Japan: On the Kimono Rental Trail

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Packed into our tiny car, we set off from Hakuba to start our three week journey around Central and Southern Honshu. Slowly losing elevation as we drove through the valley with beautiful blue skies and sunshine above, the melting snow began to give way, first to brown and then green rice paddies. The sight of spring proper was a welcome sight - our eyes had grown accustomed to the gloomy white and greyish blues of a Japanese Alps winter - and as the colours brightened it breathed life into the next chapter of our trip. Back on the road again with the sun shining, it felt good.

Our first stop was a traditional Japanese ryokan, deep in the Hida mountains on our way to Takayama. Our drive took us through a mountain pass, following the icy blue river that cut through the steep sided mountains. The snow had all but disappeared until we were spat out of one of the seemingly never-ending tunnels that thread through the mountainsides, when suddenly, to our surprise, we were surrounded by frozen white trees once again. We arrived at our ryokan in Okuhida Onsen, hemmed in by snow covered mountains. We had splashed out for the ryokan - it is a must-do experience whilst in Japan, and we wanted to do it properly. We had chosen well. Known for their impeccable service and attention to detail, this ryokan was already living up to expectations. Greeted by staff wearing gorgeous kimonos, our shoes were taken and put away for us and we were led to our room. Overlooking the mountains, we had our own private mountain hot water onsen within the room, and much to Amy's delight - a massage chair (which she barely left our entire stay... Being a non-standard size in Japan, it massaged me in all the wrong areas and left me battered and blue - beaten up by a robot). We reserved the outdoor private onsen, and relaxed in the hot water, gazing at the white mountains with a light snow falling around us. There were many onsens at this ryokan, and the main indoor one was the best we had been to in Japan. A more traditional wooden onsen, with a beautiful deep woody fragrance, it had every type and temperature bath you could imagine. It was whilst in here I found myself shaking hands with and talking to an old naked Japanese man - another one of those wonderful moments of travel when you wonder how you have come to be in such a situation.

We wandered round the ryokan in our yukata, feeling slightly ridiculous, and drawing attention from any young Japanese kids, who would double take or peep round the corners of the corridors to get a second look at the foreigners clad in Japanese traditional dress. We wore these to our kaiseki meal in the evening, a ten course meal of the most delicately presented, locally sourced specialities. Marbled Hida beef, sweet miso cooked on leaf of magnolia, and sushi of course. Japanese haute cuisine. Breakfast the following morning was another traditional affair, with fifteen or so small plates of unidentified Japanese delicacies - not exactly what you want for breakfast, but a good experience nonetheless.

Fully relaxed, we reluctantly checked out and continued our journey on to Takayama. The narrow streets are lined with dark wooden merchants houses, now occupied by various sake breweries, snack and handicraft shops. There's plenty of Hida beef on offer too - we tried a deep fried Hida beef cutlet which was amazing. As the fat is marbled through the beef it just melts in your mouth. One evening here we stumbled across a more friendly pachinko parlor (refer back to a previous blog about these smoke filled hell holes) - however this was one which banned smoking and gave you a helping hand to understand how to play. Pretty soon Amy and I were completely absorbed - it's easy to see how these things are addictive, and scary to see how swiftly it can turn you into a zombie, staring at a screen feeding ball bearings into it with one hand while making minute changes of direction with the other hand, all under the bright flashing neon lights and ear splitting sound effects. Even though we struck the jackpot a couple of times we were soon out of balls and leaving empty handed. Fun to see what all the fuss was about though.

Our next stop was Kanazawa on the northern coast, but seeing as we had the car we decided to stop at a couple of traditional Gassho villages along the way. These UNESCO World Heritage Sites are full of old farmhouses with very steep thatched roofs, designed to withstand the heavy winter snow. The resulting attic spaces were used to cultivate silkworm. The first village, Shirakawa-go, is well and truly on the tourist trail with a huge car park and coach loads of tourists trotting round the village. However, the less accessible Ainokura, which lies deeper in the mountains, was far more serene. Walking around this small village felt like stepping back in time, the houses looking very pretty set against the snow mountains that surround them.

