If anyone's interested, I've posted a trip report from a recent road trip to Kobe and back on my blog. However, as I know clicking links is a hassle, I'll post it here too for easier access. [[color=#e74c3c]Blimey. I can literally just paste the entire thing in here. Saves a [b]lot of hassle.... More photos in my ALBUM. However I can't rearrange the album order, as the edit screen won't show the entire page at once. Stupid bloody design.]
Anyway, I hope this is of some interest and isn't too self-indulgent....May is a good time to travel around Japan, as the weather is usually pleasantly sunny and mild, though at the end of the month it is tending more towards the warmer side than otherwise. There’s a reason why Golden Week is when it is, after all.

Unlike last year’s Grand Tour, this was just a short trip, however. We went to Kobe from May 20th to 22nd as my wife had never been, and was interested in seeing the city. And interested in shopping, of course, but that goes without saying. (I said it anyway….) I didn’t want to take too long, so it was just for two nights, staying at the Hotel Okura Kobe, which had a sale on its topmost rooms, on or above the 30th floor. This would give us lovely night views (and day views, of course) over the city and port. I also opted to go down Sunday and come back up Tuesday, as room prices were literally half the price they were for a Saturday stay. Even though we wouldn’t get the ETC [Electronic Toll Collection] 30% discount on the expressways, it still worked out cheaper.

On the way down we had lunch at the large Taga Service Area near Hikone, which is one of only two in Japan where there is overnight accommodation. (These service areas, and their surface route equivalents, road stations, are found throughout the country, and carry local souvenirs, have dining options, lots of toilets, and are can often be quite fancy.) It was an easy drive, if a tad dull, and at least the Tomei wasn’t blocking off one whole lane with millions of cones this time, so we got through pretty smoothly. Rather than going directly to Kobe, since one restriction on the cheap room rate was not being able to check in until five, we first took a slight detour to see Gekkeikan’s Okura Sake Museum in Fushimi. I was interested in that as I’d done a fair bit of translation work for them in the past.

The Okura Museum is housed in some of Gekkeikan’s old brewery buildings, but to be honest, it wasn’t as interesting, or as large, as I was expecting. I ended up going through it pretty quickly as I was sure something more interesting was to come. It wasn’t. It’s really just two rooms. That suited my wife fine, as she was already bored. Fushimi is a certainly a pleasant area, however, with lots of old-style buildings and a canal behind the breweries. (And a lot of package tour tourists.) I left my wife waiting in the car and took a stroll around the block, also passing the Teradaya Inn where pro-imperial loyalists plotted against the shogunate back in 1862, and where noted imperialist Sakamoto Ryoma was nearly assassinated by the shogunate in 1866. It was so busy that there was a queue to get in, so I left that for another time. Also, my wife wouldn’t be happy about the wait….Canal running behind the sake brewery

Our next stop was Nara, as my wife hadn’t been since a barely-remembered school trip last century, and it wasn’t too far away. And while things like the Great Buddha were not remotely worth seeing, in her incorrect estimation, she was interested in seeing the deer. However, when we got there, we found the Nara Park area was absolutely swarming with people. I’ve never seen it so crowded. It was insane. While we could have parked the car and gone for a walk easily enough, the sheer number of people put my wife completely off the idea, and me too, frankly, so we just drove around the area for a bit, then left. Do not go to Nara on a Sunday.

I filled up on the outskirts of Nara, using points accumulated from filling up elsewhere many times. Fuel prices are very high here right now, thanks apparently to Trump, though still not as bad as the UK. As we’d not bothered with the deer, we still had time to kill, so my wife wanted to check out some shops in downtown Osaka, just 30 minutes away by expressway. Driving in central Osaka itself isn’t hard, either, though that’s unconnected with actually not taking the wrong road by mistake. Yahoo Navi’s directions aren’t always the most precise (it’ll sometimes say “turn left” merely when the road itself turns left, for example, so you’re left looking for a turn-off where none exists). And parking was surprisingly easy, even in the beating heart of the country’s third-biggest city. The huge Yodobashi Camera electronics store, right by the station, had many storeys of parking available, and for a reasonable sum.

From Osaka to Kobe is, again, another smooth and quick drive along the expressways. A darn sight quicker than when my father and I were trying to get through the city to the Akashi Straits Bridge last year, that’s for sure. The other problem with Yahoo Navi is that it sometimes gets confused between surface streets and elevated expressways running directly over said surface streets. It told us to turn left into the hotel when we were several stories above the hotel entrance, with a high barrier wall on either side. Clearly not possible. But we simply got off at the next exit and detoured through the attractive Kobe Harbourland shopping and entertainment area.

