Blogs from Inuyama, Aichi, Japan, Asia

Thanks to my time in Japan, I am perfectly ok with not bathing alone. It’s actually sorta lonely now. Onsen (温泉）is the name of the Japanese public baths and be for warned! They change the baths every once and a while so be sure you walk into the correct one. If you can’t read Kanji don’t fret my dears, they usually have it color coded and possibly in English as well. 女 - women's　男 - men's Also, sleeping on a futon is amazing!! It’s so cozy and fluffy and just enough cush but definitely bring your own pillow. Everyone looked at me funny and thought I was so weird walking through the airport and the city with pillow like a nut job dragging around a blanket or a body or something but no! Great. Idea. Makes ... read more

Some consolation this morning. After checking at the bus station our lost hotel key was succesfully located at another bus station. Within 45 minutes it was returned to us and we gratefully received a refund of our £100 fine. An example of the time being meticulously noted in Japan; the bus returning out key was running 2 minutes late and a note was left to inform me! After the key delay we set off for Inuyama in the sunshine. We ate the remains of our bargain dinner for lunch (I'd discovered reduced stickers at the supermarket) and discovered the two items we thought to be pork escalopes were potato! Inuyama had a worn feel to it. There were a number of closed shops and tired looking buildings. It had similar wooden building to Tsumago and Magome. ... read more

(Blogged on the the 10th of December but posted on the 11th of December - Dates have been adjusted.) Today we moved to another area – Inuyama Yuen. I have a problem with planning our route. For the second time in our trip in two days, I mis-read our itinerary and we got off at the wrong station to get to our hostel. In the end, it worked out for the best since we visited all the places we wanted to go and more, as we trudged from one place to another. But God, we really clocked the miles today and I was getting very frustrated with myself. P was very patient – I don’t know how she managed it. We walked over 5 hours as we crised-crossed the neighbourhoods of Inuyama with P heaving all ... read more