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Japan 2010/11 (part two)

January 6, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Kuru Kuru Sushi at Shimonoseki Fish Market

Our annual visit to Shimonoseki was soon over and we drove home more than satisfied by the food and stocked up with gifts for the family back in the UK and a good selection of books for Mrs danyul to read. We spent several days at ‘home’  preparing for the arrival of Mrs danyul’s brother and his family. MiniMe looks forward to this as it means his slightly elder cousin and slightly younger cousin arrive to play with him. Each come armed with their Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii games. The 3 of them become inseparable for the next few days and are busy running around the house, eating together, and playing all sorts of games. It’s always a shame to say goodbye to them each visit and MiniMe is always especially sad to see his play friends leave.

danyul and MiniMe Visiting a Shrine

A visit to Japan has to include a stop at a shrine or three and this trip proved no exception. It is traditional visit a shrine on new years day and this has come to be one of our customary trips. However, our first shrine visit was slightly further away as we spent a day at a fantastic onsen (hot spring baths) relaxing. I remember my first visit to Japan when I was not exactly very comfortable at the onsen since it involves full nudity (men separated from women of course) but these days I don’t think anything of it. It’s also a lot easier now that MiniMe is old / big enough to keep his head above water in all the baths so I am having to continually chase him as he throws himself around like the baths are a private swimming pool just for him.

MiniMe Carefully Counting 8 Dropping Beads

The nearby shrine is very picturesque and draws many visitors from the surrounding area. I cannot profess to know much or understand much of the religion followed but the shrine is a very welcoming place and we always make sure to stop at the small shrine within the building that is devoted to children. We are always thankful to have a healthy young MiniMe but realise that there are lots of people who are not as lucky so we will all say a little prayer and make a donation at the children section.

Each year MiniMe will carefully make sure to drop and count 8 large beads strung out in front of another section of the shrine. I have no idea of the significance of why 8 beads and why this would bring good luck and Mrs danyul is unable to provide much guidance as she was never big on Japanese religion.

After having several very warm days we then had a rain storm hit the area on New Years Day so we were not able to go kite flying as usual. There was still plenty to do and MiniMe made sure to spend his New Years money well at the local shopping mall. This year he wanted to buy himself a new game for the Wii and was determined to get Wii Sports Resort after his cousins brought along their copy and the trio then spent several days playing against each other. However, it seemed that Wii Sports Resort was a very popular choice for all the kids now rich with gifts of money from their family. Thankfully the very last electronics shop we visited had a single copy left and was offering a 20% discount on all Wii games so MiniMe even had some cash leftover. Being the Japanese version of the game it meant that MiniMe couldn’t take it home to the UK but he was quite happy to have it for the rest of the stay and to leave it behind ready for the 2011/12 trip.

Japanese Shrine

I have to admit that one of my favourite reasons to visit to Japan is to sample the wide range of divine food. Not only is the choice of food fantastic, it is nearly always reasonably priced compared the same food type that you would find in the UK. You can guarantee that we will visit the ANA Hotel Ube several times just to eat from their lunchtime Viking (buffet) lunch. The price is cheap compared to anything comparable back home and the selection is extremely wide and tasty.

For a little extra you can include all you can eat desert as part of the buffet but we tend to just stick to the main meal and then move ourselves into the cafe area if we want any desert. There is a whole selection of different cakes at the cafe and you can sit in relative peace and quiet although you do have to watch out for the smokers since Japan has not yet banned smoking in public places and you can guarantee that there will still be smoking only tables in most places.

During this visit we went to a new canteen style restaurant that I had never seen before and was absolutely amazed at. The layout is very simple in that it resembles a school canteen and you simply walk along with your tray and help yourself so the small dishes before someone rings up the total at the end. The food on offer was a very high standard and I was very cheap and I was stunned to find out that this is considered a ‘working persons’ restaurant where most of the local office workers will get their food. We visited twice and I can understand why my mother-in-law rates this as her favourite local place to eat. On both occasions we stood out, primarily because I was the only non-Japanese guest, because everyone else was either dressed for office work or was some sort of construction worker taking their lunch break.

Canteen Style Restaurant

Our 2010/11 visit to Japan was once again approaching its end and we would soon be making our way home. I did manage to fit in some runs while we were there so I didn’t lose all my fitness by being away. MiniMe had a great time with his Japanese family and improved his language skills while I caught up with a lot of reading and just relaxing by being away from work. Mrs danyul was glad to see her family and seemed to stock up on the contents of each and every Japanese book store we passed while still finding room in suitcase to get as much Japanese food product as possible stuffed inside.

Japanese Canteen Style Lunch

Unfortunately our return journey home did not go as smoothly as anticipated. The plane ticket prices to Japan were extremely high in 2010 so we left booking until the last possible moment in the hope of being able to get a slightly cheaper price. Sadly the prices didn’t fall at all and the flights we originally wanted were all full by the time we went to book our flights. This meant that we had to leave a day earlier than planned, which meant we just escaped a huge snowfall that would have kept us stuck in the UK for several days, and also that we could not book a direct flight home. We flew from Ube to Tokyo as normal but then had to take an ANA flight to Frankfurt. This leg of our return journey was heavenly as the flight was mostly empty, which meant we could spread out to take a row of 4 seats each. However, the change at Frankfurt did not go well as it took an age to clear German immigration, who especially did not seem to like my Kindle so proceeded to escort me to a separate room so that it could be fully scanned. We eventually made it onto our Lufthansa flight to London but sadly the majority of our luggage didn’t. It seems that everyone who transferred onto this flight at Germany also had their luggage left behind so we wasted a good hour queuing at Heathrow to register our lost luggage. Bizarrely my suitcase did make in onto the plane so a very tired danyul family found their taxi driver and arrived home. I had to then work from home for the next few days to make sure someone was home to accept delivery of the lost luggage once it made it back to London.

MiniMe Ringing Shrine Bell on New Years Day

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Japan 2010/11 (part one)

January 2, 2011 by Leave a Comment

MiniMe Cooking Lunch

Our annual Japan trip took place once more in December 2010 although we were extremely lucky to make it this year due to the snow storms that covered the UK and blanketed Heathrow for several days. We were especially lucky because we delayed booking the flights so much, due to us hoping the prices might drop (they didn’t), and we could not get seats on our preferred date. We ended up having to book flights a day earlier and so the first snow started to fall at Heathrow just as we were waiting to board our flight at the boarding date. We were delayed for 30 minutes as de-icer was sprayed across the aircraft but that was nothing compared to the mayhem that followed in the following hours as the runways were closed and no flights arrived or departed. Our original flight of choice was cancelled and so were all the subsequent flights for the next week so we would probably not have made it to Japan in 2010/11 if we had booked our flights early. As I said; we were very lucky this time.

