Day 3 Tokyo

We skipped dinner last night opting instead for another early night and once again turned out the light by 8pm and did not wake until 6am.  Not surprisingly we were both hungry when we woke so after coffee in bed we headed down to the function room where all Regent guests enjoyed a complementary buffet breakfast.  The buffet table takes up three sides of the room and every nationality is catered for.  After breakfast we had to do a RAT Covid Test and thankfully we were both negative so we are free to board the ship tomorrow.  We have to have another RAT test when we come back to Japan from Korea next week.  We were told that Japan is still not fully recovered from Covid and only last month opened its borders to cruise ships.  We were completely taken aback.  What would Regent had done if the borders didn't re-open?  Thankfully it is a question that will never have to be asked.

Today was another half day tour of Tokyo.  First stop was the Imperial Palace Plaza where we had a photography opportunity.  You can pay to have a fully conducted tour of the palace but it wasn't included in todays tour and we certainly didn't have time to do it today.

Back on the bus and we were taken to Hamarikyu Gardens for our next stop.  We didn't have nearly enough time to explore these gardens that cover a huge area and sadly the Cherry trees flowered early this year so we didn't get a chance to see them in full blossum.  However, I did get to see a lovely Wisteria in full colour and stood in awe at the 400 year old oak tree at the entrance to the gardens.

From the gardens it was a short bus drive to the Ginza area that is a very high end shopping area.  We had the option of leaving the tour here and making our own way back to our hotel, which we elected to do.  I still had a camera to purchase and the tour guide kindly pointed us in the right direction.  I have now replaced my ten year old Olympus Pen F with a newer model Olympus camera so I'm very happy.  The only problem that I didn't notice until we got back to the hotel was that the instruction manual is written in Japanese!  Thankfully the camera is very similar to my old camera so it was not a big problem.  

Before leaving the Ginza area we found a lovely authentic Japanese restaurant where we enjoyed a banquet.  It was so delicious and very cheap.

We are really enjoying this lovely city.  Tokyo metropolitan area has a population of 37 million.  That figure is so hard to get your head around.  The streets are so lovely and green and clean and we are continually finding hidden gardens.  There are hardly any vehicles on the roads as the vast majority of residents use public transport. There is almost zero crime in Japan and it is considered one of the safest countries in the world.  I can't wait to see the rest of this lovely country.

Day 2 Tokyo

Sleep came easily last night. In bed by 8pm and asleep by 8.05pm and then we didn't wake until 6.30.  It was needed.

Last night we ate in the Japanese Restaurant, Junisoh, here at the Hilton and it was one of the best meals I have ever eaten.  Typically, Japanese food is light, fresh and small portioned.  You do not leave the table with an overfull belly. Our table was semi-private and the service was impeccable. 

The Sashimi

Today was a half day tour of Tokyo that took us to Asakusa Sensoji Temple and the National Museum of Science.  It was quite a lovely day so the Japanese folks were out and about so both places were packed with people.  You literally have to go with the flow.  It was interesting to see so many of the younger generation in full Japanese National Dress.  I think the Kimono is a beautiful dress and the girls were wearing it proudly.  They seem to balance precariously on the thongs they wear on their feet but I didn't see anyone stumble.

We did not spend a lot of time inside the National Museum of Science, preferring to stay outside and enjoy the beautiful park.  The first thing you notice when you drive through Tokyo is the number of "green areas" in the city and everywhere people are out and about and enjoying the parks.  We also drove by an area where people were fishing.  

After breakfast this morning, and before our tour, we walked for a few kilometres to see if we could find a camera store.  My faithful Olympus Camera is on its way out and I need to look for a replacement before it dies.  There is no better place in the world to purchase a camera than right here in Japan where the majority of cameras are made.  We did eventually find the camera shop but will return tomorrow when we have a little more time.  

Loved this street where T- Rex was looking over the top of one of the buildings.

Day 1 Cairns to Tokyo

On Thursday our travel agent rang to say that Singapore Airlines had oversold tickets for our flight from Cairns to Tokyo so we were re-routed via Brisbane.  It was very annoying but Singapore Airlines apologised by giving us two $300 vouchers to be used in the airlines duty free shop.  The worst part was having to fly to Brisbane at 9am on Friday before connecting to our flight to Tokyo via Singapore.  It added 10 hours to our journey.  

We landed into Japan at 8.00am Saturday morning and after negotiating customs and quarantine we quickly found our driver who transported us to the Tokyo Hilton.  Surprisingly it took us an hour from the airport to the hotel.  After checking into the hotel around 9.30 we were told our room would be available at noon.  We headed to a cafe for coffee and pastries and then decided to stretch our legs while our room was being prepared.  Shinjuku Central Park was close by so we headed to this lovely green area.

