Kobe

Hello from Kobe, my first stop in Japan! It only took me two long haul flights and an hour and a half in a van to get here, another 8 hours ahead of where you last heard from me.

By the time I arrived last night, it was all I could do to shower off the airplane grime and crawl into bed. But after a long sleep, I got up at a reasonable hour this morning feeling mostly human despite the time change, and checked the guide book to find that it didn't have much listed here in Kobe. So after my morning dose of caffeine, my mission was to go to the one tourist spot that did catch my interest, to get my pre-paid Japan Rail Pass* and to find some lunch.

By some stroke of luck, the only place in the guide that appealed to me was the Ikuta Shrine, which happens to be right across the road from my hotel. I can even see it from my window! So I slathered on my sunblock, strolled over there, and took a look around. With very few exceptions, my preference is to stay outside and snap a few photos of religious buildings, so I did the same with this shrine. From outside the entrance it looks tiny, but from above you can see how big it really is. They believe this particular shrine dates back to 201, which probably makes it the oldest human-made structure I've ever seen. My mind can't even fathom a building of that age. Since I wasn't going in for a religious experience, I didn't stay long, but I did find the place very pretty and peaceful.

From there, I took off into the busy city streets. Given the high heat and 70% humidity, I wasn't too keen to do too much wandering; I just wanted to get my errands done and then get back to the hotel for an AC break. But I couldn't find the stupid Japan Rail Ticket Office, no matter how many different parts of Sannomiya Station I wandered through.

First lesson from Japan: it's annoying being illiterate after reading for 40 years.

I know that sounds weird, since I've been to a lot of places where I don't speak the language, but when you can read the letters, you can still figure out a few words now and then. You can at least make sense of street names to know where you're going, and make a good guess at what kind of business is inside a building based on what the sign says. Here, none of that works for me. Turn left on Bunch of Characters that Have No Meaning to Me Street? Ooookaaaaay... Aaaaaaand... I'm lost. There's not a lot of English here (at least in a smaller city like Kobe), spoken or written, so I'm just left wandering, looking at maps, gesturing, and figuring it out. I'm a road warrior, I can deal and will get along fine, it just feels wrong being in a world without any words or letters that I can understand, at all.

Anyway. A place that I did recognize by letters I can't read was Uniqlo, one of my favourite clothing stores for basics like t-shirts, sweaters, jeans, and chinos... which are most of what I wear day to day, let's be honest. Given the cheaper home country prices and favourable exchange rate on the dollar, I was tempted to buy an extra suitcase and fill it up. But a clearer head prevailed, and I just picked up one plain tee to break the excessively large bill that the ATM gave me. I may not do so well next time I see a Uniqlo...

At this point, I'd been walking for over an hour and was getting tired of sweating, so I popped into 7-11, where I got a beef udon bowl for lunch to go. Yes, they actually do decent hot food at convenience stores here! When I told my Japanese friend that I don't do sit-down meals much while travelling, she said that 7-11 and Lawson are where I should buy all my food... quick, cheap, and tasty. One lunch down, and so far she's right.

Tonight I'll see my first Rugby World Cup game for 2019, then tomorrow morning I jet off to the next city. Since I had to cut my time in Japan down to only one week, it's going to be mostly a blur, but I'm going to do my best to soak up as much as I can while I'm here...


*I was advised by a Japanese pal of mine to get a Japan Rail Pass while here, because you can go everywhere on high speed trains, and it would save me tons of money. But you can't just buy one from outside the country. I had to order a voucher that got mailed to me, which I then need to take to one of the official Japan Rail ticket offices, which only exist in a few cities. Then, upon filling out some more paperwork, they will give me the actual pass that I can use for riding trains. And after I'd already paid for it and started looking up the train times between cities I'm visiting, just to plan ahead, my Japanese train finder app basically flipped me off and laughed hysterically as it told me trains were unavailable or unbearably long for all but one of my journeys. Of course.

So Long, and Thanks for All the Haggis

It's my last morning in Glasgow, which I'm spending in my hotel room with the Rugby World Cup on TV, before embarking on an excessively long journey to see some of it myself in Japan. You might be wondering why I'm in Glasgow on my way to Japan... it's not exactly a convenient stop en route. Well, it's because of Still Game, one of my favourite TV shows of all time.

