Sleeping on the floor was not as difficult as I thought it was going to be. Our problem was that at 5.30 am the sun was streaming through the blinds and we were awake! Breakfast for us was served at 8 am in the Banquet Hall. It was off with our shoes as we padded across the tatami mats to our waiting table. Breakfast was a salad, fruit and a couple of croissants. This was a continental breakfast. The coffee was incredibly weak! Thankfully Don had made me a coffee in the room before we came down or I wouldn’t have been able to function! Then we went down to reception to get the shuttle bus to the bus station where we had tickets for the one hour drive to Shirakawa-go. Shirakawa-go is a world heritage ... read more

Friday 10 May 2019 - erev Shabbat Today, Friday, we decided would be our day off. So we spent the day writing up the travel blog and generally relaxing. Don was feeling athletic so he, being a good boy, went to the gym. He found the Sheraton hotel health spa to contain a good variety of facilities including a large pool. He did not swim, but worked out with the exercise equipment. This evening we walked to the Chabad for the Friday night Shabbat service. As usual they had to wait for a minyan (ten men). After the service we were all invited upstairs for a meal. As expected, many more people appeared upstairs than prayed downstairs. The rabbi and his wife had prepared for fifty people and there were at least fifty there. The rabbi ... read more

We left the hotel after a late breakfast to get the subway to the Ginza area. There are signs on the pavement indicating walking and bicycle lanes and warnings about smoking restrictions on the streets. We passed vending machines for confectionary and soft drinks. Then we entered the subway station. The various lines are indicated by colours and letters. We had PASMO cards for public transport which are like London Oyster cards or Israeli Rav Kav cards. The first part of the journey was quite straightforward, just two stops; easy. Then changing lines became a bit more complicated. We had to use a number of escalators and we had to remember to walk on the left. We eventually found the second line and got onto the second train but it was an 'express' train which didn’t ... read more

. Holon - Third in a series of experiential, off the beaten path tours to encounter and appreciate other important religious communities in Israel led by licenced tour guide Rina Yellin. The city of Holon is located south of Tel Aviv. (See our blogs "Day around the Carmel in Israel - January 2016" and "Day tour of Minorities in the Galil - April 2016" for the two previous tours with Rina.) Our Samaritan (Shomronim) Holon tour began with a visit to the Samaritans during their Sukkot holiday. We started in the house of Benyamim Tsedaka, an elder and head of the Israelite Samaritan Information Institute ( www.israelite-samaritans.com ). As we walked in we were confronted with a beautifully decorated sukkah in the middle of the living room and greeted by Binyamim who said "call me Ben ... read more

Today was the end of our holiday! We went down to breakfast and found the family to say farewell. It was somewhat sad as we don’t know how long it will be before we see the American branch of the family again. This was the second time in two months that many of us had gotten together. We had attended the wedding of Don's nephew in Chicago two months ago in March, but the previous gap had been two-and-a-half years since the family gathered. We collected our bags from our room and said a teary farewell to Caroline and Max who were staying on for a further day. Then we queued for the taxi to the airport. We were a bit panicked as there were very many people waiting to go to the airport but ... read more