Hyper Japan is Awesome

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This is what the Rabbit made of it

This is slightly more conventional

Today we were up early and heading for Hyper Japan, a celebration of all things Japanese. It was wonderful. Stalls with video games, figures, clothing, and all kinds of other stuff. We had a walk around, had a great lunch (a first time with squid for me) and then had another walk around. There was some splendid cosplay and loads of stands. Plus cars. I took a few pictures

Of course there was bonsai

Nice Car

Not sure what these are, but they sure are cute

Hello from Lytham

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I’ve on more piers in the last two days than I have in the last ten years.

Today finds us in Lytham St. Annes. It’s only a couple of miles from Blackpool (you can use the tram to get from one to the other) but it feels like a different world. The huge and wonderful beach is front and centre, although there are still piers and of course arcade machines. We did some kite flying, dug holes and buried bits of each other and all the other things you’re supposed to do on the beach. We even got to watch someone get their car stuck in the sand. Happy days.

The tide does go out a heck of a long way….

To the Science Museum...

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Our trains leave mid-afternoon. And the Science Museum has luggage lockers, so it was back to South Kensington for some Science Museum fun. When we arrived the ground floor was a bit of a zoo, but we skipped up to the first floor (medicine) which was lovely and quiet and they had some fascinating stuff. Then up to the information technology floor for even more stuff. Panels from the original Leo computer? Yes please. We went a few years back and the computation stuff was terrible. Just a tiny model computer room from the early eighties. But now they have loads of stuff. And they had a really good game which showed how infections spread around.

Good lunch too. And then we braved the ground floor, at one end of which was a huge and expensive looking exhibition about carbon capture. Which was horrible. It presented this as a viable solution to the policy of burning things for energy. Which I’m not convinced it is. They showed this hugely expensive looking industrial plant that they reckoned could get rid of the emissions of six households. Which is tiny. Why not spend a fraction of the cost of this thing on insulating twelve households so that they only use half the power. One of the worst examples I’ve seen of “green-washing” I’ve seen. In the Science Museum. Wah.

Then we grabbed our luggage and headed for the train. Found a nice nature park near King’s Cross for a drink and then got on the train which left right on time, connected right on time and got us into Cottingham right on time. Everyone was great, trains were clean and shiny and the seats were comfy. And now we’re back.

Design Museum and Selfridges

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Headed to the Design Museum which had a lovely coffee shop (something of a theme) and some good things to look at. Staggered back and grabbed some food at a splendid little place in Notting Hill. For the afternoon we headed to Selfridges on the promise of a look at a Superfutures exhibition. This turned out to be a bunch of things around the shop, and arrows on the floor, but the shop was awesome.

They had a ground floor tech place that was stunning. Even managed to buy a Divoom pixel factory. Then a coffee and brownie in the pinkest coffee bar I’ve ever been in, followed by a walk home for a really good pub meal. I’m calling to day a success. If only I could still feel my feet….

Pink brownie

London here we come...

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Neat mural in the coffee shop

We’ve had our London trip planned for weeks. Always liked video game music? Always wanted to go to the Proms? Why not do both? On Monday we are going to the first ever BBC Prom featuring video game music.

But of course, first we had to get there. Today we were sitting on a bus for four and a half hours because of the rail strike. Two things stuck me about bus travel. First thing: It saves you a lot of money compared with train prices. Second thing: You earn that money. When we set out from Leeds the driver said “Next stop London. We have an emergency toilet on the bus if you need to use it”. Well, would you want to use a toilet marked as an emergency resource? I think the answer is yes, but it would have to be a proper emergency.

Anyhoo, the journey went smoothly enough. They put me in the “king seat” (the one right at the back in the middle) so I could have stretched my legs 20 feet if I’d needed to. Snag is, the king seat is not that well padded. So I arrived with something of a numb bum. But apart from that, all good. Then it was off for a much enjoyed coffee before heading to our rented flat.

The next few days are going to be fun.

Running up and down hills turns out to be fun

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I've never been that keen on the outdoors. What, with it not having a roof or air conditioning. 

However, on the basis of this trip I'm having to modify this opinion a bit. I think you have to choose your outdoors carefully, and be lucky with the weather, but we've done a couple of walks that I've really enjoyed. I'm not quite at the point of buying an Ordnance Survey map and a pair of waterproof trousers yet, but I'm thinking about it. 

Snowhome

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When we had our awful struggle to get to the airport a couple of weeks ago one of the things that sustained me was the knowledge that at least it wouldn't be this bad on the way back. 

Ha.

Turns out that Mother Nature (tm) had arranged another show of strength just as we got back into the country, with lots of thick snow and the prospect of blocked motorways. 

Fortunately, with jetlag you don't let such trifling things as icy roads worry you. All you want to do is sleep. So we got a train and a taxi back to our snowbound car, loaded it up and shot onto the M62 before fate noticed. And we got home just fine. 

We've had a lovely time away. All the better for not having to be at home.