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

Guam

We are currently "on Guam" as the locals say.  We needed to do a visa run, so we thought this would be a chance to visit old friends and warm up before the cold really sets in, in Japan.  The Skerritts, generous as always, offered us a place to stay.  Actually we had three offers for places to stay, that is how generous people on Guam are, but the Skerritts drew the short straw.  The weather is warm, but it has been raining pretty much the whole time since we have been here.  We have hit Caliente's twice, Spring Kitchen once, and still managed a MOSA's burger at the club so we are also trying to fatten up before winter!

We are back to Japan on Saturday just before Bill and Martha fly in, too bad Tom and Jeff couldn't also make it.  Be a great Grand Haven reunion!

While we have good internet we have added some photos to some of the older posts especially the ones while we were on the rally.  So if you are interested you can scroll back.

An Impromptu Party at the Cutting/Wolke's

Miyajima

While inserting photos to some of our old posts, we realized we did not put a post on Miyajima.

 Miyajima is a little island a short distance from Hiroshima Kannon Marina, where we started the rally.  It is a popular island for tourists, with many shrines and the most photographed gate in Japan.

The most photographed gate in Japan

Another view of the gate

People stand in line to take photos of the gate

Lots of deer on the island.  Pauline with one of them.

Fukuyama

Before doing our visa run we and another gaijin couple were invited to visit some of our new rally friends at their house in Fukuyama.  This required a couple of trains and a Shinkansen (Bullet Train) until we met them.  They picked us up and we went to a very nice onsen before heading to their fantastic house.  Their house, is the last one on the road which reminds you of the tight winding drives along the Med.  The grounds are gorgeous and the house has ocean view on three sides.  A great dinner and drinks session with just the six of us that night.

The next morning we took out Sakura his Swede 36 to figure out how to run his spinnaker.  Great day out sailing for probably everyone's last sail of the year.  This was followed by a sushi lunch and then a tour around a local shrine/ zen training center.  This also included a traditional Japanese tea ceremony.  After all of this we still had the energy for a dinner party back at the house which some other locals from the rally also joined in.  Fantastic night,  but there is a scary video roaming around of us trying to butcher Rod Stewart's song, Sailing!

Anyway an early start Friday to get back for a large Sushi dinner on Sari Timur with the last four of us gaijin rally people hosting five of the locals from Tannowa,    But in true Japanese style we couldn't do much of the hosting other than provide the venue and conversation as they provided all the food and drink.

How Come These Things Always Come With So Many Steps?

At The Tea Ceromony

Some Temple Pics From Fukuyama

Breaking In the Stove

It is cool enough now to fire up our stove..  There is a break-in period where we have to build five fires starting small and each one slightly bigger and longer with a good cooling off period in between.  We felt we better get at this process so the stove is ready when Bill and Martha come to visit on the first of November.  The first two burns went flawlessly but the third one went horribly wrong.  Apparently the wind conditions and hatches being opened created too much negative cabin pressure and we smoked out the cabin.  Sure don't want to do that again.  Andrew over at Navigator Stove Works suggested we check with an incense stick smoke flow before lighting in similar conditions.  Guess I better head to one of the local temples and get some!

Anyway here are some pictures of it running well.

The fire going good

The chimney