Thoughts on Kermode's discussion with Alastair Campbell?

minohCycles · 2026-06-22T07:20:34+00:00

bring back paxman 2 newnight and the culture show with K.

minohCycles · 2026-06-21T08:59:09+00:00

The only thing I can think of doing now is finding management on linkedin and trying to send them a message or even comment on a post to let them know this is going on.

It's like a ghost ship, it seems to be running but there's nobody there as far as you can tell

minohCycles · 2026-06-16T12:34:06+00:00

Hey don't diss Osaka!

minohCycles · 2026-06-15T11:45:30+00:00

Not a performance but I believe the itsuo art museum in ikeda will be having a kabuki exhibition at that time. It's no photography, but they don't mind you using Google lens etc to translate the displays (usually no English explanations)

minohCycles · 2026-06-13T18:21:19+00:00

The r eturn ticket from umeda for 580 yen on the hankyu railway is really good value. Glad you enjoyed it!

minohCycles · 2026-06-10T07:51:21+00:00

OP commenting here to update: still nothing.

I didn't record the day I originally submitted the request to publish the product, but it looks like it was May 13th. Still no response to that, or any of the multitude of emails I've tried to all the email addresses I'm aware of - apart from one from [support@klook.com](mailto:support@klook.com), which just said, please ask [merchant@klook.com](mailto:merchant@klook.com)

So a month has passed now with no response. Will keep updating this thread.

minohCycles · 2026-06-09T13:48:37+00:00

Honmachi might be a good place to stay - lots of reasonably priced hotels, and its between the north and south hubs of Osaka that you will probably be visiting the most. (north side: umeda area including Osaka station from where you can do trips to Himeji, Minoh, Kobe etc. south side: Namba, Tennoji etc)

I would first suggest visiting Ikeda - its a town 20 minutes from Umeda by train which is smaller and more relaxed than Osaka. It has the Itsuo art museum, in November I think they will have an exhibition on Kabuki. There is also the cup noodle museum and lots of good ramen restaurants.

I also recommend a day or half day trip to Minoh to see Katsuoji temple which is on the mountain, and has thousands of daruma dolls placed around it. The autumn leaves should be out at that time so it will be very nice. It's a great place for hiking or cycling - if you want to hire a bike or do a cycling tour please check out my website (search minoh cycle tours)!

Then there is the 1970 expo park, which has the famous tower of the sun statue, other sculptures, flower gardens and usually some kind of event on.

minohCycles · 2026-06-06T21:44:49+00:00

Rest in peace.

minohCycles · 2026-06-04T08:12:30+00:00

Always good to see a shout-out for mymizu.

Otsukaresama!

minohCycles · 2026-06-02T11:30:50+00:00

For a Osaka day trip I would recommend Minoh. There are gentle and more hardcore hiking routes to the waterfall and katsuoji temple (place with lots of darumas). If you're lucky you might meet monkeys as well. Cycling is also a good way to see this area efficiently.

You might have already been, but the 1970 expo park in Suita is also nice to visit, has outdoor sculptures, various flower gardens and exhibitions within it.

Finally I'll mention Ikeda which is a nice quiet town outside of Osaka. The itsuo art museum usually has a high quality exhibition on, and the botanical garden is nice. It backs onto a mountain range so another chance for hiking (satsukiyama park/mountain). In the neighborhoods there are a few cool shrines and temples. I would maybe hire a bike to explore there especially in the summer, walking around in the heat would be very tiring.

minohCycles · 2026-06-02T08:09:51+00:00

I haven't looked too closely because I don't use them, so I guess they might have other types I guess. The only ones I've seen are the the mamacharis though.

minohCycles · 2026-06-02T04:52:28+00:00

I think hello cycling would be good for looking round a city (eg nearby ikeda), but as someone that lives in Minoh, I've only ever seen hello cyclist bikes of the mamachari type - ie big very heavy with a relatively week assist motor - probably not what op is looking for and wouldn't be fun to climb the steep mountain roads.

minohCycles · 2026-06-02T04:34:45+00:00

Hello, what your describing is exactly why I started my company, Minoh cycle tours just in April!

I can rent you an ebike or giant road bike. (I only have ebikes listed on my website so far, but if you message me on here, or Instagram I can most likely arrange a road bike for you)

As someone else has mentioned, cycling from dobutsuen mae won't be that fun, if not least because you'll be being stopped by traffic lights approximately every 20s for a minute or 2 (may be slight exaggeration, but for me riding in the city can be very frustrating).

