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Page 2 of lakelso Travel Blog Posts
May 19th 2011
The journey continues via several long train journeys to Nagano, a temple town based around Zenko-ji and the hosts of the 1998 Winter Olympics (a podium and signboards from the Olympics can be seen randomly at the back of a car park). We were staying in Buddhist lodgings close to Zenko-ji but finding the actual building on arrival was easier said than done as most of the buildings looked similar, it was a case of playing match the kanji to the sign outside and hope! Our game of match the symbols was a confirmed success when we noticed a welcome sign outside the door with our names on. The accomodation was beautifully decorated in traditional Japanese style and the owner was very attentive and he even managed to persuade us to get up super early ... read more
May 16th 2011
So the journey continues northwards towards Hokkaido and to temperatures 10 degrees lower than the main island via a rather long train journey which takes us through the Japanese equivalent of the channel tunnel. First stop on the itinerary is Sapporo, the prefectural capital and japan's fifth largest city. We were both pleasantly surprised at how cosmopolitan and lively the city was as I think we were expecting something a lot smaller given its location and pleased that it was easy to navigate around as it used a more western grid system. We had plenty of time to explore around the sights around Shapiro centre ,take a pleasant but bracing stroll through Odori Koen and sample some of Sapporo's famed beer. Given my slight obsession with visiting zoos in other countries (yes it happens every ... read more
May 12th 2011
So I met a rather jet lagged Martin at Niigata station in order to start our trip up the west coast and towards the North of Japan. Our first stop was Mount Haguro and to a temple lodging at the base of the mountain. It was a very bleak journey due to the extremely miserable weather which I am sure made it feel colder than it actually was. We arrived at Haguro centre and with some time to kill before check in we decided to explore the nearby Zuishi-mon temple. On descending the steps we were met with a eerie misty atmosphere and quite substantial snow on the ground, not what we were expecting at the top of the steps where it was just raining. Following the woodland trail we stumbled across a beautiful 600 year ... read more
May 5th 2011
So to get to my next destination of Niigata it involved a ridiculous amount of transport and a journey that would turn out to take 3 trains and about 6 hours to complete. Over the course of this journey I had the realisation that it was the start of Golden Week (a major Japanese public holiday) and that the world and his wife would be travelling. This was especially true when getting onto the unreserved car of the shinkansen which was standing room only. Learning from this and not wanting to spend my 3rd train journey stood up for the next 2 hours I decided to go and reserve a seat which unfortunately meant that I would have to wait 2 hours for a train. So I ended up having an unscheduled stop over in Omiya, ... read more
May 3rd 2011
So as anyone who knows me well knows I am not a morning person so the thought of an early start to Nikko filled me with dread. However up I got (aided by a very noisy neighbour) and off I set to the beautiful world heritage site of Nikko National Park. Due to my early arrival at Nikko station and check in at my accommodation not being until 4pm it gave me plenty of time to saunter uphill from the station to the area that houses the many shrines and temples. Before heading to the main attractions I decided to take a walk to Gamman-Ga- Fuchi Abyss,a woodland area with a collection of supposedly uncountable small stone statues (jizo). Apparently there is a statue midway known as the Bake-jizo, who mocks travellers foolish enough to try ... read more
April 26th 2011
Rightio as the title says here we go.. So I arrived in Tokyo following a long and uneventful flight in which i had both seats to myself. This is an advantage when it comes to the logistics of trying to sleep but it nearly killed me not having anyone to talk to for 11 hours.I also missed Martin being there to laugh and ridicule my OCD tendencies when it comes to organising my airline food tray. I made it without incident to my hotel only to be met with a monsoon like downpour and no coat or umbrella to hand- very poor planning on my part! Oh..just to add everything is ok here- transport is running, there are no rolling blackouts and there is plenty of food and water. It is far from the apocalyptic picture ... read more
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