Japan trip -- London HRT - HND 2023

12, 13/2/2023

Tokyo, here I come, I have arrived in Tokyo. It's been for a while since I last visited Japan ( my family), it was 2019, just before summer. I had  such a fun time here, attended lots of yoga classes, seeing my friends having yummy food and chats. Then when I came back o U.K, I got ill.... diagnosed with cancer, then Covid hit, lockdown etc, took another 3 years to see my parents.

When I arrived in Haneda airport ( Narita is miles away from Tokyo, Haneda is much closer to central Tokyo), with excitement and  feeling a bit nervous since long absent of long haul flight, I was really tired. Then we were asked to walk long way to get health check register with Covid vac passport. It was looooong walk! I had to stop and rest. Then, a staff kindly offered me a help, they ended up bringing me a wheelchair. I was pushed through ( short cut) into covid check room, very quickly processed my covid vac passport ( they were super impressed I had already 6 vaccines🤣) , then they asked me to wait for a staff from JAL ( I flew with BA operated by JAL) which took a while.......😊 When a staff turned up, she was very kind, polite and gentle, helped me all the way to customs and immigration. I was really grateful for this staff. All the staffs helped me there were very kind and helpful, I definitely recommend fly in to Haneda airport🤩

Actually, I wanted to disguise myself when I came out, see how long I could stand next to them without them noticing.... but my plan was not succeeded....never mind, maybe next time🤣

After the long wait, my parents who came with their friend ( who had a car) and I met. My parents' friend gave us a lift back home. By the time I got out the airport was dark, driving through Tokyo, on motorway, seeing lights from skyscrapers and blocks of flats... bridges had also lit up. Looked very pretty, but no greens, trees, or woods. Just building with lights on. What a different world, I thought...

This is 👆a tram runs trough outside my parents house, it runs to Waseda to Minowa, which I used to take it to go to school. It horns too, quite loud! Used to wake up early in the morning, let you know time to go to school🤣 Our doggo used to lie on the tram tracks and disrupted tram, she did that a couple of ties, glad she didn't get ( or us) fined or taken into a court😆 and kind drivers always stopped for her. My mum told my dog off and she stopped since. My childhood memory...

After dinner, had a bath then bed, woke up 2 am wide awake with jet lag, watching outside 👇, the city seemed falling asleep, very quiet. It was surreal, after 14 hours of flight, here I am  in Tokyo again, where I was brought up...my childhood...changed so much even since I was here last time. Nothing like how it was. Exciting to explore new places and walking round the town again...

Following day, my dad and I went out for a little walk in neighbourhoods, I wanted to find where yoga workshop for this Sunday, after a bit of walk with a map ( my brother printed out for me). We found it alright, then my dad said to me: "this place used to be a nursery school who used to rent out our 1st floor shop" Me: 😓 why he couldn't find it straight away? I thought... never mind, we found it in the end. then we walked down to find a vegan cafe, after walking well over 30mins, we gave up and back home. In the afternoon, I tried again, with correct address ( no wonder we couldn't find it, I had wrong address😂) here it was, I found it. Unfortunately, it was closed..... I was really looking forward to my oat latte... never mind. Next time! 😊

Tomorrow I am meeting up with my friends who i met in London years ago, having branch, looking forward to that. Taiwan tea and vegetable cafe, apparently. with good reputation! Can't wait.  

Side story; I ordered vegetarian meal for my flights. Here's what I got...

Veggie option Dinner

Veggie option breakfast

C'mon, BA, you can do better than this for veggies/ vegans, I thought. Curry for dinner was not too bad, but mostly consisted with fruits and salad. I would like a bit more variety on a tray, just like regular meals please... Bless her, one of staffs on my flight, she was very nice and polite, but she didn't seem to know there was difference between vegan and vegetarian. She didn't give me cheese cake 'bun' and a tub of ice cream...But I thought that was fine, because I wanted to cut down on wheat and sugar anyway. Hope veggie meal option will be improved in the future ( especially for breakfast!) ....😆 I did enjoy a bit of curry for dinner and all me fruits❤️ though. 

