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Day 1 Part 2 Sunday 2025 06 29

We took a train from the air port to London. If there is one m lasting idea thatI came away with about the English countryside. They used a whole lot of brick. Brick houses, brick stations, brick post offices. Everything was made to stand the test of time or a resurgence of Viking raiders.  Gotta get the iconic "double  decker bus, brick, and just a bunch of fellas working the Doordash gig" shot in there. We have never gone on this thing. But with the weather, it'd be subjecting ourselves to a very slow, very hot greenhouse Nelson's column, or, as I explained to my son, he was like their version of Admiral Thrawn. We get to King's Cross to try and drop off our bags. Now to a North American, every single station in London sounds like a place alive with tea parties and cheekily misunderstood double entendres. Perhaps a bit of a comedy of errors here and there and an overly polite cop in a high vis vest going about his business in an environment where you can be pret...
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Day 1 Part 1 Sunday 2025 06 29: London, Weather Suckerpunch

  In an unusually travel filled year, my family also went to Scotland, via London, to go to a friend's wedding. These plans were agreed to months and months in advance, before work went a little squirrelly, before we realized that our eldest would NOT be at home to look after the youngest.  The travel itinerary for my wife and I, while still the domain of the pretty damn fortunate could, if one squinted and held onto the ideal of class solidarity, still think of it as "oh that's not that bad", and "it's like if you took another camping trip, but added transatlantic flights and almost dodgy hotels to the mix".  The beauty of horror of British classism as  personified by the many different levels of check in at British Airways. Do I like wine? Meh I could take it or leave it. MUST I get it because it's like the fanciest thing to do (and it's free?) Yes. What bumped up the price enough for us to think the 'not entirely family budget...

Day 7 Friday 2025 05 23 : Walk about, Karaoke Redemption

 My wife, songbird that she is, has the sleeping habits of a nun in one of those really austere convents in Austria up in the mountains where they have to break the ice that's formed in their washing basin before cleaning their face for morning Lauds. She hits 9, it's sketchy at best, 10pm she is on the floor. 11pm she's well into REM sleep. So it makes going to karaoke, which in Tokyo seems to start at 8ish, a risky propostion. Buuut, she also wants to have a walk around Tokyo before hand. So this becomes a balancing act, walk her around, let her see the sights, but don't let her get too tired. It's like I can subconsciously see the battery indicator over her head as walk (uh, going up hill, that battery is RACING to empty!) as wander about. Make her happy, but not so tired she won't want to go to karaoke. I can't be the type of guy who goes to a karaoke bar alone. That sets a precedent. Next thing you know I'm shopping for sharp pastel polyester suits ...

Day 7 Part 1 Friday 2025 05 23 : Akihabra.. again

 Friday, penultimate day of our wonderful stay in Japan. We had a whirlwind tour of Kyoto, and it's time to take the shinkansen (bullet train) back to Tokyo. No morning is complete in Japan (at least for us) without raiding the nearest 7-11 for a reasonably priced meal. As long as we only buy things we'd never see back home, I think we are still travelling 'properly'. This here is a pancake sandwich, with matcha something something and butter inside. If you can find this in North America, you go to MUCH more interesting convenience stores than I do. We shuffle on get into our formation. It's just a line, but it's gone by many names. When the kids were smaller, we called sandwich, because we got an adult leading and an adult at the back, so we ensure we know where we are going, more or less, and that we don't lose any kids. But now as we are older I came up with a much more Middle Aged Dad Nomenclature, the 4 by 1 tactical formation. That is totally a normal ...