I wonder where they are now....?

Next stop Hakone, which is often ‘done’ as a day trip from Tokyo, as it is only an hour out on the train. A clear contrast from the busy city, Hakone is a region in the hills, consisting of relatively small, relatively quiet towns which comprise mainly of hotels and guesthouses for the Japanese city dwellers to come to escape the crowds of businessmen and women, and replace the with crowds of tourists. We came midweek though, which meant a quieter time. You are supposed to be able to have lovely views of Mount Fuji from some areas around Hakone.  We didn’t.  Despite great weather in the first day (a bit overcast on our second day), we still couldn’t see the volcano. Luckily we had caught a few glimpses of it on the bullet train out of Tokyo, so we can tick that one off our list! There’s a well-defined ‘tour’ around Hakone, consisting of a slow and scenic rail journey up into the hills, followed by a funicular train straight up one of the mountains, then, in theory, a rope...

I was glad to have got up to date with all our travels and impressions of Japan in this blog before reaching Tokyo. Because Tokyo is quite different. Possibly no more so than London is from the suburbs, but many of the things we have noted in Japan seem a little more muted in Tokyo. The place is still clean, but there is litter around (not much!). People are still very polite, but a little less so than in the quieter towns and cities. It is a very busy place (twice the population of London), and in some areas this is very noticeable. In others though, it seems much quieter, maybe because the main roads around the city are much wider and the cars seem a lot less noisy (lots of hybrids around) than in London. All of this pales into insignificance when our hotel comes into view. Because it has Godzilla looming over the balcony from the 8th floor to the street below. I think our hotel (Hotel Gracery in Shinjuku) must be fairly new, as it does not appear on any maps, and there is no me...

We stopped off on our way to Tokyo at a town called Matsumoto. In case we were in any doubt as to where we were, a nice, young, female voice pretty much sang ‘Matsumotooo-oo’ as we arrived at the station. There are, as always, a few temples and Shrines around Matsumoto, but the main draw, and the primary reason we stopped off for a few hours, is the ‘castle’, or rather the castle keep, that is still standing and you can wander round inside. After a foray around a small, local market on the way for the castle, where I managed to find some nice wood that I could use for my woodworking projects, from an American guy who had set up shop here, we made our way to the castle. It was very photogenic, especially in the midday sun, as evidenced by all the Japanese taking photos of it. And me. The large carp in the large ‘moat’ looked impressive and while the castle architecture looked pretty much like a pagoda to me, there was a large queue of (mai...

It is very well known that Japan is a very formal place, with lots of rules of etiquette. We were not surprised to find this was true, but perhaps a little surprised to find how much we liked it! People don’t seem to mind if we get things wrong – in fact they probably expect it – but they seem to very much appreciate it when we try to get things right, and when we try to speak even a little Japanese. We expected the bowing and the formal hellos, but here are some of the niceties that we weren’t expecting... On trains, the conductors walk down the trains to check tickets and make announcements. However, when they enter a carriage they stop and bow. When they leave a carriage they stop, turn and bow again. They bow before making an announcement, and after. We have no idea what the announcements are, but we appreciate the formality in which they are given! In shops, you are always greeted when you enter. And when you leave. And when you approach the cashier. And w...

Our hotel in Hiroshima (ANA Crowne Plaza) is a bit posh. I felt out of place. The room, however, was pretty small and cramped, but the buffet breakfast made up for that, and then some! I took full advantage of the eat as much as you like (my translation: eat as much as you can) on both days that we were here. We spent the afternoon and evening in the nearby Peace Park. It didn't seem all that peaceful, as it was a fairly small park bordered on all sides by busy roads, and was full of local schoolchildren on their school trips. However, they try their best and the whole city is promoted as a peace icon, with an obvious anti-nuclear weapons bent. Given the complete and total destruction of the city on 8th August, 1945, it has been rebuilt and reinhabited very quickly. It is obviously a modern city, and feels a lot bigger than Kyoto, at least in part because Kyoto buildings are not allowed to be too tall, whereas Hiroshima had many high buildings and modern shopping and business ...

Day 2 was a trip in the morning to the local Women's Institute where we were taken though a traditional Japanese tea ceremony, with another two western couples. This was very interesting, with a detailed explanation from a knowledgeable member of the WI who spoke very good English. We had a chance to drink the tea made in the traditional manner, and also to attempt to make the tea ourselves - not too difficult as it consisted of tea powder and water, whisked up a bit. The hard part was to remember the various ritual things to say, and whether to pick up the cup with your left hand, right hand, both hands etc, etc. The tea was bitter and not all that nice. The ceremony interesting but not something we'll be adopting for our morning coffee. After the tea ceremony we wandered to the station to catch a train to Nara, a nearby park with temples and deer. The trains were clean and efficient, the temples were.... well, temples, and the deer were very tame and friendly. Too friendly w...

The afternoon of our first day was spent on a personal tour, organised by Audley Travel, with a local guide. So just the two of us and Ms Yamashita, who met us at our hotel and took us by taxi to one of the nearby temples, and we walked back, visiting other temples and famous districts along the way. Our guide spoke very good English, and was very knowledgeable about the places we visited. The first temple was Kiyomizu temple, reached by walking up a gentle slope of cobbled streets lined with shops selling tourist tat, or various sweets and local foods - it was useful having a guide to explain what the foodstuffs were. A local speciality was apparently these little rice pastries filled with various sweet things, like red bean paste or chocolate (which actually tasted more like chocolate-flavoured red bean paste!) which tasted OK (they had some free samples) but a bit like raw, sweet pastry. The streets were very busy. It was good to see, though, that many of the visitors seem...

Our hotel in Kyoto was really nice (Vista Premier Kyoto), though arriving at midnight we just collapsed in our bed without really taking any of it in. We even skipped the included breakfast the following morning - something unheard of for me, so we must have been tired - and slept in until 10. We were glad that our first organised trip (we only had two pre-planned Audley trips booked - it's not usually our thing) was for the afternoon rather than the morning. We spent the remainder of the morning and the early afternoon exploring our local area and getting our bearings. The hotel room was nice - a bit basic but much classier than we are used to on our holidays! Spotless and tidy, with a toilet that was our first experience of Japanese complexity - heated seat, shower and bidet (not sure of the difference) and a remote control. I was impressed, Emma less so. Kyoto seemed pretty quiet for a large city (1.6M people, apparently), but then it was late morning on a Monday. Our ...

I thought I’d resurrect our travel blog for our next adventure to Japan. It’s been nearly 5 years since our last foreign holiday, if we exclude a long weekend in Athens last year, and Japan seems to be a place worth immortalising in our blog. Our holiday started on 17th Oct 2015 (arriving in Japan on 18th), and lasted two weeks, returning on 31st Oct 2015. I was not looking forward to another long haul flight. And the Air China website's inability to check us in online for an unknown reason didn't help matters. But the check in process at Heathrow was pretty simple, despite the electronic terminal also refusing to check us in, as a nice Air China representative checked us in and saw that we were both tall, so kindly gave us emergency exit seats with lots of legroom on the first (10 hour) flight. This made the flight bearable, albeit neither of us got very much sleep. My tablet did me proud though, playing through two films and a good hour's game playing and only u...