Our outbound flight from Heathrow to Heathrow to Narita International went very smoothly and MiniMe was kept well entertained by the movies and TV shows on offer. This time around we were arriving earlier in December so we avoided the scrum that is everyone in Japan trying to reach their family for the New Year celebrations. Our journey from Tokyo to Ube involves a bus service from Narita International to Haneda Airport and then a flight from Haneda down to Ube. This becomes quite a tortuous journey in the New Year period due to entire Japanese population seemingly trying to move themselves from one part of Japan to another.

As usual the parents-in-law were there to meet us at Ube airport and were there usual excellent hosts throughout our stay. Of course they were delighted to see MiniMe again and he was just as happy to be visiting his grandparents once more. One of our first excursions was for lunch at a local restaurant where a cousin of MiniMe was the head chef. The restaurant was of a Korean style where various meat and vegetables were provided for self cooking on a stove built into the table. The meal also included some Japanese style raw fish dishes and MiniMe loved acting as our chef and cooked all the food for us. MiniMe would continue to pursue his new found love for cooking dinner for everyone and so we had a whole series of meals cooking by MiniMe throughout the stay.

MiniMe at Tokiwa Park

A visit to Ube would not be complete for MiniMe without a trip to the rides at Tokiwa Park. Unfortunately our first attempt was accompanied by a big bag of fail because we arrived in the morning to find all the rides were closed until the afternoon, when we already had commitments. MiniMe was just a little grumpy but he did get to visit again a few days later when everything was actually open. However, it was sad to see that a number of rides had been retired, removed, and not replaced since we visited in 2009/10. Most notably the log flume ride was completely gone and MiniMe was a little disappointed since this was one of his favourite rides and was also a ride I had to accompany him on each year due to age / height restrictions. His grandmother did go on the ride with him once but then vowed to never repeat the experience following the terrifying drop down into the water.

MiniMe Cooking Dinner

Being away for the Christmas meant that Santa san had to be told of our whereabouts and extra care given to make sure that an appropriate bag was left out for Santa to leave presents. Also, we had to make a special trip to the local shops so that MiniMe could select the perfect carrots to leave out for the reindeer and some suitable cookies for Santa himself. MiniMe is still erring on the side of caution by making sure to write a nice letter to Santa but equally he has become quite persistent in asking us about whether Santa exists. We suspect that next year we move into non-believer territory but we’ve had a fun time over the years. This year Santa san brought nearly all the items requested by MiniMe but his favourite gift was a remote control car that he then spent hours with outside. An elaborate track was made at the front of the house using  various gardening items and MiniMe would send the car racing around.

Proud Owner of Remote Control Car from Santa san

Japan hasn’t quite dived into a full Christmas loving nation, with New Year being the prime holiday period of the year, and it doesn’t really fully fit since the normal Western Christmas holiday means time off work while the 25th December is a normal working day in Japan. However, I have noticed more and more Christmas related items sneaking into Japanese culture each year and this time around I really noticed the use of Christmas Carols and related songs in the local shopping malls. Christmas cards are available and so are Christmas themed cakes so it is becoming more common for gifts to be exchanged and some activities to take place.

Christmas Cakes

We again travelled to the nearby Shimonoseki for an overnight stay to use the onsen (hot spring baths) and to go shopping at the large shopping mall. For the first time our visit coincided with the Shimonoseki fish market so we made sure to visit and to eat lunch at the karu karu sushi (conveyor belt sushi) situated overlooking the fish market. The market itself is full of people inspecting the freshly caught fish or buying fresh sashimi and sushi from the brightly lit stalls while the stall holders call out for visitors to inspect their fish and to draw everyone in. The sushi looked fantastic although we didn’t buy any, quite a few would buy their lunch from the various stalls and go find somewhere to sit down, and we added our names to the lengthy waiting list for the sushi restaurant. We killed an hour or so walking around the market admiring the weird and wonderful types of fish although I did notice that quite a few stalls were selling whale meat, which I stayed away from based on my Western sensibilities. Finally our names were called for the restaurant although this was only the ‘outside queue’ and we now had to queue again as part of the ‘inside queue’ until a suitable table became available. Following another shortish wait there was a table available (seats had some and gone on the sushi bar but we preferred a table) and we settled down for one of the best sushi meals that I have had the pleasure of eating in Japan.

Shimonoseki Fish Market

We left MineMe with his grandparents and took a walk around the surrounding area. The area is known for its Fugu (puffer fish) catch and during popular seasons there will be a rush of Japanese visitors specifically to buy or eat Fugu. We found a nearby statue (pictured below) that shows how the market traders and fishermen used to trade their catch through various hand movements enclosed by a large glove like object so no-one could see how much each respective catch was being sold for.

Fugu Trading at Shimonoseki

Given the amount of times that we have visited Shimonoseki it is quite surprising that we had never visited the island of Ganryujima that sits between Honshū and Kyūshū via a short ferry ride from Shimonoseki Harbour. The small island is well known in the surrounding area for the duel between Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojirō and has been setup as a tourist focal point to celebrate the fight. Japan has a rich history and the feudal period of swordsmanship is visited upon across popular media and is celebrated by the Japanese as well as the image visitors have from other parts of the globe.

Ganryujima Island - Musashi Miyamoto Fighting Sasaki Kojirō

Shimonoseki is also known for Buzenda, which is known as the most famous shopping area in Yamaguchi Prefecture. We always make a trip to the shopping mall for Mrs danyul to stock up on books from the very large book store while I wander around picking out some gifts to take back for family in the UK. I used to also look around for clothes for me, since the New Year period is a time where all the retailers hold significant sales, but I always suffer from my larger Western build and I’ve found that most of the clothes for Japanese men are a little on the small size for me. I am not significantly large by UK standards so I always wonder how the larger Japanese built gentlemen get on when they go shopping for clothes.

Our yearly Shimonoseki visit to was coming to a close and all that was left now was the relaxing use of the onsen back at the hotel. If I were able to export some products or services back to the UK then the proliferation of hot spring baths would certainly be in the top 3. I am pretty sure that reasonably priced good quality sushi would also make my top 3 as well, something that Shimonoseki has in abundance.

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2010 – danyul.net in review

January 1, 2011 by Leave a Comment

danyul.net

Following on from my review of danyul.net in 2009, I proudly present the 2010 review. However, I have to hold up my hands and admit that my blogging during 2010 wasn’t exactly kept to a timely manner and a lot of posts were not published until January 2011. Bad, bad, danyul; I am determined to make sure that I write and publish during 2011 rather than starting a post but then leaving it as a draft.

My blog theme stayed as Streamline from Studiopress although there were some substantial updates under the hood, although these did not translate to any major changes to the site itself. We saw in the New Year from Japan where we were spending our customary Dec / Jan holiday with Mrs danyul’s parents, which is where I also sit as 2011 hits the world. MiniMe had a wonderful time spending time with his Japanese family, especially with his cousin, and we felt that his Japanese language skills really improved throughout the stay (not that they were too bad in the first place). I love to visit Yamaguchi Safari Land during our stay and once again I had a great time feeding the lions as Mrs danyul looking on shaking her head.