Quite some time ago, the Still Game stars and writers announced that they'd be ending the TV series, and would put on one last live show to close it all out. But since I had to apply for my for RWC tickets more than a year in advance, I was already booked to be in Japan at the same time they'd be doing the show here in Glasgow. So I accepted my fate of missing it.

Then the final episode aired. And I couldn't bear the thought of that being it. The moment it ended, I got online and looked for a way to see the live show. I found that if I got a ticket to opening night and flew out the next day, I could just barely make it to my first game on the other side of the world. So I did it, paid too much for a ticket because all the normally priced ones were sold out, booked a flight, and got excited.

Of course, that was far from the last of the changes to my RWC travel plans, but more on that another time.

So here I am, the morning after the big show. Still Game: The Final Farewell last night was pure joy: fun, and so funny, and such a great way to say goodbye to the show. I am so glad I came for it, despite all the extra travel. I can't imagine how I'd feel having missed it. It's sad thinking there won't be any more new content from those folks, but I know I'll forever keep watching the hours and hours of excellence they've already provided.

And Still Game isn't all I'm saying my farewell to in this visit. Much as I love Scotland, I can't keep making excuses to come here multiple times a year, when I have so many other places I haven't been yet. Yes, I've said this before. And no, I can't call it the final farewell, as I'm sure I'll have reasons to return... I'm just no longer going to use the I'm going to Edinburgh, just because Embra excuse.

I guess it helps that I've never had much (any) affinity for Glasgow as a city, so it's not like I'm looking around wistfully as I pack my bags this morning. Nope, I feel good about the run I've had with this most beautiful and charming of countries, and know it will always be with me.

And I'm so ready to go hang out in rugby land... let's go!

London / BST Hyde Park

Just on my way back from my latest time in London. It feels so homey here, I can't stop coming back. Once someone asked me how many times I'd been here, and I had no idea... And that was 5 or 6 visits ago.

I'm sitting in the lounge at Heathrow now, feeling awful with the cold that just keeps getting worse, but also in a fantastic mood, still buzzing from last night. I had originally planned to be in London until Saturday, but when I realised my main man Robbie Williams was closing a festival Sunday night, I updated my plans, got over my hatred of festivals, and bought a ticket.

The gig was BST Hyde Park, and yesterday was its last day of a few weekend concerts. Other acts on the main stage yesterday were Feeder, Texas, Keane, and The Black Eyed Peas. I've enjoyed both Texas and Keane in past, but given the aforementioned cold virus, wasn't sure how much time I could handle in a mega crowd. I left my hotel about 4 hours before Rob was set to hit the stage, which put me arriving just as Keane got started. From my seat in the VIP Garden, they sounded pretty good. Then I attempted to enjoy The Black Eyed Peas (meh), still in the Garden area, before making my way into the crowd in front of the stage for Mr Williams.

 

As always, the show was off the charts, and Rob seemed to be enjoying himself more than ever as the crowd of 65,000 sang his songs back to him... So much so that I also found myself grinning like an idiot for half the gig. Unfortunately with my cough, I didn't just lose my voice jokingly like I always say... I literally lost it completely after singing and cheering all night. By the end of the show, I opened my mouth, and no sound came out. As of today it's back up to a low croak, but I still sound pretty pathetic. Regardless, I wouldn't have missed it for anything. Call me the Little Mermaid, because I will happily give up my voice for this man.

Before the big show, I had a day and a half in my favourite city, which I spent doing lots of shopping -- my luggage is SO heavy today -- visiting the Saatchi Gallery, and soaking as much out of my V&A membership as possible.

The Victoria and Albert Museum is always the first stop for me in London, so last time I was here, I became a member. Well worth it. This time I saw all the current exhibitions, plus wandering the general area, and got a rare non-crowded second viewing of the Dior exhibit. Love it so much.

So I'm happy and sad about going back to America-land today. Miss my cat, but will miss London too...

Ljubljana

I very much liked Ljubljana. It's a charming small city, with beautiful surroundings, and their environmental focus doesn't hurt either (it won European Green Capital in 2016). 

Unfortunately, I woke up with a cold on my only full day here, and didn't have the energy to do as much as I otherwise could have. But I did rally enough to go out and wander for a few hours in the sunshine. 

