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Details: Written by: Richard_McKie; Parent Category: Travel; Category: East Asia; Published: 15 August 2017; Hits: 36932

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Osaka and departure

Before leaving Japan we were to visit Osaka Castle at Dotobori. The fortifications that would discourage a conventional army even today were interesting. There was potential to get lost among the fortifications on the way out but we all made it back to the bus - eventually.

Osaka Castle and its defences - note the gun apertures - they had gunpowder when the the walls built in the 1620s

Later the bus dropped us at a shopping mall, that fortuitously for Craig and I, turned out to have a commodious coffee shop. We settled while the shoppers shopped.

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Osaka shopping

Our final bus trip in Japan was to the Stargate Hotel at Kansai Airport. This turned out to be the best hotel of the entire trip and was a good place to end this very interesting introduction to Japan thanks to SNA Tours.

We then flew to Hong Kong for a few days where we parted company with Craig and Sonia and went into China for one of our favourite indulgences, the five star Hotel InterContinental Shenzhen for a couple of much more luxurious days and nights.

When we returned to OZ and people asked how we had enjoyed the experience I found that I had to reply that Japan was not nearly as 'foreign feeling' as many other countries. It is after all a first world country a status it quickly attained way back at the beginning of the last century. There was a bit of a setback in 1945 but by the sixties it was well on the way to being one of the most developed and for us one of the most comfortable countries to visit.

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Travel

Bolivia

In October 2011 our little group: Sonia, Craig, Wendy and Richard visited Bolivia. We left Puno in Peru by bus to Cococabana in Bolivia. After the usual border form-filling and stamps, and a guided visit to the church in which the ‘Black Madonna’ resides, we boarded a cruise boat, a large catamaran, to Sun Island on the Bolivian side of the lake.

Fiction, Recollections & News

To Catch a Thief

(or the case of the missing bra)

It's the summer of 2010; the warm nights are heavy with the scent of star jasmine; sleeping bodies glisten with perspiration; draped, as modestly requires, under a thin white sheet. A light breeze provides intermittent comfort as it wafts fitfully through the open front door.

Yet we lie unperturbed. To enter the premises a nocturnal visitor bent on larceny, or perhaps an opportunistic dalliance, must wend their way past our parked cars and evade a motion detecting flood-light on the veranda before confronting locked, barred doors securing the front and rear entrances to the house.

Yet things are going missing. Not watches or wallets; laptops or phones; but clothes: "Did you put both my socks in the wash?" "Where's my black and white striped shirt?" "I seem to be missing several pairs of underpants!"

Opinions and Philosophy

Electric Cars revisited (again)

Electric vehicles like: trams; trains; and electric: cars; vans; and busses; all assist in achieving better air quality in our cities. Yet, to the extent that the energy they consume is derived from our oldest energy source, fire: the potential toxic emissions and greenhouse gasses simply enter the atmosphere somewhere else.

Back in 2005 I calculated that in Australia, due to our burning coal, oil and sometimes rural waste and garbage, to generate electricity, grid-charged all-electric electric cars had a higher carbon footprint than conventional cars.

In 2019, with a lot of water under the bridge; more renewables in the mix; and much improved batteries; I thought it was worth a revisit. I ran the numbers, using more real-world data, including those published by car companies themselves. Yet I got the same result: In Australia, grid-charged all-electric cars produce more greenhouse gasses than many conventional cars for the same distance travelled.

Now, in the wake of COP26, (November 2021), with even more water under the bridge, the promotion of electric cars is back on the political agenda. Has anything changed?

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