Wineries and Canada Day in Kelowna (Throwback post)

Kelowna

We'd forgotten all about Canada Day, until we arrived in Kelowna and found people getting ready to celebrate it.

Canada Day is the anniversary of the creation of the self governing Dominion of Canada, a federation of the four provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario and Quebec, which happened on 1 July 1867.

Since then of course, Canada has expanded, and now has ten provinces and three territories.

Canada Day, Kelowna

Now in many countries, a day like this would be highly nationalistic and focussed entirely on the people and things that are 'classically Canadian'. What we loved about the celebrations here was that they were far more inclusive.

Canada Day, Kelowna

Yes, of course, there was plenty of Canadian red and white on show, and people were displaying - and wearing - flags and so forth, which was great.

But they were also celebrating the way that Canada is made up of people from many varied heritages.

So their festivities included music and dance from First Nations people, the British, and the many other nationalities that have been absorbed into the Canadian population.

Canada Day, Kelowna

Not that Kelowna has a particularly high instance of minorities. 98% have either some form of Christian belief or no religion, and 90.4% are white and 3.4% First Nations, so other ethnic groups make up only 6.2%. Nonetheless, it was great to see this being such a positive embrace of all of the people that make up their country, without in any way detracting from this being a national day. Wouldn't it be nice if that is how we could all be, all of the time?

Canada Day Cake, Kelowna

Of course you can't have a celebration without cake, and there was a huge one. It was actually quite tasty too. And then in the evening we had the other thing that seems to be a mandatory part of any celebration these days - fireworks.

Kelowna is Canada's 22nd largest city, but its population is under 200,000, so it isn't huge.

Kelowna

It sits in the Okanagan Valley and on the lake of the same name.

It draws a lot of visitors, partly for the scenery and activities locally, and partly for its local wineries. You can probably guess why we were here. We did look around the town, which was nice enough - and there was a pretty good BBQ meat restaurant called Memphis Blues.

Kelowna vineyards

But on to the wine. Having spent some time in town, and unexpectedly, on seeing the Canada Day celebrations, we only had one day to check out wineries, and getting around them proved more tricky than we had expected.

There were buses, but they didn't seem to run to quite the same routes and timetables that we had. Not that we were the only ones waiting; there were lots of locals looking perplexed and irritated too.

Mission Hill Winery, Kelowna

But we did make it to two wineries. The first was Mission Hill. Needless to say, the bus only took us to the bottom of the hill, and we had to walk up. This would have been OK had the weather not decided to give us a mini heatwave.

We had set off prepared, with water, hats and sunscreen, but it was such an incredibly hot day, and there was hardly any shade, so even taking it very slowly, we arrived shattered, sweaty, and swearing that the wines had better be worth it.

Mission Hill Winery, Kelowna

A very lovely lady met us when we arrived, and immediately got us some iced water. She was pretty impressed that we had persisted with the walk up. Everyone else there had arrived by car or coach.

Mission Hill Winery, Kelowna

We had to wait for the next tour and tasting, which gave us time to cool down a bit - standing in front of their big fans - and then wander out to take in the beautiful setting. Being at the top of a hill can be hard work, but it does have some advantages at least.

Mission Hill Winery, Kelowna

After the wine tasting - you'll be relieved to know the wines were good - we bought a couple of bottles and again spoke to the lady who met us when we arrived.

She asked us where we were going next, and she then told us that she was just finishing work, and offered to drive us there, saving us walking back down the hill and waiting in the sun for another bus. How nice of her.

Quails' Gate Winery, Kelowna

She dropped us at our second winery, which was Quails' Gate. This also had some great wines, and was thankfully on the same road as the bus route, so we didn't have to walk far to get the bus back.

Tokyo: Shibuya – Crossings, craft beer, cats and cooking our own dinner

A quiet Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo

The Shibuya district of Tokyo is the main business and shopping area, famous – or is that infamous -for its pedestrian crossing. The crossing is the kind that has now been introduced in some parts of the UK, such as Oxford Circus, where all vehicles are stopped, allowing people to cross in all directions at once, including diagonally.

It is known for being incredibly busy, with hundreds of people crossing at one time. That may be the case in peak hours, but we couldn’t be bothered to get up that early, so it wasn’t too bad when we were there.

