Category: Blog

After another picnic breakfast, requiring minimal washing up…

… we headed off to our tea ceremony. We left plenty of time… or so we thought. Of course there is always something. Today it was that if you don’t swipe your Pasmo properly when coming out of a train line, you can’t get into the next one. This necessitated a return trip within a station so that we could carry on with our journey. Danny’s enthusiasm/lack of swiping accuracy made us slightly late, but as we weren’t last it didn’t matter and our host didn’t seem to mind.

The session started with our lovely host establishing where we were all from. There were two 4 person British families (including us), one young Italian couple (young enough to be asked to kneel on the floor!!) and one American mother and daughter in kimono.

We were taught how to bow- the four children got a private lesson. The most important part was the distance between the edge of the tatami mat and their knees- sixteen stitches.

Then the Italian couple demonstrated how to receive the tea, apologise for drinking theirs before we got ours, thank the host for making it, etc. The lovely host was labouring under the impression that we were all capable of remembering a multi-word phrase in Japanese. None of us were. Well, apart from the younger American lady who had cheated by learning some Japanese in advance! Clearly all Americans are highly tolerant of foreign cultures.

The host was lovely and only got slightly serious for the formal part of the ceremony. The rest of the time she happily laughed at us trying to eat our sweets with a little wooden stick and Keith’s face trying to drink green tea! [EDIT Keith: It was revolting. Think a lurid green frothy liquid, that should probably have a HAZMAT label attached to it. In fact it would make an ideal base paint for some of my models.]

After we had all tried the tea formally with the right phrases in the right places (although it should be pointed out that we did not

a) have white socks on

b) have a little fan to tuck into our kimono

c) remember any of the proper phrases!),

she invited all of the children and one person from each of the couples to make their own tea. The children then let their parents drink the tea they had made. Yay! Danny made mine rather strong so I didn’t quite finish the second cup.

It was really nice to have a quick chat with the other British family: the first we have seen since we got here. They were from London and had booked much of their trip with Audley as well. They recommended the Inca trail for our next adventure!

The other British family headed off to the Nijo-jo castle and we scurried between patches of shade in the other direction.

With some misgivings, after reading some reviews, we had planned a trip to the bamboo forest in Arashiyama. I did some research before we set out and plotted a course across the centre of town via the Tozai line and the San-in line to Saga-Arashiyama. My cunning plan was then to swap to another line to do one more hop that put us just outside the bamboo forest. When we got there, it became apparent that the other line was in fact the “Romantic Sagano Train Line”. This leaves every hour, is not air conditioned and had standing room only. Oh, and you have to pay for the whole trip even if you only want to go one stop. Less than ideal.

So we walked.

Hotness.

Moaning.

The bamboo forest was heaving with rude tourists. The trees were quite spaced out. The back drop was uninspiring. The bamboo forest at the Kodaiji temple was a lot better. I did try a matcha/soya ice cream. Not as good as salted caramel but edible. I was pleased that no-one else liked it as, for a change, I didn’t get pestered for another taste!

The children voted against another shrine or the monkeys- and I hadn’t even told them about the 20 minute walk to get there. I think they have a bad case of temple/shrine fatigue and not even the promise of a stamp can enthuse them when it gets to 39 degrees….again…..

We retraced our steps to the station, onto the train and back to the food market. I think this is by far our favourite place in Kyoto. We have been every day and found something new. Today it was a Japanese bookshop… the very definition of frustration! I was quite tempted by a Japanese jigsaw but the family guided me gently away.

I felt better when I found a stamp shop. There must have been 2 or 3 hundred stamps. The nice lady guided me to one that says well done in Japanese and has a picture of a samurai. I think I will use it for exceptional pieces of work!!!

I was very impressed today (although still unconvinced that it wasn’t accidental…) when Keith navigated us back through the grid of seemingly identical covered streets to the dumpling and bubble tea shop. We didn’t need any more dumplings, but there is always space for a bubble tea!

Our mission today was to try and get Danny a yukata to use as a dressing gown when we get home. We failed in the market. It seems to be a girl’s souvenir and he wasn’t keen on the silky red ones! We also failed in the shop Tim recommended. They had lots of second hand adult ones, but none that would fit Danny. Finally, having  previously learned a massive number of random adjectives in Japanese came on handy as Danny was trying one on and the sales assistant sucked air through her teeth and stated: “mijikai” which means short. Time well spent.