Kanazawa is kind of like a small version of Kyoto, but without the hordes of tourists. Having avoided being bombed in the war, it is a well preserved town full of old mercantile housing, temples and shrines. The Higashi chaya district (an area with exclusive restaurants and tearooms where geisha would perform) is another one of these beautiful areas of narrow roads and traditional wooden buildings. By day the shops are open and selling local specialities (gold leaf anything and everything - coffee, ice cream etc. - Kanazawa apparently produces 99 percent of Japan's gold leaf), but by night it is far more magical. With no one around, the dimly lit lanterns cast shadows on the wooden shutters, leaving you to walk around in peace trying to listen out for the faint sounds of flutes or dancing shadows on the shoji windows, indicating a possible geisha performance. Not that we heard or saw anything, but the thought of it was exciting. Being one of the wettest places in Japan, it was no surprise that we had a bit of rain whilst we were in Kanazawa. Caught out in a rain shower, we ducked into the Gyokusen Inmaru garden teahouse for shelter. We watched the rain falling in the gardens through floor to ceiling gallery windows, sitting cross-legged (painfully...) on the tatami mats. We were served our bowls of tea by an old woman clad in full traditional dress, her every move intentional and with politeness beyond even what you normally encounter in Japan. After every bow your eye is met with a deep gaze of respect - they know how to make you feel special. The Japanese really have mastered the art of meditation - typically most rooms in Japan are devoid of anything other than what is absolutely necessary, allowing you to focus entirely on whatever it is you’re supposed to be concentrating on. In this case, the tea and the garden. The gardens in Japan are exquisitely manicured and really quite beautiful. Sitting in this teahouse time seemed to slow down - even the raindrops seemed to gently float down from the eaves in suspended animation. Our first introduction to a Japanese tea ceremony.

We explored the old samurai area, again full of beautifully preserved old buildings, and continued on to Myoryuji ‘Ninja’ Temple. The temple has nothing to do with ninjas, but contains lots of tricks, traps, secret stairwells and trapdoors to defend against any would-be intruders. There was even a small room that had no handle on the inside, used by samurais for seppuku - a ritual suicide by disembowelment, i.e. falling on your sword. Most intriguingly was a well that was said to have a tunnel within it that went all the way to the castle a few kilometres away, but apparently no one has ever checked this. I mean isn’t that the first thing you’d check? A mystery that can definitely be solved quite easily? I think they don’t want to because if it doesn’t they’ll have to take it off their list of interesting things...The tour was conducted in long sentences of Japanese, with some useful one word English translations - a five minute description in Japanese, and then a pointed finger followed by ‘trapdoor’ in English...but we got the gist!

Kanazawa’s Kenrokuen garden revealed the beginning of the Japanese sakura (cherry blossom) season, with a few of the trees beginning to bloom. The Japanese go absolutely wild for sakura. By the end of March, absolutely everything is sakura themed. Amy even had a burger with sakura bacon! Don’t get me wrong, the cherry blossom is quite beautiful, but the extreme obsession here takes it to a new level. And so began our first exposure to the kimono rental experience. Girls dressed in kimonos with full hair and makeup done, taking photos holding the barely blossoming petals of the cherry trees - little did we know at this point that this wasn’t just the local girls out wearing their usual outfits, but I’ll come to that later…

The final stop for us in Kanazawa was the fantastic Omicho Market. A bustling market full of fresh fish and vegetables, huge tuna heads staring out of buckets, disgorged eyeballs sitting on ice, and any other part of a fish you can imagine. There was no shortage of good sushi places to eat. We squeezed into a tiny 4 seater restaurant and ordered a few buttered scallops and a bowl of sushi. Sushi chefs seem to be a little eccentric and these two were no exception, messing around and having fun whilst they sliced and diced. It was definitely some of the best sushi I’ve ever had. On our way back to the car we walked past another onsen - this one for helping with hemorrhoids. We carried on walking.

