drron
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2002
- Posts
- 35,016
It doesn't seem that long since our last trip/ however our next jaunt is rapidly approaching. A week today we fly to Sydney for the weekend with the family. On the Monday we fly to Darwin for 3 days. Why you may ask. Well we could get an SQ award DRW-SIN. Just a night in Singapore before flying another SQ J award to NRT. Again you might ask would yoy fly to NRT when it is a much easier commute into Tokyo. Simple the NRT flight is a day time flight and the 2 HND flights are at night.
As a precaution we booked a hotel at Shinagawa Station as the NEX express, the Keikyu railway and the limousine bus all service Shinagawa so we will pick whichever is the next to go when we arrive. Our Hotel is the Strings an IC hotel. We have 3 nights there. Decided to stop in Tokyo because it is Hydrangea season and we both really like Japanese hydrangeas. Most of the popular spots are at a fair distance from Shinagawa. But then i discovered a park just 800 metres from the hotel so no problems.
After that we fly out of HND to CTS on the JAL domestic bus. Fortunately doesn't take Too long. Catch the train to Sapporo and stay at the CP at the Station. We have been to Sapporo twice before and do like the place. After that we catch the Lavender Express to Asahikawa staying at the JR inn. Not only at the station but in a shopping mall with a Toyota rental car shop next door. The car was booked through Hertz but they basically act as an agent for Toyota rent a car. Exactly the same price but you can book earlier through Hertz
From then we will spend 3 weeks driving around Hokkaido. We will visit the south, east, north and west coasts.I will outline our itinerary in the next couple of days.
There were 2 major problems with this trip. The most important was that 6 weeks ago I didn't even know if I could do it. On May 3rd the morning we arrived back into Australia I got the sudden onset of severe right sided sciatica walking into the IC Sydney to check in. I blame on the fact that the red Bandana man was sitting outside the lobby. I could hardly walk and was only managing 1000 steps a day for the first week. We got home on the 6th and I immediately Doubled my dose of Amitrypyiline to try and reduce the severity. It had worked 23 years ago when I had left sided sciatica. It does take a while to work. 2 days later I saw our GP.the next day I was seeing the Neurosurgeon. I had an MRI 2 days later,back to the neurosurgeon and an L5 nerve block arranged for the 6th of June.
Of course by this time the pain had settled considerably after 4 weeks of my increased dose of Amitryptyline and I debated with myself whether to go through with the injection. I decided to do it. I have not had the sciatica since but about 6 hours later I developed a totally different back pain, quite severe at times which basically is assumed to be the osteoarthritis in my spine - it is a known complication of my haemochromatosis. I had a CT-Spect study on Thursday and results hopefully on Monday. However I can cope with this pain. It really is only severe getting out of bed or off Xray tables and some times getting out of a chair. No pain driving and just an ache walking so the trip is on.
Now the second problem is what title to have for this TR. I thought of unscrupulously stealing from @RooFlyer and calling it a Longer trip to Hokkaido but I appreciate his friendship. So next thought was seeing the success of what I wanted to achieve with my las TR I might call it Chasing the perect Orca shot as that is really what I would like but a bit repetitive. So I go back 10 years and use a description I used when Mrsdrron was in a Moon Boot.
As a precaution we booked a hotel at Shinagawa Station as the NEX express, the Keikyu railway and the limousine bus all service Shinagawa so we will pick whichever is the next to go when we arrive. Our Hotel is the Strings an IC hotel. We have 3 nights there. Decided to stop in Tokyo because it is Hydrangea season and we both really like Japanese hydrangeas. Most of the popular spots are at a fair distance from Shinagawa. But then i discovered a park just 800 metres from the hotel so no problems.
After that we fly out of HND to CTS on the JAL domestic bus. Fortunately doesn't take Too long. Catch the train to Sapporo and stay at the CP at the Station. We have been to Sapporo twice before and do like the place. After that we catch the Lavender Express to Asahikawa staying at the JR inn. Not only at the station but in a shopping mall with a Toyota rental car shop next door. The car was booked through Hertz but they basically act as an agent for Toyota rent a car. Exactly the same price but you can book earlier through Hertz
From then we will spend 3 weeks driving around Hokkaido. We will visit the south, east, north and west coasts.I will outline our itinerary in the next couple of days.
There were 2 major problems with this trip. The most important was that 6 weeks ago I didn't even know if I could do it. On May 3rd the morning we arrived back into Australia I got the sudden onset of severe right sided sciatica walking into the IC Sydney to check in. I blame on the fact that the red Bandana man was sitting outside the lobby. I could hardly walk and was only managing 1000 steps a day for the first week. We got home on the 6th and I immediately Doubled my dose of Amitrypyiline to try and reduce the severity. It had worked 23 years ago when I had left sided sciatica. It does take a while to work. 2 days later I saw our GP.the next day I was seeing the Neurosurgeon. I had an MRI 2 days later,back to the neurosurgeon and an L5 nerve block arranged for the 6th of June.
Of course by this time the pain had settled considerably after 4 weeks of my increased dose of Amitryptyline and I debated with myself whether to go through with the injection. I decided to do it. I have not had the sciatica since but about 6 hours later I developed a totally different back pain, quite severe at times which basically is assumed to be the osteoarthritis in my spine - it is a known complication of my haemochromatosis. I had a CT-Spect study on Thursday and results hopefully on Monday. However I can cope with this pain. It really is only severe getting out of bed or off Xray tables and some times getting out of a chair. No pain driving and just an ache walking so the trip is on.
Now the second problem is what title to have for this TR. I thought of unscrupulously stealing from @RooFlyer and calling it a Longer trip to Hokkaido but I appreciate his friendship. So next thought was seeing the success of what I wanted to achieve with my las TR I might call it Chasing the perect Orca shot as that is really what I would like but a bit repetitive. So I go back 10 years and use a description I used when Mrsdrron was in a Moon Boot.
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Looking forward to see how Hokkaido is done by the pros!
. Driving about 1,200km I got 3 litres/100km. But it was a bit snug to drive.