In January 2010 I posted on the Telehouse West build project, which was a location I walked past everyday on my journey to work so I decided to take a photographic diary of how the build progressed. I also posted about Pacific Plaza, a new food court in Wembley loosely based on the food court we previously visited at Oriental City in Colindale. I am glad to say that Pacific Plaza has remained open throughout 2010, despite the the odd food stall closure, and we are still regular visitors at the weekend. February was a landmark month as we replaced our ageing Toyota Corolla with a Toyota Verso Corolla and MiniMe was very happy as the new car included a DVD system so he could be kept entertained on long journeys. The car purchase came smack bang in the middle of a Toyota recall so this allowed us to negotiate a better price and I am happy to report that there were no Toyota related accidents throughout 2010 (nor any danyul related car accidents either). February saw the first karate course of the year as I took MiniMe to Swanley for the JKAE All Grades Kumite Course where we also took time to visit family. I spent the majority of my youth in Kent from initially living in Welling, moving to Bexleyheath, and a large chunk of my family still remain throughout Kent. This was also the first time that a family member came to watch us either training or competing.

March saw my first competitive race of the year as I ran the 2010  adidas Silverstone Half Marathon, which was my first attempt at running the half marathon distance. Although I completed the race, I was not happy with my time and I was not happy with the preparation I put in before the race: I was running a lot of miles but not running far enough on my long run. I hope to run at least one half marathon in 2011 before moving up to a full marathon in 2012. Our karate journey continued as I took MiniMe to the JKAE All Grades course at Bath University and we both had a great day of training and spending time together. Although we did not know it at the time, this would be the last of the JKAE standard courses that we would be able to attend during 2010.

The seasons had turned and spring was in full force as I captured our neighbours tree in full bloom and later in April we headed to Pacific Plaza to celebrate the Thai New Year. Our karate training took a new twist as both attend the inaugural SKCE black and brown belt course at the Queen Elizabeth Boys School in Barnet. Kilburn SKC decided to remove their affiliation with JKAE at the end of 2009 and a new association, Shotokan Karate Centres England (SKCE), was formed along with other former JKAE clubs. The course included training for black and brown belts and also included grading various dan grades. We were not attempting to grade but we did attend the training, which we both enjoyed and learnt from. It wasn’t long until I was back at another karate course, this time for the JKAE International Spring Course at Guildford, but for once I was by myself as MiniMe could not attend. I had been looking forward to this course for sometime since it marked the return of Osaka Sensei to the UK. I also had the pleasure of training under the guidance of Naka Sensei, surely the most photogenic karateka that I have seen in person, and star of the karate movies Hai kikku gâru! (High Kick Girl) and Kuro-obi (Black Belt). The day of training was fantastic and it was a pleasure to go out for lunch with friends afterwards but I did miss MiniMe and I would have traded the nice lunch to have MiniMe alongside me for the training.

With summer fast approaching we took a family day trip to nearby Oxford where we had an enjoyable lunch followed by a walk around the city. The summer then hit in full force and we had a sweltering day at MiniMe’s school fete where the highlight, for MiniMe at least, was the mayhem of a mass water pistol fight at the end. We loved the food on offer, although Mrs danyul had to work on the Japanese foot stall and the Japanese writing stall, and I even joined in for some of the water fight where MiniMe took great enjoyment from emptying a bucket of water over my head. The Japanese nursery school summer festivals were next on our summer festivities and again we enjoyed blazing sun and wonderful food. MiniMe was old enough to now take responsibility for his own money and to walk around the festival with his friends so he enjoyed the freedom to choose his own activities. We even managed to win one of the raffle prizes, a Brent Cross £100 voucher, which was later put to good use as part payment for a replacement DVD / hard disk recorder.

I even managed to sneak in a couple of posts related to my day job as a Tardis appeared at our Chalfont data centre site and I took the opportunity to have my picture taken as the next Doctor. I enjoy working the odd day from Chalfont as the drive is relatively easy, going against the rush hour traffic, and the site itself is very nice.  However, I returned to our London data centre the next day and faced a bunch of marauding cows mooing their way across the London Underground. They certainly brightened up my commute that day and I have been surprised that there has been nothing like this since.

We returned at Cornwall again this year for our summer holiday where MiniMe carried on with his l0ve affair with surfing and I tried (and mostly failed) to do the same without embarrassing myself. MiniMe seems to have a natural balance and being so light he can easily catch any sized wave and then manage an effortless journey to the beach. Meanwhile I fight to stay on my board and I am lucky to fall into the water with any modicum of grace. On this holiday we spent a lot of time cycling, especially along the Camel Trail, so we all enjoyed an active holiday with plenty of excuses to enjoy the nice food on offer. As summer started to crawl to a halt, we returned to Spitalfields Market for the 2010 Japan Matsuri. The 2009 event was heaving with people and although we thoroughly enjoyed the day, it did become difficult to navigate the crowd plus we were unable to buy any food from the stalls. Thankfully the organisers had expanded the space available for the festival and included additional food stalls.

October was a very busy month as I celebrated my birthday (sorry, not going to admit my age!) and MiniMe celebrated his 9th birthday. This year we organised a pool party for MiniMe and his friends at Hillingdon Leisure Centre, where we sometimes attend karate training, and the kids threw themselves on an inflatable obstacle course with wild abandon. Under the excuse of providing safety, in addition to the life guards on duty, I joined the kids in the pool and also lost a lot of races across the inflatable versus MiniMe. The busy period continued as we both successfully passed our shodan grading together under the guidance of SKC England. I am pleased that MiniMe has been able to make it this far with his karate training, especially as more and more academic demands have taken time we would previously have been training together. I continue to train at least twice a week, looking to maintain three sessions if possible, but MiniMe is only able to train once a week due to his extracurricular actives during the week and his attendance at the Japanese school at the weekend. I am sure things will change in the future and MiniMe will increase his attendance in the future.

My final blog post of the year saw me return to Brighton to run the 2010 Brooks Brighton 10K following my first ‘proper’ race at the same event in 2009. I had suffered from a knee injury sustained during our trip to Cornwall so my general training was lacking leading up until the Brighton 10K. However, I did complete in a fairly respectable time but I did then lose out against the majority of my fellow co-workers also running. That was the end of my blogging for 2010 and I managed to finish and publish a chunk of half finished posts while I was in Japan for the Christmas and New Year period.