Next stop, Kyoto. We’d so far tried to avoid toll roads, but now we would be covering some long distances and had the choice of toll roads or extremely long journeys. The toll roads are absolutely extortionate (as in over £50 for a 3 hour journey), but sometimes the alternative is a 9 hour long trip. Often the non-toll roads were very beautiful, particularly through the mountains. Other times it felt like you never left a city, only travelling another few hundred metres through a depressing grey, tired and drab utilitarian town before hitting the next set of traffic lights, and repeat. So it was always a bit of a toss up between cost, time and scenery, and we didn’t always get it right! Coupled with the incredibly expensive parking rates, travelling with a car wasn’t necessarily shaping up to be much cheaper than using public transport…

So, Kyoto, a place I’ve always dreamed of going, another well-preserved city of traditional houses, temples and shrines. Kyoto turned out to be completely different to what I expected - far from being the small quaint city I was expecting, it is modern and sprawling with the main tourist spots spread out across the city. That’s not to say it’s any less beautiful, it just took me by surprise. For example, Kyoto Station is a fantastic modern building with a huge glass atrium and glazed footbridges which provide amazing views across the city. And Kyoto Tower stands tall amongst its surroundings, illuminated a rather obnoxious green at night time. But beneath all this lie countless numbers of shrines and temples, tucked between convenience stores and banks. We had three days in Kyoto, giving us enough time to visit the main attractions.

Our first stop was Ginkakuji Temple. We made a conscious effort to get there early to beat the inevitable crowds. It was worth the effort, as we turned up to an almost empty Zen garden, in which the beautiful temple perches on the edge of the pond, its reflection perfect in the still water. Workers were painstakingly raking the gravel, an essential part of a Zen rock garden, where the gravel is raked into water like ripple patterns or piled into perfect mounds. The moss covered grounds, ponds and bonsai trees were a peaceful oasis. We continued our walk along the Philosopher's Path - a cherry tree lined stream (unfortunately not quite yet in bloom), which leads past several notable temples. Honen-in temple was another tranquil stop, before arriving at the busier temples of Nanzen-ji, Chion-in, and finally arriving at Kiyomizu-dera. The last is probably the most impressive, as it stands supported on huge wooden stilts on the side of the cliff. It would've been slightly more impressive if it hadn't been under renovation and covered in a huge blue sheet though!

Feeling a bit templed out (once you've seen a few the novelty begins to wear off) we walked into Kyoto's chaya district, Gion. Cue our second exposure to the kimono rental phenomenon. Down every alleyway, against every wooden building, at every viewpoint, was a girl dressed in a rental kimono, with a boyfriend taking picture after picture (often also dressed in traditional clothes). At this point we found the whole thing funny, I mean I would say without exaggeration around 50% of tourists at these main tourist spots were dressed head to toe in traditional clothes with full hair and makeup done. Pretty soon I began to get a bit fed up with it though - at risk of sounding a bit snobbish, what I enjoy most about travel is experiencing the culture, the more authentic the better. The kimono rental phenomenon, in my opinion, is tourism at its worst. I can understand the appeal to some people, but it's really not my thing. Crowds I can just about deal with, but crowds of people dressing up in fancy dress only doing it for their Instagram account is about as inauthentic as it gets. I mean can you imagine every single tourist dressing up as Shakespeare in Stratford upon Avon? OK, old man rant over (for now…)

To get out of the madness we booked into a traditional Japanese tea ceremony. As no one else had booked the same time slot we luckily had our own private session. The tea master sat us down on the tatami mats in a small house in the Gion backstreets and explained the ceremony to us. Every movement is so deliberate and has meaning - the Japanese believe that there is a perfect way to do everything. For example, when drinking the tea you must turn the bowl around a few degrees before drinking, and then turn it back when you replace it. This is because things in Japan usually have a front face, designed to be the most beautiful and to be looked at from one particular point of view, and you wouldn't want a green stain down the most beautiful part of the bowl now would you? The tea is drunk in three and a half sips, with the final sip more of a short sharp slurp to express gratitude and indicate to the host that you have finished. To learn all of the intricacies to become a master of tea ceremony takes around 15 years, and a typical tea ceremony is about 4 hours long and you need to be formally invited. Ours was a somewhat shortened version (that you could book online instead of working your way into Japanese high society), but it was really interesting to learn all about it.

