it’s pretty much a necessity for reading menus, station names etc outside Tokyo (and Kyoto etc) . Google translate with the camera does an amazing job…then just point at the menu item.

Or download Japanese on Google translate to use offline, so you don’t need mobile data/wifi.  In fact that applies in any country.

I agree with everything @pondo said except:

We hired a wifi dongle from – I think? – Japan Telecom both times, just easier than faffing about with sims.

We got a virtual sim from Ubigi – if your phone accepts eSims (most modern ones do) before you go you sign up pay for what data plan you want, download their app and type in the code they give you when you arrive and it simply works. No SIM card, no dongle. I really was impressed.

Also another useful phrase to learn is “gochisosama deshita” which is a polite way to thank the staff at a restaurant when you leave. It means something like thank you for the delicious food, and you could see the staff were really chuffed by it.

@mrsmith what suburb are you in?

We spent over 5 weeks there last October/November and could have stayed longer so 2 weeks is a challenge.  We tended to find that spending several days in one place is better than constantly travelling, so you’ll have to be selective with what appeals to you out of all the good suggestions above.

As a minimum I’d suggest Tokyo and Kyoto and consider a few days also in Hiroshima and Takayama or Matsumoto.

Nearly everywhere is accessible by Shinkansen, and if you want to travel a lot its worth looking into a JR pass – book before you go.  Also they have a great system where your baggage can be sent between hotels, and the system works really well taking about 24 hours So you can send on a big suitcase to the next hotel and just travel with a small cabin sized bag with your stuff for overnight. Travelling around is much easier than you would expect becasue public transport is so well labelled in English, and of course Google translate is your friend (download Japanese for offline use).  Temperatures were generally a pleasant low 20s and sunny, but cooler in the mountains and only a few rainy days.  The leaves in Kamigochi in the mountains looked great when we visited there on 24 October, but they hadn’t really started turning much elewhere. We hired bikes in most of the towns and cities and it was a great way to get around for half a day or in Kyoto and Tokyo for a full day or two. Food is great everywhere, we had a couple of big posh meals that were fantastic but mainly ate in places just on the street and the meal was usually less than £20 a person and wonderful quality – it is hard to go wrong.

– Tokyo as well Ghibli museum (book a long time in advance) other great places are Uneno Park and the National Museum, Asakusa and temple, Imperial Palace (check when open), Shinjuku (with maybe a trip up the Met tower and Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden), Hamarikyu Gardens  Also the bus loop tour is well worth it as a quick way to see the major sites.  Other things you could consider are Mario Karting on the streets (bring an international drivers permit), a day trip by train and light railway to Kamakura (for the Big Buddah, hiking trials and Enoshima Island for some sunset views of Fuji before getting the train back),  day trip by train to Kawaguchiko for a bike around the lake with close up views of Fuji, or  if you fancy it a Fuji hike, a day trip to Nikko for lots of great shrines and temples including the shrine to the spirit of Tokugawa Ieyasu (fictionalised as Toranaga in Shogun).  Also we took the monorail to visit the Team Labs art installation in Tokyo – it’s a bit weird but really  great fun and the monorail gives great views of the Rainbow bridge and the city.

– Kyoto is a must of course. You can do a lot of it by bike and there are more temples than anyone should ever visit but our favourites of the half dozen we visited were probably Shoren-in and Royan-in.  And the Kyoto Imperial Palace is worth a visit, but the one place we found a big disappointment was The Bamboo Grove in the west of the city, heaving with people taking selfies even by 8am.  From Kyoto you can do a day drip by train to Himeji for the magnificent castle – or stop there half a day en route to Hiroshima.

– Hiroshima is worth visiting for the Peace museum and Peace Park area, but in addition you can do a day trip by train and ferry to Itsukushima Island to see the floating red torii and cablecar up the mountain for some hikes and views  Also an interesting day trip is by train to Onomichi where you can hire a bike and do 20 miles of the Island route on quiet routes and a few spectacular bridges as far as Setoda on Ikuchi Island, then a ferry back to Onomichi and a train home (and maybe a visit to the Senkoji Temple if you have time).

Finally you should spend a day in Kamikochi mountain valley (or overnight if you like an Alpine hike and book a hut in advance).  Do it as a day trip by bus from either Matsumoto (has a good castle but not as good as Himeji) or my recommendation would be from Takayama because you can stay a day or two more to ride around the temples and folk museum there plus do a day trip a few stops on the train to the lovely village of Hida- Furukawa.

