Friends Here for the Holidays

Well many of you have asked if we got the boat back together.  The answer is yes.  This was urged on by the fact we had visitors coming for the holidays.  We didn't get all the leaks but these will have to be repaired from the outside in better weather.

Our guests have arrived and we are having a ball showing them what we can of Japan.  So far we had a traditional home cooked feast with the help of Kondo and Hiroko and their grand daughter Maika. Then a big Christmas Dinner aboard Sari Timur after a day out in Namba.

We are currently in Kyoto trying to see some more of this magic place.

Chris, Kerry and Johnny enjoying Lunch

Mark, Kerry, and Johnny

Chris, Takeda, and Pauline

Food on the Table

The Weather Outside is Frightful

Well the epoxy we bought has a slow cure time.  With these temps it is 48 hours.  And it is the coldest day we have had so far, 2 degrees C outside and blowing between 40 and 50 knots with the occasional gust going over that.  But since we are in wait mode for the resin to dry and we thought some heat might help speed it up we fired up the stove.  And the fire inside is delightful.  It has lifted our spirits and Pauline is even singing Christmas songs.

Repairs

We have not done any posts for a few days.  We still have a few to get caught up on but we thought we would share what we have been doing for the past week.  The pictures may have to wait until tomorrow or the next day as our somewhat faster internet window is only open for a couple of hours in the morning and closes at about 7 am.  Seeing it is 7:15 we are kind of pushing it.  Anyway we had some dry rot in the port side wall of the coach roof.  This also meant we had some leaks during heavy rain.  It was something we discovered just before we left Guam. We repaired a small section there and bought some extra materials in case that didn't work.  Well it didn't and so now the time came to bite the bullet and get after it.

What a job!  We had to take off all the trim and then start gouging with chisels until we hit hard wood.  Then get the grinder out and fair the good wood so we could fill with epoxy for the repairs.  Mostly we found the leaks came from screw holes that came from outside.  This meant pulling out or cutting the screws off then using some underwater epoxy to patch the area where the screws were.  These were leftovers from when they rebuilt the deck 26 years ago.  So though Mark cursed them for not removing them at the time of that repair he gave them credit that it didn't become a problem for 25 years!  We have this problem only on the port side.  Not sure if this is a preview to having to do something similar on the starboard side or not. Hope not because at least the port side is open enough to work around.  The starboard side has cabinets etc.

One of the hardest to do was replace a section of the beam that had rotted.  Mark cleared the bad section out until he reached a scarf then went forward to good wood made another scarf on that piece and then found a board and shaped to fit.  All this with chisels and a Japanese pull saw and upside down!

Anyway it is almost all back together.  We ran out of glass and epoxy resin, so it is off to the home center today with a trusted Japanese interpreter to get some more glass, epoxy, and paint. Hopefully three more days and we can begin fitting the the headliner which will cover up the entire repair anyway.

I rotated these pictures but they went back to original.  Anyway gives some idea of how working upside down was.
This one and the next one partially show the beam I cut out

This was the deepest hole.  We went all the way through to the outer glass

Starting the repairs

More Filling

The Replacement Beam

Nagoya

We have now been able to update the pictures from the older posts.  They may need a little tweaking but worth a visit backward.  We added a lot of pictures especially to the post on Kyoto.  Now it is time to add a few more posts and pictures of events that have already happened that we didn't have time or internet to get them on here.  One of those stops was Nagoya.

After Tajimi, Bill and Martha had a side trip planned and Chris had to go back to work.  So we found ourselves with a couple of extra days on our road trip and it was off to Nagoya.  Chris had to travel through Nagoya on his way home so he lead us to the Y-Market Brewery in Nagoya for one or three before he caught his train and we went to our hotel.