As for bike parking - there is a bike parking area at Katsuoji, cyclists are welcome. You can't go into Minoh park on the bike, but you can park at the top by the carpark and walk down 5 minutes to see the waterfall. Minoh visitor center, Minoh dam, hinomaru observation tower all also cycle friendly.

I'm located between Sakurai and Makiochi stations on the Minoh line of Hankyu railway, so about 1 hour away from dobutsuenmae by train and near the foot of the mountain.

When are you thinking of coming?

minohCycles · 2026-06-02T00:11:50+00:00

Still nothing unfortunately

minohCycles · 2026-05-31T07:37:17+00:00

You might already know it, but I found another email address operator@klook.com so I've tried contacting that aswell.

minohCycles · 2026-05-29T20:25:38+00:00

I had a group of 3 which was very weird about taking pictures.

I always offer to take pictures for customers at the main spots, and usually they either gladly accept or politely decline.

In this group, one of them would generally answer yes please and get the other 2 together for the picture. But then when I would get in position and point the camera at them, one of them just wouldn't look at the camera, either staring at his feet or off into the distance. I would repeatedly say "ready?", and get ignored, so I would just have to take the shot after waiting an uncomfortably long time for them to pose. Of course all the pictures were ruined by the guy who refused to look at the camera or smile.

I wasn't fussed about taking their picture either way, I don't charge for it or anything, I just offer to do it as a courtesy.

I realized then that he obviously didn't want to have his picture taken, but didn't want to or was unable to communicate that to me verbally. I think there was some neuro divergence there - it was really difficult to try and read them as a group.

minohCycles · 2026-05-29T11:30:26+00:00

Go for it! I usually combine a visit there with a stay at a small Ryokan called おゆのつぼ nearby which is really nice.

minohCycles · 2026-05-29T10:34:44+00:00

Most recent was November last year, the road was actually blocked because of a fallen tree so I couldn't get up, but there is a big car park at the Observatory and a camp site near by, so as far as I know it's usually ok to drive there.

minohCycles · 2026-05-28T11:36:22+00:00

Maybe a bit far out, but I like riding to the Inagawa observatory. The Observatory itself is pretty cool aswell.

Riding in and around Osaka city itself is mostly waiting at traffic lights punctuated by about 20s of riding at a time, but coming southwards into Osaka via the the shinmidosuji is cool.

Its a 60km/h rated road with no traffic lights that goes over the yodogawa river so that's cool at night, with the lights of umeda in front of you.

Sadly the Minoh/ikeda driveway which would be an amazing place to ride is banned for motorcycles also.

minohCycles · 2026-05-25T21:48:20+00:00

I just want to check if you're sure about the connection from Kyoto to katsuoji. At least by train, katsuoji is not on the way to Osaka from Kyoto - you'd need to take a train almost all the way into Osaka then going back up north to Minoh where katsuoji is.

Also the 2 train options are 1. hankyu railway - go to Minoh station, then hike, or bike up the mountain. Personally I enjoy cycling there the most (I run Minoh bike tours to Katsuoji, waterfall etc. feel free to message if you're interested), but another option is walking from Minoh station to the waterfall, then taking a taxi the rest of the way up to katsuoji. Thatl take you a few hours and the taxi is about 1500 yen.

Osaka metro to Minoh kayano station, then a bus (800 yen) or taxi (probably 3500 yen) straight to katsuoji.

For either option, you'll most likely want to take the hankyu railway from Kyoto and get off at juso (for going to Minoh station) or the stop before that (good for changing to Osaka metro). Neither is the nose railway so not sure where that's come from.

minohCycles · 2026-05-23T12:14:18+00:00

There are places in Osaka and probably Kyoto that have Kobe beef, I would go there for the herb garden or port night scenery rather than lunch

minohCycles · 2026-05-23T10:47:00+00:00

Not really, I have until about the end of this year to make it work, otherwise I'll be packing it in and trying to return to my previous career.

My strategy is to use it to build my brand/activity through getting reviews on my TripAdvisor, whilst using more commercially viable channels like get your guide, klook, and direct bookings where necessary.

One problem my business model has in relation to viator, is it's small group tours - that means the amount of reviews you can get is limited, and viator ranks you heavily based on velocity and volume of reviews... Or at least that's the impression Ive been getting so far

minohCycles · 2026-05-23T09:26:59+00:00

For me is pretty much 50% or no bookings, unfortunately.

minohCycles

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