All the Bikes, All the Boats

Thursday, August 6, 2026

The number of bikes here in Copenhagen is astonishing. All the streets seem to have dedicated bike lanes. You really have to watch out for bikes when you cross the street.  Many hotels have loaner bikes for their guests.  Some bikes have big wooden boxes on the front, called “Christiania boxes,” named for the neighborhood where they were invented and where they are made. In such a box, you might find pets, groceries, or one or two children. 

Copenhagen also has numerous canals, which means there are a lot of boats. What kinds of boats? Houseboats, kayaks, small electric boats, large tour boats, sailboats, barges, and boat buses. 

This morning we took a canal tour on a small electric boat, with a company called Go Boat. It was a gorgeous, sunny day and our tour was exhilarating. There were about 8 of us on the boat, plus a guide. Our guide talked to us as she steered us through canals, big and small.

Our guide in the tour boat

We went under several bridges, and our guide pointed out the houses on some of the bridges, where the bridge-keepers lived. Many bridges were drawbridges and needed someone around at all times to open and close the bridges. Many of the bridges were designated for bikes and pedestrians only, and they were heavily used. There were drawbridges, sliding bridges, fixed bridges, low bridges, old bridges, and new bridges. It seemed like each bridge had an interesting story. 

The center of this sliding bridge moves to let ships tthrough

Along the larger canals we saw some outstanding modern architecture, including the opera house, the national theater, and the Royal Library, each with a unique story and each with a statement to make. The larger and smaller canals also showed off fabulous buildings from earlier periods. There were curious looking churches, palaces, statues and stables.

The Royal Danish Theater

The Opera House

Not sure if I heard this right, but I think the guide said you can ski on top of this building all year long.

The Royal Library

The elegant buildings from earlier centuries were also very beautiful from the water.

The National Museum

Amalienborg Palace frames a view of theMarble Church

Sections of the largest canal were cordoned off to serve as public swimming areas, and we did, indeed, see people swimming. I asked the guide if the water wasn’t a bit cold for swimming, and she assured me that it was quite cold, esecally for the first three or four minutes. It’s not for everyone, but it is definitely a”thing” here to go swimming in the canals.

Several large tour boats with loud motors passed us, but our quiet little boat was perfect for seeing everything from the level of the water. The smaller canals were interesting and accessible for us, too. There we could see everyday life - the apartments with balconies containing outdoor furniture or laundry or plants. The private sailboats and motor boats in slips next to the apartments. The people coming and going on shore. 

This Lego pirate sometimes squirts water at passing boats

Our Go Boat tour was so enjoyable, and I strongly recommend it. Thank you, Claude, for suggesting it. Go Boat also rents boats that you can operate yourself, if you are so inclined, but I think our guide’s input added a lot to the experience

On one of the islands just across a canal from Zealand lies the community of Christiania, founded by hippies in the 1960’s and still self-governing. After the boat tour ended, we walked back to Christiana Island for lunch. It was an interesting and pleasant walk. There were people around, but it wasn’t crowded. 

I think this was a bakery

We went to a cozy restaurant on Christiania called the Færgecafé, which means the Ferry Café. Here we feasted on smørrebrød and snaps. Smørrebrød are generous open-faced sandwiches, and they are challenging to eat. Danes traditionally drink shots of “snaps” (schnapps or aquavit) with the smørrebrød. In this case there were about 50 different flavors of snaps, made on the premises by the restaurant staff.

Eventually, we crossed a bridge back to Zealand, to walk along a smaller canal known as Nyhavn, intending to end up at the Design Museum. Nyhavn is a short, colorful canal, old and full of character, and a magnet for tourists, hipsters, hucksters, buskers, pickpockets and drunken sailors.

Nyhavn

As it turned out, Nyhavn, while entertaining place, was fairly crowded. On top of the jet lag, the big meal, and all the walking we had done already, walking to the Design Museum seemed like too much. And did I mention that it was hot?

We decided, instead, to walk back to our hotel along a pedestrianized shopping street. Big mistake. The cobblestones were hard enough to walk on, but that was not the problem. The street was so crowded that it was frustrating and very difficult to walk. I had expected the pedestrian street to be easier to navigate than the busy road that paralleled it on the next block, but I had not expected it to be that crowded. We kept going because we thought we were near the end, but it just got more crowded. Finally, we reached a square where the shopping street ended. By that time our feet and legs were aching from walking on cobblestones so much. I started to fall out of love with beautiful Copenhagen a little. It was so perfect on the other side of the big canal and on our canal boat tour, but where did all these noisy, rude people come from?