So as a final look back at 2010 let’s have a look at the most popular parts of danyul.net. I use AWStats and a WordPress Stats plugin to analyse the logs of who visits my site. Here we go…

There were approximately 5,571 unique visitors to danyul.net in 2010 (an increase of 1,621 compared to 2009) which was made up of 9,180 visits (1.6 4visits per visitor). This equates to 43,390 pages visited (4.72 pages per visit) with a total of 113,686 ‘hits’ (12.38 hits per visit). A total of 3.376GB of data was transferred (384.38 KB per visit). June recorded the highest amount of unique visitors (617) and the highest number of visits (1,120) and the highest amount of pages (10,200). The highest amount of hits were recorded in June (18,078) as was the largest amount of bandwidth used in a month (520.19 MB).

The 10 top level visitors were:

  1. Unknown (IP address only)
  2. Commercial (.com)
  3. Network (.net)
  4. Yugoslavia (.yu)
  5. Poland (.pl)
  6. Republic of Serbia (.rs)
  7. Italy (.it)
  8. United Kingdom (.uk)
  9. Russian Federation (.ru)
  10. Israel (.il)
It is worth noting at this point that I exclude my home, work, and ‘other’ personal IP addresses from my stats package so everything recorded reflects actual visitors rather than me updating or checking the site.

The top 10 visiting browsers were:

  1. MS Internet Explorer
  2. Netscape
  3. Firefox
  4. Safari
  5. Google Chrome
  6. Mozilla
  7. Opera
  8. Unknown
  9. GranParadiso (Firefox 3.0 development)
  10. Sony/Ericsson Browser (PDA/Phone browser)

The top visiting operating systems were:

  1. Windows
  2. Unknown
  3. Macintosh
  4. Linux
  5. Sony Playstation
  6. Symbian OS
  7. Java
  8. Java Mobile
  9. Blackberry
  10. Unknown Unix System

Finally, the most interesting stats of 2010 (to me anyway!) were the top 10 search key-phrases used by visitors to find the site via a search engine. I have tinkered with the list a little from its original listing since a few in the top 10 were identical topic searches but the key-phrases were slightly different:

  1. hot 3ex
  2. mohammed salih karate
  3. fatal socket operation on non-socket
  4. pacific plaza
  5. jkae
  6. jka england split
  7. eric pich
  8. danyul
  9. mailman list password
  10. kilburn skc
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CoMooting Cows

July 13, 2010 by 1 Comment

moooooooooo

Riding cattle class on the London underground every day makes you feel like you are part of the herd but today my usual jaunt along the Central Line was livened by some amusing fake cows. Charity activists were out in force and dressed as cows in a bid to raise awareness of rainforest-free food as organised by Friends of the Earth. I did not really notice the cows in my carriage until I was getting ready to depart at Bank and I noticed what looked like a guy wearing a comedy cow hat further down the carriage. It wasn’t until I removed my headphones that I heard a low “mooooooooooooo” from all around me and realised that there were several people dressed in body size cow outfits. I thought the cow standing still reading the Mootro, with headlines and text consisting of “mooooooooo”, was a very nice touch. Thankfully the cows were very well behaved and were just holding out small business card sized information text for those that wanted to find out more.

Subsequent articles then appeared online thanks to the Farmers Guardian, the Docklands 24, and Left Foot Forward. Various pictures are available on all three sites and it proves I must invest in an ever so slightly more modern phone so I can take pictures of cows on the underground if they ever appear again.

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Oxford

May 9, 2010 by 1 Comment

Oxford

With Oxford only a hop, skip, and a jump away from where we live (well… it’s just over 50 miles) we decided to drive across to Oxford for a family day out. I’ve never been to Oxford before so with the aid of our Sat Nav we aimed for the centre of the city with a rough plan to grab some lunch and take a walk around some of the University locations that are open to the public.

Oxford is a very popular tourist city so thankfully we arrived relatively early because the queue for parking spaces in the city centre was getting quite fierce but we were able to grab a spot before the traffic became very congested (although it wasn’t exactly cheap!). We had a quick walk around the area before selecting a Chinese restaurant / Mongolian Wok Bar named SoJo. Our pick was purely based on the fact that the restaurant was open relatively early on a Sunday morning and it was close to the car park so it gave the opportunity for us to fuel ourselves before walking around the city. The restaurant had a good review from The Times of the window and we found that the food was of a very high quality and the service was fantastic. Mrs danyul and MiniMe selected something from the lunch menu while I went for the Mongolian wok where I selected the meat and vegetable picks, which were then cooked in front of me. MiniMe was quite enamoured by by choice as well so I paid for an extra helping, which MiniMe selected and then proceeded to eat on top of his earlier choice. A thumbs up then from the danyul family for SoJo.

We did not have any set plan for our walk around Oxford and we stayed away from the open top tourist bus or any of the walking tours on offer; instead we found the tourist information centre and asked for their advice on nearby sites we could explore. We were given some information on nearby University sites that were open to the public on a Sunday as well as some leaflets on nearby museums so then just spent a few hours casually walking around the city and seeing which sites we could enter for free. Unfortunately I didn’t note down any of the sites we visited, mostly because it was a case of pot luck as we just wandered through different entrances seeing what was open and what was not, but we had a great time and were all exhausted by our Sunday walk. We will probably come back and visit again sometime although may prepare ourselves a bit more beforehand but equally walking around and hitting random locations was a good way to explore.

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New Car

February 7, 2010 by 1 Comment

New Car (Toyota Corolla Verso)

We bought our Toyota Corolla back in 1999 as a ‘nearly new’ car with the aim of running the car for 10 years before replacing with another Toyota model. Back in 1999 we were driving an Austin Metro that had previously belonged to my grandparents (yes, it really was a ‘one careful owner’ car before I got my hands on it) and had been given to me during my days at Aberystwyth University. I hadn’t exactly been a careful and considerate driver in terms of maintaining the car and the maintenance costs kept increasing due to its age so we went for a Toyota based on their record for long running, safety, and also that Mrs danyul wanted a Japanese car.

Our Toyota Corolla served us well but as we entered its 11th danyul year we started to look around for a replacement. We had long decided to stick with Toyota (aside from the odd puncture, we never had any problems wit the Corolla that were not picked up and dealt with easily as part of the yearly service) and we aimed for the Corolla Verso based on our need for a bigger car. MiniMe was getting more involved with after school activities and we were being pressed more and more into sharing taxi services taking groups of kids to various places. The Verso range offers 5 seats in the back thanks to some rear folding seats in the boot and the car would give us plenty of storage space with the seats folded down (great for visiting Cornwall or Center Parcs and with our karate bags when we attend large courses). Our only other requirements were that the car must be an automatic, for ease of use by Mrs danyul, and have a rear camera plus front and rear parking sensors, again for the preference of Mrs danyul, and finally must be ‘nearly new’ rather than new.