Shibuya, Tokyo

The retail area is quite crowded and we weren't interested in shopping, but the thing that did catch our eye was the pet shop, which had various puppies and kittens for sale. The shop was certainly gathering a lot of interest, but what amazed us were the prices. We had to double check our exchange rate calculations, as we were stunned how much was being asked for, what seemed to me, to be mostly non-pedigree cats; we were looking at hundreds of pounds.

Cat café, Tokyo

Talking of cats, we decided to try out one of the cat cafes. There were a good few cats around, and they all seemed healthy and reasonably happy, but they weren't especially friendly. I don't know if we caught them at an off time, but they weren't too keen on playing or interacting that much.

Cat café, Tokyo

We were a bit confused by the Japanese visitors approach to the cats though; instead of stroking them, they would pat them, which didn't generally go down too well. They had plenty of  out of re way spaces to escape to if they wished, and some nice comfortable beds. Of course being cats, they didn't necessarily use those, and one had decided to squish itself into a little birdcage.

One part of Tokyo that I would definitely recommend for poking around, is the area around Ebisu and Daikanyama. Both have nice little shops and good places to eat and drink. There is a disused railway line in Daikanyama, called Log Road, which has a few shops that were a bit disappointing - others in the area were better - and is home to the Spring Valley Brewery.

The brewery is run by Kirin, but has a more interesting range of beers, and it looked like a really nice place to sit and eat and try their beer flight. Unfortunately the day we went turned out to be beautifully sunny, so the wait to get in wasn't something we wanted to bother with. But there were plenty of other places not far away.

Okusa Oumi-tei, Ebisu, Tokyo

One of our favourite restaurants in Tokyo was a chance find in Ebisu. It is called Okuza Oumi-tei, and is a yakiniku place where you order your own selection of meat and cook it on a mini barbeque at your table.

We went to a few of this, but this one was excellent. There was a great selection of meats, from fillet of beef to tongue, and it was really good quality. Very tasty and highly recommended.

Okusa Oumi-tei, Ebisu, Tokyo

Okusa Oumi-tei, Ebisu, Tokyo

Tokyo: Marunouchi and Shinjuku – old royalty and youthful cosplay and characters

Imperial Palace, Tokyo

Quite coincidentally, our next places continue the theme of contrast in Tokyo.

The first is the tradition and formality of the Imperial Palace in Marunouchi. Once the site of an Edo Castle belonging to the Tokagawa Family, it became the home of the Emperor when he moved here from Kyoto when the Shogunate was overthrown on 1868. The Imperial Palace was built in 1888, and remains the home of the Emperor.

Imperial Palace, Tokyo

As such, the palace itself is not able to be visited. There is a tour available, but only of the inner gardens, you still don’t get to go inside any buildings, so we didn’t bother. We stuck to wandering around the extensive East Park Gardens.

Imperial Palace, Tokyo

Imperial Palace, Tokyo

Yoyogi Park, Tokyo

 For our next area today, we move on to Shinjuku. We took a walk through Yoyogi Park, where it seemed half the city was out enjoying the sunshine.

There were dog walkers, bunch of (some not so happy) expat kids being made to run circuits etc, and plenty of people having picnics.

Butler, Yoyogi Park, Tokyo

One particular group caught our eye, as they had a butler. He was dressed in a suit and bowler hat, and was kept busy serving them food and drinks. That's not something you see in London.

Takeshita Dori, Tokyo

From the park, we headed out to Takeshita Dori, known for its comic and cosplay shops. The street was packed with young people looking for a new outfit or some other merchandise.

Takeshita Dori, Tokyo

We didn't need any fancy dress, but we did find a good place to eat, with tasty gyoza and ramen noodles.

Tokyo

Nearby, we spotted an interestingly named shop - see the photo - and a guy with a pram full of Persian cats. When I say full, I do mean full, I counted at least eight, but there may have been more - there was so much fur that it was hard to tell where one ended and another started!

Tokyo

It seemed cute, and certainly attracted a lot of attention but, whilst I know Persians can be pretty lazy, given how docile they were, I suspect that the cats must be drugged, which meant that we didn't feel we could encourage it by joining in.

Character Street, Tokyo Station

Our last stop in this post was back near Marunouchi, and to Tokyo Station. It may seem a strange destination, but it does attract thousands of people for two main draws - Ramen Street and Tokyo Character Street.

Character Street, Tokyo Station

Ramen Street, as you might expect, has ramen noodle restaurants, including some of the best ones in Tokyo. People queue for ages to get in to some of these places.