Suffolk Walk: Christmas Dip in Southwold

 25/12/2022

I was waiting for this day, Christmas dip, really excited and looking forward to it. Something I wanted to do for a long time. Ever since when I was a child, seeing people jumped in cold sea on new year's day in Japan. Always my dad told me I wasn't able to do such thing, too cold and I wasn't able to 'endure' the temperature etc.  As a child, thought dad was right, I believed in what he said when I was growing up. 

Then decades past, now I am in my early 50's 😌 ( grow-up now), started dipping into cold water and have cold shower every morning. Last year (2021 christmas day) was cancelled on the Christmas day due to rough sea and breezing wind. But the most of us dipped anyway. 

Anyway, I was already getting used to the cold water, that was why I decided to go ahead with it. My first time dip with lots of people, money raised went to the charity  (https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/23208062.take-plunge-charity-swim-returns-southwold/ ) 👈Link to a local news paper article 😊

Apparently 180 dippers, plus spectators. I met some lovely people and chatted away ( with other cold water dippers considering I am introvert) , lovely doggos 🐶 , lovely waves, lovely all the way round. I really enjoyed it. 

When I dipped in, there were some people in front of me, then they got pushed by waves, then one of guys stumbled on me 🤣, I quickly swam through between people over the waves. Then I floated for a while which I love doing. I don't swim, oh, some people from swimming club were really going for it, swimming away hard 🏊‍♀️. The most of people just quickly dipped in and out, which what we were supposed to do anyway. 

 Somehow, when the body get used to sea temperature, feels ok with it. Body can quickly climatise, but if I stay a bit too long, chill comes through later, and shakes 😅. I know now these days how long I can dip for. I don't get too cold anymore, I come out before feeling like that now. 

Back to the dip, we all had a medal 🏅 and colours of strap was Ukrainian flag 🇺🇦! It was my first time ever medal in my entire life. Never had a medal before, I felt so pleased❤️ Such a memorable day for me. 

Can't wait for next one! 

By the way......found them in Southwold.... who are they? 🤔 very long hair.... can't see their faces.....😆

Suffolk Walk: Christmas Eve Day walk in Walberswick 2022

 

24/12/2022

Our Christmas Eve walk in Walberswick... We felt we needed to get used to the sea for Christmas Day dip in Southwold, as we hadn't been in the water for a week.... But first, needed to have a walk! It was very quiet, and peaceful. The car park was empty. It wasn't brightly sunny day, nevertheless, it was beautiful there.

We parked our car up the road from the village, and went through the woods into the beach. Footpath was still a bit muddy. When we walked out from the woods, to open footpath where takes you to the beach and boardwalk, which I love looking out panoramic view of Walberswick. 

That day, one side was grey, other side had blue sky with a bit cloud, two different sky in one place! We didn't see any birds of prey, usually a harrier or two floating on the marsh. That day, we saw a pair of swans were chilling out on the river. Looked very peaceful, felt time passing differently from us humans. 

We carried on walking along the footpath, breathing fresh air, chatted about our dip, what to eat, nap and nature. The sea was lovely and calm, looked very inviting. It was a bit misty over Sizewell, still there. Sat there for a while, I needed a bit of rest, feeling very tired walking. These days, only a little walk really knackers me out. Often I need to stop to rest my legs and catch my breath. By the time back to the car, I was really knackered, then drove to the beach car park which was empty. Only another car parked there. 

We went in to the water, i felt it was really chilly. It reminded me when I was in late teen trying to stab myself with a needle to have my ear pierced. In those days, people often said; " use a bag of peas to numb your ears!" I did listen to the advice and yes, numbed my ear to stub, felt my ear was frozen. Jumping in the sea was a bit like that, my legs and arms felt really chilly went numb. soon got used to it though. Anyway, had a good dip, felt much better. Certainly woke me up! 😆

Now, I was ready for Southwold christmas day dip! 

Suffolk walk: Framingham

31/OCT/'22

Early this week, we went to Framingham. Nice Co-op there, I think I told you before. Sure, we went there to get some snack. There's a little footpath around the lake, it was a bit muddy due to rain. We managed to do the whole footpath. The castle looked pretty from the other side with the water, a kestrel was circling on the lake, I think it lives there 🤔, I have seen it before. It came very close to us, it had a cute face😍 .