Sadly that’s a bit more than two weeks, perhaps you could stretch to three?

@andeh – who is we?  You and wife – any children (what ages. . .?)

 still pinch myself how lucky we are.

me too, and I’ve been here in Surrey about 30 years.

I was brought up around here but have lived in London, Scotland and Australia before I moved back to the area because of work.   No particular thought went into where we got a house, but in retrospect looking on what we have here, 2 minutes walk into the countryside, 5 minutes walk into a village centre, an hour into central London, handy for the tunnel and ferries to France, living on the edge of mountain bike (and road bike) heaven plus lots of friendly people –  I could not have picked a better place to live if I had tried.

you won’t be locked in the Mad Max-like battle for water in 20 years,

or alternatively on the downside, you will suffer even more from artic conditions than us in the south, when the Gulf Stream stops.

Where is the OP moving from to get to Oban? If moving from Glasgow the weather may not be as much of a shock as moving from London.

I’ve just watched the first 2 episodes so far and my opinion is it’s well filmed and acted, but it feels as if it’s been a bit GOT-ified for a contemporary audience.

I had the impression that the 1980s TV version, which I watched a couple of months ago, is closer to the original book – but it’s 40 years since I read the book so I could be totally wrong.

But I am interested to watch more episodes before I make up my mind.

“Can I get…?”

It’s just an Americanism and grammatically correct over there, having been recorded in novels for well over 100 years.

It’s probably inevitable that it will become more widely used here, but I still hate it.

Thanks for the reminder – I need to mow once or twice before late April.  Hopefully we will get a long enough break in the rain to do that soon.

It’s all the same, single problem.

Is it really? As you say yourself:

 some people take advantage, some are just desperate.

That sounds like two separate problems. And to make three problems, there is what Hatters said:

police have been chronically underfunded for over a decade, had their numbers cut by 20,000

So really it is several problems converging to cause this, each one of which needs to be addressed to fix it.

I’d rather control via diet than take a pill every day for the rest of my life (Allopurinol) Which is what my dad has been doing for the last 20+ years

I’d rather control it by very well tolerated pills rather than have a flare up every 2-3 years.  I speak as someone taking Allopurinol for the last 35 years. But it’s your personal choice.

I’ve had it for 35 years.  Very well controlled by Allopurinol from the doctor – magic stuff.   Forget the cherry juice.

I’m just not sure if having a fear of getting onto a vehicle that can drop hundreds of feet with little to no warning is entirely irrational.

It is entirely irrational if you don’t have a greater fear of getting into a motor vehicle or on a bike.  Let alone ride a motorcycle!

People’s perception of risk is notoriously irrational.

I think I’m at the age

How old are you OP?

64. I haven’t noticed a big change, but I’m probably a bit slower than I was at 50, and as Nick says my max HR has dropped from 186 to 180. Recovery time seems a bit longer too.

65 this month and find just the same as Onewheel.  I actually got progressively fitter up to about 50-55 by having time to ride more and more as the children grew up. Now doing 2 x 20mile/2000ft off road and 2 x 60 miles on road most weeks. Strava shows I got most PRs 10 years ago and none significant in the last 2-3 years. No doubt Covid and lockdowns played a part, but I definitely notice the need for the 3 days recovery I get a week – a few years ago that wasn’t really an issue.

next question – is it a good idea to mtb with varifocals

Yes.

have got in the habit of sitting around drinking coffee afterwards and whatnot in the same clothes…which it seems is a mistake.

I think that’s it.

Duo is rubbish as a quick learning tool for a trip IMO.

If you are talking about a couple of weeks before a trip then this might be true, but almost anything will be useless that this timescale.

Personally I’ve found Duo great. I have been using it for about 4 years in which time I’ve learned enough Spanish to get by very well in Cuba from zero, enough Italian to get by from zero, a lot of German from GCSE+.  And in about a month enough Japanese to understand the basic sentence construction, pick out some messages on bus and trains and (my highlight) ask if the bus I had got on was going to the station!

So it’s not perfect but it is very worthwhile and will really help you get your ear in for how a language sounds and works.

You’re all part of the problem….

What actually is your problem?

The thing that stood out to me as a child was the absence of colour in the east

Yes, my wife and I went on holiday (!) to several soviet block countries before re-unification and that was my strongest impression from all of them.

