Our last full day in Tokyo

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And so our adventures in Japan draw to an end! We left Nagoya early and caught the bullet train to Yokohama (this time it was the real deal and our estimate was that the train was doing 220km/hour through the countryside!) Sadly Mount Fuji remained wrapped in cloud so no way to see it as we shot past! We swapped trains at Yokohama to catch a slow train to Kamakura - a place famous for wooded hills and the sea. This week is a holiday in Japan so it would be fair to say that what we really saw were thousands and thousands of people from Tokyo walking some very narrow streets buying crafts and gifts! The sea was probably nearby but we did not see that either. We did however see two Buddhist temples. The first was beautiful, peaceful and had traditional Japanese gardens which were calming and there was a lovely temple with a gorgeous garden visible through the round window at the end of the seating area. It also had some private caves which had various carvings of the Buddha. But my favourite was the bamboo woods (ever since "crouching tiger hidden dragon" I have wanted to stand in a proper bamboo forest where the stalks are as wide as lamp posts and reach 30 feet into the air - and today I did!). We are both very tired now and after a crazy 10 minutes trying to find an exit in Tokyo station (think Paddington on steroids x 1000) after the trip back from Kamakura we fell into a cab and returned to the hotel of the previous several nights - it felt almost home like to get back! After a quick shower and jumping on my suitcase to get it to close (dirty clothes seem to take more room I have discovered) we went up the street for our final supper and on the way found just the loveliest temple of the lot - lit with lanterns and so peaceful even surrounded by tall skyscrapers! We paid for our fortunes again and good news this time as we both had good ones - well Tricia had a very good one and mine was just good but it bodes well for the trip home - if you believe in such things!!

Tomorrow yet another early start, straight the Haneda airport and then a 12 hour flight home leaving at 11.40 am and arriving at 3pm (ish) - the time difference is really going to mess with our heads this time. So this is most likely the last blog entry. Thanks for reading and Tricia and I will be doing a presentation at the hospice in the near future with loads of photos and thoughts and we plan to share the new model of team working that we have developed whilst here! Thanks for reading and I hope they have given a small taste of our experiences! If you have the money and the leave and wonder about visiting Japan my advice would be go for it -wonderful people, great food, zippy public transport (although difficult to navigate due to the complexity) and stunning country side which we saw from a train window and would love to explore and finally ... somewhere just west of Tokyo in a shroud of grey cloud there is a mountain of great spiritual significance waiting to be climbed and seen (ah maybe one day!!!) Best wishes, Wayne and Tricia

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