It’s been almost 18 months since I moved to Bonn, Germany and I realised there’d not been much mention of that here on Bolsoversion. I shall now make amends by accumulating the know-how gleaned in the last months into an insider’s ‘best of’ list. 

Disco time at Cafe Blau

Best beer garden – Alter Zoll, Am Brassertufer, Zentrum (U-Bahn Uni/Markt). Just a quick stroll from the Hofgarten park and the University, the Alter Zollhas a great position overlooking the Rhine. Perfect on long, warm evenings or for drinking away a sunny Sunday. You can play boules on the adjacent gravelled area, or sit on the grass and have a barbeque.

Best bars – The best place for a concentration of good bars and pubs is to head to the Altstadt. Pawlow (Heerstraße 64) has curious decor, but draws an interesting, arty crowd, Lichtblick (Dorotheenstr. 2) is normally pretty packed with students at weekends due to its music and decent drinks prices and Maya (Breite Str. 72) does one euro tequila and alright Mexican food (as Mexican food in Germany goes). If you’re in the Uni/Markt area, I like Cafe Blau (Franziskanerstr. 9), as it’s basically a swimming pool cafe, but in a trendy way. (That’ll make sense if you go.) It has a big drinks list, a discoball and someone there really likes New Order. For a more grungy drink, check out Zebulon, opposite Ichiban on Stockenstrasse. Heading further south, I recommend Mausefalle (Weberstr. 41) which is easy to miss as it’s underground. Great music selection and a bit of a hidden gem. Stays open late. A slightly dated website can be found here.

You can find all sorts at a fleamarket

Best fleamarket – Third Saturday of every month during spring and summer, the Rheinaue park in the south of the city is taken over by hundreds of stalls for a giant flea market. Come early if you want to find the best stuff, but it goes on until mid-afternoon if you fail to wake up. There’s normally an amazing collection of tat, but as with all German outdoor activities, you’re never far from a beer and a bratwurst.

Best restaurants – Depending on what food you’re into I can recommend Ichiban (Stockenstrasse) for sushi (although claims they are watering down the soy sauce need to be verified), there’s Tusculofor giant pizza (two locations – Karl-Kaiser Ring, Nordstadt and a new one in the city centre near Maredo), May May (Am Hof 24, Zentrum) for Vietnamese, or for traditional German there’s several places around Friedensplatz where you can get giant schnitzel. To be honest, I’m still looking for a restaurant that blows my socks off. These are all cheap, friendly and yummy, but I’m still on a cuisine quest.

Best cake – Cafe Kleimann, Rheingasse 18, Zentrum. This place is stuck in a magical time warp from its last revamp in the 1970s. Enjoy the velour kitsch surroundings and join the geriatrics for some delicious kaffee und kuchen.

On safari at Museum Koenig

Best museum – Haus der Geschichte, Willy-Brandt Allee 14, (U-Bahn Heussallee). Comprehensive look at German post-war history, although more enjoyable if you can read German. There are regular exhibitions often focusing on issues of pre-reunification Germany. And it’s freeeeee. Honourable mention also goes to Museum König where you can pretend to be on safari with the stuffed animals.

Best Irish pub – The Quiet Man, Colmantstr. 47, Zentrum (U-Bahn Hauptbahnhof). As a so-called ‘international city’ and home to the UN, Bonn boasts several Irish pubs. I can name at least six, and I’m sure there’s more. I avoided this place for a long time as I didn’t want to be that ex-pat stereotype. However, after six months I had to concede that the pub is really fun, the staff are amazingly friendly and whatever your sporting preference, they’ll probably put it on tv for you. Beware, you can go in for one drink and leave several hours later having spent a little too much on your tab. Facebook page here.

Best cocktails – Mohito’s, Königstr. 9, Südstadt. Does a good daily happy hour with different offers each week. No watery cocktails like many of the places in the centre of town, plus a slightly older clientele (ie not 17).

Best döner – I’m more a falafel fan myself, but I have it on good authority that Döner House (Heerstrasse 119, Altstadt) is one of the best. Does live music some nights, and has a beer garden out back. Bit smarter than the average Imbiss.