Here’s what I think. For several years, we have not gone to Europe in the summer because it is too crowded and too hot. This year we made an exception because we wanted to go on a specific cruise that starts tomorrow. We didn’t think Denmark would be as crowded and as hot as other parts of Europe, but it was hotter and more crowded than we bargained for.

My advice: Do go to Denmark - it’s really beautiful and interesting. Don’t go in the summer. Try to stay away from the busiest tourist areas at the busiest times of day. That includes the Strøget (shopping street), Nytorv, Tivoli Gardens in the evening and on weekends. Things tend to get busier as the day goes by, so start early. Maintain physical distance by avoiding the central area entirely and going to one of the other islands, such as Christiania, or one of the lovely cities elsewhere in Denmark. Wear comfortable walking shoes when you go.

Copenhagen’s magnificent City Hall

Today’s fabric is Copenhagen, by Gaia Marfurt for Spoonflower.

Old Zealand

Well, I had a little/not-so-little glitch with the blog app, and I couldn’t get it to work for a few days. I hope it will be OK now. 

Tuesday, August 4, 2026

Long wait at airport in Seattle. 

Airport was very crowded.

Long overnight flight that left Seattle 2.5 hours late. 

Enough said.

Wednesday, August 5, 2026

This morning we arrived (2+ hours late) on the island of Zealand. It is in the Baltic Sea. The Danish name for the island is Sjælland, which is pronounced like Zee-a-lahnd. So now you know, if you didn’t already, that we are in Copenhagen, Denmark. Zealand is the 13th-largest island in Europe in size, but it is the 4th most populous. (The country New Zealand was named Nieuw Zeeland by Dutch mapmakers. The spelling was Anglicized to New Zealand and the name of the country doesn’t have any connection to the Danish island, Zealand.)

The airport wasn’t too bad. We cleared customs and immigration quite quickly and got to the bagage claim before our baggage. We found the taxi line and there was only one party ahead of us so we were in a taxi before you could say “Hans Christian Andersen.”

Our hotel is called Absalon Hotel. (Absalon was a Danish bishop and archbishop who lived in the 12th century.) It is located near the main railroad station in a neighborhood which seems to consist entirely of hotels and restaurants. There are an awful lot of Japanese restaurants and kebab restaurants.

I am writing this a few days after our stay at the hotel.  I would give them high marks for location and for a delicious breakfast buffet. The bed was very comfortable. They also get bonus points for having air conditioning. Many hotels here do not. It is in the mid to upper 80’s today and our room was very hot when we arrived. 

I don’t know whether the hotel should get high or low marks for their green policy. It’s great that they want to limit their impact on the environment, but it would have been nice to have larger towels. We each got one thin bath towel that was not large, and one hand towel. There were no washcloths. The shower was terrible. There was no shower curtain - just a glass panel no more 18” wide on the edge of the tub. As a result, if you used the shower, water would go everywhere. The tub was a deep soaking tub, and you had to raise your leg very high to step into it. There were no grab bars and the rubber suction cup mat did not fit. It slipped as soon as I put my weight on it and I almost got hurt. 

All in all, I probably would not recommend the hotel unless you could get a room with a walk in shower vs. the tub/shower we had.

We were too hot and tired to remember to take photos of our room, but it was clean and attractive, though small.

In the late afternoon we walked to the train station to look at the great architecture and to look for a few geocaches.

Copenhagen’s stately Central Train Station

Then we went to Tivoli Gardens. Tivoli, an amusement park, opened in 1843 and is the second-oldest amusement park in the world. Tivoli was the place that inspired Walt Disney to create Disneyland. It is a 20-acre tract in the middle of Copenhagen, surrounded walled in by restaurants and shops, so that you can hardly tell it is there, despite the occasional glimpse of the top of a roller-coaster.  

When we arrived, a children’s marching band was playing outside the entrance gate.

Tivoli is somewhat retro, but it is attractive and well-maintained. Visitors can stroll through various pleasing gardens, and you can snack or dine at one of the dozens of eateries inside.  You do have to buy a ticket to get into the park to hear the “free” concerts they offer, and do expect to pay extra to experience the rides.