Our main searching problem focused on the need for the rear camera since it didn’t appear to be a widely provided default option in the UK. Through our visits to Japan we had found that most cars had front and rear parking sensors by default and also that a rear camera was very common as well. Eventually we made an appointment at Currie Motors in Chiswick to find out more about the brand new Verso since it would probably be easier to buy a new car to make sure Mrs danyul had the parking camera she wanted. However, during the visit the very nice sales lady mentioned that someone had just traded in a 3 year old low mileage Verso with the features we were looking for and that we could go and take a look and test drive immediately.

We were soon taking a test drive around the local area and with us all liking the car we decided to buy straight away (although not immediately communicated to the sales person) on the provision that the car was going to be put through a full service first. We did not commit immediately because we wanted to check on-line for reviews for the specific model, to also give us an opportunity to negotiate a lower price, and to also check whether the model was under any type of Toyota recall notice due to safety issues.

The on-line reviews were good, from both professional car sites and Toyota user sites, but we did find that the model had an earlier gear box recall notice. We were specifically checking for recall notices since Toyota was being heavily castigated by the media at the time for safety problems related to sticking accelerator pedals. Initially we were told that this specific car would have been had the gear box recall dealt with during its yearly service but we still used this and the larger Toyota negativity to lower the price fairly substantially. However, the sale was based on the car going through a full service and it transpired that the gear box recall had not taken place so this was taken care of during the service at no cost but we again used this to cut more off their sales price.

Our new car was eventually ready and we have been extremely happy with it since the moment we went to collect it from the dealership. Mrs danyul has found parking a lot easier with the help of the parking sensors and the rear camera and I must admit that the camera makes reversing so much easier in car parks. The original owner of the car had purchased all the optional extra components so there were also features that, while not wanted by us, have proved useful for our comfort. The rear window and rear side windows are heavily tinted so during the summer MiniMe was not blinded by sunlight and he loves the fact that people can’t see him. The car also came with a built-in DVD player with screens on the rear of the headrests, which again is loved by MiniMe and has been very well appreciated on long journeys.

So from the danyul family the Corolla Verso gets the full thumbs up and we plan to keep the car for 10 years just as we did for our previous Corolla. Since our purchase I have removed the Sony Ericsson hands free kit and replaced it with a bluetooth kit that provides hands free mobile through the car speakers while also allowing me to stream my ipod nano. The car also received the 8/9 year old cool approval on the multitude of taxi runs for MiniMe and his friends so you can’t do better than that.

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Japan (part ni)

January 14, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Japanese Kite Flying

The Japanese New Year period usually sees a return to the more traditional Japanese games including the flying of traditional Japanese kites. This year we headed down to the nearby Ube beach armed with several paper kites to join small groups of other kite flyer’s. This year we also had the somewhat odd site of a group teenagers holding a barbecue while they all lounged in a heated inflatable pool. It was a bizarre site since early January is not a warm or sunny time in this part of Japan plus it was quite a cold breezy day: great for flying kites but not good for running your own portable hot tub on a public beach. Maybe I am not ‘down with the kids’ these days because it looked far from a fun activity to me but the group of teenagers looked like they were having a great time.

Japan has gone through a noticeable period of change in the 12 plus years that we have been making regular visits. I remember the first time that we saw homeless people asking for money or food in a train terminal based in one of the largest cities. It stood out for me since I had never seen any sign of homeless people at any point previously, although of course that did not meant that people were not homeless before, but seeing such an overt example of begging in a high profile location shocked Mrs danyul.

During our latest visit we saw real signs of the economic downturn in Japan;. Firstly, the number of people attending the shrines in a bid to win favour and blessing was astronomical compared to our previous visits. The area where we stay is quite rural and we would normally visit the local shrine on New Years Day and we might have seen 5-10 other people paying their respects. However, on this visit there was a long queue of families waiting to pay their respect at the shrine and additionally a large number of families donating extra to the shrine so that they could receive individual blessings.

During this visit we also attended second hand and antique fair for the first time, which very much resembled an English car boot sale but with the goods on sale from little stalls setup either by small businesses or families selling off unwanted goods. Again, this was not previously a common occurrence in the area of Japan where we stayed and it was a reflection of the economic situation in the country.

Japanese Second Hand Good Fair

Our final family trip this time around was to spend 1 night in Shimonoseki, which like Ube is also based in Yamaguchi Prefecture. We drove across to Shimonoseki with a brief stop at a motorway style service station / dining location for lunch. I had never stopped at any Japanese motorway style services before and it made a distinct change to the expensive food provided in British motorway stops. The food area was run as a small local business and provided excellent Japanese food at very affordable prices. MiniMe tucked into his favourite Japanese curry while I had some fantastic pork ramen that would put any English motorway food to shame. We were soon in Shimonoseki and settled into our hotel ready to spend some relaxing time in the hotel onsen (hot spring baths). Visiting onsen is big business in Japan and there are travel style TV shows that just show various bath locations around Japan with reviews of the facilities and the food on offer.

The hotel is located on the hillside overlooking the Kanmon Straits, which forms an important shipping line that runs between the main Japanese islands of Honshū and Kyūshū. The hotel makes good use of the outstanding view with the baths, with baths both inside and outside, looking directly over the river and the city while the hotel restaurant also utilises full window style walls looking over the city. The city itself is very well known for its fugu (puffer-fish) haul, which is the largest yearly haul in Japan, and all the restaurants specialise in fugu dishes. On this visit we took a local taxi to the Sea Mall Shimonoseki (largest shopping center in West Japan when it was built) and the driver told us that the visitor numbers were substantially down over the past year, especially during the fugu season when people traditionally flock to Shimonoseki, so much so that all the taxi drivers are now all members of the ‘silver fox’ generation. The younger taxi drivers are no longer able to make a full-time wage from their fares so only those that are retired and have other incomes available (i.e. a pension of some sort) can afford to remain as taxi drivers.

Shimonoseki: Hotel Balcony View

I enjoyed wandering around the shopping mall and trying to pick out some gifts for my family while Mrs danyul raided the huge book shop. We are fortunate to live in an age where Mrs danyul can order Japanese books from Amazon and get them delivered to the UK but it is much cheaper to haul some back in our suitcases compared to the shipping charges. I picked out the latest Pokemon movie DVD for MiniMe so he could have something to watch back in the UK when he would no doubt be wide awake with jet lag at an unreasonable hour. I found some nice gifts for my family and made good use of the gift wrapping services from all the shops, which put the UK firmly in the shade. All Japanese department stores will gift wrap something to a ‘basic level’ for free and their definition of a ‘basic level’ is what a UK based store would charge for as their ‘premium service’. Although Japanese stores do offer a chargeable gift wrapping service, I have never had to take up the additional services although I have wondered just how much better they could actually be compared to the fantastic free service.

