Not a lot of shows during EDC week, so first went to the Vegas Sphere:

And then went to see the Empire strips back which was pretty entertaining:

I stayed in downtown Vegas, Fremont Experience was right there, fun walk:

Next day, yummy dinner at the Cirque in the Bellagio, with a visit of the conservatory first:

Quick visit of Caesar's next door:

And then back to the Rio for the Wow Vegas Spectacular, which was a mix of small shows, some better than others:

The unexpected highly, however, was Arte Museum at Aria

Nice little time, although of course the highlight was EDC Vegas itself

So, things started in Tokyo. I picked Shinjuku since it's nearby most things I cared about. The first day was really just the end of the day, but enough to go out for dinner and walk around:

meat is not cheap in Japan but it's very good

Then a quick walk through Golden Gai and its streets filled with little bars;

And random things in the streets that are fun:

unfortunately the original robot restaurant is dead. The new one is nowhere close

Next morning, went to the MET, thinking it we could go up somewhere by 08:30, but the information was confusing and we'd only be allowed up at 09:30, which was too late due to a reservation at Shibuya Sky at 10:00:

So, not much of a view at MET before you can go to the top (it's free, but opened too late that morning), however, there was time to go walk though Yoyo-ji on the way to Shibuya Sky:

Tnen, it was finally time for Shibuya Sky, which does require reservations weeks in advance. I found it nice and fun to visit, but probably overhyped and not worth the headaches to try and get a last minute timeslot:

Yoyo-ji Park

Shibuya crossing

Mario Karts :)

Didn't realize there was a google building nextdoor ;)

A few pictures from lower down before going back to Shibuya crossing:

It was then fun to go visit Takeshita Street:

Yum

One fun thing in Takeshita Street, are all the animal cafés:

There were also nearby fancy dog cafés:

After cute animal overload, went to visit Gyoen National Garden, which was beautiful during cherry blossom season:

Then, it was time to go back to Shinjuku for the Ninja Show:

Then back around Shinjuku to find dinner:

yummy teppanyaki

For day #2, took a cab towards Odaiba to save time over public transport:

Went back to Maraikan, which is still an inteeresting and unusual science museum:

The park outside had plenty of pretty tulips:

Then, we got to diver city shopping mall:

And the Unko museum:

Then more walking around the area:

And found another animal café, there:

More about Odaiba Animal Cafe Here

Inside the mall, lots more shops and fun museums, didn't have time for them all:

At that time, I got the great news that we could go to Teamlab Borderless (my online ticket chagne, was approved, so it made sense to cut things short a bit and head towards the Mori buidling for Teamlabs:

And then time for a yummy sushi dinner:

A quick walk through Ginza from there:

And that was it for Tokyo, next morning was a bus to Takayama

The well known highlight is of course the cube houses, that are still being rented and being used by intrepid people:

Another walk through town:

The marine museum was interesting:

There was a museum park with museums of varying quality and you had to pay a non trivial price to enter each of them (higher than some felt worth). The natural history one, was ok though:

Then back for a quick walk through town:

our ride

Then back to the main shopping hall, nice at night:

time to restock :)

This gave me the time to see other sights this time around:

had time to visit this windmill

decent view from the top

Since it was only a half day, it was over soon, but Corpus, a science museum on the human body, was open late, so I went:

And then, it was time to go back to Amsterdam:

yes, it's the real factory

And then a quick walk through town:

Went to visit the church and climb up:

great view

market place

And that was it for Delft, next was lunch with Frank in Den Haag

Wondr Experience is still pink and fun :)

Then it was time for a night canal tour:

lots of bridges aligned

Indonesian Rijstafel!

After being in Sheffield, before going back to Paris, it made sense to check out London

bye bye Sheffield :)

quick walk to the train station

St Pancras

After arriving, going for a Xmas lights bus tour sounded like a good idea. Unfortunately it was harder to setup than it should have been, with a despicable company, and the view was not always the best for pictures, but it was still nice to have a look:

West end tour at the same time:

More lights:

After a nice brazillian BBQ dinner, a musical that was available that night (pickings were slim on dec 29th):

The next day started with the canal museum as it was too late to get tickets for the tower bridge:

I tried to sign up for a canal ride, but they were also sold out

old tractor that used to pull the boats

Next, was a ride on the Thames and a walk:

Fun stores:

Then was time to see Faulty Power, the play. It was last minute, not many options available on Dec 30th. It was fun for me since I had seen the old TV show from the 70s:

The rest of the day was spent walking through neighborhoods with lights and go to winter wonderland in hyde park:

