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Well Jill thought Annecy was amazing - that was before she hit the Alps! Driving along these roads through the mountains, overlooking gorgeous french towns nestled in valleys. The towns were beautiful and were a mixture of French and Swiss influence in their style. Then as you turned a corner - there was a spectacular sight! Mt Blanc - snow topped! Jill had got her wish and saw a snow topped mountain (she had missed out with Mt Fuji!) Wow it was stunning - the sun shining on it, mountains, valleys, green woods - very majestic in deed! So we hit Chamonix... now there had been discussion about one night here then back to Annecy as it was so lovely. Well that idea was immediately dismissed when we hit Chamonix! As we were driving through the ... read more

A must on Jill's itinerary was Hakone. This is located just a hour from Tokyo, via train in the Mt Fuji National Park area. Coming up from Hiroshima is was a bit of travel. Several hours on a train, then onto a bus up into the mountains. We made use of the Hakone Free Pass. Not an actual free pass, but it includes all transport in the area. It includes the buses, trains, cable cars and boats that take you all over the area. As mentioned we got in late afternoon to our destination - Fuji Guesthouse. This came highly recommended and we saw why!!. Firstly it is a private ryokan run by a family, secondly it has on onsen. The thing with onsens is that they are gender specific and you need to be naked. ... read more

This is a city which everyone knows of - just over 60 years ago the Americans ensured this city would go into history books, when they dropped the worlds first atomic bomb onto the city and its citizens. I was very keen to get to Hiroshima and it was on my must do list. I'm not sure why but there is something that has always got me about this city - well that's a dumb thing to say, I know why - it is the same reason we all know it. But I guess the total destruction, the loss of innocent lives, the pain and agony that must have gone through - all due to one item, and at a time when I guess that type of destruction was unknown. I still can clearly remember learning ... read more

We arrived in Takayama in the early evening and headed to our accommodation. Jill had mentioned it was a temple and she was correct. In fact due to some confusion on the guy runnings it's part, we slept in the temple, the actual temple, just to the left of the alter. The following night a room was found for us. The place was ryokan in style, we had to take our shoes off and had the rice paper window doors. It was ok but very hard to sleep. So much noise from the doors sliding and people walking on the creaky floors and we were at the front of the building so heard everyones movements which resulted in a restless night, but hey it was an experience!! Takayama has been on the same site since the ... read more

Ok I may not have given the temple in Nagano justice - but I was tired - 13 hours worth of sleep tired!! Which meant I could wake up early and all pumped for the monkeys! Yep we were heading off to see the snow monkeys (except there was no snow this time of year...) - the ones that lie around all day soaking in a hot springs (onsen). So a 50 min bus ride from Nagano is Jigokudani Yaen-Koen. Only place in the world were monkeys soak in hot water apparently and Jill was very keen to see them (not me, I have to say - not a huge monkey fan...). The area has been visited by tourists since 1964, and has around 200 monkeys there. The park is in the Yokoyu Valley and is ... read more