The next day we decided to take a day off the temples and explore some of the other things that Kyoto had to offer. I started the morning by eating an octopus on a stick with a quails egg stuffed into its head in Nishiki Market. I'm not sure whether this is a local delicacy or just for the tourists but I suspect the latter! A lot tastier than it looks though. On the subject of interesting food, Japan has its fair share of innovative culinary delights. Any kind of flavour of KitKat you can imagine, as obscure as you like (including sakura sake of course). Parfait shops absolutely everywhere (to my delight), but filled with some strange pairings - fried chicken parfait anyone? They also had one in there for 50,000 yen, that's equivalent to about £350! In my dreams. And one of the most interesting creations we had was a coffee with a cloud of candy floss suspended above it - the heat from the coffee below caused the candy floss cloud to melt and ‘rain’ sugar into the drink below. Genius, and also the sweetest coffee I've ever drunk!

We stopped to visit the samurai and ninja museum, where we were treated to the full dressing up experience (to Amy's horror), and a demonstration of some samurai moves along with learning how to throw the ninja stars and blow pipes. Fun, if a little gimmicky! We headed to the Fushimi Inari Shrine, a shrine and hill with thousands and thousands of red torii gates lined up along the mountain paths. It is quite a spectacle - when I say thousands it is hard to comprehend quite just how many of these are. Whoever got the painting contract for these must have made a lot of money (although probably lost their mind in the process). As usual the place was swarming with girls and guys in their kimonos, selfie sticks in hand, striking pose after pose, including some particular highlights such as a girl, kimono clad of course, posing with a toffee apple… Luckily the further up the mountain we went the more the crowds thinned (there's only so far you can walk in a pair of wooden flip flops…) which finally allowed us some peace and quiet and the ability to take a picture with no one else in it! Without the crowds the paths are really beautiful, and it's a wonderful hike up to the top, red gates the whole way up and down, no breaks. In the evening we walked down Pontcho Street, a narrow alleyway full of old teahouses and restaurants. Unmistakable in her kimono and painted white face, we were lucky enough to see a geisha scurrying past us to her next appointment. Finally something a bit more authentic!

For our final day in Kyoto we headed to probably its most famous sight, the Golden Temple - Kinkakuji. Completely plated in gold leaf it is a striking and spectacular building, and you can see why it is at the top of most people's list of things to do in Kyoto. Our final stop was the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest, which as usual was heaving with, you've guessed it, kimono clad tourists! And to be honest it was a bit underwhelming - the short walk through the bamboo was nice but there's plenty of other bamboo in the Japanese countryside you can walk through without the crowds.

I'm sure you're probably getting the picture that I found Kyoto a bit disappointing. The problem is it is so firmly on the tourist map, and these places just can't handle the numbers. These places are popular for a reason, they are truly beautiful places, but I just can't find the magic there when there are so many other people around. But I think all is not lost - there are many people who love Kyoto and I think this is because of the sheer number of amazing places here - there are plenty of small temples and shrines up in the mountains and hidden in corners of the city that the tour buses don't turn up to. On a first visit you have to tick off the main sights. But on a second and third visit I think you'd start to discover the true Kyoto - reason to come back again then.

The road trip continued to Osaka, but not before stopping at Nara on the way. The highlight here is Todaiji Temple which houses a giant golden Buddha. But the true stars of the show for many people are the packs of deer that are found all over the park, mostly concentrated around the deer biscuit sellers. Once you've bought some you're done for. Some kind of third instinct hits and the deer run from hundreds of metres away to swarm, pester, gently headbutt and wipe their snot on you until you're forced to give the biscuits out to appease the aggressors. It was a lot of fun, particularly when you aren't the one holding the object of their desires!

