Category: Trip

Ennis

  • July 30, 2017

We arrived yesterday, and will stay in Limerick for almost a week while KLS works. I’m going to explore the city in a couple of days, so I’ll defer Limerick descriptions until then.

Today though we rode a train to nearby Ennis, known for a quaint shopping district as well as a ruined Friary that’s almost 800 years old:

It’s an impressive ruin, mostly open to the weather and showing the passage of the many years. It started as a Franciscan church but held many roles during its life before being abandoned about 125 years ago.

The rain came and went today, rarely lasting for more than a few minutes but often falling quite heavily. We anticipate such weather to be the norm for our entire trip.

Ennis itself was a lovely little town, but as it’s Sunday (almost) everything was closed! We wandered the streets a while before returning to Limerick.

The train trip, while short, was scenic. The towns are separated by endless fields and hedgerows, often fillers with cattle and sheep. However by the trip back the jet lag was catching up to me, and KLS couldn’t resist snapping a photo of me snoozing in the train!

A bite to eat and I was good as new!

Tomorrow KLS starts work and I’m off on a day trip, once again by train. Look forward to it!

Finally, owls!

  • June 7, 2017

When you first enter Akiba Fukurou, they sit you down amidst the owls and explain the rules: no loud noises or talking, no flash photography, how to touch the owls and how to let them sit on you. While the small group in attendance (advance reservations are mandatory; it’s always booked full) was paying attention, we were all mostly dazzled by the fact we were sitting in a beautifully clean and decorated smallish two-room space with 30 different owls!

Whilst technically an ‘owl cafe’, this was 100% owls and no cafe. We could touch the owls, photograph them, hold two each and mostly just he charmed by them. They ranged from very big (Yossie sized!) to very small (look in the top far left corner in the first photo) and all had a little plaque displaying their name, age, weight and species.

They were human-raised and perfectly calm and ‘friendly’ (for owls, I suppose), always seemingly more interested in watching what the other owls were doing than the people looking at them!

They have 34 owls in total, from all over the world, but 4 had ‘a day off’! They were all incredibly handsome birds, and the hour we had in there flew past.

That guy – Spring Onion was his name – was 1 kg and the third biggest they had. His half-orange eyes indicate he is not a nocturnal animal. I learned that yesterday 🙂

Some of the owls are ‘friends’, and we saw a little one preening a much bigger one. A few made noises too, rarely like the ‘hoo’ we all think of!

Akiba Fukurou was a remarkable place and a highlight of the trip. For such a relatively low cost (¥2000/person, which includes a custom laminated photo) it was absurd value for such a unique experience. If you’re ever near Akihabara, don’t miss it!

The rest of yesterday was Akihabara, which means heaven for an aging geek like myself. I trolled game/anime/card shops like a fiend, dazzling at everything I saw.

This Zelda game-and-watch is one of the few things ‘on my list’ but I’m not paying ¥39800 (about $400) for something I passed up at £50 in Cardiff last year!

This limited famicon-edition Gameboy Micro surprised me not just because I own it already, but because I actually brought it with me on this trip! I suppose I’ll treat it with a tad more respect now I know it’s worth hundreds 🙂

Akiba is pretty special. I feel like I could spend days here and never get bored. Alas, there’s never enough time…