We soon arrived at a large tent where the Copenhagen Philharmonic was about to begin a concert. The tent was round and open on the sides. The musicians were arrayed in a circle around the conductor and an announcer. The members of the audience were encouraged to go inside the tent and wander around among the musicians during the performance. They played some familiar classical pieces and several theme songs from films, many of which had been written by John Williams. The orchestra was very good and we really enjoyed listening to them while we sat on a bench in the sunshine.

After the concert, we walked around some more, looking at the rides, the gardens, a short row of carnival booths, the Danish families, and the tourists. We heard strains of music from a few smaller music venues. It felt very safe and family-friendly. It was crowded, but not to the point of being uncomfortable. It was totally charming and delightful.

We ate dinner at a restaurant inside Tivoli called Figaro - an Italian/seafood/bistro. After dinner, we were so tired we just went back to the hotel and went to bed early.

Today’s fabric is “1775 Vintage Royal Copenhagen Blue Fluted Flower” by Adrienne_donovan_design for Etsy. 

All In

Monday, August 3, 2026

Hello! I am back with a new series of blogs about a brand new adventure. 

Turnagain Arm today, shortly after take-off

But first I have some housekeeping.

Let me begin by welcoming my new readers. Here are some things to know about my blog.

About the blog

1. Please feel free to comment through the Blogger app. I love getting comments.

2. Unless you put your name in a comment or use a Google screen name, I can’t tell who wrote a comment. (It’s ok if you wish to post anonymously.) I also can’t tell who opens any given blog post.

3. This is a travel blog. I try to keep politics out of it. Do not assume I am unaware of current events just because I don’t mention them.

4. You are receiving this blog because you asked to be placed on my mailing list. If you wish to stop receiving it, I will not hold it against you. I understand that reading about someone else's vacation might not be fun for you. Just let me know and I will remove you from my mailing list.

5. Please look at “Why Do I Blog” for a better understanding of this blog.

6. Most of the photos were taken by Ken. I took a few of them. If someone else took one, I try to give them credit.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

On my last trip I had some technical problems and had to switch to Wordpress. When I was home this summer I was able to fix the technical problems, so I have returned to Blogger.

This was a very exciting summer for us because our daughter got married. I am only going to make you look at ONE wedding picture, and then we will return to the theme of this blog:

TRAVEL

The happy couple

Now I will change the subject and talk about AI. I used AI to help plan our last two trips. There is a bit of a learning curve, but I like the results enough to keep using AI.

I initially used Copilot, but for this upcoming trip I mostly used Claude. I like it better, though it’s hard to articulate what I like better about it. Maybe it seems to be more helpful. Maybe it seems to “get” what I am asking for a little better. 

I have also used Google’s AI. It doesn’t have a name - I asked it. It’s hard to avoid using Google’s AI because it seems to be automatic when you “Google” something.

If you are using AI to plan your itinerary, be as specific as you can about what you would like AI to tell you. 

• Indicate whether you want a relaxed pace or a faster pace. Telling AI the ages of those in the group will help.
• State the date or dates you will be visiting a particular area. This will help AI to avoid sending you to a museum on a day that it is normally closed.
• Tell AI where you want to start and end your day to minimize backtracking. For example, “at the cruise terminal” or “at the Hilton hotel.”
• Be sure to mention areas of personal interest to you: are you a foodie? A birdwatcher? A gardener? Are you into architecture, nature, or culture? 
• The planning process yields better results when it is iterative. Read the suggestions AI makes and ask more questions, or ask for an alternative to one of the sites suggested. Look at a map and find the places AI suggests. (You can ask AI to show you on a map.) Does this raise any questions about transportation during the day?
• AI’s responses are not convenient to copy or save. When you are satisfied with the plans AI has given you, ask for a Word document or a “printable document.” Then you can save it and print it to bring with you. You can even edit the printable document later.
• I do recommend going through your final plan and looking up each activity and location to make sure it is not permanently closed, or too far away, or too expensive, or completely booked up already. AI does not always get these kinds of details right.
• Give AI a test run. Ask it to plan an itinerary for a 6-hour visit to the city you live in. Do you agree with AI’s suggestions? Can you get better results by changing your prompt?

I can’t wait to find out how Claude did with this trip. I certainly saved a LOT of time by using Claude.

✈✈✈✈✈✈

We took off from ANC this morning and had a mostly uneventful flight to Seattle. At one point the flight attendants called for a doctor or nurse. There was not a lot of commotion after that, so it must have been easily resolved. We did not learn what happened.