We eventually found a shop selling what were in effect kid’s dressing up clothes. The quality is not fantastic but hopefully a few washes will soften it up.

We had a fun time in another department store food basement buying a picnic tea as we couldn’t face a restaurant or the queue that would inevitably need to be stood in to get into one.

After tea and a little rest, the children went to read in bed and Keith and I went back out to see Kyoto at night. It was significantly cooler than it had been earlier but still very warm, well over 30 degrees. We had a little wander down a fashionable street all lit up with hanging lanterns and went back to a shrine that was heaving with people when we visited it with Lucky. It was much quieter and with a little open space and less ambient light we spotted Mars. The last time I saw it was on the Amalfi coast, on honeymoon nearly 15 years ago. Ahhh.

Thank you Kyoto and good night.

We had a planned early start today to travel to Fushima and walk up Mount Inori. A better night left us more rested but still slow to get moving, so we weren’t up and out until gone 8am. Our plan was further hampered by an accident on the Keida line leaving us stranded without a train. Like the troopers we are, we changed plan and told Google maps to find us a bus: which it did. User error meant that we got on the wrong direction so then there was a bit of a frosty atmosphere for a while. Ironically that bus service is a loop so we could have gone the other way around, but we didn’t realize that until later.

We did get to see a cormorant on the river while we waited, so every cloud…

We finally made it to the JR line and onto the Nara line, but by this point it was 10.30am and any hope of a cooler and less crowded walk had fled.

It was hot and busy at the bottom, but clearly not everyone is made of such stern stuff as us as the top was pretty quiet. It took just over an hour to ramble along under the hundreds or thousands of red gates and up the steps to the top, and we poured with sweat the whole way. It was pleasantly shaded under the trees and much cooler than on tarmac, but any kind of exertion makes your body leak all over.

Keith took hundreds of photos with annoying and impatient tourists popping a foot or head into them. I think he managed to get one or two that he liked but a lot ended up on the cutting room floor!

The way down was much quicker and we hopped on a return train just before lunch. Inari is a local stop, which means that the express doesn’t stop there. We had to go back to Kyoto station to swap to a faster train, but this meant that we could slurp ramen in air conditioning again so that was fine by us!

I braved some exciting rice crackers on the train to Nara and everyone tried the fish. Only I liked them: they were sweet and chewy, but the rest of the crackers were lovely.

Tim’s description of Nara left me a bit cold given it was an hour’s train ride away and TripAdvisor wasn’t that much more inspiring. We are obedient to the instructions however and set off on the train ride. An hour there and back in nice cool air conditioning was reason enough for me, but when we got there I was blown away.

There is a tourist loop bus that Google maps doesn’t know about (we thought we would have to walk!!!) and we hopped on that to get round to the Todai-ji temple. Just before the stop, the children noticed some of the famous Nara deer. They wander into the road with no fear at all (the deer, not the children). We managed to get off at the right bus stop and walked through the park and through the deer poo to get to the shrine (remember the poo- it features later!).

You go through a massive gate (still surrounded by inquisitive deer) and walk up to another massive building. Well, actually it is another gate, but because you can’t see through it and the tour leads you around to the left, you emerge on the other side and get slapped in the face by the size of the actual temple. Both Keith and I stood with our mouths open at the extent of it, but then it is the largest wooden building in Japan – so large as it contains the largest statue. I hope the photos do it justice. We purified as is customary and then climbed the steps. Directly in front of you is an enormous Buddha carved from wood. I think his hand would easily be taller than Keith. Either side of him are two gold covered guardian deities that would be huge in their own right.

Danny’s favourite bit was a staircase/ladder leading up to the second level. Thank God we weren’t allowed up there. Mila’s favourite bit was going to be the hollow pillar that she wriggle through, but then she found a stuffed deer that poos. Nuff said.

The views back from the temple towards the middle gate were spectacular and of course there were the requisite Koi swimming in a pond.

