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Thursday, March 5, 2026

Stove and Oven

The house came with an old free standing gas oven and stove.  The gas burners on the stove are in need of replacement and the oven is not fan forced and takes almost twice as long to cook as my previous oven and at the same time it seems to burn on top. 

It's not a great location as it's near the door and wind blows the gas burners around.  

Firstly I'd like a electric fan forced oven. 

Stovewise, I'd prefer gas but either need to shield from wind from the door or consider electric. Possibly induction. 

LOCATION
The location of the stove in the kitchen is not ideal but as we have not yet decided if we are keeping or demolishing, I don't want to change an otherwise perfectly good kitchen. 
Decision #1 : location as is.

SIZE
WIDTH 660 Can push to 710

OVEN
Decision #2: Electric. Fan forced.

KOGAN OVEN
Kogan appear to have a cheep fan forced oven. I think the only difference to the next most expensive one is it doesn't have a digital clock / timer and in good with that as past experience is these electronics are somewhat unreliable. 
Oven $329 (members $299)
Delivery to 4104 $52
Total $381

COOKTOP 
Gas cooktops seem to be aprox 100mm thick



CABINET
The rest of the kitchen is Bunning>Kaboodle.

Need cabinet + Top

NARROW CABINET
Width 120mm

FREESTANDING?
What about free standing?
Appliances on line- cheapest is about $1800

Tuesday, March 3, 2026

Team Labs

Early this morning we bought tickets.  $120 so we could turn up at any time. BTW a time slot ticket was way cheaper.  Of course when we got there, there was no queue.











At the baggage place. Which was also Karaoke bar.  Thought we should practice. 





Tue3-3 Leaving Myoko Kogan

6:00am rise& Shine 
Packing
7:00 Breakfast 
8:30 mini bus to the station
Train to Nagano
Shenkenzen Nagano to Tokyo.
Train to a Hamamatsucho Station
Henry located a baggage storage.
Walked to Team Labs
Team Labs.
Coffee / hot chocolate 
Taxi back to baggage store.
Walked to Hamamatsucho Station.
Monorail to Haneda.
Bag drop, security,  immigration. 
Phoebe and Henry into the lounge. 


MOTEL ROOM

Some time in past I had somehow gotten the idea that Japan did not look disabled people but this trip has shown me that Japan does seem to do things for disabled people.   I have observed Those bumpy strip's on the floor and disabled parking spots.








Sunday, March 1, 2026

Sun 1 Mar

MORNING
Phoebe and I skied together and Henry went off on search of faster runs. 







HAPPY HOUR
AFTERNOON 
I skied with Henry and Phoebe went on her own. 




DINNER
After dinner we had crepes from a hole in the wall.  It's very popular. 



Saturday, February 28, 2026

Sat28 evening

After returning from the monkeys.

Shower and the ritual of washing snot rags. 
Onsen - the first at this hotel.  Whereas the Hakuba hotel had a sanitised Onsen the Myoko Kogan hotel had one fed artesian hot water. The Hakuba one smelt strongly of Chlorine and the Myoko one reeks of sulphur and has lots of little floaties. 

Sat in the lounge / common room with H & P. Cocktails.



SAT28 Snow Monkies

SAT28 Snow Monkies
I'm still only running at half power. I have a cold. Saps energy. Nose producing gunk.

[Not so] Fun fact: you can't buy panadol at the local shop or Japanese 711.

The weather is very foggy and as discussion turned to considering other activities, I was quite OK with forgoing skiing.

At breakfast Phoebe asked the hotel owner about buses to the Snow Monkies. The lady advised a bus at 10 from the bus stop near the information place. 

Phoebe and I did a reconnoiter and established:
1 bus per day. 
Departs 10:02 
¥50000 AU$50 pp return. 
Return leaves at 2pm
Back at M Kogan 3:15pm
Monkey Park entry $8.

So we decided to visit the monkeys. That was something Phoebe had really wanted to do. Box ticked. 

Quite a long walk. 6km return. 

Nice forest with Japanese Cedar trees on the down hill side and for some of the way Oak trees on the upper side. 

MONKEY FACTS:
Males leave the tribe in search of females in a different tribe. 
The males in the potential new tribe attempt to dissuade them but some females do mate and then it seems that the males can stay in the new tribe. 
Mothers and children stay together. 
THREATS AND PREDATORS 
Loss of forest. 

Hepatitis B virus.
Rabies


WALK DOWN
roadside shop - I bought chips and an apple pie and Phoebe bought chicken nuggets and apple pie.

Bought a fresh apple. Gee that was nice. The freshness of it. 

BUS HOME
Popped a Codral. 
Leaned the seat back.
Bit of a doze. 


Tourists looking at the monkeys in the hot tub.  Web cam on the left.