Best late night drinking hole –Nyx, Altstadt. It gets to 1am, you’re still going strong but can’t face one of Bonn’s many dubious clubs (nor are drunk enough to end up in the meat market that is Blow Up) then you should head to Nyx. Fridays and Saturdays often boast alternative, Britpop, 80s kind of themed events, and there’s the ever popular World Beat Party.

It's an all you can eat brunch, so pace yourself

I’m still not sure what this was, but there were several men with their shirts off. It’s not normally like that at Nyx. Prices are good, there’s a good mix of locals, the music is decent and they don’t kick you out when it gets late. Good for watching football too, but it does get smoky.

Best brunch – Miebach’s cafe, Marktplatz, Zentrum. You may not get the greasy goodness of an English fry up, or the buttery treats of a French croissant, but the Germans do a hearty and deliecious breakfast. Sundays and bank holidays often cetre around a big brunch which consists of cold meats and sausage, cheese, eggs, bread, fruit, and muesli. At Miebach’s you pay around 8 euros for an all you can eat brunch, which also includes pancakes, bacon, toast and other bits should you want it. Outside seating in the Marktplatz available on nice days, although service can get pretty slow when it’s busy. Don’t try rushing brunch.

I think I’ve exhausted my know-how. If you have any tips for me, or suggestions for places that should have made the list, feel free to let me know!

*****

A short train journey outside of Osaka, Kobe is probably best known for its expensively delicious beef. While I am more than happy to flash the cash for a good steak, alas the Bolsover budget did not stretch to one of those pampered bovine bad boys. But there’s more to Kobe besides the beef.

We only had just under a day in the city so tried to make the most of it in a short amount of time. We started to explore the downtown Marina area on foot and what struck me is how European the city felt. OK, I may have read this in the Lonely Planet first, but it really did have a slightly different feel to other cities we’d been to so far.

At the harbour we walked around (rather – climbed over and slid down) some mosaic art pieces and just wandered aimlessly, not really sure what we were doing.

We stumbled across the memorial to the 1995 Kobe earthquake, which is a preserved strip of pavement that is all cracked up and shattered from the quake. A really striking memorial, and very interesting. I also picked up an admirer who insisted on taking my picture in front of the memorial every few metres or so. I now have a collection of photos of myself looking slightly perturbed in various bits of the walkway.

Still lacking any kind of direction we ambled towards the downtown area on the hunt for food. Our Western stomachs were craving sandwiches so we tried to find a shop selling rolls or something. This proved to be tricky and we settled on a teashop-looking-place which was in a covered shopping arcade. The Japanese don’t do sandwiches well and we should have known better. A plate of eggy?fruity?meaty? sandwiches later, we set out again. We ended up in the Chinatown area which was bustling with people, street entertainers and delicious smelling food stalls. We bought meat dumplings, fried balls of something covered in sesame seeds and little pots of creamed sweet potato. The later was truly delicious.

We returned to Chinatown for dinner and picked a big restaurant on the corner of the main square. It was good, but also slightly forgettable Chinese. Could have been in Chinatown in London, New York or Sydney really.

We were all flagging but decided to find a bar listed in one of our guidebooks as a genuine German beer hall. Being a Germanophile (is that even a term?), I was quite excited by the prospect of a stein or two of Bavarian ale. The place was underground, near a department store and quite hard to find. It was also NOT in any way German. The pictures on the wall were those sepia pictures of Dublin streets in the 19^th century you see in every Irish bar and the beers on tap were Guinness and Heineken. Disappointing. Guide book FAIL.

The next day we had a quick peep into one of the Sake distilleries near our hostel, but didn’t really have time to take much in, or sample the wares. A quick obligatory visit to the local supermarket then rounded off our Kobe visit before getting our rail passes back out and jumping on the next train.

Next stop – Osaka.

Leaving behind the beautiful temples of Kyoto, we jumped on a train, and another train, and another, and then a cable car and then a bus, and eventually arrived at the mountain spiritual retreat of Koyasan.

It is a small, peaceful temple town which is the centre of Shingon Buddhism, a sect introduced by Kobo Daishi. I knew nothing about this particular branch of Buddhism, and was just blindly following my friend who suggested we experience a night in a Buddhist temple. It was a truly brilliant experience and one I recommend even to people who don’t feel particularly spiritual.

There are around 50 temples you can stay in at Koyasan, and I think they are all reasonably similar in the experience on offer.