I was a bit depressed about the deer by this point. There were carts selling cakes that you could feed to them, but if anyone bought them they got mobbed. We saw a grandma bashing a deer on the nose as it pestered her small, screaming granddaughter who was clutching a plastic bag with a cake in it. We saw kids teasing the deer with bits of cake and then running away. All in all it felt a bit exploitative and I got a boo on and wouldn’t let the kids buy food. I also have concerns about what is in the cake?! I would like to presume it is nutritionally balanced to keep the deer healthy. They looked ok and had lots of babies.

The heat was unpleasant and our legs were tired so we hopped back on the loop bus to Nara station. Here I was allowed my first proper Japanese supermarket experience although it was rushed as we didn’t want to miss the train. We bought recognisable fruit, bento boxes for tea and various bits for breakfast tomorrow.

We did make the train even after captain worrywart declared it was impossible and then sat back to enjoy our lovely air conditioned trip.

The only exciting thing that happened on the return journey (apart from some bento box leakage) was the sight of a double decker carriage on a train going through the platform. Epic.

It was quite a relief to get back, showered and fed at a reasonable time tonight. Danny told us today that this holiday is exhausting. I think we all agree- magical with wonder everywhere, but exhausting!

I woke up this morning with bruises on my hips. This futon is more blanket than mattress. Sleep? Who needs it.

Danny’s cough is better! Hurrah.

Sweet baked goods and drinking yoghurt for breakfast and then out to the aptly name Nijo-jo Castle. Train and subway with Pasmo cards that are still functional.

It was sooo hot today and humid so it feels hard to breathe. The strength of the sun cannot be overestimated: any skin not covered up or slathered in sun cream prickles instantly and you can feel it burning.

A fascinating castle with nightingale floors that squeak as you walk across them. The rooms are full of weird representations of tigers, as though the artist had never seen a real one. Cranes, trees, etc. on beautifully detailed room sized paper screens. Gilt painted panels on ceilings undergoing restoration. No shoes, no photos inside and no air con.

Quick walk round green but hot gardens- mummy forgot the wet towels so she was in the dog house. Back out of the sun and onto the underground, then back to the food market for a very adventurous lunch; picking kebabs and nibbles from stalls: octopus, chicken, potato and cheese fishcake, followed by a kind of burger made with sliced beef between two halves of a potato croquette. All utterly yummy and easy to eat whilst walking.

Back to the house for bit of the “Grand Tour” (Amazon’ Top Gear) and a sit down to prepare for our half day walking tour this afternoon.

We met with our guide at 2pm outside the Machiya to start our tour. First stop via the local train was Sanjusangen-do Temple. This beautiful building was unaffected by 2nd World War bombing and hasn’t burnt down since the 1600s. Quite a feat for a wooden building that they still encourage people to light candles in.

It is 120m long and they still use the length outside for archery competitions: both professional and as a coming of age ceremony. Inside, there are 1,001 wooden, lacquered and gilded Buddhas. Each one is clearly built to the same pattern but each is slightly different, due to the 70 sculptors used to make them. Each face looks identical on first inspection, but the more you look the more differences you see. Each statue has 42 pairs of arms, each palm has an eye on to look out for people who need help.

Mila managed to get another stamp for her book and both children would probably tell you that their favourite part was the fan just outside blowing water onto the pathetically grateful visitors.

Our guide (whose name meant lucky books!) Then took us to have a wander round Higashiyama. It is a beautiful and clearly very old part of the city, where even Mcdonalds and Starbucks do not have enough corporate power to get full signage and ruin the atmospheric streets. She also took us to a shrine where they sell monkeys that are made from the leftover fabric from the kimono industry. The fabric did not look to meet that requirement to me, but there were lots of young people buying them and writing on them in sharpies to hang from the shrine.

Lucky explained why we have seen so many young people wearing kimono. Apparently, it is a government initiative to encourage the kimono industry and gives wearers discounts on taxis, restaurants etc. It just looks incredibly hot, but there is a huge market in having someone come to your hotel to do your hair and dress you in your rented kimono. I suppose the advantage is that you can give it back when it is sodden with sweat and stinky!

She found us a Toroto shop and we bought a key ring to add to our collection of Japanese memories. The stuffed one Mila wanted would have required its own seat on the way home!