So Osaka. Our favourite city in Japan. What a place! Osaka people are so different to the more typical Japanese. Generally the Japanese are quiet and reserved, they dress conservatively, they obey the rules. Not in Osaka. Dressing to shock, dyed blond hair, crazy haircuts and happy to call you over for a chat, there is a tangible difference in personality here. As an example, we almost never saw anyone jaywalk in Japan (the obedience of which can be frustrating at times when there is no car in sight), but in Osaka no one cares. Cyclists blast the wrong way down roads, pedestrians ignore red lights - compared to the rest of Japan it's chaos, but so much more interesting for it. In my view Osaka has the perfect level of politeness and respect mixed with liveliness.

We linked up with some friends who happened to be in Osaka at the same time and went out for a few drinks. Osaka, like Tokyo, has the crazy streets full of neon lights, throngs of people, and noise to match. If you've ever been to Japan, you'll remember that most restaurants will display their various menu items in the window with plastic food (they get the precise dish made to order as plastic replicas). Osaka is no exception, and has in fact taken it to an extreme. Giant moving crabs cling to the walls above storefronts and octopii waving tentacles whilst firing strobes of light and singing repetitive catchy tunes try to lure you in. A walk down the crazy Dotombori Street is one you're unlikely to forget in a hurry. We hopped round a few bars, chatting with the friendly locals, and ending up in a bar owned by an interesting Japanese guy with a handlebar moustache, dyed long blonde hair, wearing a pink snakeskin cowboy suit with the shirt half undone. That's so Osaka.

We were lucky enough to be in Osaka at the same time as a Grand Sumo Tournament, and on my birthday as well. Around 200 tickets are released each day for that day’s wrestling (tickets sell out online fast and are more expensive), and being a weekend we had to get there early to ensure seats. We dragged ourselves out of bed at 5am in order to get our place in the queue for the release at 8am. And it was a good job we did, we were still 95th in line at 5.30 in the morning! By 6 the queue wound its way round the blocks and out of sight. Whilst we were queuing the sumo wrestlers began to turn up, dressed in their yukatas, wooden sandals, and with slick topknots in place in the traditional sumo style. Apparently these guys eat an average of 20,000 calories a day, and it shows - they are absolutely huge! It's interesting to see how the stars of the show just walk in through the main door - crowds of people line up outside to see them arrive, but in the typical Japanese way they all wait in line and don't mob them. I can't imagine that happening to football players in England!

The sumo starts early and goes on all day. We watched a couple of the early bouts and reserved some seats and then went home for a nap. All you need to do here is just leave something on the seat and no one will take it whilst you're gone, even if you go for hours. The sumo is so theatrical. With its roots in Shintoism there is plenty of ritual. And as the bouts go on and start getting up to the more prestigious wrestlers, the rituals get longer and more intense. The wrestlers names are sung by an announcer as they make their way to the ring. Salt is thrown high into the ring by each wrestler to purify it, sometimes to roars of appreciation from the crowd. They face off, lifting their legs up high above their heads in an amazing feat of flexibility for men of their size, then stand up and go back to their corners in acts of intimidation. More salt is thrown and it's repeated, sometimes several times. Apparently this used to go on for hours, but has now been limited to a maximum of 4 minutes (thank god). Eventually the two mountains collide, and all manner of grappling, grasping, pushing and shoving occurs until either one falls to the floor or sets foot outside the sacred ring. Sometimes they are thrown so violently they land on top of the judges or people in the front row - the price you have to pay for a good view apparently. Far too close for my liking, we were quite happy out of harm's way in the cheap seats! Sometimes the bouts last seconds, other times they are locked in each others grip for a few minutes with the crowd going wild, until a quick manœuvre sends one of them flying. I particularly loved the referees - dressed in traditional Imperial clothes they hop skip and jump around the ring, trying to avoid being flattened, all the while chanting nokotta nokotta nokotta to encourage the wrestlers to keep going. The highlight of this day was the yokozuna Hakuho fight Tochiozan. A yokozuna is a wrestler that is at the top of the game - they have to win two consecutive tournaments whilst in the rank below in order to be promoted to one, and there's only been 72 yokozuna since it was created in the 1700’s. Yokozuna can never be demoted and are expected to retire if they aren't up to scratch anymore. Hakuho is considered one of the best yokozuna of all time. The bout was phenomenal - in a surprise twist the yokozuna was sidestepped and almost thrown out, but in a manœuvre demonstrating why he's the best of the best he grabbed his opponent and spun him out of the ring, to an eruption from the crowd. It was a great day and we felt so lucky to have had chance to go and see this in real life.