Going to Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, it was nice inside but the security search detained me more than 5mn going through all the pockets of my scottevest, which is a lot of stuff, and the amount of things they prohibited, including hand sanitizer was such bullshit that it was very much a turn off, and enough for me not to go back had I been a local. The UK is really getting security wrong, at this level, I'm not interested in going back and dealing with such BS. It's a bummer because once inside it was very nice, but that doesn't make up for the level of ridiculous they are putting their customers, through (Paris was so much more reasonable in comparison):

yes, the rides were numerous and impressive

The last day and morning, I had a couple of hours before the train back to Paris, and used them to meet my good friend, Raster, for early brunch and catching up, that was a lovely time:

geeking out about enlightenment 17, he wrote and I still use

and eurostar back to Paris

first class looks nice, but hard to justify the price they want

this was more than good enough :)

I didn't have much time to get out, but still did a bit, the highlight was the Xmas market at la Défense:

cold, but beautiful day

yum!

my favorite, seared foie gras sandwich

double yum!

beautiful bottles

the bad news is the elevator to the top is now closed forever, bit downer :(

Beautiful sunset, selfie time!

A few more pictures of the beautiful weather and sky:

On Jan 2nd, it was time to go shopping:

that was yummy

chocolate dessert refill!

and my favorite, blood orange juice

heaven

just a few :)

this should do nicely :)

In the afternoon, a few hours to go in Paris:

Finally got to see Legay shock bakery:

The 1st arrondissement and nearby stores are always fun to visit:

Notre Dame was finally re-opened after many years to repair all the fire damage, although it still had scaffolding outside. Unsurprisingly, there was a ridiculous line (looked like maybe 2H) to get in, in the 'no reserved slot' line as well as the other line for people who had reserved slots (making them kin dof useless). It would have been nice to go back in, but I've been many times and it wasn't worth the wait:

the line in question

That evening, went to Jardin des Plantes

More bakeries :)

On another day, I happened to be close to a famous cemetary I had never seen before:

famous french people

Jean Paul Sartre et Simone de Beauvoir

Lunch with friends/schoolmates:

I tried to go find the Xmas tree at Printemps, but they were already tearing it down, got there too late :(

And that was it for 2024-2025!

I got copilot seat, but was just passenger

The flight ended with the double/triple Wailua Falls close to the airport:

cool to see the parking lot I had just driven to a hour prior

And after that it was time to head back:

as you can tell, pretty localized weather

One other thing I also found out was that of course the Hawaii islands are not cheap anymore (only the flight is cheap), but Kauai especially seemed especially expensive. Some tours like a simple garden and chocolate tour, would ask for $140 per person (!).

Anyway, here is the map:

after landing, had a quick drive to Wailua Falls while waiting for the flight time:

walked around a bit to burn time

quickly found a friend :)

happiest cat in the world

Day 1: Partial Island Flight

rode copilot

same waterfall

Smith Family Luau

pretty almost viewsonic birds

yummy drinks

Day 2: Diving and sunset dinner

Day 3: Diving and kayaking to hidden waterfall

The kayaking was all fun and good until it started pissing rain :) then again the waterfall was wet too :)

that was me at the bottom :)

I look happy :)

I then had to deal with the dive Kauai and their lying passive aggressive boat driver, Nick, who did his best to ruin my diving by showing how much of an lying p. he could be. Dive Kauai, only barely worthwhile for beginners, was totally not worth it. At least I'm making proper notes this time to make sure I never go back to those people (turns out I had old notes from 2008 saying I also picked them and regretted it, sigh...)

Despite the time wasted by them, had a bit of time to check out an evening art festival at Hanapepe:

Day 4: Diving, McBryde+Allterton Gardens, Koloa Zipline

McBryde+Allterton Gardens were nice, but you could only see one of them as part of a timed tour, which was not available every day, making the visit not as easy as it should have been. It was a very nice tour, though:

happy ducks :)

hungry, even :)

After the park, spouting horn was right there:

Day 4: Koloa Zipline

Then, almost a sunset:

Day 5: Full Day of Diving (6 dives)

This was all nice and good until I let an octopus climb on my hand while it was feeding at night, and it decided to cut my finger, inject me with its paralysing poison. Ended up in not the best ER on a sunday night while they tried to figure out whether I had pieces of octopus beak left in my finger that had to be dug out, or not. Not the best night (was over around 03:00).

Day 6: Waimea Canyon

then it was time to drive up to Waimea Canyon:

the famous red dirt

beautiful scenery

After an mostly unimpeded quick drive down, and rental car brakes that didn't fade, and time for a few quick stops before the 2nd Luau:

Day 6: Aulii Beach Luau

how to open coconuts

yum

Day 7: North Island Tour to Road's End: Princeville Botanical Gardens

Day 7: Princeville Botanical Gardens

Day 7: Limuhali Botanical Gardens

After that, there was some time for a slower drive back and stop at a few places on the way:

more shaved ice with ice cream

Day 7: Kilauea, the northmost point of all of Hawaii, and Nenes

babies!

unfortunately the tip is now open only certain days with advance tickets, WTF?

one used to be able to just drive there :(

boobie!

Day 8: Kauai Museum

Day 8: Kauai Plantation Railway and Rhum Tasting

And that was it, time to fly home