10% of Japan's population live in Tokyo with 25% in outer Tokyo. You can imagine how busy it is and what pressure there is on the land . The whole place is a massive city of close together high rises and it is impossible to get an idea of which district you are in. The old city of Edo had a moat which still exists but an express way was built over most of it because they didn't have the land to build it on. There is a massive land reclamation and 1000s of apartments are being built for the 2020 Olympic Village. Our first trip was to the Tokyo Tower which looks just like the Eiffel tower. The guide said the Japanese copy everything and that the only thing they invented was Karaoke! So it ... read more

After a night of sailing through the inner Sea of Japan we arrived at a very wet Hiroshima. Having been to the Peace Park before, which is excellent if you come here, we decided to take the ferry across to Miyajima Island. The journey only takes 10 minutes and they are very efficient at loading and unloading. The first thing you see is the large red torii gate which rises up out of the sea. It is bright red to chase away any evil spirits. It was built in 1875 to replace a previous one. Behind it is the large beautiful Itsukushima Shrine which is lovely to walk through. It is guarded by the two lions one open mouthed saying "Aah" as a baby would shout at birth and the other one closed mouthed saying "Mmm" ... read more

Very sunny when the ship docked in Chiran and we drove to the Chiran Peace Museum. This is dedicated to the 1000s of young pilots who gave up their lives at the Battle of Okinawa. The planes were built here and the pilots flew off from here on their final sortie leaving letters to their Mums and family knowing they would not be coming back, very sad, such a waste. It is a peaceful park with a Lantern for each pilot who died and a museum containing personal exhibits as well as remains of the planes themselves which they dragged up from the sea. After this we went to the Samurai Houses in the Fumoto area of Chiran. There is a lovely lane with original Samurai houses on either side , a lot of which are ... read more

Departure from the ship was very prompt and efficient unlike yesterday. We drove up into the mountains and visited one of the 88 Temples which are on a sort of pilgrimage trail. The Godaisan Chikurinji temple has a guest house with a typical Japanese garden. That is- trees rocks, moss, water and a few bushes , very minimalist but made to relax ones mind and allow contemplation. You take off your shoes and observe the garden from the guest house. A short walk from here is the actual temple which we couldn't go into but could peer through the doorway. It had a wooden roof made of tiny pieces of wood all hand placed with no nails and needed frequently replacing. The surrounding area was really peaceful with the odd shrine and also covered Buddhas. If ... read more

We only had a last afternoon in Rio before the trip home so toured around the city seeing areas we hadn't been to. First we were down town in the main square which was designed by a Frenchman and has a wide boulevard and lovely opera house, library and other French looking buildings. We called in at Colombo's a famous coffee house which is beautifully decorated like the ones in Vienna but the queue was too long so went across the road for a spot of lunch. Then it was on to the St.Therese area which has some lovely old houses as well as lots of little bars and quirky art shops. We saw the old tram come trundling through the area. It had started raining so we ended our touring around at the St.Benedict Monastery ... read more