Lucky showed us some Chinese yoof having their photos taken professionally in traditional Japanese wedding kimono on a decorative bridge. The poor boy was dressed head to toe in black and looked close to passing out. I hope their photo is good! The photographer’s camera gear wasn’t all that, either…! Lucky said that 99% of people wearing kimono and yukata in the city are in fact not Japanese at all – Chinese, Korean, and other Asian nationalities on their holidays.

She also found us an epic ice cream shop that had benches and air conditioning. Are you starting to see a theme?

Our next dose of culture was the Kodaiji Temple, built in 1605 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s second wife, who became a nun when he died and lived for 27 years consoling his spirit and praying to him. Maybe he didn’t have life insurance?!!! The actual building wasn’t that impressive after seeing the longest wooden structure in Japan earlier but there are 3 thatched tea ceremony buildings and a gravel garden which made our first Zen temple visit an experience nonetheless. My favourite part was the mini bamboo forest which was near the top of the hill and beautifully cool and breezy in comparison to the painfully still streets below.

The water level in the pond had sunk so low that the enormous (and apparently solitary) Koi carp didn’t fit and had to squirm along the mud in the bottom to make progress, with his dorsal fin exposed to the baking sun. My reference to microwaved salmon where a bit is cooked and the rest is not was deemed offensive.

By this time it was 5pm and the sun was sinking, rendering the temperature much more tolerable. We have used umbrellas borrowed from the Machiya for the last two days to try and protect us from the terrifying UV. Our bus stop technique is not elegant but is very effective!

We walked back to Gion through the Yasaka shrine, past rather buff young men in tight shorts pulling rickshaws full of giggling, yakata wearing girls.

Lucky told us the Japanese people see no conflict between Budhism and Shinto- using Shinto to celebrate births and weddings and Budhism to commiserate with deaths.

We had tried to book a restaurant for tonight but the one Keith wanted was completely booked up. Fortunately Lucky had a plan and led us around the warren of narrow streets. Unexpectedly we saw a Geisha and a Meiko heading off to an appointment! The Meiko can be as young as 16 and are apprentices. They can’t become full Geiko until they are 20. Lucky was very surprised to see them and we were all slightly saddened by the rash of tourists with cameras and smart phones pestering them. We stood and stared for a few seconds!

Then Lucky took us to a Teppanyaki restaurant where you could queue for your table in air conditioning sitting on chairs. Blissful.

Sat on the floor around a hot plate, the food was almost incidental but managed to be spectacular anyway- fried noodles tipped straight onto the hot plate, fried potatoes, beautiful buttered corn, steak and chicken thigh. We even had a Japanese radish salad and a big bowl of rice. Danny noticed that there were miniscule fish decorating the salad and then continued stuffing it in his face. I think we have cracked that one- he even tried the octopus at lunchtime!

Our stagger back to the Machiya included a detour to get yet more water and irritate a poor man in a sweet shop, where Keith counted out his pennies to pay for something worth 500 Yen. We had to leave quite quickly, but we had acquired some very crunchy biscuits and a rice-y peanut brittle that I would happily die for. Oh that reminds me… Danny has been hanging out for wasabi peas since we got here and today we managed to source some wasabi nuts. Very tasty, if a bit spicy, but anything that encourages us to drink can only be good.

Breakfast for tomorrow was also purchased from our favourite Familymart and includes yoghurt, fruit, sweet bread things and granola. Fish and rice would be easier to find!!

I am hoping that the double layer of mattress we have requested for tonight will leave my hips less bruised tomorrow!!

No annoyingly loud Chinese ladies this morning so 8am was nearly reached before we woke up. I am starting to feel a bit more human! It is amazing how tiring the heat is, even when we avoid it as much as possible by sun dodging.

Mila’s sun burn is much better today and her chesty cough has almost gone. Sadly, Danny’s chest tightness from yesterday has developed into a nasty, hollow sounding cough (the propensity for which he has inherited from his aunt and Granny!) and a requirement to carry his inhaler. Will keep you posted as to what transpires.

It is fortunate that the train station is so close to the MyStay hotel or we might not have had time to be frog marched there half an hour before the train was due to leave. It did however mean that we had plenty of time to choose our German Bread products to eat on the train. The fast walk with rucksacks rendered Danny speechless for a few minutes so planned to take the rest of the day gently.