 

My hotel was nice enough to provide me with access to a free guided tour and a phone set up to be a virtual tour guide around town, including maps and recommendations. Which is a fantastic thing for your usual traveler, but my response was, "ew, why would I want that?" Instead, I did my standard: look at a guide and map in the morning to come up with a general plan and orient myself geographically. Then leave them behind and see where I end up. Most times I still do what I planned to, but even if I get lost, there's always something to see. 

As usual, when I saw there was gallery focused on Slovenian modern art, I started my day with a walk through it. Nearby was the huge Tivoli park, so I went for a walk there next. 

The park was refreshingly unkempt, with flowers growing in the grass, all around the people lounging in the shade of big trees. It was a huge place, so I only walked part of it, but I still came across a couple statues and a pond with a few ducks paddling around the lily pads. 

Next I took a stroll through the ultra touristy old town, stopping for a few photos along the way. I had recently seen the episode of Travel Man where Richard and Eddie Izzard spent 48 hours in Slovenia, so I knew the trek up to the castle was far inferior to the funicular. There wasn't a lot to see in the castle grounds, but the view was unbeatable. 

After the castle, I could feel a sunburn coming on, despite my SPF-As-High-As-Possible, so I headed back to get something to eat, then to the hotel to crash and watch football. 

This morning I felt much worse with my cold and mostly wanted to stay in bed all day. But I had a flight at 5pm (now delayed) and a hotel without an ability for late checkout, so I had to vacate at noon. Given that I felt too crap to go back out wandering town in the heat, here I sit at the airport, waiting for someone to fly me off to London. 

If I felt better, I would definitely not be in such a hurry to leave. 

Zagreb

Now that I no longer have to spend all my time and money going to Scotland every few weeks, I've been diverting it back to seeing more new places.* My original idea was to spend around 10 days going all across a few countries in Eastern Europe, most of which were once part of Yugoslavia. When I do these kinds of trips, I usually like to fly into one major city and out of a different one, while taking trains around to points in between. Once I started looking into logistics, though, I found that my usual methods will not apply here. Flights are limited and connect somewhere out of the way, and trains are either extremely long or don't go at all, due to terrain or lack of demand.

So I settled on two major cities, with a train of just a couple hours running between them. First stop: Zagreb, Croatia.

When most people think of Croatia these days, they think of everyone's pretty pictures of the coastline and Dubrovnik, or the countryside. I'm definitely more of a city girl, and have seen stories that poor Dubrovnik's getting way overrun with more tourists than they can handle... plus, it's really hard to find flights there. So Zagreb, here we go!

As per my routine, I spent 2 nights here, giving myself one full day to see the city. My hotel is right on the main square, which makes it perfectly situated for me to just head out and see what I found. Just about everything listed in my guide book was within walking distance, so I headed out yesterday morning, figuring I'd pick my attractions by what I came across in my ramblings. I first wandered through about 3 blocks of parks (Park Zrinjevac and Park Josipa Jurja Strossmayera, per the map), which were busy getting set up for an 'open air festival' apparently coming soon.

At the end of the 3rd green space was the central train station, where I stopped to sort my ticket to Ljubljana for today. I'd tried to buy it online a couple of times, but the website told me I couldn't purchase it there. I had multiple online sources assuring me that the train does run, and tickets can only be bought in person, but I'm not the type who's okay with just rocking up on the day and assuming everything will be fine. Lucky that, since I discovered at the station that there are no longer any trains between the two cities. Oh boy, an adventure!

On the walk back toward my hotel, I popped into the National Modern Gallery, which features roughly 200 years of Croatian artists. It was great, definitely worth the price of admission... which isn't much anyway. I love seeing art in my travels, especially places like this where they focus on locals -- it's something I couldn't find anywhere else.

After a brief stop back in the hotel to handle my transportation concerns, I walked out to spend a good chunk of time at the Zagreb Cathedral (love me a fancy house of worship) and Tržnica Dolac (the farmers' market), then did some shopping around the main square. 