When we arrived, we were greeted by monks who took us into their office to sort our booking. There was something slightly incongruous about having these orange-clad monks photocopying our passports and asking for our credit cards, but I guess these monks have solid business sense.

The five of us were sharing a big room, so sleeping on the floor on tatami mats and with a small table for tea. It was simple, classic and felt wonderfully authentic. We also had been given kimonos to wear while in the temple if we wished.

As a guest of the temple you are expected to join in evening and early morning meditation. I found the evening meditation slightly hard to get into, and spent a little too long fidgeting before getting into it. Half an hour later, it was over and time for dinner. The monks are strict vegans and so the food at the hostel is not for the unadventurous. They do things with tofu I could never imagine. I’m not sure what half the stuff in the bowls was, but it was a tasty mix of sweet, savoury, sour and of course came with as much rice and green tea as you could wish for.

After dinner we enjoyed the temple’s onsen and then got an early night, as the early meditation session started at 6am…

When we woke in the morning, the whole mountain had been dusted in a fine layer of snow, giving the place an even more silent feel. I found myself getting into the morning meditation more easily (could be that I was just sleepy…) and actually began to see what people get out of it.

We used our early start to explore the rest of the temple town, which unsurprisingly, is packed full of different temples. The highlight for me was visiting this massive, wooded cemetery called Okunoin. With the early morning fog and the atmospheric combination of tall evergreens and stone tombs, the place had a really eerie, peaceful feel to it.

The whole trip up Koyasan mountain really helped me put Japan’s Buddhism in context and I felt really privileged to have experienced staying somewhere so spiritual and peaceful. More snow than blossom though.

Next stop – somewhere rather less peaceful… Kobe.

Out of guilt that I am in Germany and can’t actually go, I am urging all and sundry to take in my sister’s show ‘Quiz in my Pants‘. As I understand it, the show has a quiz theme, with regular captains Laura Lexx and Dan Carter-Hope being supported by various comedian guest panellists. You know the kind of thing, they’re on the beeb all the time. My younger sibling, Nicola Bolsover is the glamorous compere. According to their Facebook page – “Guest comedians, songs and improv galore!”

Runs from 7th to 28th August. AND IT’S FREE.

@Dragonfly, 52 West Port (Venue 63)

It's serious stuff in the competitive world of kicker.

This is a link to a piece I recently did for Deutsche Welle – the German international broadcaster. I visited some table football (foosball/kicker) teams in southern Germany to immerse myself in their competitive world. I also met a man who has built a robot that can play kicker better than most humans. Read it all here – http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5646121,00.html

Shameless bit of self-promotion over.

Arriving into Kyoto on the bullet train was slightly underwhelming after all the hype, but there’s no doubt that the trains are fast, clean and impeccably timed.

Kyoto is Japan’s second city for tourists and offers a taste of old Japan – temples, traditions and the mysterious world of the geisha. It is the former capital and still retains an element of old world style and beauty.

After a very pleasant stay at K’s Hostel in Mount Fuji, we decided to check out their Kyoto branch too. As hostels go, these places are pretty fantastic, with nice rooms, plenty of bathrooms, reasonable internet access and lots of space for chilling out.

It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the choice of over 1,000 temples in Kyoto and just have no idea which ones to visit. Having now been to the city twice, here’s a quick guide to the ones I’ve seen and what you can see:

Fushimi Inari Taisha – Famous for its trail of red torii gates leading up the mountain. A beautiful, but hilly walk takes you through thousands of these red gates, up to a shrine and series of cemetaries in the mountains. Beautiful, yet eerie. (photo above).

Ginkakuji (silver pavilion) – A great example of a classic Japanese garden, with immaculately kept gravel shapes, blossom trees and waterways.

Kinkakuji (golden pavilion) – One of the most popular temples, due to its glistening gold leaf covering. Very pretty, although not much more than a photo opportunity. (photo right).

Nanzenji – Located on the ‘philosophers’ path’ which links many temples in Kyoto. The temple houses several large gateways and then a series of quarters (Hojo) where you can see beautiful 16^th century wall paintings.

But Kyoto isn’t just about temples. As Japan’s oldest city, it is rich in all sorts of cultural bits and pieces. If you’re interested in Japanese art, calligraphy, the tea ceremony and other traditions, then Kyoto or nearby Nara are your best bet for getting involved.

