I wonder where they are now....?

A different trip again this time, And we wanted to travel light, so no taking of laptops or tablets, so this blog is being written when we have already returned home, and so is more of a record of what we did, and what we saw. Luckily, I did take notes as we went along, as my memory is not great! We started our adventure on 7th May 2017 in Windhoek, the capitol of Namibia. We were a little jaded on day one - on the plus side Namibia is in the same time zone as London, so no jet lag, but on the minus side we got there via a 12 hour flight to Johannesburg, a 2 hour transit, then a 2 hour flight to Windhoek - all of which went smoothly, but meant we were pretty tired on arrival! Audley (or rather their agents in Africa, ATI) had arranged for 2 people to aid our transit at Johannesburg, which seemed a bit of overkill, as Johannesburg airport is modern, and transits are well signposted, though they did manage to get us through passport control quicker than quicker than we would have do...

Overall, our Japan adventure was great. We had fantastic weather for the entire two weeks, got to see a fair bit of the country, albeit the tourist areas (but then they are tourist areas for a reason – there is stuff to see there!) and left most places with a feeling that we could have filled a bit more time there, so never got bored anywhere. Despite travelling around quite a bit, the efficiency of the transport system, the honesty of the taxi drivers, and the good organisation of Audley Travel meant we were never stressed out. Train journeys were really easy and comfortable, the ability to forward our luggage enabled us to enjoy journeys rather than struggle through them, and to stop off en route on occasion too. Japan wasn’t the culture shock that some things we had read led us to believe it would be, but then we are fairly well travelled, so used to different language, culture, alphabets, food etc. We also both know, and love, London , which meant even the busy parts of...

Our last full day was spent travelling to Osaka on more local and shinkansen trains. I am still tight enough to want to study the map to find how far the hotel is from the station and decide to walk rather than just jump in a taxi, even when we know to trust the taxi drivers here. But the walk was nice, and as we had forwarded our large luggage from Tokyo to here, we weren’t carrying much. Another upmarket hotel (ANA Crowne Plaza) but as we were only spending one night there, and unfortunately needed to leave before 6am the following morning to catch our flights home, we weren’t even able to experience the breakfast. As soon as we had checked in we headed out for a walk in the general direction of Osaka castle. A pleasant wander around Osaka , which seemed very quiet, but then it was lunchtime on a Friday and we seemed to be in a bit of a business district. Osaka has a number of rivers flowing through and around it, and the particular river we needed to cross had a little...

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...