Our last activity in Shimonoseki was to visit one of the large shrines based in the city. Again, the shrine was full of people and had some fantastic food stalls at the entrance to help warm everyone up in the cold weather. On this visit we decided to ‘donate’ an extra amount of money and receive a blessing from the priest. Neither of us has any strong religious views but we were interested in what happens so after making our donations we were shown into a private room within the temple where the priest discussed our goals and aspirations with the coming year (well… he discussed with Mrs danyul anyway) and then he began to recite various Japanese chants before waving a staff adorned with what looked like white paper chains above our heads. We both thought the blessing was over but were told to stay while the priest then started to play on a flute like instrument while a girl dressed in traditional robes performed a dance around the room. We did not (and still do not) understand whether the dance had any significance but it was certainly an interesting experience and a small view of traditional Japanese activities.

Shimonoseki Shrine

Our latest visit to Japan soon drew to an end  as the remaining time flew by with various family visits and MiniMe playing with his grandparents. We all had a fantastic time, as always, and I had a relaxing time of catching up on some reading while not being drawn into any work. As usual our family were extremely hospitable to us and I am sure MiniMe will have some more treasured memories of spending time in Japan.

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Japan (part ichi)

January 3, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Hinomaru ("sun circle")

We usually schedule a visit to Japan at the end of each year to stay with Mrs danyul’s parents and to visit other family in Japan. Unfortunately we were unable to make it in 2008/09 but this year we were able to fly out to Japan just before Christmas. Our normal schedule would be to spend Christmas in the UK with my family and then New Year in Japan with Mrs danyul’s family. This time around we faced restrictions with time off from work so had to leave earlier so no Christmas with my family this time around. They more than made up for it though by throwing a Christmas lunch for everyone before we left, where MiniMe could open all his presents as though it was Christmas Day.

We headed to Heathrow on the 23rd December with a hope to avoid long queues by going through the Virgin online check-in process beforehand. This seems to be a pretty standard procedure these days so we were straight into the queue for checking in our baggage and then straight through security to wait for our flight. Mrs danyul had some time for some last minute gift buying, which is very much a necessity if you are visiting Japan since it is customary to buy close family a friends a gift. I wandered around with MiniMe in tow and bought myself some JVC noise cancelling earphones for the flight. These were the cheapest on sale within the shops area and they turned out to be a reasonable purchase since they cut out a lot of the flight noise and I might consider an upgrade next time we fly.

Our flight was delayed by an hour since the plane had arrived later than schedule and then once everyone boarded, one of the passengers was taken ill and had to be taken from the plane so another hour was gone while their luggage was located and removed from the hold. Thankfully we were soon up in the air and MiniMe could sit watching some kids movies / TV while I watched some movies at well. Nothing of note occurred on the flight, which is always a good thing, and we were soon touching down at Narita International just an hour later than scheduled. I usually have to spend an hour queueing for passport control along with all the other Gaijin but for once everything was clear so I quickly had my body scanned for heat signatures via a camera checking for people with flu, I had my finger prints taken, and finally a digital photograph taken before my passport was stamped and I was free to go join MiniMe and Mrs danyul to collect our luggage.

We used to stay one night in Tokyo before MiniMe was born but then found out looking after a jet lagged child is not the easiest thing to do at 3am, even in a city like Tokyo, so we now catch a limousine bus across to Heneda Airport to take an internal ANA flight down to Ube, which is located in Yamaguchi Prefecture. The parents-in-law were waiting for us at the airport and thankfully it is only short drive back to their house. They were happy to see the three of us, especially MiniMe, and we were thankful to be able to visit them again.

Giraffe Riding, MiniMe Style

Christmas is not a public holiday in Japan and nor is there much evidence that it is celebrated although I must admit over the years I have seen more and more Christmas decorations dotted around whenever we visit. Mrs danyul’s parents bought a small Christmas tree this year so that MiniMe would have somewhere to put his Christmas stocking all ready for Santa san to visit. They also helped join in the fun by buying a carrot for the reindeer plus some cookies and milk for Santa san. MiniMe had a great time opening his presents with his grandparents and I think they had a nice time being part of MiniMe’s Christmas for the first time.

New Year is a public holiday in Japan and it is a time of wide celebration and also a time for families to get together once more. It is traditional for the ‘oldest son’ to host a dinner on New Years Day, which all the family are invited to. On our early visits to Japan this would mean a lot of visitors since Mrs danyul’s father is the oldest son in a large family so there would be a lot of people arriving at the house for lunch. It is also traditional to give gifts of cash to all the children so it is a very lucrative time to be a child in Japan! As the years have passed we have found that our New Year celebration has diminished each year, mostly because of older relatives sadly passing aways, but also from family members gradually moving to different parts of Japan. On our last visit we moved from a very large gathering at Mrs danyul’s parents house to a more smaller lunch (approximately 20 people) at a local hotel, although again it was hosted by the ‘oldest son’ within the family. This year we just had a visit from Mrs danyul’s brother and his son so we had a small family lunch at home although we did join the crowds at the local shopping mall and also at the local shrine.

Feeding The Lions

The shrine visit is a fundamental part of Japanese culture and a lot of people will celebrate the New Year by being at a shrine as the clock hits midnight; some of the large city shrines heave with crowds at midnight and form the location for live television across the entire New Year period. We went to visit the local shrine on New Year’s day and this time around it was packed with people and for the first time ever we had to queue to pay our respects. It seems that during a time of economic decline more and more people are returning to their local shrine to ask for good luck through the coming year.

We then took a day trip to the Yamaguchi Safari Land, which is just over an hours drive away. MiniMe loves to visit Safari Land every time we come to Japan and I must admit that I really enjoy visiting as well. Safari Land consists of a small theme park area that is free to enter, although you have to pay for tokens that are then valid across the rides, and the Safari Part itself where you could either pay to drive through in your own car or take a guided tour through on a bus. We always go for the guided bus since you also get to feed the various animals on the route through the use of some metal tongs that can be pushed through grills along the side of the bus.

Safari Bus

We arrived at the park to find the first available bus tour was already full so we signed up for the second bus and then took a walk around the theme park section. MiniMe went straight to the go-kart track where he was now tall enough to drive one of the ‘skid karts’ around the track provided that he had an adult sitting next to him. I drew the short straw and had several scary laps of the track with MiniMe at the helm while Japanese pop music blasted from speakers dotted around the course. MiniMe loved it although I hope his driving skills improve as he gets older.

We’ve been visiting the Safari Land for quite a few years now and it was strange to see MiniMe aiming for all the older kid rides this time when previously he would just want to sit on the little kid cars, which do not move anywhere and just resemble the small kid rides you find outside supermarkets in the UK. He did insist on riding the giraffe around, which has a small motor and wheels on the legs, but I suspect that will not be repeated on our next visit since he’ll deem it a ride “for babies”.