In general, Zagreb is familiar. As the capital of a country that found its way out of a communist past, it shares traits with similar cities I've visited. But flying over from the UK I was surprised to only have to change the time by an hour, and realised Zagreb is further west than Vienna and Stockholm. Geographically, it's pretty central, so I found it odd that it would be considered Eastern.... until I arrived and took a stroll through town. Now that I've been here, I get it; it's very much Eastern Europe in spirit.

I've eaten well here, but the interwebs couldn't agree on whether the water here was okay to drink or not. I've been pretty cavalier downing tap water in most of my travels, but still always do a quick search on arrival so as not to be totally stupid. In the end, I drank bottled sparkling water during the day (my preference anyway) and used the taps for my coffee and oatmeal in the morning. While I've had no issues from consuming it, my travel electric kettle did end up with thick sludge inside from a white powdery sediment in the water. I know the water is very hard here, so it's most likely just a mineral that's harmless... but fair warning, it's pretty unappetizing to see that crud floating around. Zagreb's tap water is not for the faint of heart.

In a couple of hours I will check out of my hotel and get on a bus (a BUS!) to Slovenia. When I found no trains available, my options were to fly (expensive at the last minute, nothing direct), rent a car and drive (more money and hassle than I'd like for one trip of less than 100 miles), or a cheap direct bus. Fine. Sold. It's only 2.5 hours, so I can suck it up... this once.


*To an extent. I am bookending this trip with Edinburgh and London, but that's a different subject for another day.
 

Shanghai Noon

OK, in reality, it's just after 10am as I get ready to post this, but Shanghai Ten doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

I'm in my hotel room on my last morning in Shanghai, after a few days here for work. Before I arrived, several of my colleagues who'd been here before gave me advice and warnings from their own time in China. It was all over the spectrum, including one guy who loves Shanghai so much that he's trying to move here, and one at the opposite end who said I'd definitely get sick from the food and probably also get scammed. Most of the stories were somewhere in between, though, from lost luggage and no Chinese clothes fitting, to being afraid to wear sandals in the dirty streets, to getting fat from all the great meals. Seems everyone has a different time here, including me.

After all the fun advice, I was much more apprehensive than I usually am while travelling, but when I arrived, it was... fine. I landed Monday afternoon to a beautiful day. Hot, sunny, few clouds, but low humidity and decent air quality. I checked into the hotel, looked at the gorgeous view, and decided this place was going to be just like any other travel of mine. I showered off the residue of the long flight, sat down to look at my guide book, and... became incredibly tired. Given that I had to train people all week for work, I needed a good night's sleep, and put off the sightseeing.


Unfortunately, for the next 3 days it rained and rained... evidently this is the rainy season. Add that to this being a very busy work trip, and my sightseeing wasn't so much delayed as cancelled. With long days of work and crosstown commutes between flying in and out of town, my view of Shanghai has mostly been from the windows of the office, the hotel, and taxis. But I did see a fair bit that way.

The day before I came here, I finished the book How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed by Slavenka Drakulic. In one of her essays she talks about laundry, how in every Eastern European country she'd visited in the Communist days and shortly after, people still washed things by hand and hung them out to dry. But in all these places, when people moved into the flats in tall buildings of cities, they had no balconies for hanging the clothes. So the solution was to mount bars outside the windows and have their clothes dangling many stories above the sidewalk, dripping on the heads of passers by. As we zig-zagged through Shanghai in various taxis, I saw the same here, in so many buildings, all across town. A true Communist universal!

Speaking of the taxis... the traffic here is crazy, and every cab ride ranged from a bit jerky to mildly terrifying. Cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles, mopeds, bikes, and pedestrians are everywhere in the streets, going every which way, all of the time. The traffic lights and standards of driving seem to be general guidelines, more than hard and fast rules. But I was here working with a guy from India who said compared to his hometown, the Shanghai roads are well organised. I guess that means if I ever take a taxi in India, I should spend my time covering my eyes and praying to Elvis.

Anyway. So mostly I've spent my time here working, or being tired and going to bed early before another work day. But the local team here was very hospitable, and fed me well on Chinese food. The first day we went to a Shanghainese restaurant for a big family style lunch, and they asked if I was okay with chopsticks. When I said could manage, but wished I was better at using them, the team all cheered me on for managing to eat 99% of my food without dropping anything, and said I was a chopstick master. So they were clearly liars, but very nice people. They also took me out last night, to feed me coffee, pizza, and cocktails after a tour of the big Starbucks Roastery.