We picked Nagoya as a stop as we had a friend here, Isao-san, who we met in Guam and who was one of the original Setouchi rally organizers.   He was not able to join the rally this year as his wife had just been diagnosed with cancer and was undergoing treatment.  During the rally we also met another couple from Nagoya, who was cruising on his boat through Guam at the same time.  We never really met at that time but Cho-san and his wife Kayo were a joy to have on the rally this year.  So it would allow us to have a chance to catch up.  We thought this would only be a brief visit of a drink or maybe dinner but we had almost a full day and a half with them, starting with the Noritake museum which we already posted.  They are very interesting people and we could probably post a whole blog just on them but we are going to just concentrate on our visit.

After Cho-san and Kayo took us to the Noritake Museum we met up with Isao and headed off to an upmarket Izakaya type restaurant.  Izakayas are usually small bar type restaurants that serve special types of simple foods, this one specialized in perfecting all of these foods and was of course a larger restaurant.  We had a great evening eating, drinking, catching up and made some plans for the next day. We got back to our hotel fairly late and Pauline was checking her Facebook only to find she had a childhood friend spending the night in Nagoya as well.  We didn't have a chance to meet up but did get to talk on the phone.

The next day started early and we headed to Nagoya Castle and the Hommaru Palace.  This is a restoration of the original which was built in 1615 but was bombed during WW2.  The castle was rebuilt quite a few years ago but the restoration of the palace is still going on.  It was only opened in May 2013 and we also got to see how they are building one of the the wings of the palace.  One of the best known items of the Nagoya castle is the Golden Dolphins which sit on the roof.  These look more like a mythical creature which is more of a cross between a carp and a dragon.

This trip alone was half a day of exploring and it tired us out but then we were off to see another park which is probably off the radar of most traveler's visits.  This is Meiji-Mura and well worth the visit.  Meiji-Mura is an open air museum where a lot of the buildings from the Meiji period were brought and rebuilt. These buildings were being torn down for development in the original locations but were thought to be too important to lose.  There are over 60 historical buildings on the grounds.  One of the highlights is the original main entrance hall and lobby of the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo.  This hotel was one of the masterpieces designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

The Castle from a Distance

Look at the size of those Chrysanthemums

Castle Up Close Zoom in on Top to See Golden Dolphins

       

Isao-San and Cho-San

Inside the Palace lots of these Gold Leaf Panel.  Many of these were saved
during the bombing.  They get friendly animals the further you get in.

Construction on a New Wing

Another part of the New Wing

Entering Meiji-Mura

Imperial Hotel This is Way Cool Inside

       

Another View They Even Did The Pond in Front

St Francis Xavier's Cathredral

Inside They even took the stuff inside

                                 

The Hospital

One of the Streets

St John's Church

   

   

Baird Beer

It is not the purpose of this blog to promote beer or any specific product, oh hell maybe it is! One of the main reasons for wintering over in this part of Japan was to spend time with our friend Chris and his wife Satch in Numazu.  Chris is the brewer at one of Japan's better craft breweries, Baird Beer.  Anyway they have just opened a new brewery in Shuzenji area and Chris moved over to Mishimi to make the commute to work easier.  The new brewery is in a beautiful setting of what used to be a campground on the Kano River.  There are fruit trees and gardens on the grounds and we must say a very picturesque setting not to mention an impressive brewery. They still have the original Taproom in Numazu area.  We had problems finding a place to put Sari Timur in Numazu and talking with people we met on the rally from Numazu it would be very difficult if not impossible to bring a boat the size of Sari Timur for an entire winter.  This fact plus the fact Chris moved out of Numazu kind of made the decision to stay in sleepy Tannowa more attractive.

In November other friends of ours Bill and Martha flew in from San Diego so we did some road tripping.  There are some posts already from some of those road trips.  But the finale came with a weekend in the Mishimi/Numazu area.  Here are some pictures

The New Brewery

Martha, Chris, Bill, Pauline, Mark, and Dion all except Martha have lived in Grand Haven

Another Pic facing the bar.  