We went to Prague in summer 1989 when relations were thawing and a few western shops had been allowed to set up.  We saw a solitary shop for Nike or Adidas lit up like a beacon amongst the gloom, literally and metaphorically.

The British Embassy in Berlin in those days would have been a diplomatic mission to East Germany

Really? Being in East Berlin, the capital of East Germany (the DDR), why would it not simply be the British Embassy to the DDR?

I’d understood (from various places including The Rest Is History TBF) that it was meant to be several months later.

There was a marvellous German TV series – Deutschland 89 – that covered this from the perspective of a fictional East German secret agent. It deals with the DDR politburo realising the game is up because Gorbachev won’t support them with sending in the tanks, and how an intention to allow controlled visits to the west turned into a free for all at the Berlin Wall  because of an off the cuff response to a question on a TV interview.

You don’t inherit debts

Really? I suspect that as part of the probate process you use the deceased person’s assets to pay off their debts before dividing up the residual estate between the beneficiaries. Otherwise what’s to stop terminally ill people borrowing loads of money to buy stuff like houses and cars which simply pass on to their beneficiaries?

Of course if their debts are bigger than their estate can pay off then you don’t inherit a liability to pay them off, there is just nothing for you to inherit.

IANAL

So far (ep 1) a man’s been beheaded – very fast almost nothing to see, it’s very violent but over in a flash, and a man’s been boiled alive – lots of off screen screaming and a brief (less than a moment) shot of a very melted face.

Thanks – I was concerned it might be GOT gore for gore’s sake. A beheading, off screen screaming and no doubt a few seppukus in coming episodes doesn’t sound significantly worse than the original. So time to fork out for Disney for a month or so.

Disney’s “Shogun”  Sounds dreadful

Really?

I worked a lot in Munich at fully agree with what Alpin said: Munich is a big city with lots to see and do and fabulous countryside nearby. It has a great city local rail service (the S-bahn). The city centre is very good for biking and walking. It is well worth considering a visit to Dachau: easily accessible on the S-bahn.

Am looking forward to watching this. Saw the old series on DVD just after visiting Japan last year so hoping the new version will be even better. But I heard it is more gruesome because it’s closer to the original book.

Thinks of something out of the US  LA  in the 60’s and chances are…… yep.

Thinks of something out of the US Motown  in the 60’s and chances are…… JJ or Bob Babbit.

I though Tina did a great job of presenting and giving a good overview of the great players and the way bass playing developed.  Just a very slight shame that in the bit on Paul McCartney she didn’t mention how he was influenced by hearing James Jamerson – who to me seems the grandfather of great bass playing.

A decent thick eyeshade. Airline ones are often pretty poor or nonexistent.

If you can afford them noise cancelling headphones/ear buds too – it’s easier to fall asleep listening to your own music or podcasts/books you have downloaded than some of the stuff on airline entertainment systems.

Was told Manchester would be dry today.

Its Manchester – dry is relative.

I presume the plan was more like Australian coal -> Ammonia + CCS -> no carbon emission power stations

Maybe, but still makes no sense compared to: Australian coal -> electricity & CCS in a power station. No need to make ammonia to then burn it in a Japanese power station?

Ammonia is produced from hydrogen so every problem with potentially manufacturing green hydrogen in the future is also a problem with manufacturing green ammonia. In addition ammonia must be produce by reacting it with nitrogen from the atmosphere at high temperatures and pressures, so it is even more expensive than hydrogen.  And if you burn it as a fuel in an ICE vehicle it is way less efficient than H2 in a fuel cell so you need to produce even more which makes it more expensive again – and of course by burning it as an ICE fuel you make NOx which is a major pollutant that an H2 fuel cell avoids.

As a liquid it is generally much easier to store and handle than hydrogen, which is helpful.  But it is toxic so any leaks from the storage, especially such as if a tank was broken in a road accident, would mean a large cloud of toxic gas wafting around potentially killing more people than the original impact.  So it is not all roses.

Overall compared to hydrogen, ammonia trades higher cost and a toxic risk for easier handling.  But like “green hydrogen” it is a long way away from being produced at the industrial quantities we would need for our transport system because you need so much green electricity that is not available today – but for ammonia even more again than for hydrogen.  So for the foreseeable future it is at best a possible alternative to H2 for large HGVs, ships, etc, not a credible  alternative to EVs for cars.

In the long term, supporters see green ammonia as a way to turn existing power plants into zero-emissions facilities by 2050.