The allure of the Geisha is another reason tourists flock to Kyoto. If you’re lucky, you may spot a Geisha or the apprentice Maiko walking around the xx area of the city, often around sunset. We spotted one walking around, who was then chased by a group of teenage Japanese girls down the street who squealed and snapped cameras. It was like watching the paparazzi in action.

Kyoto is a beautiful city, and as we arrived the cherry blossoms were just coming into bloom which gave the place an extra special feel. Thanks to the efficient nature of the Japanese obsession with sakura, wherever you stay in Kyoto should be able to advice you where the best places are to view the blossom if it’s in season. Although having also returned to Kyoto in Autumn, I think I actually prefer the fall season to the Spring… Controversial.

Just a quick mention on food in Kyoto (I do like my food). We followed the Lonely Planet’s advice for a cheap sushi place in the shopping district which was great, and I also very much enjoyed a restaurant on the top floor of a department store (possibly Daimaru, but I’ve forgotten) which served burgers but with a very Japanese twist.

Next stop – the mountain temples of Koyasan.

At ‘Doggy Park’, you can choose a dog from a multitude of breeds and then for half an hour or an hour you can walk it around the park and even take it to a dog agility course.

The dogs are all lined up in cages, barking and yapping. It seemed a little bit cruel, but the dogs were obviously well cared for. Overwhelmed by choice, we decided to pick a Japanese breed of dog the Shiba Inu. It was a tough choice, but many of the dogs were unavailable because they’d been recently walked. It felt like going to an orphanage or pound and having to pick a favourite to take home without really knowing anything about the animal. But the Shiba Inu looked cute, but also a bit cool and aloof. Not desperate like some of the smaller, yappy dogs.

As we were about to enjoy our first outing with our new pet we were stopped by the lady running the pound. She pointed to an English/Japanese crib sheet of phrases she had, and the phrase was: “Attention. Your dog has quarrel.” Bemused as to what this could mean, we dubbed our dog ‘Rage’ and started our walk. Except Rage didn’t want to walk anywhere. Not in the park, not in the sandy off-the-lead patch, certainly not over the agility course. He did not live up to expectations…

So we swapped him! The great thing about dog renting is that you can take it back. We chose a new dog, who was old but beautiful. Dog number two would walk with us, but also liked sitting down for rest stops every few minutes. Both dogs managed to create an enormous amount of poo in the short time they were with us.

The whole place was wonderfully surreal, if not a little bit sad. I couldn’t help feeling no matter how much these dogs were walked, fed and looked after, they miss out on that human connection with one individual or one family. Definitely an experience to remember.

To get to Doggy Park there was a shuttle bus from near Kawaguchiko station, best checking before you go as the times were a bit random.

From Tokyo to Mount Fuji, and using our Japan Rail pass, we jumped aboard the first of several trains of the day. From Tokyo we took a local train (although there are bullet train options) which eventually took us to the Ootsuki station. From here, we boarded a very jolly little train, painted with blue smiley Mount Fujis that took us up the Fuji Kyuko line. This line is a private railway which meant we had to pay extra on top of our JR pass. We were staying in the town of Kawaguchiko, which is one of the main bases from which to view and explore Fuji-San (the Japanese name for Mount Fuji).

The town of Kawaguchiko is small, but a good size to explore. There’s a lake, several shops, hotels and restaurants and of course, cracking views of Mount Fuji. We were staying at K’s House hostel which was fantastic. The four of us had our own room, and the whole place had a really clean and thoughtful feel to it.

The official climbing season is only from July to August, and locals say you’d be very foolish to try it outside of this time. We were there in March, and also none of us really fancied the climb. We could enjoy Fuji-San from the bottom thanks very much.

Fuji-San itself is truly impressive, and you can see why its so revered by the Japanese. It is truly striking, and there’s something slightly magical and mysterious about it. Photos taken ad nauseum, we decided to take in some of the other treats around Kawaguchiko.