For our final night in Osaka we headed to the Shinsekai District. As the cheapest area of Osaka to live it has always had a reputation as being a bit rough and ready. Supposedly modelled partly on New York’s Coney Island and partly on Paris (dubious at best), it is an explosion of bright lights and noise. Every store front is designed to get your attention - an explosion of bright lights, decorations, lanterns, loud noises, and of course plastic food. I guess you could say the same about a lot of areas within big Japanese cities, but this had a certain intensity about it. One restaurant did its job well and almost literally reeled us in. The outside was shaped like a huge ship, and intrigued we popped our heads in for a look. Inside was another huge ship, sitting inside a huge water tank with lots of different types of fish swimming inside. People were sitting on deck eating their meals, with fishing rods propped up to the side. Hungry? Pop some bait on the hook and sling it over the side and catch yourself some dinner. The staff would take your haul off to be cooked in whichever way you wished. We couldn't resist and found ourselves a table. However the fishing part proved harder than it looked! After about 20 minutes neither of us had caught anything - I think this proves that fish have a longer memory than three seconds, they are definitely wise to it! Finally Amy caught something and we decided enough was enough and we'd just have a smaller dinner, one fish was plenty! Definitely an interesting experience and another one of those ‘only in Japan’ moments.

Whilst in Osaka we decided to try and sort out our Chinese visas. Due to a number of problems, the visa application centre wouldn't take our application. I needed my old passport as my new one had been issued too recently (2016?!), not to mention all the countries I've been to using that passport that aren't popular with the Chinese immigration officers, and we would need to book all of our hotels and flights in and out in advance in order to apply before we knew where and when we were actually going! By a seriously fortunate stroke of luck we bumped into a travel agent who happened to be there at the same time as us, who for a very small fee organised everything. No worries about the passport, and he booked a load of ‘fake’ hotel reservations and flights for us. We would be able to pick up the passports in a few days time in Tokyo - perfect!

We continued on a long drive to the Iya Valley on Shikoku Island. It was a pretty drab drive through those utilitarian towns I've mentioned before, until about an hour before we arrived at our destination, when the scenery began to slowly get more green and mountainous. The roads narrowed and the cliffs closed in, with an icy turquoise river flowing far below the road. This was the Japanese countryside we had come for.

Our hostel was perched above the river in a tranquil spot, our floor to ceiling shoji windows affording a great view, and only the sound of the flowing water puncturing the silence. A complete change from the intensity of Osaka! The next morning we set off to visit the Kazurabashi vine bridge, taking Route 32, an incredibly narrow road that desperately clings to the crumbling rockface in a deep forested valley. The road occasionally tunnels through the thick forest, under precarious rock overhangs, and swings around hairpin bends that provide beautiful views of the green river below. It's a very fun road to drive along, trying to avoid the fallen rocks and make it round the bends, and we were glad we attempted it early in the morning with no other cars around! At one point there is a bronze statue of a small boy, standing on a ledge that cantilevers hundreds of feet above the river, trousers down and peeing. Apparently it is there as a tribute to the young local lads who used to work up the courage to go for a wee into the river below. I waited to find a toilet with less consequences - I'm getting too used to the heated seats…

Just beyond here was Iya Onsen - a ryokan with the most amazing onsen. A funicular railway (operated when you press the ‘down’ button inside) takes you down the steep cliff to a beautiful outdoor onsen right on the river. The views are stunning, and as a bonus we were the only ones there. The restaurant here was also fantastic - views up and down the valley and fancy nabe hotpot meals that come with a very powerful candle to cook the meat as you eat. Amy also managed to set her hair on fire here whilst smelling the hotpot!!