Not being particular connoisseurs of ramen, we were happy to settle for one that was clearly still very popular, but had a shorter queue.

KitKats, Tokyo Station

If you feel the need for dessert, you can always pop into one of the sweet shops, that sell all kinds of Japanese sweet treats.

Alternatively, you could head to the shop that sells just about any flavour of KitKat you could imagine, including Matcha (green tea), strawberry cheesecake and wasabi.

Gudetama, Character Street, Tokyo Station

And then there is Tokyo Character Street, which has 26 shops all dedicated to a particular character. This is the place to come for all of your merchandise for anime characters, Hello Kitty, Snoopy, Miffy, or a host of others.

One that particularly caught my eye was a character shaped as a fried egg; his name is Gudetama, and he is a very lazy egg, that does as little as he possibly can manage.

Character Street, Tokyo Station

Character Street, Tokyo Station

Victoria - arts, markets and music (Throwback post)

Oaklands, Victoria

One of the lovely things about Victoria, is the number of local artisans, and correspondingly, the number of little shops, delicatessens and food and craft markets. It seems to be the kind of place that one might come to if you've retired early, or just decided to quit working, and want to spend your time on your hobby, and maybe sell some things to make a bit of cash.

The Moss Street market on a Saturday is small, but great for freshly grown vegetables, the James Bay on, also Saturdays, is a nice little one with some tasty food stalls and often live music too. More on that later.

Oaklands, Victoria

The Oaklands area is good for a walk round generally, with nice shops and delis, but also has a market on a Wednesday. This one is bigger, and has entertainment as well as lots of stalls.

Oaklands, Victoria

We loved finding great cheeses, breads, chocolates and other freshly grown or made foods, and we were staying in the perfect place, as there were good shops to visit in all directions.  In particular, there is Charelli's Cheese shop in the dodgily named Foul Bay Road, and a multitude of places in Cook Street. Unfortunately we had to walk almost directly past the bakery Tooks on Cook to get home, and one more than one occasion we succumbed to their very yummy Nanaimo bars.

I guess we have been a bit spoiled for good food in London, with fantastic places like Borough Market, and coming here, we realised how rare it is in the places we've been visiting.

O'Brien Family, Victoria

I mentioned music, and we rather enjoyed sitting at markets or outside bars listening to music, and our favourite was definitely the superb O'Brien Family. They are originally from the UK, but now in Victoria. They do covers, but also a few original ones, and are well worth catching if you're around.

Japanese Shinto shrine, Victoria

But this post isn't all about food and music, we checked out the local art gallery too. The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria was opened in 1951, in a 1889 mansion house, which now houses the gift shop, while the art has expanded into a number of modern galleries. The main exhibits are Canadian and Asian art, and they are particularly proud of having the only authentic Japanese Shinto Shrine in North America.

Painting by Emily Carr

One of Victoria's most famous names is artist Emily Carr. She was born here in 1871, did her art education in London, and spent time honing her work in Cornwall, Canada and France. Unsurprisingly, her art features highly in the gallery.

She was heavily influenced by the First Nations People, and was one of the first Canadian modernist and post-impressionist painters.  Whilst not an official member of the Group of Seven, she was very closely linked with them.

I quite liked some of her paintings, and some of the other art on show too.

On the way out, we noticed that another woman leaving was attracting some interest. We didn't recognise her, but were told that it was one of The Bangles.

Tokyo: Ueno and Akihabara - serenity and wackiness

Drain cover , Ueno Park, Tokyo

We stopped off in Tokyo a few times in our trip, so our time her was a little bitty, and we didn’t see as much as we otherwise might have done. But we did still get around a few areas, and this post covers two of them, Ueno and Akihabara.

We went to Ueno Onshi Park on a Sunday, so when we passed through the Kappabashi Dogugai Street area as we strolled from our Akabusa lodgings, most of the hundreds of kitchenware shops that have served the area for over a hundred years, were closed. Probably just as well, as I’d only have wanted to buy stuff.

Ueno Onshi Park, Tokyo

The park was the first in Japan, designated in 1873, and is a good place to walk around, with a number of museums and a zoo, if that takes your fancy, or simply people watching. There are a few street performers around, some of whom are better than others.

Toshogu Shrine, Tokyo

We visited the Toshogu Shrine, which was built in 1627 by Todo Takatora, to Tokugawa Ieyasu, as requested in his will. It is an attractive shrine, with a good number of the lovely stone lanterns, and when we were there, there was a Spring Peony festival, which added to the visit.