We made our way to a hotel near near the airport where we will spend the night. We had dinner at a pleasant Thai restaurant. And that’s all she wrote.

Today’s fabric is World Traveler in White, by Rifle Paper Co, sourced by Hawthorne Supply Co on Etsy.

I don’t think the place we are going to is on this fabric.

Here’s a hint for those of you who don’t know where we are going: Our first city is on an island.

Getting Serious about Sericulture

Sunday, April 12, 2026

Before I get into what we did today, I want to provide an update on the photo situation. I have decided to post my photos on Google Drive. Once I get it set up, I will start putting links to Google Drive in my blog posts or just sending you the link separately. If you do not have a Google account associated with the email address I am using for you, you will not be able to access Google Drive. 

It is time consuming and complicated to set it up, so it will be a few more days. It is also complicated to organize my photos because I have photos from my phone, Ken’s phone, and Ken’s camera. I have to transfer all of it to my iPad and set up a folder for each day. Then I go through the photos and edit them and delete the duplicates and decide which ones to use. Now I will have an additional step of transferring the final photos to Google Drive.

I do not want to allow the Google Drive photos to be available to the public, so I am setting it up to be shared with everyone who is on my blog mailing list. If you are not on my mailing list, you will not be able to access the Google Drive. If you are on the mailing list, you may have to log in to Google Drive with the same email address that I use to send you the blog links. Actually, I don’t know what you will have to do. It may be that you just click on the link and you are there.

The photos start out as large files, so my cloud storage is going to get used up quickly. To address this, I am going to have to remove the oldest files frequently, until I can figure out how to convert the photos into smaller files without it resulting in smaller pictures. I would advise you to look at any photos I put on Google Drive within a day or two so you see can see them before my cloud storage forces me to remove them,

If you are on the mailing list and you can’t access the photos, email me and I will see if it is something I can fix. I know there are some folks who read my blog who are not on my mailing list. If you want access to the photos, send me an email and I will try to add you to the list of those with access.

I am hoping all of this will be a temporary workaround and that I will be able to fix it this summer so that the blog and photos will once again be together in the same place. I know it is not easy to read a blog and look at the photos separately. I expect to have this fixed before my August trip, but I can’t fix it while I am away from home, and I don't have the time to.

Sericulture, breeding silkworms for the production of silk, began in China some 5,000 years ago and was a closely-guarded secret until 2,000 years ago when some silkworms were smuggled out of China. Japan started a sericulture around that time and it became a major industry. In the 19th century, as industrialization began to change the way things were done, innovations in sericulture also appeared. We learned about Jpana’s silk industry during a visit to the Tomioka SIlk Miill in Tomioka, not far from Takasaki.

The Silk Mill was built in 1872 as a government operated silk factory. t was one of the biggest silk factories in the world at that time, as Japan began modernizing. Girls and young women from all over Japan were hired to work in the Silk Mill. They lived in dormitories on the premises and received training in silk production, as well as optional general educational classes after work.

The silk worms were raised by local farmers, and when the larva made  cocoons, the cocoons were delivered to the mill for the beginning of a complicated processing protocol. First the cocoons were boiled to kill the larva. Then they were dried out and stored in large cocoon warehouses. The next step was called “reeling.” Up to 6 cocoons at a time would be carefully unrolled and the six strands would be twisted together to make a single thread which was wound up on reels. Traditionally, this was performed by hand and required great skill and care. But the new factory introduced machines to automate the reeling process and produce vastly larger quantities of silk. The factory was very successful for about 100 years and Japan became a leader in the silk industry.

The Silk Mill was closed in 1987 and has been turned into a museum. We saw the machines that were used, but we did not see them in action. I’m not sure they are still operational. We watched a woman demonstrate the process of reeling by hand. The thread from each cocoon was so fine you could barely see it. When a cocoon was nearly unwound, the dead silkworm would fall out and it would be scooped up and disposed of without stopping the unwinding. I don’t think weaving or dyeing took place at this factory. 

We saw the houses where the managers lived. In one of these houses there is now an exhibit with live silkworms. They were very ugly and they never moved, as far as I could tell. They do not live in the wild. Except for breeding stock, the larvae never make it to moth-hood, so you never see silk moths in the wild either.