Tomorrow, after breakfast, we join our pre-cruise tour group.  We have three days sightseeing in Tokyo before we join our cruise ship - Regent Explorer - on the 25th April.  The three days are slow paced with only half day tours so we will be able to also explore independently. We might even try the underground railway system that is apparently one of the best in the world. 

45th Wedding Anniversary

 On the 25th March 1978 I said "I Do" to the man that I have loved for forty-five years. I was just twenty years old and Philip twenty-two when we were joined in holy matrimony.  It seems so young now but we were absolutely ready for married life.  We grew together and with the addition of our boys, Kurt in 1979 and Marc in 1982 our family was complete.

Living on a cattle station in the Gulf for almost all our married life enabled us to give our boys the best possible upbringing.  The boys had a lot of freedom to make mistakes and learn from them - some very painful mistakes! We were never "hover" parents.

So what advice would I give to the twenty year old me now. I would tell her that her babies will be perfect but not to put too much pressure on herself to be the perfect mother.  I would also tell her to laugh a lot more because there will certainly be plenty in her world to make her smile. I would tell her that she is going to experience the highest highs and lowest lows but will always be loved. And lastly I would tell her to breathe in this moment, reflect on the last moment, and await the next moment.

And what advice would I give to couples.  It's simple really.  Never stop talking to each other and never forget to love each other.

We celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary at Nautilus Restaurant in Port Douglas.  We have been coming to this restaurant almost all our married life and it is still our all time favourite restaurant.  Now, they specialise in a five course degustation menu.  Our five courses were:

Mojito and Green Ant cured Kingfish with cucumber pearls

Duck Three Ways - Consommé, Spring Rolls, Wontons

Grilled Moreton Bay Bug

Whole Crispy Skinned Coral Trout 

Belgian Chocolate Slice

Cheese Platter

Every single course was absolutely to die for.  

The restaurant itself is open air and it is always hard to believe that it is situated right in the centre of Port Douglas.  The ambience of this restaurant is beyond compare with its beautiful high back chairs that give diners privacy while they eat.  The staff are attentive and cheerful that is always welcome.  We arrive around 30 minutes before our booking so that we can have pre-dinner aperitif's in the dedicated lounge area.  It really was a wonderful night and the perfect way to celebrate our wedding anniversary.

International Women's Day Mission Beach

 My bestie and her daughter, who happens to also be my god-daughter, meet at Mission Beach this weekend for a girlie weekend and an early 40th birthday get-together for my god-daughter. We booked into Castaways Resort at Mission Beach for Friday and Saturday nights and as luck would have it, the International Women's Day Brunch was also being held at the resort on Saturday.

My friends travelled north from Townsville and I drove south from Palm Cove and we all arrived around the same time on Friday.  After all the love and hugs we settled into our two bedroom apartment with sundowners and quickly caught up on each others news. We had made dinner reservations at Buko Restaurant for 6.30pm and it seemed no time at all before we headed downstairs for our delicious meal - Grilled Mackerel & Salad for me. We didn't stay up late as we had all had quite an early start to our day and were all feeling a little weary - probably from excitement also!

Next morning we had planned on walking along the beach before our Brunch but it was so incredibly hot and humid that we decided, by unanimous decision, to stay in the room under air-conditioning.  More talk-fest until it was time to start readying ourselves for the Brunch.  As we only had one shower and one mirror it was a bit of a juggle to shower and dress but we somehow managed to all be out of the door by 11.00am.

All the tables in Buko Restaurant were beautifully decorated for the International Women's Day Brunch and we were quickly shown to our table.  Apart from being International Women's Day, the brunch was held to raise money for Breast Cancer. Two young girls moved around the tables selling raffle tickets that were being drawn randomly for the numerous donated prizes.  I was lucky enough to win a "Kitchen Pack" that consisted of Utensiles, Teatowels, timer, and a cute little saucepan.  I gave the saucepan to Nikki though because it was not an induction saucepan.

The three course meal was delicious.  First course was three small plates of Pumpkin Mouse Cake, Beef wrapped Asparagus, and Cucumber topped with a prawn salsa.  Main was Roast Pork Belly with a fennel and orange salad and purple potatoes.  Dessert was a chocolate meringue concoction.  

The drinks (included) flowed freely with a choice of either Prosecco or Rosé.  The only downside to this lovely meal was that it was so incredibly hot and humid with barely a breath of wind to cool us down and I'm afraid there was nothing the organisers could have done about that!

All through the meal, music was playing in the background. The female performer had a glorious voice and strummed her guitar to the beat of the music.  The lunch finished at around 3.00pm but we left a little before that as we were all keen to get back to air-conditioning!

Last night was spent very quietly, chatting away over a platter of yummy finger food prepared by my friend Lynn, before all turning in around 9.30pm.  

We said our goodbyes this morning and we don't really know when we will all catch up again.  Philip and I will be heading away on holidays at the end of April and will probably not return until March next year, so it will be at least twelve months.