We took my Trekinetic ( all terrain wheelchair) to do this little footpath. Some bits were a bit narrow for wheelchair user to go through. I needed to get off and walked a bit. 

Path was muddy, my wheel splashing mud and dead leaves onto my thighs, thought it would be nice if it had mudguards 😅! Anyway, we managed the whole footpath, we came up the hill where the castle was ( near the pub, entrance to the castle) it was a bit of hill, Marcus needed to work even harder. But ground was damp and slippery, it was a bit of effort but we managed. 

It was a bit grey day, thick clouds over us. Still, Framingham looked pretty, I do love the town. We came out from a little wooden gate next to the pub ( near entrance to the castle English Heritage) we wheeled on to the road then into the church. They decorated the iron gate and entrance to the church with crochet poppies for remembrance day. It looked beautiful.

.

Just one more thing.....  I recently purchased 1.2L kettle, my old one was nearly died. 1.2L! Compact ( doesn't take much space in my small kitchen) and cute😍 It looks so cute that I even go into the kitchen, for no reason, but just looking at the kettle. 🤣 then decide to put kettle on, watch how fast water boils and how much it eats electric ( watching the smart meter🤣 ) and have my cup of tea. This makes "making a cuppa' fun every time. What do you have some fun with everyday things? 

Suffolk Walk: Orford Ness NT

 16/10/'22

 I was so excited that finally visited to Orford Ness this sunday. It was huge! Much bigger than what I expected. 

We arrived a bit earlier than when we booked for the little NT ( National Trust) ferry to across the river. Felt like I wasn't wearing the right footwear, never mind I was able to get into the ferry with help of NT lady. I was a bit feeling tired, so not sure how far I could walk.

When we arrived on the Ness, walked to a van ( from WW2 I would imagine) to listen to the guide explaining us about Ness and footpaths. I am a bit def, I wasn't able to hear all of what he was saying, good job, Marcus ( my partner) got good hearings. They did ask me if I could walk for a few miles to get to the office ( we hired off road NT mobility scooter), I thought I could walk. I was wrong, it was farther than what I expected, I started moaning 😅 as usual... Anyway, took us a bit but got there in the end. As soon as I got on the scooter, I was happy. I loved it, walked a lot on the ness. 

The view from the viewpoint was amazing. Shingles everywhere, so wide and ..... nothing there.... apart from remains from what they used that time. 

Weather was ok, it was a bit windy but bearable. We had a little rain ( spitting a bit), stopped quickly. I was told on the Ness, either windy and cold or blasting with heat and really hot, but it wasn't bad, actually it was quite pleasant. We had lovely time there. We decided to come back to Ness for nature walk, which we didn't have time to do that day. Nature took over the Ness, I would love to walk ( with the scooter) the footpath. 

Oh, we popped into the war exhibition, it was interesting what went on on the Ness. At the same time, when I saw a diagram about atomic bombs which, scared me. Ones were dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan were one of smallest ones. How scary is that, they caused so much damages and people are still suffering after mass of atomic bombs. I pray for peace, world peace. 🙏

There's more photos from the Ness below! 

 

Links to Orford Ness below:

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/orford-ness-national-nature-reserve

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/orford-ness-national-nature-reserve/features/visiting-orford-ness-what-you-need-to-know

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orford_Ness

Suffolk Walk: Shingle Street beach --- Full Moon

 8 & 9th/ October/'22

Lagoon & the cottage

Full moon, super low tide, mild temperature and sunny, we decided to go to Shingle Street beach for moon watching ( and dips of course) this weekend. We timed for low tide for our dip. It was truly magical. 😍

Super low tide due to partly the full moon, it created the lagoon by the shore again. Long, calming waves, in & out to the lagoon. Changed the landscape again. It was very 'hilly' up and down... desert shingle beach...so huge, and panoramic. Only Shingle street can create view like this. 

On Saturday, it was very calm, no much wind, so surface of the lagoon was very still. As the sun started setting, the light changed and I could see the clouds above on the lagoon. Sky was blue, light pink and misty grey purple over the sea holizen. It was soooo beautiful. 