It was soon time for our bus tour so we grabbed some drinks from the plentiful vending machines (there are vending machines everywhere in Japan) before taking our bench seat on the bus ready for the tour to begin. This time we had the lion bus and we were soon being driven around the park. Our first stop was to feed some zebra and a camel by holding out some small pieces of bread with the tongs but on a first attempt one of the circling hawks dive bombed the side of the bus and helped itself to MiniMe’s bread. He was not happy with the birds so I had to let MiniMe use my bread while I kept a lookout for more cheeky winged beasts.

Japanese Shrine

The bus then moved through various security gates as we headed into the more dangerous animal sections; first stop was the cheetah enclosure where we have the opportunity to hold out pieces of meat from the side of the bus. Next we moved through the tiger enclosure and the lion enclosure where again small pieces of meat were dangled out of the side of the bus ready for the growling large cats to take their feed. I was once again on hawk duty since the somewhat suicidal birds would swoop down across the side of the bus trying to grab the meat before the tigers or lions could snap their jaws shut. It would not surprise me to find that the lions get an accidental bird lunch on occasion.

The tour pulls to a stop in a ‘petting zoo’ style section where the small goats, llama, and kangaroos seem even more aggressive in their pursuit of people to feed them. There is even a small enclosure where there seems to be hundreds of guinea pigs hopping about but the small furry fiends give Mrs danyul the heebie jeebies so we stayed away this time.

The final stop on the way back to the car park was at the elephant house where MiniMe had great fun holding out carrots and other vegetables for the baby elephant to snack on. Again, Mrs danyul keeps a distance from the elephant since it’s trunk sways around sniffing for food and it does not seem to discriminate between food and scarves if you get too close. This ended our visit to Yamaguchi Safari Land and we headed home with a very content MiniMe snoring in the back of the car.

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Cornwall 2009

August 24, 2009 by Leave a Comment

Mawgan Porth beach

We spent a lot of time looking for a suitable holiday destination this year although as usual our search took so long that we ended up leaving the actual booking until quite late. Last year we visited the Mark Warner San Agostino resort in Greece where we had a fantastic family holiday and we considered visiting San Agostino again or visiting one of the other Mark Warner resorts but we decided that we would find somewhere with a more balanced climate this time around. I loved the hot sunny weather in Greece but for Mrs danyul it was a too hot and for MiniMe it was difficult trying to make him rest at times to make sure he was not in the sun all the time. So this year we looked at various options in France, Switzerland, and Austria before deciding to stay closer to home with a family holiday in Cornwall. Our selection criteria was based on finding a location with plenty of individual activities (such as sailing for me and spa like facilities for Mrs danyul and kids play for MiniMe) and having a dedicated kids club so MiniMe could be looked after and play with other children. After much deliberation we settled on the 4 star Bedruthan Steps Hotel on the North Cornish Coast.

We looked at the options of flying to Cornwall since the Newquay Cornwall Airport is very close to Mawgan Porth, where we would be staying for the week. However, we decided to tackle the 6+ hours it would take to drive and packed out our car with all the things we would need for a UK beach holiday. In true danyul family tradition we packed far too much under the rationale that we would need both summer and winter clothes given the English weather. The drive to Cornwall was pretty uneventful but we did stop at a great litle pub in the countryside for lunch and take in some of the scenary. Sadly we did not make a note of where we stopped since it was unplanned and based on ‘we’re hungry, next exit please’.

MiniMe with his sand castle

The exterior of the hotel looks a little dated and we were not sure what to expect when we pulled into the car park but thankfully the interior is everything that you would expect from a 4* hotel. The entrance to the hotel is a little strange in that you enter directly onto a stair case and the reception is down a small flight of stairs and then situated to the left. I would not really think to mention it here but since our holiday I checked out a number of online reviews for the Bedruthan Steps Hotel and a few people make negative comments regarding trying to find reception on arrival. However, the route to reception is clearly sign posted and is so easy to follow so I cannot understand why some reviewers make a big deal out of this.

The check-in process went smoothly thanks the very friendly reception staff and we were soon negotiating our way around the hotel to our room. We had left our booking very late so there were only 2 rooms available at the time; a double bedroom with attached kids room with bunk beds or a discounted similar room above the kitchen. Although we like the idea of saving money we equally do not want the sounds and smells of the kitchen hitting us plus all the noise from early morning deliveries. Our room did not have an ocean view but it was extremely modern, clean, and very spacious: everything we needed for our stay.

Mawgan Porth beach

The hotel is a 10 minute walk from the beach along a slightly steep winding path down the hill side and we soon wandered down to explore and make our first sand castle. We had paid for breakfast and evening meals although children were not welcome in the main restuarant at dinner time so either had to attend the kids evening meal or sit in the lower part of the restuarant with their parents. MiniMe was booked into the evening kids club so he ate at the kids supper before we took him to the ‘Dolphins’ kids club. There were various group names for the kids clubs (e.g. Dolphins and Sharks) and they were split by age. I cannot remember the age splits but initially we were a little worried that MiniMe would be bored in the Dolphins club since he was at the top age for the group. However, he was soon enjoying himself thanks to the wonderful staff and all the friends he was soon making.

There were plenty of other activities at the hotel for kids outside of the scheduled classes and MiniMe loved to play in the Jungle Tumble play area. When we could pursuade him to stop throwing himself into the ball pools we also used the inside and outside swimming pools, the assualt course, and the tennis courts.

MiniMe soaking up some sun before surf lesson

After a hearty buffet style breakfast we took some time to speak with the on-site surf instructor Nick and book a lesson for me and MiniMe. Surfing is big business in Cornwall thanks to the great conditions and the influx of tourists so there are surf clubs all along the coast. The hotel has its own surf shack on-site where you can book lessons and also hire equipment (e.g. surf boards, wet suits, and body boards) and there is also the King Surf School near by in Morgan Porth located at Betty’s surf shop. We did look at booking some cheaper group style lessons at the King Surf School but the minimum age was 8 and with MiniMe still 7 we stuck with some private lessons via the hotel surf shack. Neither of us had surfed before so we pass our thanks onto Nick and his team for the great tuition given. All the staff were well qualified and I had no hesitation in trusting them with the safety of a very fearless MiniMe. To say MiniMe took to surfing like a duck to water would be an understatement (pun not intended); we took 2 private lessons and then the both of us were out everyday surfing or body boarding by ourselves.

We took some time on a more miserable rainy day to visit the relativly nearby Eden Project. I think all visitors to Cornwall make a visit to the Eden Project at least once and although not cheap it is well worth the visit. MiniMe loved the kids area and was soon running around grabbing materials to build a tiny boat from ‘sustainable materials’. The aim was to build a small boat and then push it out to sail in a small pool like area where the boat would ‘dock’ at a small island with some playmobil figures on it. There was a helpful adult in waders to help the boats around and MiniMe took his task very seriously and was very proud when his boat made it to the island.

