Author: keith

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Best thing/Worst thing

To finish, here’s each of our best and worst things about the trip:

Best things…

Keith – Best thing is easy, the Shinkansen (bullet) trains. Just incredible.

Jo – Best thing was the opportunity to meet loads of different and interesting people. I had forgotten how much I love travelling. I spent hours just staring out of the window of the train.

Danny – The best thing was easily the chicken wings we had in Kanazawa. The restaurant was recommended by Audley and it was awesome.

Amelia – I just have to have two best things: sleeping, and the Onsen in Fujioto Ryokan.

Worst things…

Keith – Worst thing was our return journey, being driven by a taxi driver who was too tired to be at the wheel, who kept using his phone or iPad whilst driving, and was clearly lost, then to arrive at the airport to find our flight was delayed meaning our connection in Amsterdam (smoke and a pancake) was changed giving us a generous 5 hours in the airport and a total 25 hour journey….bah.

Jo – Worst thing was missing my bed!

Danny – Worst thing was the food in the temple at Mount Koya . Vegetables, tofu, and more vegetables that were entirely unrecognisable. The pears were salty, the grapes had very thick and bitter skins, and the broccoli tasted of fish. Case closed.

Amelia – The temperature in Tokyo.

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Accommodation Review – Gracery Hotel, Tokyo

So, final accommodation. Another western hotel, though very nice indeed. The hotel has a massive Godzilla head statue of the terrace of the 8th floor (shameless cash in?) and is generally pretty huge.

Service for the short time we were there was good, rooms seem big by Japanese standards, and beds comfortable. Views were incredible from our rooms on the 19th and 24th floors.

We left too early to sample breakfast, so there’s not a lot more to add!

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Accommodation Review – Ekoin, Mount Koya

Up a mountain. Check. Near a big cemetery in a forest where the trees are between 200 and 600 years old. Check. The most sacred place in Japan. Check. Living with monks. Check. Eating vegan food. Check. Being woke up for a 6.30am morning service followed by much burning of sticks and banging of drums. Check.

You visit Koyasan to experience all these things, and it doesn’t disappoint. Our accommodation, in the guest quarters of the Ekoin Temple, was simple – just a room (two in our case) and a toilet, shared shower and baths. However, it’s been well kept and is probably one of the tidiest traditional locations we’ve stayed in.

Food is interesting. Actually, it’s not. Sorry, but it really is very plain and uninspiring, unless you’re into pickles, unidentifiable vegetables and rice. And there’s not enough. It’s just not to western tastes I guess.

But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t an amazing place to stay. It was, and we knew what we might be expecting. There’s a convenience store the other end of town, a brilliant local restaurant selling amazing katsu on the main crossroads, another local place selling udon dishes nearby and a little cafe directly opposite Ekoin. Use these to supplement meagre monk rations and it’s all good!!

The monks were incredibly friendly, though rubbish timekeepers. To say they have a set routine every day is a bit of an exaggeration…. It’s tough timings, meaning one day we were taken to breakfast 50 minutes late. That’s more than 2 hours after being woken for morning service. Oh well!

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Accommodation Review – Mystays Dojima, Osaka

A brief stay on Osaka required little more than beds, lucky as that’s all we got! The Mystays Dojima was pretty much identical to our previous Mystays visit, even the Wi-Fi password was the same!

Rooms were functional – beds were comfortable, memory foam pillows again, the bathroom was a single unit and breakfast was normal and dull – though the restaurant was in a windowless room, seating no more than 30 people and was attended to by an old chap who was quite friendly.

Little more to add!