Mila and I did some of her memory book on the train- until we felt sick and had to resort to boiled sweets. Then, with the rest of the family happily plugged in and ignoring the scenery, I went back to looking out of the window. I get travel sick so quickly that this is by far the most pleasant way of spending train journeys.

As we approached Kara Onsen, I could see an enormous golden statue on the hill. It is called Jibo Kannon which means “compassionate mother” and “Kannon” is the name of the god. It features a woman cradling a baby and is 73m high.

I also saw herons, cranes, kites, Japanese crows and the possible white tailed eagle again. The others miss so much….

I am going to suggest to Audley that they put a contents page and page numbers into the PDF of the itineraries that they produce. I don’t know how to do it, but I regularly use huge PDF files for work and they have clickability so you can navigate around the document without scrolling. The (heavy!) paper itinerary in the folder is easy to use, but the PDF is so big that it is tricky to find the page you want.

Once a process improvement specialist, always a process improvement specialist!

We walked to the office of the house agent and then got a taxi with the bags straight to the Machiya as it was already ready (thank God!).

We had a little rest in our lovely little house and put the first load of washing on and then did some route planning for our time in Kyoto. A whole new transport system to work out when we had just mastered Kanazawa!

We decided to do a short excursion to the Manga museum, followed by the food and Kimono market. We got distracted on the way to the Manga museum and bought Mila and myself a Yukata as souvenirs. We had aimed for a second hand kimono shop but ended up buying new ones anyway! It was lots of fun picking colours and trying to get the belts to contrast successfully. I have no idea if I will be able to put them on properly but we always have YouTube!

We stumbled on a restaurant selling epic dumplings and strawberry bubble tea. I didn’t take the title ‘soup dumpling’ seriously enough though and the soup ended up on the table after my tentative nibble! The rest of the family learnt from my mistake and shoved theirs in whole.

Bubble tea is lethal. It is like strawberry milk with small balls of jelly in. Sucked through a fat straw, it leaves you very prone to inhaling jelly balls. Too yummy to worry about the risk assessment but don’t buy it for toddlers!

The Manga museum was more of a Manga library, which is a little disappointing when 99% are in a language you cannot begin to read. It was reassuring how many people had paid the entrance to sit in a bean bag or on the floor and read a comic though. No photography was allowed, but Keith was super sneaky: shooting from the hip! There was a Manga artist doing portraits but the queue was completely full. We managed to find a few English/American comics, but we all found it hard to read from back to front. Is it top to bottom or bottom to top? Very frustrating. I need a proper book personally!

Our first underground and overground trip in Kyoto back to Geisha district went well, but was followed by a nightmare of impossible to find and fully booked restaurants. We ended up standing outside a 15 seat restaurant for an hour with our names on a lists and horrific heat still attacking us even in the dark.

Obviously once we got in, the food was amazing and well worth waiting for. We ate our body weight in delicious gyoza and took photos of the children drinking beer (the rules are 20 years today so we got some funny looks but it was non alcoholic!!)

Fate must have been involved in our stressful evening as we were lucky enough to see a Geisha in full dress on the way home.

Home, shower and bed.

We were woken this morning by some very shouty ladies who obviously thought it was time to get up. I didn’t mind too much as I had made a discovery:

wonderful bed + memory foam pillow + solid walls = sleep

Bliss.

A crazy breakfast was consumed, including chips, yoghurt, fried chicken with curry and cocoa pops. There are a lot of Asian tourists in this hotel (we are assuming they are Chinese, but we don’t really know) and I think that is reflected in the breakfast. The dining room host was very concerned about the door lintel. He must think Keith grew over night and has never been tall before. Oh well, he thinks he is helping.

We successfully bought day bus tickets from the front desk of the hotel and ventured outside.

Hot hot hot. 34 degrees and 58% humidity. Hot.

The nice lady on the front desk had also managed to book us onto a Japanese only tour (NO SMALL KIDS!) around a Ninja temple. The plan, concocted the night before, was to visit the market on the way but we were a bit late so we hopped on our first “left loop” bus from the station and set off to the other end of town.

