So the “Friendly” limousine coach has deposited us at Haneda and through security now with coffee in hand and suica cards spent up, its time to post my final thoughts. Japan is a hugely popular tourist destination, not just for us Brits, especially those from Leeds it would seem, but also Australia, USA, Europe and […]
Japan – Autumn 2025
“It feels like home” he said . . .
. . . as we stepped off the train at Shinjuku defying the throngs of people surrounding us as we expertly made our way to the correct exit and to the correct floor in our hotel for checking in, in record time. Having done the “historic cultural side” of Tokyo first time, these last few […]
The Japanese Alps
From town to mountain was a three and a half hour journey on two trains. With only 15 minutes inbetween the two at Nagoya we loaded up with snacks at Shin-Osaka before leaving. No melon bread this time – it’s got a great light and fluffy texture, but doesn’t taste of melon and is sickly […]
Night and day . . .
Two weeks down and in to our final week, and how it has flown by. However in this final week we have four of our eight stops so you will be relieved to hear that the posts will be brief with few photos 😂. First is Osaka, Japan’s third largest city and it recently held […]
Tradition!
Kyoto, Japan’s original Imperial capital, is our longest stay in one place and it is a welcome break from the packing/unpacking. As with Tokyo the first day we set off with our guide who in a previous life was a financial reporter with Bloomberg. She was superb and our first stop was the Nijo-jo Castle. […]
“All we are saying is give peace a chance”
One completely stress free 30 minute taxi ride later we arrived at Odawara station, safe and dry because now that we were leaving, the rain had stopped. Our journey to Hiroshima was 464 miles and took just over 3hrs 35mins by bullet train. So off we went to buy our snacks at one of the […]
Parshat Noach
Large suitcases dispatched the evening before to our third stop Hiroshima, we packed light with hand luggage only and set off for the Shinkansen. For a mere 33 minutes we sped past beautiful traditional coloured wooden houses in the hills, mountain ranges and the countryside. Arriving in Odawara we needed to get a Hakone pass […]
Movement of the people . . .
Much has changed since we last flew from Heathrow terminal 5 two years ago and all for the better as we sailed through. With QR code on phone it was a similar experience when we landed at Haneda, unlike many who were stuck literally completing their paperwork at immigration and customs. Yet again, faced with […]
From a land where the sun rarely set to the land of the rising sun . . .
As three of our four major holidays in the last two years were to countries beginning with “I” we feel it is time to move on to the letter “J” as we finally head off to Japan. Japan is rather fashionable at the moment and hopefully we will reap the rewards of having friends that […]