There was some discussion between Ken and me about whether the women and girls who worked in Tomioka were oppressed. I think many of them had very hard lives they wanted to escape, and the factory gave them room and board and education, skills, and an escape route. However, the work hours did increase as the years went by and the laws in Japan changed. Initially the workers worked for 8 hours a day, six days a week. That was quite enlightened at the time. However, the factory went from government ownership to private ownership and the laws gradually changed to allow management to require the women to work up to 12 hours a day or more, with fewer benefits. The education available to them grew more limited, as well. 

We visited the museum shop at the end of the tour, and I didn’t buy anything because I was not impressed with the quality. The fabrics were mostly blends of 50% silk and 50% synthetic, and I didn’t like the feel of them. The scarves in the shop felt rough and unpleasant.

Tomioka Silk Mill is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. They did a good job restoring parts of it and the explanation of the reeling process was good. I thought the “live silkworms” exhibit was really lame, and the shop was nothing to write home about. I would have liked to know more about the machinery.

Every place in Japan has a mascot. The mascot of Gunma prefecture (and of Takasaki) is a goofy looking cartoon pony. The mascot of Tomioka Silk Mill is Otomi-chan, a 14-year-old girl representing the female factory workers of the Meiji era.

For dinner we went bak to Oginoya, the clay pot place we ate lunch at on the first day in Takasaki.

The hotel gave us “hot eye masks.” I thought about trying one, but I was stumped by the directions. I will be including photos of the package, so you can see for yourselves. (It can be very entertaining to read English translations of Japanese instructions. But that’s a story for another time.)

Today’s fabric is mulberry silk. You may recall that silkworms like to eat mulberry leaves. Mulberry silk is produced by silkworms that have fed exclusively on white mulberry leaves. It is the highest quality natural silk available. Mulberry silk is prized for its softness, durability, and natural sheen.

A Walk in the Woods

Saturday, April 11, 2026

The plan for today is Nature. We will venture out of town and up into the mountains. We will visit a 1500-year-old Shinto shrine and, if there is time, a mountain lake.

Surprisingly, it is possible to get there on a city bus, though it takes 80 minutes. There were only a few tourists on the bus with us. The bus made several stops near the center of Takasaki and local people got on and off. After a while, the urban congestion eased up and we started to see small plots of vegetables between the houses. The houses started to thin out and gave way to fields and forest as we reached the foothills of a mountain range. The bus began to climb. We passed clots of Saturday cyclists riding laboriously uphill.  Finally, after driving through a huge red torii gate, we found ourselves at a fork in the road where a small settlement had sprung up. The bus drove on a sort distance and we came to the end of the small community. The bus let us off in a parking area and we walked back to the fork and began to walk uphill along the other arm to another large torii where the road ended and a trail to the shrine began. 

This trail would take us to Haruna Shrine, a Shinto shrine founded in 586 CE and dedicated to the gods of Water, Fire, and Agriculture. Haruna Shrine The shrine is considered a “power spot” and attracts many visitors.  Power Spot

At the beginning of the trail there was a pictorial map. It showed several tall, skinny mountains near the shrine and showed the name of each one in Japanese. I thought this was a stylized depiction of the mountains in this area. When we actually got to the shrine we saw a number of interesting rock formations. They were tall, skinny spires, or pinnacles, towering protectively over the buildings of the shrine. They were very other-worldly in appearance. The pictorial map wasn’t stylized after all.

A sign near the entrance read:

“It is said that demons used to spend time high in the mountains where the gods reside. As clouds roll into the peaks of Mt. Haruna bringing with them thunder and lightning, rain falls and blesses the field below. This is why Mt. Haruna is believed to be the god of Water, Fire, and Agriculture, and Haruna shrine the home of the god.”

Most of the trail was paved with paving stones, but it was otherwise a rustic trail through the woods. Every so often there would be a bronze statue. There were some enormous, ancient cedar trees along the way. The trail was about 1 km, but seemed longer because it was all uphill and because we stopped frequently on the way to look at interesting things.

At first there were very few others on the trail and we were the only “foreigners”. As the day went on, more foreign visitors showed up. 

Near the end of the trail we found a couple of little booths where souvenirs and snacks were sold. I bought a piece of konnyaku on a stick. Konnyaku is a Gunma specialty. It is a type of mountain yam. When it is cooked it turns into a purple rubbery glop, something like the toy, Gak, if you remember it. Konnyaku has almost no flavor, IMO. The woman selling it said she cooks it all herself. She offered several types of sauce, and I chose plum sauce. She served the konnyaku on a beautiful ceramic plate. I think she also sold one or two othr local foods, but that was all. I think this was the farthest away I have ever been from a vending machine in Japan. Bring your own water if you go.