Fuji-Q Highland is a giant theme park sat in the shadow of Mount Fuji. If you have a spare day and are into big scary rollercoasters, then this is the one for you. The ride ‘eejanaika’ is possibly one of the most terrifying rides I’ve ever been on. With 14 inversions, a max height of 76m and a top speed of 126 km/h, it was enough to turn even the most hardy rollercoaster veteran a little bit green. The whole park was a great day out – the only issue is that because of the Japanese fondness both for theme parks and for queuing, you may actually only get on a couple of the big rides in a day.

Kawaguchiko is also famed for its onsen – or Japanese bath. If you visit an onsen in Japan, you’re going to have to get naked. It’s quite rude to go in wearing a bikini or underwear, so just embrace the nakedness! In the onsen we visited (near K’s House hostel), the place was almost empty, so you didn’t feel too self conscious. You start by having a thorough wash under your own individual tap with a wash bucket. Once soaped and scrubbed, you can then enjoy the hot baths. This place had indoor and outdoor pools, and even individual big wooden tubs that you could soak in. It’s really quite a liberating feeling, and the whole onsen experience was so serene and relaxing.

While you’re standing around the base of Fuji-San and marvelling at Nature’s majesty, I know what you are thinking. I wish my dog was here. Not allowed to take a dog on holiday because of stringent quarantine rules? Well have no fear. In Japan, you can RENT dogs for the hour. This is actually so ridiculous it deserves its own post. Watch this space.

On the cherry blossom front, despite lots of talk of sakura and lots of sakura themed items around us, we were still yet to see any actual blossom…

We left Kawaguchiko by a slightly easier route than the way we came. Heading for Kyoto, we took a local bus to Mishima station, which took about an hour and then from there took the bullet train.

Ah Tokyo. Land of numerous music videos, kitsch pop and Lost in Translation. A 40 minute drive down some speedy highways took me from Chiba to my hostel in the heart of the Akihabara district of Tokyo. Not the prettiest of places, by day it’s a maze of electronics shops and well, more electronics shops. I was reunited with my friends at the capsule hotel where we were going to be sleeping. We’d thought it would be weird and oddly futuristic and it didn’t disappoint. Each person has an individual capsule, which is about the width of a single bed, plus a bit more room for manoeuvre. You can sit up, but not much else. I actually found it really comfortable and liked the element of privacy that a capsule affords. Getting dressed in one is slightly tricky and wriggly, but do-able.

In Tokyo on a Saturday, we did what all other young people in the city seemed to do – we went shopping. We hit the Harajuku district (made famous by Gwen Stefani and the Harajuku girls) which is filled with all sorts of trendy, curious and intriguing people and shops. The area’s second hand shops made for a great dress up photoshoot and then an afternoon at the nearby Design Festa art gallery rounded it off nicely. Design Festa is a rental space for individual artists and every space, including the toilet, is used to showcase new art.

On the way back to the capsule hotel to get ready for our big Tokyo night out, we raided a local shop and got our hands on the most gaudy, weird, wonderful, sticky, smelly foodstuffs we could find. Plus a healthy bag of Japanese alcopops (or chu-hi). It being spring, there was, of course, cherry blossom flavour. A gastronomical tour of the sweet and seriously disgusting later, we hit the town.

Our host for the trip is a good friend Becky, who is doing a JET year out in Japan at the moment. She took us to one of Tokyo’s numerous themed restaurants – this one, had a mental asylum theme. Of course. The food was a fixed menu and was pretty curious. I guess people don’t go to to ‘Lock-Up’ for the food… they go for the entertainment. About once an hour, the restaurant dips the lights and a wailing siren goes off. Then out come the nutters. A very funny dining experience ensued as food mixes with squeals, screams and giggles as the dressed-up staff try to scare you and make you jump.

After dinner, and one-too-many lurid mental asylum cocktails later we jumped on the subway to head out to the fringes of the city to go to one of the biggest clubs in Tokyo – Ageha. This place was seriously impressive. Different rooms, several bars, a swimming pool on the roof, pole dancers, an outdoors bit and even a sexy manga-covered room selling
sex toys. A club like no other.

Ageha also introduced us to our first experience of just how friendly and lovely the Japanese are, even when drunk in clubs. People just came up to us, wanting to know where we were from and practicing their English. In the tiny hours of the morning, we returned to Akihabara and then struggled to wake up for our train in the morning.

Next stop – Mount Fuji.

This trip was taken March-April 2009. Flight with Virgin Atlantic about £599.