MiniMe surfing

The more educational aspects of the Eden project also kept MiniMe inspired and we had a great time walking around the domed areas and learning about various fauna and associated wildlife. Even on a very grey British day we had a great time exploring and learning so recommend to anyone visiting the Cornwall area.

We soon settled down to a activity driven schedule: MiniMe would race to reception every morning to register for the kids supper by picking from the days menu. We would all eat breakfast together from the extensive buffet before MiniMe raced off again to join the Dolphins group for their morning activity. I would then head off for some surfing or spend some time with Mrs danyul before we all hooked up for lunch somewhere. In the afternoon I would keep MiniMe in check, usually through surfing together, while Mrs danyul would spend time in the spa or taking a bus to one of the local towns so she could explore. MiniMe would join his friends at the kids supper and we would leave him there safe in the knowledge that the kids staff would be watching over them and then taking them all back for the evening Dolphins session. I would eat with Mrs danyul in the fantastic hotel restuarant before taking a walk down to the beach and back to the hotel again before settling down in the bar area. Soon it would be time to collect a very worn out MiniMe and get him to bed all ready for the next day.

MiniMe surfing... ?

I have briefly mentioned the food through this posting and it is well woth highlighting the standard of food available at the Bedruthan Steps Hotel. The hotel takes great pride in sourcing local seasonal produce and this is firmly reflected in the quality of food available. Each morning we were presented with a buffet style breakfast selection consisting of an English cooked breakfast using local produce, a choice of cereals, and a selection of fruits and yoghurts. MiniMe would dive into the cereal options while Mrs danyul developed a previously unknown liking for porridge. I stuck to the more traditional English breakfast option along with some toast in a bid to fill myself with energy for all the days activities.

There was a small cafe style area at the hotel offering lunch, although you had to have your wits about you if sitting outside since the seagulls had their beady eyes fixed on anything edible. We tended to eat in and around the Mawgan Porth area for lunch while for supper / dinner MiniMe joined the kids club for burger / nugget style food although we did make sure that he had equal amounts of vegetables on his plate as well. This left dinner for just the two of us in the hotel restuarant where a set menu was on offer each night consisting once again of local produce for staters, main, and dessert. The food was fasntastic and there was an extremely well stocked wine selection to go with your meal. However, after a few nights dining in the hotel we wished we had not paid / booked for a hotel dinner every night; not because of the quality of the food or the standard of the service, which were all excellent. We just found ourselves wanting something smaller some nights rather than a three course meal every time. If we return to the Bedruthan Steps Hotel in the future then we’ll probably go for breakfast each morning and dinner the first few nights and the last few nights of the stay with a gap in the middle to eat at other local restuarants. This isn’t a reflection on the food provided but just an acknowledgment that sometimes we wanted a smaller meal while it was hard to resist the fantastic three course meal at the hotel since it was all booked in advance.

MiniMe surfing

The hotel had plenty on offer for all age groups: there was a room for teenagers that had a TV and a Wii inside, there was a small gym (adults only), a snooker room, an adult room with pool table & TV, 2 outside pools and 1 inside pool, plenty of play areas outside, 2 tennis courts (although 1 is ‘undersized’ and has some interesting ‘bumps’ to make games interesting), and I am sure there is more that I cannot remember. Also, each room had a feed to a set of DVD players in the reception area and there was a timetable of adult and child movies showing through the day. This was very welcome to us because we would want MiniMe to take some rest occassionally and the kids movies proved a great distraction to either keep him out of the sun for a little while or to let him rest before we went out for our next activity.

The hotel also arranged various morning / afternoon / evening activities for both children and adults to attend. There were severl morning visits from local attractions to show some sea life or some other wildlife so the kids could interact with the animals and the parents could be pursuaded to schedule a trip to the visitor attraction they were advertising. The afternoon / early evening saw a varierty of kids entertainers; such as a clown or party games or a magician. We found these events were aimed at a younger age group than MiniMe so he was not really interested but the toddlers were having a great time. After dinner there were more adult themed events in the bar area with visiting musicians and one night there was a team quiz night for all those interested.

I mentioned that the majority of kids entertainment events were aimed at the ‘toddler’ age group but MiniMe and some of his friends from the Dolphins group were really looking forward to watching the magician. However, the magician seemed obsessed with everyone being quiet throughout his performance and was constantly telling the adult group in the bar and surrounding groups to be quiet. MiniMe and he friends were standing along the side walkway watching and were talking to themselves wondering how he was performing the various tricks. No-one was being particularly loud but the magician was constantly telling everyone around to be quiet even though there wasn’t much noise; he was clearly getting more and more aggitated and his attitude left bit of a sour taste so we ended up taking MiniMe away before the magician completely lost the plot. I don’t know whether we caught this guy on  bad day but we felt he was a bit weird and overly obsessed with anyone making any noise in the hotel public areas.

We tended to stay in Mawgan Porth for the majority of our stay although we did venture out to the Eden Project and also on a short visit to Newquay. We were not that impressed with Newquay as it seemed to be dominated by cheap and tacky souviner stores selling t-shirts or various kebab / burger stores. So we cut our visit short to Newquay and instead drove along the coast and stopped off at various little towns along the way and had a much better time. Mawgan Porth was enough to keep us happy for the week with Betty’s Newsagent & Surf Shop stocking everything we needed alongside the pub or nearby restuarants for food and drink.

MiniMe surfing

So it was a big thumbs up from the three of us for Mawgan Porth and the Bedruthan Steps Hotel. The facilities in the hotel were excellent, the kids activities and care was excellent, and there were plenty of adult activities to keep me and Mrs danyul happy. The weather was not great while we visited but it was warm enough for t-shirts and shorts and it was the perfect weather for Mrs danyul who doesn’t like to be out in the hot sun all the time.

The highlights of our trip:

The lowlights:
  • The weird magician
  • Newquay did not live up to expectation
We all had such a great time that we have already booked another weeks stay at Bedruthan Steps Hotel and we look forward to visiting again and exploring Cornwall in 2010.
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Safety First

March 8, 2009 by Leave a Comment

My regular commute to work takes me along the Central Line to Bank station where I change for the DLR onto East India station. Anyone who relies on London public transport will know that it is subject to delays on a fairly regular basis, that trains or buses will occasionally break down, and that the odd security / safety alert will crop up.

The evacuation message suddenly sounded while I was changing at Bank this past week so I joined the majority of other passengers as we headed for the first available exit. However, I was amazed to see a number of people refusing to leave the platforms even though the station staff were directing them to the emergency exit routes. As I was walking through the ticket barriers at the exit there was even someone trying to sprint past through and dodge around the staff so they could make it down to the platform.

I am just amazed at the number of people who are willing to risk their life and ignore safety announcements all in a bid to save a few minutes getting to work. Whether there is a fire or it is just a false alarm; you are not able to tell and if there was a real fire then you would just be running down into it. Why bother?

East India DLR Station

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