We found the temple with no problems as everyone on our bus was heading the same way. There was barely any shade outside the temple and you were not allowed in until 10 minutes before your tour. We performed our ritual cleaning (although were disappointed that there was no incense for our souls!) and took our shoes off to enter the temple. We had been promised an English translation and I was slightly concerned when the Japanese recording started, but sure enough the lady appeared with two folders of information in English. They have obviously had ne’er do wells in the past as we had to sign them out and promise to return them!

After a Japanese interlude, a lovely lady asked us to stand up and started our tour. Once you had read the English, it was surprisingly easy to follow the context of what she was saying in Japanese: mostly “Mind your head”!

There were many features of the ninja temple whose description elicited audible gasps from the captive audience: pitfalls, secret stairways, hidden doors, secret rooms for praying and watching. Inside there was no breath of air and we were all melting. Then the lovely, lovely lady took us into a secret room (without taking us across the secret bridge as it was too old) which had an air conditioner. Sudden heaven.

Our next stop- via the wonderful bus- was the Omi-cho market. We were greeted at the entrances with blocks of ice for visitors to wipe their hands on to try and cool down. We found enormous crabs and oysters and eventually two useful little towels to soak in water and use to reduce the childrens’ temperatures. Everyone else seems to have them and they definitely seem to improve the level of comfort.

Another trip on a local bus (which was accidental, but still took us to the station) allowed us to experience the wonder of the German Bread shop. We weren’t brave enough to try the curry doughnuts, but the fried chicken sandwich and the apple pastries were delicious.

After lunch, we went for a wander around a fancy department store and Mila and I found a number of extraordinarily expensive bags and pencil cases. Keith wasn’t keen, Danny wasn’t interested!

The next stop on the agenda was the Ishikawa Prefecture History Museum. Expert as we now are at Japanese public transport, it was no effort to get as close as possible on the bus, but it still required a short walk. This was fortuitous as we accidentally went into a temple on the way. Mila decided to pay for a stamp and we handed over the book she brought with her for sketching. This provoked some conversation between the artist and the assistant which culminated in Mila being given a present of a book with the right paper in it! The artist then did his thing and produced a beautiful calligraphy entry in her new book.

Outside the temple was a path, decorated all along with the prayers that people had hung on them. A beautiful, calm space in the middle of all the tourist hustle.

The museum we had been aiming for was deserted, with only a handful of other people in it. We were given free English recordings of the displays and learnt a bit more about Japanese history. We saw some carbonised rice that had been made on the eve of a battle, a reconstruction of a burial mound and a model of the park at Kanazawa Castle with light up sections controlled by buttons. We learnt that the lords subjugated their followers by keeping their wives and children as hostages and forcing them to parade back and forth from their lands; walking hundreds of people for 13 days and 12 nights and costing so much money that they couldn’t afford to rebel. Keith took some photos, despite there being signs everywhere saying “no photography”.

The highlight for Mila was the section where you were allowed to dress up. She challenged some gender stereotypes and the ladies responsible for dressing the children, by requesting the samurai armour and not the pretty kimono. Obviously I just joined in to keep her company…

We hopped on the bus again, this time to the Geisha district: Higashi Chaya. The museum that was supposed to explain the gold leaf making process was expensive and looked dull, so we went to a recommended shop instead and were forcibly subjected to a demo and explanation of gold leaf making and using. Then they served us cold roasted tea with gold leaf floating in it. A lady sprayed Mila with body spray with gold leaf in it and everyone bowed and smiled a lot. We didn’t buy anything… not even a lolly with gold leaf wrapped around one end. Why?

In another shop we saw some of these beautiful decorations. They are shockingly expensive so we took some pictures instead – again surrounded by signs saying “no photography”. I am sure Granny will be able to reproduce them!

We didn’t see any actual Geisha, just tourists dressed up for the day, but we did see a lady cycling along with a toddler in the basket, so that more than made up for it!

Our bus status was upgraded to “public transport grand master” again as we got back on the loop, via the station and back to the Samurai district and Chochinya for chicken wings and skewers.

It was totally impossible to find as it was only labelled in Japanese (Keith took a photo to help future travellers!). Our wonderful WiFi had stopped working and we were back to low tech paper maps. Food panic. Fortunately, before we starved to death, the WiFi started working again and we found it… hurrah! The nice man shook his head and made a cross with his forearms. Not open, come back at 5.30pm. Sigh.

