Hiroshima is a great place - very funky and modern, but with lots of green space and parks. Good city transport as well. Spent time wandering and visited Hiroshima Castle (grounds only)and Sukkein Garden. It never ceases to amaze me that there are these beautiful and quiet oases right smack dab in the middle of large and busy cities here. We had a picnic under the cherry blossom trees in the Peace Park, too. The Peace Park is an amazing place - they have not created a mausoleum, they have created a vital and lively place full of life with kids laughing and playing everywhere you look. Quite amazing really. Every where you go in places like Hiroshima there are lots of school kids on class trips, all anxious to practice their english as well. Hiroshima ... read more

Arrived late into Hiroshima, and staying at another little ryokan. This one a little more of a ryokan hotel, since it is in the middle of the city - we are a short walk to the A-Dome and the Peace Park. The A Dome is the remains of the only building standing after the bomb was dropped. Went for a little orienting walk after showering, grabbed a beer and hit the sack for much needed sleep. That was the last of our long travel runs, thank goodness. We are here for 3 nights and that means that I need to get organized for some accommodation and plans once the trip ends in Kyoto on Friday. Think I will treat myself there for a bit. Today was SUNNY! and relatively WARM! Will update more in the next ... read more

Another local train ride to connect with the Shinkansen to Tokyo and on to Hakone eventually. Made our first train with literally seconds to spare due to a mix up with the taxi times - and yes there was more origami (grumble grumble:)). Hakone is a national park area where there are a number of villages - it is popular as an onsen/spa setting, and also as a viewing point for Mt Fuji. Very rainy and overcast while we were here,so no sign of Mt Fuji. This is not unusual - Fuji is referred to as being shy. Instead of hiking in the rain, we decided to visit some museums, and we made it as far as one:). We visited the Art Museum here, which is a bit of a misnomer since they have lots of ... read more

It is bright and early here, and we are getting ready to head out for one last day in tokyo before heading on to Nikko tonight. I spent yesterday visiting a museum and Ueno Park. During cherry blossom time, the park becomes party central with 24-7 drinking and singing. They actually scout out the best spots and set up camp there - office bosses often send the junior gopher to stake out a spot overnight to ensure he has a good one:). Last night a couple of us headed out, one thing led to another, and we ended up in the bar on the 52nd floor of the Hyatt. The bar you see in the movie "Lost in Translation". Pretty magical - champagne and the lights of tokyo as far as the eye can see, and ... read more

Hi guys - I'm a bit challenged by this Japanese keyboard - it is a bit odd since keys aren't where you expect them to be. So you will need to be a bit tolerant of my typos and spelling mistakes. I woke up to an overcast day on Wed and decided to explore the higashi/ginza area of Tokyo (where I am staying) and head over to the Imperial Gardens as well. Higashi Ginza is a ritzier area (despite the fact that I am staying here:))- lots of the top name stores (prada etc) but lots of depatos as well (Japanese department stores) and lots of side streets with tons of character. By noon it was raining so hard that I decided to give the gardens a pass and instead brave the metro system. Now to ... read more