At the end of the trail we encountered at least 200 steps leading up to the shrine buildings. We didn’t come this far to miss the shrine, so we kept going. What we saw was a fairly large complex, which was a little unexpected given the location. The buildings were well maintained and there was a lot of new construction or repair work going on way out here at the end of a trail at the end of a road. The shrine had a lot of ornate gold embellishments, and there were carvings painted in bright colors. 

Note: It is fairly unusual to see gold and bright colors (other than vermillion) on a Shinto shrine. I don’t know why this shrine is different.

After looking around at the shrine, we walked back down on the trail to the fork in the road. Here we stopped at a small restaurant for a lunch of soba, another popular local food. Soba is a long thin noodle made of buckwheat, which grows in this region, and in many other colder regions such as Canada and Russia. Buckwheat is popular in Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine and is called kasha. Kasha is cooked whole, and is not ground into flour or made into noodles.

In Japan, you can choose to eat soba hot (in broth) or cold (on a bamboo tray). It comes with a soy-based dipping sauce and sometimes is accompanied by wasabi, green onions, or seaweed. When you finish the noodles, a server will bring you a little teapot filled with hot water leftover from boiling the noodles. You pour some into your leftover dipping sauce and drink it like broth. It is very tasty. Nothing is wasted.

There really wasn’t time to visit Lake Haruna also. If you had a lot of time, you could walk to Lake Haruna, and you might get there sooner than you would by bus because the bus does not run frequently. You can walk there from the shrine without going back to the fork in the road. The bus takes you there from the fork via a very winding road.

It was very satisfying to participate in something that involved more Japanese people than foreigners. I suspect that most of the visitors today were here primarily to experience a beautiful place, but also  - a little bit - to experience a holy place. How lucky for the Japanese that there are so many of both kinds of places on their densely populated islands.

Instead of a fabric, we will have a question today.

Have you ever been to a “power spot”? Where was it?

Daruma Drama

 Friday, April 10, 2026

Today we rode the Hokuriku Shinkansen from Tokyo Station to Takasaki Station. Before leaving the hotel we shipped one bag to the next destination after Takasaki and we arranged for the hotel to store two bags. It was such a pleasure to be traveling with only one carry-on and one “personal item” each. 

How far out of Tokyo do you have to go until you get to a place where the menus don’t have an English version and most of the people don’t speak English?

The answer is 53 minutes (if you go somewhere that is not a major tourist destination). Our train ride was 53 minutes, at bullet train speed (162 mph).

The population of Takasaki is about 372,000. It’s a commercial and transportation hub for the surrounding region. It’s not crowded like Tokyo. Takasaki’s claim to fame is the daruma. More about that in a bit.

. . .

We were ready for lunch so we picked a random restaurant at the station and used our phones to translate the menu. I didn’t find out the name of the restaurant until our last day in Takasaki when we happened upon it again. It was something like Oginoya Gunma No Daidokoro (Gunma’s Kitchen). Gunma is the prefecture that Takasaki is in. A prefecture is comparable to a state in the US, but I think it sounds a little more “official,” perhaps a little more bureaucratic.

I ordered some kind of soup in a big bowl with thinly sliced meat, lettuce, and local noodles which may have been udon. We were looking to try out local specialties, and that’s what we got. The soup was heavenly, especially the broth, but I couldn’t finish such a large bowl. It also came with rice (I know, rice and noodles) and some very interesting pickles. Ken ordered some kind of local specialty that came in a clay pot. It had simmered mountain vegetables, chicken, a hard-boiled quail egg, some big black mushrooms (possibly kikurage), a dried apricot, bamboo shoots, and a different kind of local noodle, probably okkirikomi.  It came with rice and salad, and a little clear plastic box of pickles with a dollop of mayo. This is where I really need pictures. It was all just wonderful. As we left I said “Oishi” to the woman who came out from the kitchen to see us off. It is one of about 10 Japanese words I know and means “delicious.” You should have seen how she kvelled (not a Japanese word).

