Photo Diary
TRIP TO ENGLAND AND NETHERLANDS 2024

Introduction to the diary
In September last year, I visited Aomori Prefecture at the north end of Honshu (Main land Japan) and Hokkaido, as the pandemic of Covid-19 had faded away. Whilst the purpose of visiting Aomori was to see the Rice Field Art in which famous pictures were enlarged and imitated in paddy filed planting seedlings of different-colour rice plants (See the [Essays etc] of this homepage), a target in Hokkaido was the Otaru Art Base (lit. Art Village) where obsolete old warehouses and bank buildings were bought up by Mr. Akio Nitori, a successful furniture manufacturer, to accommodate and show his large collections for public. Amongst about seventy pieces of stained glass panels and windows, which were saved from local churches in England abandoned in the late twentieth century with the decrease of parishioners, displayed mainly in The Stained Glass Museum, Otaru, were most attractive (See the [Xmas-card], Xmas 2023 of this homepage). Then, my wish to see more stained glass in Europe, e.g., in Canterbury Cathedral, Ely Cathedral, etc. grew. In fact, Canterbury was a place where I had planned to visit many time in the past but in vain. In Netherlands, I had only saw The Old and New Cathedrals in Amsterdam and the 's-Hertogenbosch Cathedral from distance.
    During planning, I thought to revisit some historical places, such as the Uffington White Horse, one of the Hill Arts in the South-Middle England, and the Stone circle, where I had driven to more than fifty year ago when I was a postdoc at Essex University, after the afternoon session of a conference at the Royal Military College, Shrivenham, but it was already dark to see around.
    To meet my old friends again was also my desire. I contacted with them with and finally fixed my itinerary as below. The choice of Cathey Pacific flights was because the airline’s fare was much less expensive than those of JAL, BA and KLM, although I had to change the aircraft at Hong Kong and took more time.
    The travelling of three weeks with heavy luggage was a risky adventure, rather than a jolly trip, for an old man of 86 years of age. In future, I would plan to set up a base in London to deposit suitcase and move around with a small carry bag. It was better in Netherlands as my friend had arranged a hotel in Eindhoven to go around everywhere from there.