So you get green electricity to inefficiently make green hydrogen to inefficiently make green ammonia to burn and inefficiently make . . . . . green electricity?  What is that all about, other than keeping Japanese coal fired power stations open?

My neighbours Tesla

Oh really?

And my neighbour’s new merc wrecked its engine after a year. So Tesla’s still last longer than ICE cars – if you rely on anecdotes as evidence.
As Daffy posted, independent analysis shows average Tesla batteries still working at 90% at 100,00 miles or more.

https://www.nimblefins.co.uk/study-real-life-tesla-battery-deterioration

I belive that a little bit more than “my neighbour”.

Not even close to that far. 3 yr old Tesla batteries are already only giving half the original distance per charge

I simply don’t believe you. What is your source?

As a benchmark my 7 year old Zoe battery has degraded less than 5%. I don’t think the battery is any better than a Tesla.

Answer – burn fossil fuels or the slights go out

Yes but so what?

How many days a year does that happen? If the vast majority of our energy comes from renewables then a small proportion from fossil fuels to fill the occasional gap simply doesn’t matter.

https://www.withouthotair.com/

Yes it’s an excellent book by someone who knows what he’s talking about, rather than some bloke on You Tube with an opinion.

You could always wear it in an ironic postmodernist way and subvert the genre. Or something like that.

That’s not a technical problem, it’s a political one and could be solved overnight

Really?  technically problems can usually be solved in a few years or decades by better technology.   Political problems are much more intractable.

BMW supporting Hydrogen

I am sure you did not mean to use that phrase to imply BMW had switched from EVs to H2.

BMW say in the article that “Hydrogen remains an important alternative . . we have a fleet of hydrogen cars out testing and why we’re working intensively on improving the technology further”.

At the same time as testing a few H2 cars, just last year 2023 BMW supplied 376,183 all-electric cars.  So while they “support” H2 by keeping involved in it as an alternative , it is clear that for the foreseeable future BMW is all about the change over from ICEs to electric vehicles.

My point is that the majority of the electricity is not produced from renewable sources.

That is irrelevant.   Let me explain why, it is actually quite simple.  At one end we start with a unit of electricity at a power station as our input. That might be renewable power or it might not. We have two ways of transferring that to a car’s wheels, by using an EV or by using an H2 powered car.

For the EV the electricity travels through the power distribution system to your car’s battery, where it is stored until used in the electric motor.  Electrical transmission and electric motors are very efficient and battery storage is pretty efficient, so most of the power gets used at the car’s wheels.

For the H2 car the electricity travels through the power distribution system to the H2 electrolyser at the petrol station, gets converted into H2, gets compressed and stored at high pressure (probably 300-600 time atmospheric pressure), gets pumped into the car storage cylinder (probably 400 times atmospheric pressure), gets converted into electricity in a fuel cell, and the electricity gets used in an electric motor.

So the difference between the two systems is that an EV looses a bit of efficiency storing it’s electricity in a battery. But in comparison the H2 system looses a lot of efficiency electrolysing its hydrogen, by compressing hydrogen to a very high pressure, by pumping the hydrogen into the car’s cylinder and by converting the hydrogen back to electricity in a fuel cell.  All of those extra losses mean that of the electricity provided by the power station, in the H2 vehicle far less ends up turning the cars wheels than for an EV.  You need a lot more power stations to power the nations cars by H2 than by EV.  That is true whether they are renewable or fossil fuel – you need lots more of them for an H2 supply chain.

So if we want to stop our cars using fossil fuels we have to choose between building a lot more power stations and all use EVs, or build even more more power stations and use H2 cars.

My opinion is that since every non-CO2 power generation option (wind onshore, wind off shore, solar, nuclear) provokes fierce of resistance from one section of the population or the other we will have trouble getting enough green power for all our EVs and for our future domestic heating heat pumps, without the problem of needing even more green power for H2.

It is true that EVs have their problems, but technology is at least as likely to engineer solutions to building recyclable and more efficient batteries than to make more efficient electrolysis and fuel cell systems. And it is also true that EVs don’t suit all use cases – it is quite possible H2 will become the least bad option for HGVs, ships and non electric trains.

It is also quite possible in the long term we will have a method of producing as much low cost renewable electricity as we want and perhaps then H2 may be more generally used.   But I’ll be long dead before then and I think we should start saving the planet a bit sooner than than.