There were some impressive cars parked outside the Hotel Okura Kobe. A Lamborghini Aventador, or possibly Huracan (they really look similar), a Rolls-Royce Ghost (bad name; too similar to the Silver Ghost), and even a magnificent Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III. I didn’t even consider pulling up to the front door in my ‘umble Jag, and we headed straight to the adjacent parking building. Mind you, the fourth car parked out front was a boring econobox, so I have no idea how the system works….

A still from my drive recorder

Our room was acceptable as a room, with nothing too fancy save the L’Occitane amenities, which my wife made sure to get replaced by housekeeping the next day so she got two lots, but the view was nice. I’d requested a room looking east towards Osaka, but the only ones left on that side were doubles so we got one looking west, towards Kobe Tower and Kobe Harbourland. For some reason, the rooms looking north over the city and south over the harbour were more expensive, though I don’t think the views are as nice.The following day, we headed out to Mt Rokko, behind the city. It was a rather warm day, I had the aircon on max cool, the road up the hill was reasonably steep and fairly slow with traffic, and so the temperature gauge in the car started climbing. While it wasn’t anywhere near the danger zone, and while I know that only a few degrees change can swing the needle around a noticeable amount, it’s still best to play things safe. So I got my wife to crack open the bonnet. So by the time we were at the top of the ridge, they were normal again. The only problem is, the latch is on the left side, the passenger side, making it entirely impossible to reach while driving. Why Jaguar put it there, I do not know. Makes it convenient for LHD cars, I guess.

The initial goal was lunch at a restaurant by the cattle farm up there, but there was too much distance between the parking lot and the restaurant (and the parking lot looked like it charged money anyway), and even though it was notably cooler up here, my wife is almost a vampire in how much she tries to avoid the sun, so we just admired the view and then carried on down the mountainside. At least she really liked the scenery on Mt Rokko, saying the trees were so much nicer and more varied than on most hills (which wouldn’t be hard, given the prevalence of man-made cryptomeria forests in this country).So we found a parking building downtown and spent the rest of the afternoon shopping. Which was, of course, her entire goal for coming. A late lunch was had at a rather nice Indian/Nepali place called Alok–Kobe’s famous for Indian food. Perhaps not as famous for Indian food as India, or even London, but within Japan, certainly. And my wife was very impressed indeed with her chicken curry. I had no complaints, either. Especially with the price–just a bit over 1,000 yen (US$10) each for the lunch menu set meals.That late lunch did mean we were rather too full for dinner in Chinatown, however. We did take a stroll out that way at about eight, but it was already shutting up, with only a few places open. So that was a dead loss. Some nice lights and so on, I guess. It did have a sort of exotic vibe to it, a sort of “not in Japan” thing. In some ways, more than Yokohama’s. Maybe as I’m less familiar with this one.There being nothing to do in Chinatown, we took the Jag up the hills again–this time not nearly as far. We went up to the famous Venus Bridge. There’s a carpark nearby, and from there you climb up a long flight of steps to the viewing area at the top end of the bridge. Venus Bridge is a favourite date spot, but tonight was quite quiet. The bridge arcs out over the road and twists and turns in loops, offering impressive views of the city below.The night view of Kobe is, along with those of Hakodate and Nagasaki, supposedly one of Japan’s Top Three Night Views (decided by some random media pundit decades ago, I would imagine). My wife wasn’t terribly impressed. To her, nothing beats New York from the Empire State Building, and second-best just isn’t worth bothering about. All or nothing, that’s her motto. Personally, I found it quite worth the effort. Such as it was–I had a car this time, so effort was minimal. The first time I came here, way back in 1991, I walked all the way up the hill. That wasn’t fun, especially the long narrow tunnel with nowhere to walk that wasn’t on the road itself. Of course, back then I didn’t realise there was another way for pedestrians: the path the bridge leads to.The next morning we set off for home. Being a Tuesday, I wanted to avoid expressways for at least some of the trip. We headed up out of Kobe–or rather, under out of Kobe, taking an immensely long tunnel bored straight under Mt Rokko. From there, we got onto the brand-new New Meishin Expressway, which was wonderfully smooth. The car hummed along very happily indeed. We took a break at the new Takarazuka-Kita Service Area, just opened in March (when that part of the expressway opened). It’s supposedly the biggest in Western Japan, or at least one of the biggest. It was pretty decent, definitely. Done up in a sort of Mediterranean look, and with very flash loos. There was a robot in the Information area that sort of interacted with visitors, doing things like guess your age. You had to take its hands and look into its face. In my case, however, it failed utterly. I don’t mean it was wrong–it simply couldn’t do it, and told me so. Perhaps due to having a Caucasian face. We had a late breakfast here, or a sort of brunch, rather. My sandwich/burger thing was actually quite decent, which I was happy about. Quite a lot of filling indeed. Service Areas, and their surface road equivalents, the Road Stations, often have interesting foods available. All about promoting the area to people passing through. In the past, we've even taken day trips with the express purpose of visiting a particular Road Station.From there, we cruised across Kyoto, and got onto the surface streets near Lake Biwa. Filled the car up near the Lake Biwa Bridge, then we headed inland, climbing up to the higher country along Route 371, which is a great driving road indeed. The car temps got a little on warm side climbing up to the higher area, as it was a fairly steep climb with several switchbacks, but once up they settled down and we cruised along very happily. Well, I was more happy than my wife, who wasn’t impressed by the scenery. Didn’t like the forests on the hills on either side of us. Too much cryptomeria for her tastes. But I do think this was one of the best driving roads I've experienced in Japan. Smooth, relatively empty, just the right amount of curves, and nice scenery.