We checked into our hotel, the Coco Grand, after lunch. It was very close to the train station, but confusing to find because it started on the second floor and because Japan doesn't use the kind of street addresses most of the western world uses. Once we found it, we figured out how to use the elevated walkway directly from the hotel’s lobby Takasaki Station, about a 3- or 4- minute walk. The hotel staff was incredibly helpful and welcoming and we loved the hotel despite the dated look of our room. The hotel management had put a lot of thought into making the hotel as comfortable and home-like as possible. It was very clean and well-stocked with every amenity you could possibly want. The hotel had a “public” bath, but we had an amazing soaking tub in our room and did not use the public bath. (In this case, I think public meant that the bath was available to all the hotel guests, but not to the general public, so “communal” might be a better description. Come to think of it, “bath” is not the right word either. You are expected to wash before using the public bath. The purpose of the public bath is to soak in really hot water. Maybe it should be called a “communal soaking experience.”

We decided to go to the Takasaki Museum of Art. It was near the station and we walked there in 10 or 15 minutes. Despite having checked on the opening hours of the museum, we discovered that it would be closed for at least a week while the staff set up a new exhibit.

Plan B was to go to the Shorinzan Temple, a Zen Buddhist temple built in the foothills of the mountains near Takasaki in 1692. Shorinzan is considered the birthplace of the daruma doll.

Take a look at Shorinzan here

It was a peaceful, meditative place. It was enough out of the way that it was not beseiged by hordes of noisy tourists. 

Here’s the daruma story:

A daruma is a hollow, round doll modeled after Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen Buddhism. Daruma are believed ti bring good luck, especially in connection with perseverance and achieving goals. When someone buys or receives a daruma, the eyes are white and blank. When the owner sets a goal for himself/herself, they color in a pupil in one eye. When the goal has been reached the second eye is colored in. At the end of a year, the daruma are taken back to the temple they came from and burned. New daruma are purchased and new goals are set.

I liked the idea that the dolls encourage people to set and achieve goals. They are whimsical looking, but they are full of symbolism. Each one is hand painted ans a little different from the next one. Nothing bad will happen if you don’t achieve your goal after painting one of the eyes. It’s not a contract, just a reminder. I think that’s why daruma are so appealing to the Japanese public, and why you see them everywhere. “Iconic” is a word that has been overused in the last decade or two (and I am one f the ones who overuses it), but daruma are truly iconic here in Japan, and most especially in Takasaki. In fact we saw thousands of them in shops at the train station as soon as we arrived here.

Today’s fabric is sobakawa. The more traditional hotels in Japan, including the Coco Grand, place two pillows on the bed for each guest. One is pretty standard, and the other one feels strange on at least one side. You can feel a lot of hard little pellets. It turns out that these are buckwheat hulls, a/k/a sobakawa. buckwheat is grown around here and is used to make soba, a very popular type of noodle in this region. Is it a stretch to call this a fabric? Read the Wikipedia article on “Nonwoven Fabric” and see if that helps. I think if you look at how something functions as well as how it is made, you may be willing to call sobakawa a fabric.

Shabbat Shalom!

Dazed and Confused in Tokyo

Thursday, April 9, 2026

I was so dazed and confused by the jet lag and the International Date Line that I started my previous blog post thinking that April 8 was Thursday. I have come to my senses. I have corrected the prior blog, so don’t try to look it up now to see where it says “Thursday, April 8.”

We were very tired when we got to the hotel on Wednesday night. We couldn’t stay up very long and were in bed before 10 PM, which is pretty early for us. The bad news is you can’t cure jet lag with good intentions. We were awake by 3 AM on Thursday. We tried to go back to sleep, but it wasn’t happening, so we got up and got busy. We had a very productive morning because we had those extra hours between 3 and 7 to get things done. 

Often our first full day after arrival at the start of a long trip is a Logistics Day. There are always a lot of things to do that you can’t do at home for whatever reason. So Thursday was Logistics Day on this trip. 

I made a list of all the train trips we would be taking in Japan and we walked up to Shinjuku Station and bought all of the JR tickets we will need for this trip. We used to always buy the JR Rail Passes, but they have restructured the fare system, and it is no longer cost effective for us to buy the Rail Passes. The only way they work is if you are taking a lot of short trips and/or your trips cover very long distances. If you plan to go somewhere for 3 days and to the next place for 3 days, and then a third place for 3 days and back to Tokyo, it is unlikely that a Rail Pass would save you money. However it is still good to buy tickets ahead of time if you want reserved seats or if you are traveling during a busy period such as Cherry Blossom season, or if you don’t want to have to worry about how early to go to the train station on your day of travel because you don’t know how long the line to buy tickets will be. We like to buy these tickets in person at the ticket office rather than from a ticket machine because we have found that the ticket office employees are very good and they are likely to know something that you don’t know that will turn out to be helpful or important. 

