The view from my "office"

Are you on an organised tour or tour of your own making as they say?
I’m on a small group tour with Travel Directors. They are a Western Australian company that researches and runs their own tours. More than half our group are from WA, but also NSW and SA. Our tour manager, Olga, is from St Petersburg, and has taken multiple Balkans and Five Stans tours over many years. The tour guide and interpreter is from Singapore but has lived in Japan for many years. I wouldn’t like to travel in Japan by myself. I feel quite safe and the people are so friendly, but there is little English spoken or signage.
 
Tonight’s office is “The Prince - Hakone Lake Ashinoko”. Lake Ashi is a summer resort area complete with swan shaped paddle boats! Theoretically I should see Mount Fuji across the lake from my window. However, the cloud decided to blow in very low, so my view is of mist! In the third photo the water can be seen. Our cruise across the lake was also just mist. Can’t win them all.
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The rain has started in earnest now at 6:00pm. Here is the poster of what I should be seeing.

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And just for fun, there is a pirate ship lake cruise. This boat also disappeared into the mist while tied up at the pier. And I mean totally hidden for awhile. This area must be so beautiful in summer.
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I wouldn’t like to travel in Japan by myself. I feel quite safe and the people are so friendly, but there is little English spoken or signage.
There is English signage virtually everywhere in Japan, even far away from the main tourist places. Public transport is very easy to use with English letters and Arabic numbers on everything.

Never had a problem travelling i Japan, and when I got lost a local was always very pleased to help.
 
There is English signage virtually everywhere in Japan, even far away from the main tourist places. Public transport is very easy to use with English letters and Arabic numbers on everything.

Never had a problem travelling i Japan, and when I got lost a local was always very pleased to help.
The trains are very good and I noted the numbers, but I am in Japan right now and there are many towns and areas where signs do not include English, so I must respectfully disagree. I also stated that I would not like to travel solo, but certainly other people are quite happy to. I am not arguing the point, just expressing my personal preference. Besides, if travelling alone I can’t turn around to share the sights and experiences with another person.
 
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View from our third floor AirB&B office in Porto. A primary school in the foreground, in the distance the monastery on the South side of the Douro next to the Dom Luiz I Bridge.
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If I hang out of the window and look to the left I can just see a bit of river.
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Edit: changed “Louis", French spelling, to “Luiz”, Portugese.
 
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Burapha Country Club. Opposite Laem Chabang Country Club. Very hot but I could sense rain. Most buggies here have no windshield. I have learned my lesson many times when I've been stuck out on course with torrential rain and no windshield for protection. I saw a few with windshield and specifically asked to have one of those buggies. They laughed at me.

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This is not an evening shot. This is 10:30am and getting darker.

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At least we stopped in one of the kiosks. This is after we'd just completed 1 hole. It was now very cold. 35 minute delay and we continued playing in drizzle which eventually cleared for the last few holes and then back to muggy.

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There is a lot to see in Porto, but I will concentrate now on the Ponte Luiz I, built by Eiffel’s ex-business partner Theophile Seyrig. So, various views:

From a gondola of the Vila Nova de Gaia cable car ride.
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From the top station of the cable car.
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From Porto Baixa.
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Walking on the top deck with Metro trains whizzing past. Actually they go reasonably slowly.
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From the lower deck.
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Saw this while taxiing in my Monday evening 737 office dreaming of a flight I’d prefer to be on…

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A quick google suggests tickets go for a lazy $170k

Here she was sitting amongst the private jets on the ‘other side’ at DPS yesterday. Wasn’t a livery I recognised, but as we taxied closer the image on the tail gave it away.

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My office view in this case was from row 15 in an ATR72 from Wings Air on the short hop from DPS to Lombok.
 
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