Toshogu Shrine, Tokyo

It amused me to see the flowers being given their own parasols.

Toshogu Shrine, Tokyo

Toshogu Shrine, Tokyo

Toshogu Shrine, Tokyo

Toshogu Shrine, Tokyo

The other thing of note at the shrine is the Flame of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The story goes that Tatsuo Yamamoto went to Hiroshima shortly after the bomb dropped to search for his uncle, finding only the bombed out remains of his home.

Toshogu Shrine, Tokyo

He brought a flame, that was still smouldering in the ruins, back to his home in Hoshino-mura, and resolved to keep it burning as a symbol of remembrance, peace and the aim of abolishing nuclear weapons. Twenty three years after the bomb, his village built a torch to hold the flame, which was lit on the anniversary, and has been kept alight ever since.

Toshogu Shrine, Tokyo

In 1988, a flame was taken from that torch, and another was taken from a spark made by rubbing together broken roof tiles from the Nagasaki bomb, and they were merged together as a flame for peace. This flame was taken to the UN General Assembly for Disarmament in New York, with a petition signed by 30 million people. Two years later, on the 45th anniversary of the bombing, the lit another flame the same way, and that is the flame that now burns permanently in the shrine here.

Akihabara, Tokyo

We'll now move to another area, away from the peaceful calm of Ueno, and on to the slightly crazy area of Akihabara.

Akihabara is known as being the key electronic area, and as a place for anime and maid cafes.

Akihabara, Tokyo

The electronics side wasn't especially interesting to us, but if you are in your forties, and had a misspent youth playing video games, you might enjoy checking out the retro games arcades that are tucked away in dark little rooms.

Akihabara, Tokyo

There are also lots of places where you can play those machines where you control a grab to get yourself a little cuddly toy. In the UK, these are usually the domain of little girls, but here we had teenaged, an even a bit older, boys playing them.

Akihabara, Tokyo

The anime, or comic, scene isn't as obvious here as it used to be, as it has moved on a little, but it is definitely still around, and you have the Tokyo Anime Center, where you can look at comics and buy huge amounts of merchandise. We bought a set of Ghibli, 'Spirited Away' playing cards, and they have certainly provoked a lot of interest when we've used them, especially amongst Japanese expats.

Akihabara, Tokyo

And then there are the maid cafes. I've mentioned before that the Japanese have a slightly worrying culture of allowing older men to ogle girls dressed up in schoolgirl outfits and the like, and this is another version of that. Maid cafes will have girls dressed in very short maid outfits, and people will come along and be served drinks etc by their maid.

Akihabara, Tokyo

Now this isn't as bad as it could be, no one is allowed to touch the maids. But I do struggle to understand the idea that grown men want to play the kind of hand clapping games that I used to do in the playground when I was about six!

I know it's harmless in itself, and I actually have no issue with even some of the rather wilder fetish interests (as long as all those involved are consenting), but this does all feel a bit too commonplace and creepy.

Akihabara, Tokyo

These days, it has become a bit more of a 'thing', and more women and tourists go along as well, but it still didn't quite feel like something we wanted to do.

We were quite interested in going along to one of the growing trend of spoof cafes, such as the ones where the maids are actually all men dressed up in the same outfits, but sadly we hadn't researched it well enough, and couldn't find one in the time we had.

Akihabara, Tokyo

The other example of that kind of culture here is the official show theatre and café of the incredibly popular Japanese girl band AKB48. The AKB represents the band's location of Akihabara and the 48 is the number of girls in the original line-up. the band was formed to be 'an idol group that you can meet'. the large number - there are now around 140 girls - means that there can be multiple groups of AKB48 appearing on stage and at handshaking events at the same time.

Akihabara, Tokyo

There are multiple daily shows at the theatre here, and the group is hugely successful, with its main fanbase being young pre-teen girls and older men. The girls in the line up are early teen to mid twenties, after which they are deemed too old for the short skirts and pigtails look and are 'graduated'. The girls are not allowed to date while they are in the band, but have been the target of attacks by over zealous fans. Two girls were injured by a male fan with a saw back in 2014, and just last week, one was stabbed multiple times by an older male fan who had sent her a gift and wasn't happy with her response.

Japan is a strange contradiction.

Akihabara, Tokyo

Akihabara, Tokyo

Akihabara, Tokyo

Akihabara, Tokyo

Akihabara, Tokyo