up with number plate, lights, indicators, seatbelts etc so they are road worthy (only in Japan....wouldn’t get away with it in NZ at all). John (mr potato head) and I headed away after breakfast for our 10am booking. We went through all the safety video and other induction processes before we could get dressed up and hit the streets of Tokyo. These machines are wicked! cranking along at averages 60-65km on the open roads....freakin awesome and a highlight of trip. The pedestrians loved seeing us coming along and had their cameras going hard out and waving so naturally we got advised to do the same. Part of the trip was driving through Shibuya Crossing which is just mental, so our leader took us via there 3 times from different directions. I think I saw more of Tokyo in the hour we flicked around the roads than any other time on the buses, very cool thing to do. In the afternoon I caught back with Kath for a late lunch. The World Rugby awards were being held in our hotel as well which just happen to be the coolest thing and a great way for us in house to finish off the RWC. So many rugby stars passing through or staying so one couldn’t help but chat to them or them asking for a photo😂. A couple of buses arrived at 4:15pm to take the 2 large groups off to a privately booked venue where we had everything supplied in way of food and drinks for a couple of hours. During the course of the evening we all got to listen to Wayne, Razor and Andy give their own views on where we lost to England, what is happening in their world, what things might look like going forward, how one gets a team up each week etc etc. All this lead into Q&A time which was great because lots had questions and the guys were very open from the beginning. The evening finished off with our tour party heading off to a famous restaurant called Andy’s which from the outside looks like nothing but the inside has a split upstairs / downstairs. It’s a rugby fanatics bar where the likes of Jamie Joseph (Japan Coach) has his own corner whenever turns up. On arrival ex AB great smoking Joe Stanley was there with a group he must have toured with. It was a very loud cramped environment unfortunately which might not have been the best location to take a large group to. The food though was outstanding and very fresh. On return to the hotel a few of us headed down to get amongst the rugby awards which was awesome. Managed to catch Jamie Joseph for quick chat before spotting Tash and Steve Hansen. I caught Tash’s attention and she beelined across the exit track for a cuddle and a hello then a pic with Steve. Lastly the hero for Japan was Micheal Leitch (captain). I managed to get him by using bro in laws status Richard of being his teacher at St Bedes school; his eyes lit up and was super engaging for the short period before being ushered along. No one was as busy though than Kevin the Kiwi (soft toy belonging to Bec and Blair...check his FB page out), he got his photo with every superstar, way cool to end the evening like that. Monday was end of tour day and majority were heading back to NZ that night. Some unfortunately were going via Singapore airlines and their flights were cancelled so had to stay additional night. At breakfast there was a chance to congratulate Sir Graham Henry on his indication into the hall of fame; he’s still got that cheeky smirk we all see now and then and was very humbled by the honor he received. Kath and I just cruised all day and managed to get a 3pm checkout which was perfect and allowed us time to see everyone off to the airport at 4pm. The bad news is lots including us had all fallen crook with a nasty little virus making its way around where can’t stopping coughing (crap really). At least we were able to just chill all day and move off to our last accommodation out by Disneyland and Disneysea. Tuesday the virus slowed us right down where we only ventured out for a few hours to sort a couple of loose ends re shopping. It was a bugger because the day before we were both in the mindset of what we hoped to achieve over the remaining few days. In the end it became forced R&R as we both hit the wall. Wednesday we dragged our sorry butts out for a few hours and bought some bubble wrap and, you guessed it a shopping basket full of Lollies from Japan!! 🤪 Kath was literally counting the minutes on the clock, ready for home - yeap. Thursday finally rolled around....time to fly home day! We checked out of the hotel at lunchtime. We left luggage at the hotel and decided to go and have a few hours just cruising around Disneysea (and spread our germs out to all the little children...) It didn’t take long for Kath to fall in love with the fantasy world of theme parks even though it isn’t her thing. So much to look at in such little time left. It’s amazing how people immerse themselves into the Disney Culture from young children right up to the elderly - many dress up as their favourite Disney character wearing the same costumes. What an amazing place the Disney group has created and totally recommend. We didn’t have time to do the rides but wandering around felt like you were on a movie set! I’ve done Disneyland LA & Tokyo but I believe that Disneysea has the edge plus it’s the only one worldwide. Like all large theme parks you need to get a fast track pass because the average queue on most rides we seen was approx 2 hours!! Kath mustered up enough courage to go on the merry go round carousel😂, which of course I had to tag along as support in case she fell😉😉. haha Eventually all good things must come to an end and we headed back to catch our shuttle bus to the airport, quick wander for duty free sake and then chill at the ANA lounge before departure. Our one last treat awaited us - business class (as most have seen our FB post already), how gooooood to be able to lay flat and sleep where can get off plane feeling reasonable relaxed. Friday touchdown into Auckland and a quick domestic stop over before final leg to Chch. Yipppeee The list could go on but it won’t. That’s a wrap peeps Sayonara ✌🏽
Christchurch, New Zealand

What are we going to miss the most..... -fresh egg sandwiches from the Lawsons convenience shops -Toto gadgets (in particular the warm seat and turbo bum cleaner), how good are those things aye Kath😂💦 -the different foods just never ended -the train stations and constant chimes -the people of Japan and their amazing kindness -splitting the bill between everyone at lunch or dinner -the awesome friends we have met throughout our travels and RWC adventures