The vine bridge, a few kilometres further on, hangs between four huge trees either side of the river, with vines slung between them to form a suspension bridge. These days its reinforced by wires, but in the past only vines were used so that they could be cut to stop an enemy from following them. It is a pretty wobbly bridge, and the gaps between the planks are so big it wouldn't be that hard for a foot to slip through - Amy was quite desperately holding onto the edge as it swung and bounced!

The next stop on this whistlestop tour was Hiroshima. Another toll-free route led us up and over a mountain along a narrow, barely used road. The views across the countryside to the surrounding mountains were spectacular, and it was a lucky accident that we took this route. It was also quite amazing that our little car could even make it up some of these steep and winding roads! With some relief we managed to join back onto the main road and continued across the Shinimani Bridge road - a series of elegant suspension bridges that link the many islands between Shikoku and Honshu, with nice sea views to the surrounding islands.

Hiroshima is a well known name, due to it being on the receiving end of the first atomic bomb to be dropped in an act of warfare, by the US in 1945. Picked by the Americans due to their calculation that it's geography and topography would ensure maximum damage, it flattened the city and killed 80,000 people instantly, and claimed 140,000 more lives from the fallout. People up to several kilometres away had their clothes burnt off their backs, suffered terrible burns, not to mention the radiation exposure from drinking the black rain that fell subsequently. The Americans were trying to end the war, and settled on this option as the best way to do it - partly as it would also justify the huge cost of the research and development using taxpayers money, pretty terrible huh. It’s becoming a bit of a recurring theme now that almost every country we travel in there is history of Western powers committing terrible atrocities and meddling in foreign affairs. We went to the fantastic Peace Museum which went into all the details of before, during and after the bomb. The former Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall building, which stood almost directly under the hypocentre of the blast, somehow remained standing, and the building's skeleton has been left as a haunting monument to stop future generations forgetting what happened and to prevent it ever happening again.

Despite the all-encompassing destruction of the city, Hiroshima has risen from the ashes and is now a modern and cosmopolitan city. Hiroshima’s penchant for recycling old tram cars from around the world means that there are plenty of interesting looking trams clinking and clanking around the streets. We went to a fantastic okonomiyaki restaurant that had a Michelin bib gourmand, within a building containing no less than 25 other okonomiyaki restaurants (and nothing else!). I had an Hiroshima special, with oysters on the top and fried noodles - delicious. As with every other Japanese city, there are some beautiful gardens, and we spent some time exploring the Shukkeien Garden which had miniature landscapes, some nice early bloom cherry blossom, and plenty of excitable coy carp and turtles to feed in the pond. It's a shame that the atomic bombing overshadows what Hiroshima has now become. Many people asked us if it was safe to travel there - absolutely! There's been no trace of radiation here for a long time.

A nice day trip from here is to Miyajima Island, famed for its floating torii gate at the Itsukushima Shrine (as well as more of those menacing deer). As we had become accustomed, it was absolutely crawling with people, including boats full of tourists with Japanese rice paddy hats on in an attempt at some authenticity, clustering around the bottom of the gate. And kimonos of course! But it's famous for a reason - it is a beautiful sight. The huge red gate stands tall guarding the entrance to the bay. To get away from the crowds we hiked up the steep path through dense forest to the peak of Mount Misen, affording panoramic views of the nearby islands and back to the mainland. What a terrifying sight the bomb must have been from up here.

We had a long trudge back to Hakuba from here, so decided to break the journey up a bit. We stopped at the ‘White Heron’ Castle at Himeji on the way back to Osaka. Very busy again, and best appreciated from the outside, the many dips, curves and twists of the black tiled roofs against the starch white walls is an impressive sight and worthy of its nickname.

Our final stop before heading back to Hakuba to sell the car was the old post towns of Tsumago and Magome. We booked a night staying in a lovely old house right on the old walking path between these two villages in Tsumago, and set off on our 8km walk between them. Starting in Magome we were astonished to see a lack of electricity wires - finally somewhere where they had been banished/hidden! And thank god, because these old towns are very pretty - those old dark wooden houses with open fronts used as resthouses and shops back in the day have been well preserved. The path weaves through lovely countryside, trees and bamboo forests, with the occasional view across the plains to mountains beyond. There are ‘bear bells’ every few hundred metres that you have to ring to give them some warning that you are around - I didn't want to ring them as I would've loved to have seen a bear (if there actually were any around…) but Amy was less keen and enthusiastically gave them a good gong.

