Konichiwa! Hello!
Here we are in Japan! After delightful flight with good old Virgin Atlantic, in the rather comfortable Premium Economy Seats!
When arriving in a completely alien country, jet lagged, you have a million and one scary thoughts dash through your head, especially with a country like Japan, renowned for its vastly overpopulated cities, where train platforms are said to be awash with people! The trains are so easy to use, allot cleaner, all signs are in English and they even have department stores in each station!
When we first arrived we were , predictably, rather lost, wandering the streets of Asukusa in Tokyo, looking like a couple of peely wally, very British jet lagged tourists without a clue and getting hugely in everyone’s way with our massive rucksacks! Almost instantly, thank fully, we were approached by a lovely wee Japanese man who insisted on taking us right to the door of our hotel, despite the fact he was obviously on a day out with the wife! Japanese people are so so helpful!
The Japanese are incredibly petite, elegant, law abiding and well mannered, very refreshing! We visited the Ginza district in Tokyo, said to be Tokyo’s Fifth Avenue, Wow, vast, vast shops, I prefer to NY’s Fifth Avenue! Mega trendy! We did feel slightly undressed in our baggy tracky bottoms and ski jackets!
We visited the Tokyo Government building Sunday Night, where you get a 360 degree bird’s eye view of the city, its incredible, a sea of twinkling lights for miles! Next we visited the Shinjuku district known for its show of neon lights. Almost every building is engulfed in dazzling neon signs, we visited on a Sunday night, this really is the city that never sleeps, it was alive with crowds of Japanese, frequenting their karaoke bars, which we have yet the pleasure of experiencing!?!
The Japanese cuisine is a delight, large bowls of noodles with a stock soup, tempura vegetables and seaweed! Very popular and delicious, Mike particularly enjoys the slurping! It’s thought to be polite in Japan to slurp rather loudly, when eating noodles, shows sign of enjoyment, totally un English!! All meals are served with a tumbler of Japanese Green Tea, very good!
On Monday we left Tokyo and ventured to Nikko, north of Tokyo, into mountains where we are staying in a hostel run by zen monks!!
We left Tokyo on our first Shinkansen, bullet train, these are incredible, firstly they are double deckers, with masses of space inside, secondly they trundle along until clear of city stations, then they floor it!!! Holy moley, 170mph is pretty scary, but you soon get used to it, it’s such an easy way to get about!
We arrived in Nikko, greeted by mountains blanketed in autumnal colours and the thing you notice is the pure air up there, its trees and walls covered in moss and lichens.
We have yet to see any monkeys which Nikko is famed for, but we have seen some incredible birds of prey and song birds in all different colours.
It’s incredibly cold up here, Mike and I walked all day today, visiting Keogan Falls, north of Nikko, the Nikko Botanical Gardens and the Gammon-Ga-Fuchi-Abyss, a collection of jizo statues, small stone Buddhist statues of the protector of travellers and children!
Off to visit some shrines tomorrow! Then off to Okayama on the bullet train on Thursday!
