For our last six nights in Japan we hired a car and toured the westernmost island, Kyushu. We picked up the car in Fukuoka, because we are flying from there to China. Our first stop was a converted sake warehouse in Beppu, then we treated ourselves to a stay at a ryokan, Kurokawa Onsen, which was an amazing experience. From there we toured the volvanic landscapes around Takachiho Gorge and Mount Aso before moving on to the pottery villages…
Hiroshima is a living monument to the devastating effects of the atomic bomb and the reconstructed city serves in its entirety as an eloquent testimony to the power of life over destruction. Visiting the Peace Memorial Park and Museum was a sobering experience and prompted Steve to learn more about the events that brought the Second World War to an end.
Modern Hiroshima is a vibrant and captivating city with great food and lovely scenery, not least the picturesque Miyajima Island where we proved it really is a small world!
We decided to extend our stay in Kyoto rather than lugging our bags on the 20 minute train ride to Osaka and instead travelled light to visit Nara and Universal Studios as day trips.
Nara is famous for 2 things – the free-roaming bowing deer and the magnificent temples, while Universal Studios let us check our cardiovascular health – by surviving the extreme Flying Dragon rollercoaster without a heart attack!
After a scenic debt-inducing ride from Kawaguchiko to Tokyo, our intrepid travelers stumbled into the efficient wonderland of Japan’s Shinkansen. For £150, they zoomed to Kyoto, engaging in extensive train snack evaluations and pondering the delicate etiquette of train beers. In Kyoto, they reveled in free luxurious hotel upgrades while contemplating their hair (neither being a hair model). The cultural exploits involved dodging tourists, sampling divine food—including deep-fried Wagyu—and discovering the joys of overflowing sake. Amidst temples and bamboo…
On any given day there is only a 20% chance of seeing Mount Fuji emerging from the clouds. We were very lucky and saw her on all three days of our visit to the Fuji Five Lakes area and got some wonderful views, from flower covered lakesides, the tops of mountains and Shinto shrines.
Steve visited Tokyo over 20 years ago, for a long weekend en-route to Australia on business, and found it to be the most difficult place he’d ever travelled to. We had our fingers crossed that the intervening years had made things easier for Western tourists who didn’t speak or understand a word of Japanese. We had a stay of 4 nights and 3 full days booked but no firm plans other than Sumo on day 3 – let’s just…