Philips Birthday Week

It was hubby's 67th birthday on the 22nd January and as NuNu Restaurant here in Palm Cove was having a Chinese New Year Banquet I reserved a table for us and our friends Kate and Mike.  The day was a little rainy but that didn't stop us at all, I mean who doesn't love a tropical downpour.  We were a little early for our lunch reservation so we dropped into Chill Portofino for some cool drinks while we waited for NuNu's to open. Chill is one of our favourite places in Palm Cove.  You can drop in for a cool drink or settle in for a meal.  They do some pretty darn good pizza's too.

Once we had finished our drinks we headed directly across the road to NuNu's where we were shown to our table.  The service in this restaurant is exceptional and within moments of seating we were handed the drinks menu and a copy of the banquet menu we were about to enjoy.  Our drinks (cocktails for the ladies and beer for the men) arrived shortly after ordering and we had only had a couple of sips before the first of five courses was laid in the centre of the table.  The food was to die for and the only photo I remembered to take was dessert! The courses were:

1.  Crispy Chilli and fish dumpling, Reef Bug and Pork dumpling, Sweet and Sour Tiger Prawns

2.  Tea smoke Eel and Hot Sauce, Pickled Mushrooms

3.  Cucumber and Garlic Salad, Tofu and Black Bean, Lotus Rice Shiitake and Lup Cheong, Spanner Crab and Egg Fried Rice

4. Coral Trout Ginger and Green Onion Relish, Drunken Duck Davidson Plum and Spiced Sat

5. Lychee, Pandam, coconut Sorbet and Dragon Ice

NuNu can be a bit of hit and miss when it comes to meals but this meal was outstanding and Nick Holloway and his team deserve accolades for this one.

One Tuesday morning we picked up Kate and Mike and drove them to the airport where they boarded their Brisbane bound plane.  At Brisbane they boarded the P & O Pacific Encounter for a 13 day cruise to Singapore stopping at Airlie Beach, Darwin, Bali and Lombok.  I have been tracking their voyage on cruisemapper.com and it is getting me rather excited for our upcoming cruise in April.  I have been chatting to Kate on and off and they seem to be having a great time.

After we dropped the team at the airport, Philip and I decided to walk the Yellow/Red Arrow track that starts opposite the airport at the Mount Whitfield Conservation Park.  The 4.2km circular track climbs around 155m and is considered moderately challenging. It took us around an hour and fifteen minutes to complete the walk.  We very much enjoyed it particularly as it is shaded for the majority of the walk.  In Cairns at this time of the year that is very much appreciated!

My copy of RecipeTin Eats arrived in the mail this week and I have been devouring the book and cooking quite a few recipes from the book.  Nagi is my all time favourite cook and everyone of her recipes are truly great.  You may remember me cooking Festive Salmon for New Years Eve.  That is one of her recipes.  The cookbook is well worth purchasing if you are as passionate about food as I am.  Some of the other recipes I have made from the cookbook this week have been Teriyaki Beef Bowls and Magic Baked Chicken Fried Rice.  Both bloody delicious!

I had some leftover chicken from the fried rice so I pulled out the pie maker and made us some Chicken and Leek Pies with salad for another lunch meal.  Gee I've missed my piemaker and will give it a good work-out before our next holiday.  Shame it is just a bit too heavy to carry in the van, but then again, maybe........

After Christmas I had leftover mini store-bought meringues and a sponge roll and was thinking of what I could make using them.  I also had a whole lot of passionfruit that my friend Kate had kindly given me so I made a Passionfruit Curd, whipped up some cream and added yoghurt, thawed out some frozen blueberries and along with a sliced banana, assembled the lot in a glass bowl.  It was a very decadent sweet dish but Philip and I have been enjoying a small quantity of it each afternoon.  I froze the majority of it so that we can enjoy this dessert over several weeks.

Today we woke to another wet day so to do something different (and inside) we drove into Cairns to the Cairns Aquarium.  It is something we have been talking about doing for quite a long time but never seemed to get around to it.  We had no idea on what we were missing out on.  It was fantastic.  We spent a couple of hours wandering around the two floors that told the story of aquatic life from the rainforest to the reef.  It is beautifully presented and every half hour the staff give talks in various areas of the aquarium.  There is also a Turtle Rehabilitation Hospital Tour that we would like to have visited but it was booked out.  We will return another day for that.  The Aquarium was well worth the drive into town.

Well that is our week in a nutshell.  We have been fairly busy but each afternoon we either go for a walk along the beach or if it is raining (as it has been for the majority of this week) we pull out the boardgames.  Sequence is our favourite board game but yesterday, for a change, we pulled out the Jenga Blocks.  Philip and I had fun building this tower and I, unfortunately, was the one to topple it.......