Author Archives: Simon

My Japanese Fortune

13

For ¥100, a vending machine at the Golden Temple in Kyoto will tell you your fortune. It told us that, if our fortune was excellent, very good, pretty good or good, we should take it with us. Otherwise, we should tie it to the appropriate place (it failed to mention where that appropriate place was).

Here’s what it had to say…

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Japan, Our Travel Philosophy
Tags: , , ,

Photo of the Week: English History Festival

2

The English Heritage Festival of History is a huge, two day event spread out across the fields and grounds of a stately country manor in Northamptonshire. The fields are divided up into periods from medieval time up to World War II.

Our bros and their dope ride here are from (I believe) World War II.

Posted in Photo of the Week, United Kingdom
Tags: ,

The Devil in Disney’s Details

14

As I stand on the edge of the Walt Disney World Dock, waiting for the Disney Ferry that will transport me to Disney’s Magic Kingdom, I am struck by the horrible realisation that you can’t unknow things. Beyond a certain age, the pure enjoyment and wonder of a place – where you are naively unaware of such things as commerce, exploitation, misogyny and sex – is lost to you forever.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in USA
Tags: , , , ,

Travel as Pleasure and How To Avoid It

33

There’s a particular moment in the documentary Comedian when Seinfeld says:

One day I was watching these construction workers go back to work. I was watching them kind of trudging down the street. It was like a revelation to me. I realised these guys don’t want to go back to work after lunch. But they’re going. That’s their job. If they can exhibit that level of dedication for that job I should be able to do the same. Trudge your ass in.1

This is one of the most successful comedians living today challenging himself to improve the thing he loves to do and even he has to tell himself to trudge his ass in.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Our Travel Philosophy
Tags: , , ,