That was the extent of my tourism until this morning, when I was determined to do some exploring before heading to the airport. I got up early, had my breakfast, and headed out  for a wander. People's Park, People's Square, and a couple of museums are right near my hotel, so they were all on my agenda. But even leaving at 7:45am, it was already 28 degrees C and 77% humidity, with smog visible in the sky. As one of the locals told me yesterday, "Shanghai in summer is like a big steaming pot." So I got as far as strolling in the park for about 45 minutes -- amidst the groups doing Tai Chi or taking photos of the lotus flowers -- before I was sweaty, getting a sore throat, and wanting AC back. So I went to one of the museums, which didn't open for another half an hour. I gave up and came back, and am waiting for my ride to the airport indoors.
 
My biggest worry was that my generally cranky respiratory system would act up here, but until this morning it's been okay. My sinuses have been slightly problematic, but that's just typical travel allergies. I can't say I'm sad to be leaving before the air gets to me, but I do wish I'd seen more while I was here. Maybe another time...

Robbie Williams Live in Las Vegas, the Sequel: Once More, With Feeling!

Last time I wrote, I had just gotten home from seeing Robbie Williams Live in Las Vegas, and said maybe I should come back again... take advantage of the shorter flight and small theatre while I can.

And here I am 3 months later, for the second leg of the residency.

I was looking forward to the show even more than usual, since I've had rough times in life of late, and knew a couple hours of Rob's "showing off" would be just the thing for it. I landed in Las Vegas Thursday afternoon, checked into my hotel room, and went straight back out for a Starbucks visit and a wander around. But after getting blown in the face with a hot wind (it was 39 degrees C and windy, WTF is that about?!), I went back to the Wynn in search of more swag featuring my friendly neighbourhood pop star, and air conditioning.

On the way over to the gift shop for said swag, I walked past 4 of the guys from the Robbie Williams band, and started to feel a little bit more amped about the gig. Then when I bought stuff, the woman working at the store was all aglow telling me about her interactions with Rob and that "He's SO NICE!!" which made me feel even more excited about the upcoming show, as I headed back to my room. And then who should be riding up the elevator with me? None other than Poppa Pete Conway himself! We didn't talk... because I don't normally speak to strangers in elevators, and couldn't think of anything clever to say to Pete anyway. The only things I could come up with were Hey, I follow you on Twitter  and Your son's a good fella, which didn't really seem worthy of bothering the man. But after 26 floors standing next to him, I was beyond impatient for the show to get here, and I still had 24 hours to wait!

When the hour finally arrived, I got all dressed up -- making sure I wore heels I could stand in for the entire 2 hour show -- and headed downstairs to the theatre. Some of the other superfans were meeting up in a bar at the Wynn beforehand, and I was planning to head over and maybe make some new friendly friends... but when the time arrived I was stricken with anxiety and skipped it.

By the way, I could write a whole other piece about the annoying return of social anxiety that I thought I'd beaten over 20 years ago, and maybe I will. Later. For now just know that I'm irritated that it keeps getting in my way and we'll leave it at that.

Where was I? Oh yeah, showtime! This time I got a much better seat: orchestra left, 5 rows from the stage. Of course I knew it was way closer, but I still had that WOAH moment when our boy came out and it really hit me. The gig, as always, was beyond description. Rob changed up the set and the banter a bit this round, and put on his usual incredible show. I danced around. I lost my voice from singing and cheering. I put one hand in the air, two hands in the air, bounced, bounced, bounced bounced bounced bounced. I took way too many pictures, but I also remembered to put the phone down and enjoy it for real most of the time too.

I'm beyond glad I came back.

I also happen to be in London just in time for the Hyde Park show next month, which will make it a record 3 Robbie shows in a year. If I'm super lucky, maybe I'll even get to go to a fourth...

I realised a while back that I bought my first Robbie Williams CD in 1999, so this is my 20 year anniversary with the man. I think I'm definitely spending it the right way so far.

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Another incredible night with @robbiewilliams. Greatest show you'll ever see.

A post shared by Sarah Anderson (@wheresgirl2) on Jun 21, 2019 at 10:58pm PDT