This is where they make beer

This is where they store it while it is aging

This is where they test it on the public

The milling machine.  Sure beats doing it by hand

Back on the Boat

We have a nice fire going.  It is very cold outside, but our new stove is heating us up nicely, it is also windy out.  I do hope we have fixed the down drafting problem.  We just returned from Koya-San, will write about that and try and fill in many missing posts and pictures over the next few days.  We do have a friend from Singapore who is currently up in Kyoto.  She leaves on the 26th.  We hope to catch up with her before she leaves.  Hopefully she will come here but if not we may make a long day trip back up to Kyoto.  So give us a little time to get our act together.

Last Night in Numazu

Tonight will be our last night in Numazu.  What better way to spend it than in the Tap Room with old friends from Grand Haven and new friends from the Setouchi Rally.  We also have some more pics and posts from the last two weeks but we will have to wait till we get back to a computer to download pictures.  We head back to the boat tomorrow but it is just to check everything and pack again for a trip up to Koya-San to spend a night with the monks.  We hope all the wind a couple of days back didn't take the leaves off the trees at Koya-San as we think the colors should be great up there.

Morning After Update:  Wow, we had a great time at the Tap Room.  Started with one of the best ramens in Japan.  It was at a place called Shofuku and is a few minutes walk from the TR.  We expected to meet up with only 3 people last night but our party ended up being triple that.  We ended up taking over the back corner of the pub room and everyone had a good time.  I think even the staff enjoyed it!  We all agreed to meet up again for New Year's Eve.  Now we just need to find a hotel room!  We will be bringing some friends from Guam on that one.

Anyway anyone cruising or traveling this part of Japan ought to make sure you make this area.  The scenery is fantastic and don't forget the beer.

The Rally Members from Numazu Area at the Taproom

Mt. Fuji

Just want to share a great picture of Mt. Fuji.  We have been traveling and sampling beer.  This trip to Gotemba included an all you can drink lunch of good food and craft beer after a walk with views like this.  Pretty Not Bad!

Maybe this is a tribute to Smeagol

Thousands of Statues

Us with Fuji-San in the Background

Noritake Museum, Nagoya

We visited the Noritake Museum today.  We have known about Noritake bone china but didn't know about the history and definitely didn't know the museum exists.

The Noritake Museum displays a collection of "Old Noritake" with historical and artistic value, including colorful, exquisite design book.  Most of the pieces are handcrafted and hand painted by very skilled craftspeople.

We have been visiting different pottery places in the last few days so this visit is very interesting.

Photography was not allowed so no photos.

Kyoto

We are currently in Kyoto, traveling and siteseeing with friends.  Kyoto is one of the must see places in Japan and is very close to Osaka.  We have just spent two full days here and scratched the surface of what there is to see.  One gets a bit temples out so, after a couple of days of shrines and temples we are moving on.  But will be back in a couple of weeks to visit more friends, and back around Christmas again with another group of friends.  Right now the colors are just beginning to change and accommodation was a problem so we ended up staying in Otsu, overlooking beautiful Lake Biwa.  We have also met a world renowned pottery expert and purchased a beer mug from him.  I never realized the sultety of buying a custom beer mug but I am very happy with mine.  Thanks Rob for your help and patience.

We will post some pictures later as we are traveling without a way to get the photos from camera to blog at present.  This afternoon we head back to the boat for a short visit and swap out some clean clothes for dirty ones.  Then it is off to Osaka central to a check out a couple of craft brewers.  Did we mention we are traveling with a couple of beer specialists!  Pretty not bad way to travel but not sure if my kidneys will hold out!

This was just a street corner in Kyoto but love the colours and activity.  The persimmons look great as well!  One of my favorite photos

Ginkakuji Temple
The Silver Temple

More Craft Beer at the Bunglelow

Nice Colours

A weary Visitor

Crossing the Water

Neat Reflections

Near the Philosophers Walk The colours are just changing

Sanjusangen-do
We Walked all Over Kyoto to Find this Temple only to find out it was back near the Station

But definitely worth the visit No Pics inside.  We will come back

Lake Biwa from our Hotel