Then about 6:30pm, the moon started rising over the sea holizen. It came out pinkish colour, then orange then golden colour. 

It was a bit cloudy and windy than saturday, loads of kite surfers were at the beach...nearly 20 of them, and one of vans stayed overnight from saturday. We could smell they were cooking dinner from miles away on Saturday night, being friendly, tried to have a conversation going, but maybe they didn't hear us ( or concentrating cooking in their van), we were ignored🤣.

Can you see the Jupiter?

We saw a lady came for the moon on saturday evening, who came again this evening. She had her friends, enjoying cuppa, chat and watching the full moon. They live locally, and they love watching full moon every month together 🥰 . 

We dipped in the sea and lagoon on both afternoon. Dipped, got changed, warmed up in our car then went back out for the full moon. It was lovely evenings, never saw sunset and full moon rising at the same time. I thought we must come here more often for sunrise, solstice, equinox, sunset, full moon rise, new moon rise etc...dip in the sea! 

Two moon watchers under the full moon

There are from tonight. 

We also drove into Sutton heath, former RAF base ( now called 23 parachute regiment, they changed the sign!), we wanted to see what's inside ( nice houses, and wide roads...), hadn't been inside for ages. As we drove in, we saw a community store! Then we saw a little roundabout, then...two army officers ( one had a big gun) standing at a reception like building. As we drove past, I waved at them, they waved me back. What were they guarding? Well, they thought I wasn't a terrorist ( thank god! 🤗 ), otherwise I would've got shot. 😅 Very curious, I wonder what is inside 🤔. Rendlesham forest next to it, so they might have an alien, or cloning alien DNA, and creating some civilization? Or ...? What do you think? 😻

On our way back from Shingle street in dark, we saw a little animal strolling across the road, I said: " it's a possum!!!" it wasn't 😆. It was a baby muntjac with mama muntjac looking for night snack getting into someone's garden. It was night like that when we often saw small herd of deer by the forest. Hope I can see them again soon.

What a wonderful weekend. I am a bit tired now, bed soon. Under the full moon....😌 

Suffolk Walk: Shingle street beach - Orford

 2/10/2022

We went out to Orford after our dip in Shingle Street on Saturday, I hadn’t been there for ages. Initially when I saw the castle, I really thought they were making the castle into apartments😅 It does look like that doesn’t it. Then saw a drawing of what it looked like years ago when it was in hay day. I spent a few minutes looking around imagining how people used to live. Shingle street beach looked different again, the sea pushed shingles from both sides, now becoming one huge mound-like on the shore. We dipped into the lagoon, ooo, how did those algae appear again? Nothing in summer! Then wondered, maybe algae and sea plants like chilly water….

Have you been to Orford NT? I haven’t been there yet. Hopefully we’ll visit next weekend. Someone on youtube once did a documentary about Orford Ness, and recorded some EVPs ( for ghost hunting😅 ). I doubt I will encounter some sprit people there🤔 . Anyway, today’s walk in this afternoon, we popped down to Chillesford church, off B1083, Shottisham. Heard some fossils of shells were found, so we drove there and had a look. There’s a huge ditch next the church ( cute church☺️ ). Below is what we found on edge of the ditch, and lots of old shells on the ground too. The church looked like standing on a mound. My imagination tickled, maybe perhaps, it was built on a mound, (mound) made by Anglo- Saxons😍. After that, we popped into Rendlesham forest for a little walk on Biking track into Suffolk Wild Trust footpath. I attached MT bike track below, if you would like to check it out for a weekend activity😁. This is the track, a pair of buzzard tried to kidnap me to their nest. So, you may find buzzards circling above you waiting for you to get injured….😅

https://www.forestryengland.uk/rendlesham-forest/cycling-and-mountain-biking-trails-rendlesham-forest

 Photo above is flowers in a vase in the church. How the light came through, it looked like it had a light inside the vase. It looked very pretty and magic. Lovely church. And, If you are member of a camper club ( can'r remember which one....) you are able to stay a night! What a spot to spend a night...