We finally headed back to Hakuba to tie up a few loose ends, the biggest one being selling the car. We had a few people lined up to look at it, but we only had a day and half to get it sorted, so it was a bit of a worry. And of course everyone flaked out, or messed us around, until the point we were sitting in a cafe at 2pm the day before we were set to leave with no one left interested in buying it! We were beginning to investigate how much we could get at a scrapyard (basically nothing), or if we could leave it there and try and get a friend to sell it on next season (definitely not ideal), when we were saved by some friends who decided to buy it at a reduced price. Even though we only got half what we paid for it, it was still well worth the investment as it totally changed our time in Japan for the better, giving us that freedom to explore and meaning that we weren't so trapped in Hakuba itself. I don't think we'd have lasted the season without it!

We had a couple of days in Tokyo to round off our Japan chapter, and so visited a few places we didn't get chance last time. Although the more interesting inner part of the Tsukiji Market is now closed, the outer market still exists, so we visited one morning, but it was a bit disappointing compared to the other markets we had visited across Japan. But we did have scallop and sea urchin skewers for breakfast which was an interesting meal! By now the cherry blossom was pretty much in full bloom so we headed to Yoyogi Park to check it out. All over the park big groups of friends had laid out their blue tarpaulins under the blossoming cherry trees, and had all their picnic items and drinks spread out around them. Talk and laughter filled the air, and it truly felt like the beginning of spring. Hanami really is a Japanese speciality. With a couple of hours left to kill, Tokyo proved that it is impossible to be bored here. We ventured into a new Samsung shop which unbeknownst to us was offering free VR experiences. We spent the rest of the afternoon racing cars and skeletons with VR headsets on - a great experience and something that I had wanted to do whilst I was here, so it was a great bonus! The highlight though was a room full of mirrors and screens in which you could put your Instagram handle into the computer, and it gave a completely immersive show of all your pictures and captions. For us it showed all the pictures we had taken from our travels over the last six months - it was so cool to see it all recapped in this way, and a perfect end to our time in Japan.

So four months in Japan over. It's been a bit of a rollercoaster. We have had some amazing times skiing and travelling through this awesome country, learning more about its history and culture, which is something we've both always wanted to do. But it's also been tough at times - being away from home and our friends and families hasn't been easy, particularly at Christmas. And we've both learnt a lot about ourselves and what we want. Amy in particular has learnt just how much she loves her job as a GP, which is great! It might sound strange when I say that being away doing all these fun things has been tough - but it's not as simple as you might think. Don't get me wrong, it's been a lot of fun getting to explore all of these places and we are seriously lucky to be able to do it. But it does turn your life upside down a little bit - a lot of the stability you take for granted is no longer there - a routine, family and friends that you can say anything to and know you inside out, our nice flat, and feeling a bit distant from the wedding preparation (even though there's not necessarily much to do at the moment) - it all adds up and are feelings that have to be balanced with everything else going on. I hope that doesn't make us sound ungrateful, because we're not - we feel so lucky to be able to do this. But it's definitely been part of this trip and it wasn't something that we were necessarily expecting.

But home is in our sights now. We are cutting the trip shorter slightly and are now planning to be home at the end of May. We've got a week in Korea, and then around a month in Hong Kong and China, before a few weeks in the south of India.

Sorry for another long ramble, it's so difficult to be concise when you've crammed so much in

Now on to an old favourite of mine - Korea!

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Comments

[Home and Away]

Wow!! What an amazing tour of Japan...
I was wondering whether you had planned this trip yourself until I got to the end and saw that after four months in Japan, you actually could plan such a trip. I hope to replicate such a visit someday.

[Ross Parker]

Thanks!
Let me know if you ever want any tips!