The main reason for coming this, apart from avoiding all the built-up areas by the lakeshore, was to visit the old post-station town of Kumagawa, on the old Mackerel Road–where mackerel from the Wakasa coast to the north was once shipped down to the old capital. The town itself it is very well preserved, but not excessively so–it doesn’t have the slightly artificial, almost too-perfect appearance of places like, say, Tsumago (which, don't get me wrong, is very nice and very worth visiting). And it doesn’t have a fraction of the tourists. In fact, on the Tuesday we were there, we were almost the only people on the street at all. Residents included.Of course, being less touristy does mean there’s less to do, and as the weather was brilliantly sunny, my wife didn’t want to even get out of the car and its nice cool air conditioning. So I just drove up and down again, and got a few quick shots, and that was it. Back onto the main road, we joined up with expressway again and headed home, only stopping to do some shopping along the way.

It was 814 kilometres, door to door. Not a bad run at all. And, apart from the usual issues–strange light clunks at low speed over variable terrain, mild vibrations/shudders at idle when warm–she behaved very well indeed. Even the air-conditioner, which can be temperamental in just how much it’s prepared to cool the car, even on full cool manual, was cooperating. It’s now coming into full summer, which isn’t a great time for touring: too hot and humid to do anything once you’re there. And petrol prices are rising very rapidly (thanks, Trump!), so I might put long tours on hold until either they or the temperatures start dropping again....

 

Hi Someday

Amazing Photo's as usual, your really ought to consider doing one of those 'Rough Guide' to Japan type books, now that would be a best Seller!

 

Thanks, OB. Glad you liked it.
There already is a Rough Guide to Japan, so not much I could contribute there. The country's a fairly major tourist destination, after all. And not that many people are interested in Jaguar Road Trips Around Japan--it's a fairly specialized niche....

 

Hi Someday

That maybe true but its the way you tell em!

 

 

I'm still hoping to see Japan next year. If I manage to do it, want to meet up and take your engine out and give it all a clean up? Just kidding

Just got to get Egypt done (flight tomorrow... 5 days Red Sea mmmm warm!)

 

Want to meet up? Sure, that'd be great. Clean my engine? Have at it!
Would love to visit Egypt, but my wife hates the idea. Calls the pyramids a pile of rocks and wonders why anyone would be interested in ruined buildings.

 

Egypt is more than just pyramids... I'm nowhere near them Red Sea coast... If you hear of someone separating the Red Sea, then it was me, Moses

 

Ah well, you're a lot nearer them than I am....
So when you leave where you are, you're de parting the Red Sea?

 

I'm on the train to the airport to fly to Egypt right now

 

You should be taking the Jag. That way you would have an excuse to post a trip report....

 

If I still had the Shabuar, then I'd try to get there but that would be impossible My XJ-S though will never be left at an airport... Never ever ever ever ever...!

 

Of course. Which is why you drive the XJS all the way to Egypt. After all, Harry Metcalfe drove a Testarossa to Morocco, and an XJS has got to be better than a Ferrari in North Africa.... (And why does a YouTube link insist on showing up as a thumbnail thingy rather than as a plain hyperlink embedded in normal text like other links?)