We also had some things to talk to the concierge about and sometimes we had to talk to mor than one concierge about some of the things. Things like what time should we get a cab to Tokyo Station to make a 12:00 PM train? What is the best way to get to Osanbashi Pier in Yokohama when you have a lot of luggage? 

We brought 5 bags with us: 2 carry-ons and 3 checked bags. We packed primarily for weight, making sure no bag would be over the weight limit. We also had to make sure no liquids would be in the carry-ons and no devices with lithium batteries would be in the checked bags. Hence, today we had to unpack and repack all of the bags to meet new criteria. Weight no longer mattered. Liquids no longer mattered. Batteries no longer mattered. The new goal was to be able to take the train around Japan bringing only the two carry-ons with us. We will leave two of the checked bags at the hotel while we travel around Japan. These bags will contain things we won’t need until we start the cruise portion of the trip - things like dressy clothes for onboard special events, and warm clothes for visiting Alaskan glaciers.

In Japan it is rude to bring large suitcases on trains, or lots of bags. Most trains don’t really have space for them. At most, you should bring one carry-on. And then there’s just the awfulness of having to schlep a lot of luggage around in a busy train station and to a busy train station and from the next busy train stationn to your next hotel. Who needs that? 

Fortunately, there is an efficient, convenient, reasonably-priced system of luggage forwarding in Japan. You can drop off one or more bags at the front desk of almost any hotel and it will be delivered to another hotel within 24 to 48 hours. There are also drop-off locations at airports and convenience stores (which are everywhere).  If you plan carefully, you can ship a larger bag two hotels ahead and by the time you catch up with it you will have a trove of clean clothing waiting for you, along with any other supplies you shipped ahead. Let’s face it, it’s hard for most people to travel with only carry-on for more than a few days.

We have met many people on cruises and other trips who do that, and they really like to brag about it. I’m sure you’ve seen them, too. They are the ones who wear the same two outfits day after day. They must be washing their clothes in the bathroom sink every night. At least I hope they are. I am not going to be that person. 

We took a coffee break and went up to the Executive Lounge. It was worth it because we could see the top 25% of Mt. Fuji from there, despite a lot of clouds and haze. She really is a perfect mountain.

There are always lots of other little errands to do the first day, so we were busy. We stopped at 7-Eleven for snacks to sustain us throughout the day. The 7-Elevens in Japan are ubiquitous, and they are awesome. You must try their onigiri.

We finally got all these chores done and decided to go out for a little walkabout to see if we could perk ourselves up. I want to try to find at least one geocache a day on this trip. We went to a park near the hotel for the first geocache of the trip. It was so nice to be in a park with flowers and cherry blossoms and green everywhere. You could almost forget the “concrete canyons” of Shinjuku all around us.

I also started a new hobby today called “eki stamps.” Find out more here:

https://www.jrailpass.com/blog/eki-train-stamps

i was able to get my first one at a Metro station called Tochomae. It is a couple of blocks from the hotel. We didn't;t want to go too far afield this afternoon because rain was predicted to start within the hour. (It turned out that the prediction was inaccurate.) And also because we were so stiff and tired from the inactivity of getting here that we just didn’t have the zing for walking very far yet.

Considering the jet lag, I think we got a decent amount accomplished today, but after dinner it became an uphill battle. Ken passed out around 7:30, and I pretended to be functioning until abut 9:00 and then I called it a day. And I knew it would be like this That’s why I didn’t bother making touristic plans for the first two days. I am beyond happy to be back in Japan. I am ready to visit some new places and revisit some old favorites starting tomorrow.

Now for some more bad news. I have been working on the photo problem for a couple of days now, but I still haven’t been able to upload any photos.  I am considering a few options:

1. Switching to another blog platform
2. Posting photos somewhere like Google Drive
3. Something brilliant that I haven’t thought of yet

The problem with my options is that 1 and 2 come with a big learning curve and all three call for a really clear head. I’m not sure if I am there yet. 

 

So, yes, this means “Today’s Fabric” is not going to be available for a while. (Actuallly I do have a fabric for tomorrow, and it is perfect because it is not normally visible. What could it be?)