I haven’t tried for many years, but it’s fun if your body holds up!
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Baird Beer is a must. The pale ales & IPAs are excellent, especially with the 3 meat plate.
And feel free to bring me back a bottle of Yamazaki 
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In tossing up NZ, the south island always gets plenty of mentions. Anyone have some fun experiences on the north island?
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North of Auckland, Bay of Islands is stunning. If you are into golf, some great courses with panoramic ocean views. Some great places to stay with wonderful food.
South of Auckland is Rotorua, interesting place and further on is some high plains that are full of beautiful wild flowers this time of year. Some nice towns and beaches on each coast and a Glacier to look at.
And if you are lucky, you will see a parade of some of the biker gang up to 100 very tough looking people on bikes. We stopped at a pub they took over and they were the most polite bikers ever.
No glaciers in the NI ‘Fox but there are the three volcanoes on the central plateau and the Tongariro Crossing day walk over the saddle between two of them.
Most definitely are glaciers on Mt Ruapehu although they are very small in comparison to the ones on the South Isle.
They may not be big, but they are there
Righto then. I lived there for fufteen years but stand corrected.
(Writing this from Hermanus in South Africa waiting for the weather to improve so we can take a boat whale watching)
I’m in Tokyo every 2 months or so for work. Definitely agree on recommending people to stay in Nakameguro when visiting. Both the Hibiya line and the tokyu-toyoku line are the best train lines for exploring the city and run from Nakameguro Station. It’s a 20 min walk through the beautiful Daikanyama area to Shibuya, is quiet but close to heaps of action, has the lovely river and excellent coffee to start the day (Omnibus being my fav). You can get to Shibuya, Shinjuku, Roppongi, Ginza, Yokohama and Ebisu very easily all from that station.
Theres heaps of amazing food in the area and some excellent bars. I highly recommend bar Tractor. Run by great people who serve really cheap and yum beverages. Although the owner doesn’t speak a huge amount of English they are foreign friendly for a small neighbourhood bar. They open in the mornings for breakfast which is ‘Aussie style’ due to one of the owners living and working in cafes here…really yum! The friendliest drinking experience I’ve had in Tokyo.
Also Bar Track - in Ebisu is one of the nicest bars I’ve been in… It’s a record bar for listening without the hype or rudeness (JBS cough). Insane quality drinks in amazing all wood bar, great acoustics and free bar snacks lined up infront of you. Great spot close to the station.
I always start my trips by getting a pocket wifi unit at the airport (dropbox it on the way home) and a PASMO card filled up. Couldn’t live without them…
Keen to hear some peoples recommends when travelling to Tokyo because I tend to get stuck in a rhythm after visiting so much.
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So Typhoon on its way to Kyoto to rain on my travel plans.
Not sure if the Japanese are being over dramatic, but all the stores have shut and sirens been going for a while now.
Only a little bit of wind, and a ‘little bit of water’.
Get to tick Typhoon off the bucket list I guess…
@JohnRain what should I expect?
Typhoons move incredibly slowly, THT. It is now passing through Shikoku & will hit Kansai soon (which includes Kyoto - is that where you are now?) It hasn’t arrived there as yet (will prolly arrive between 8-9 p.m. tonight), so don’t be fooled by the calm before the storm.
Winds of that speed will shatter thin glass, not to mention flying objects, so most homes & street level shops have shutters (mine included). They are necessary. In the last one (a couple of weeks ago), huge trucks were pushed over by the force of the winds. A tanker was pushed into the bridge connecting Kansai Airport & severed it. Power poles & trees came down. Flooding is also a real possibility in parts. You will be looking at 400-500mm of rain when it hits. Melbourne receives around 663mm per year.
If you don’t have to go out, I would strongly suggest that you stay indoors. You’ll be fine indoors, but venturing out in it is pure madness.
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Shinkansen & local JR train services will be suspended until it passes. In Tokyo, all trains will stop at 8 p.m. tonight. In Osaka/Kyoto, they may have already been suspended. @mrjez is out that way, so perhaps he could confirm.
Yeah, stay in tonight. You won’t have any way to get around, everything will be closed. Kansai is being very careful after we got smacked hard a few weeks back. Kyoto will get about 300mm rainfall over these 24 hours. The wind will pick up, hitting around 9pm. All should be fine tomorrow.
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Well. already drunk all the beer and eaten all my supplies, think everything is closed up for now anyway.
Just watching a Spongebob Square pants marathon.
I notice our windows all have an internal wire mesh which now makes sense, as they’re not really aesthetically pleasing. Main thing I’d be concerned about is the overhead wires coming down in the wind. They look shonky AF.
Local train stopped about midday, and a local hotelier refused to order us a cab, and there’s been some kind of sirens going most of the afternoon. That was about 6 hours ago, so was kind of expecting a bit more action.
Ha, ha. Yeah, I worry about the power pole directly across from my home. If it comes down, it will cut my wooden home in half.
Oh, don’t worry about that. It hasn’t arrived as yet. You will know when it does.
Just finished some fantastic yakiniku at home.
I just subscribed ($30) online to the NRL granny. Storm vs Roosters. About to start right now.
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It was actually a calm pleasant day, but rain has kicked in and it’s slowly picking up. Put on NHK on channel 1 if you wanna get an idea of what it’s gonna be like. Looks pretty strong.
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You are speaking my language. Lived in Tokyo for 3 years until recently, the first half of which was in Nakameguro. Moved to the border of Daikanyama/Ebisu for the second half - those suburbs are probably my favourite places in the world. Have many other recommendations for those areas if you are ever in need.
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Wow - Yeah it’s a very nice area! Amazing spot to live…Please do!! I’d love some recommendations. Are you based in the south bay now? I often head down south but definitely don’t know it as well…
Don’t sleep on Cinque Terre.
Hands down, the most beautiful place I have seen.
O M G
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