It was definitely worth waiting for. Epic chicken wings and all the skewers were completely delicious and the potato salad was very tasty. I managed: “toriniku wa oishii desu” then kicked myself for not squeezing in a “totemo” as well. Yum.

The left and right tourist loop buses stop at 6pm, but we managed to get a proper local bus back to the station (we are now officially experts!) for sweet snacks and an emergency wee before a quick walk back to the hotel. It was much cooler once the sun had gone down.

Mila and I went to the public baths in the hotel. They were pretty basic and uninspiring but it was weirdly nice to soak and relax in hot water after such a hot and sticky day.

Finally a bit of a relax and a bit of a blog and another sleep.

In the planning for this trip something to be considered was how to record the journey, bearing in mind we would be sending luggage ahead and living out of only what we could carry in rucksacks. We also didn’t want to take only one camera, in the event of a breakage, but couldn’t take more than a few lenses. Lenses could also not really be swapped once outside due to the humidity, meaning what you picked for the day was the body/lens choice for that day! Add to this the need for something to photo-edit whilst on trains and in the evening to keep on top of the hundreds (now thousands) of pictures being taken by everyone. So, we settled on the following:

Equipment list as follows:

• Canon 6d Mk2 body (full frame, so lenses zoom as indicated on the lens body) – a heavy but high quality camera.
• Canon 200d body (crop sensor, so lenses zoom 1.6x indicated on the lens body) – a light and reasonable quality camera, mostly taken as a backup.
• Canon 17-40mm L f4 zoom lens – a wide-angle lens, but also relatively lightweight. On the 200d it is effectively 27-64mm, so a good general use lens; on the 6d it’s a brilliant wide-angle lens.
• Canon 24-70mm L f2.8 zoom lens – a superb general use lens with wide aperture meaning great low-light performance, and on the 200d this is almost a decent medium distance zoom as it’s effectively 38-112mm. It’s really heavy though, at just under 1 kg….
• Canon 50mm f1.4 prime lens – really lightweight, general use and great for portraits. Coupled with the 200d the whole camera weighs very little and it’s great in low light.
• Panasonic Lumix compact camera – great quality compact, and very light. Good for when you can’t be bothered carrying the SLR around! For this trip, it was Danny’s to use.
• Sony compact camera – Amelia’s camera, point and click!
• Microsoft Surface Book 2 laptop – to edit photos at the end of the day, an amazing laptop with detachable screen making it a tablet. Not too heavy at 1.5 kg but the screen is incredible quality. Photo editing is done using a mixture of Lightroom and GIMP, with this blog running on WordPress.
• Samsung Galaxy S8 – Jo and I both have one, amazing camera and a lot of the blog drafts are done using the WordPress app for ease.
• Pocket WiFi – wouldn’t it be nice to have 187 Mbps with unlimited use for 3 weeks…..well we have it! Good job, as after a week we’d downloaded 19 GB and uploaded 7 GB of data!

So there you have it, that’s what we’ve brought to bring you what you’re seeing here!

A very weird and loud cuckoo clock outside in the garden woke us up at 6.30am. Neither child stirred. I was very jealous!

The paper walls in this ryokan meant that I had heard someone going to the toilet in the night, but other than that it really wasn’t too noisy. We opted for an 8am breakfast and it soon became clear that everyone else went for 7.30am. This meant that we got half an hour of peace after they had all gone downstairs and so subsequently forgot to wake up Mila. Poor child was dragged out of her bed and to the table in less than 5 minutes! Even she conceded that breakfast was excellent. It was a shame that the home-made yoghurt was clearly off and the children mourned the two little blueberries drowning in what would soon be cheese.

I stayed out of the way with he children while Keith packed the rucksacks again. This time we had to rearrange to make Mila’s as light as possible. Her t-shirt must have shifted yesterday after I put her sun cream on as she has burnt the side of her neck and it is very sore. She was very brave and managed to carry her pack all day with that special smile/grimace to make sure you are reminded of exactly how brave she is being.

While Keith had been packing, I had read about a certificate you can get for walking from Magome to Tsumago from the local tourist information. I checked with the host and got a stamped slip from her to take to get the certificate. You pay 150 yen (Just over £1) for a certificate produced on wood and it goes towards the upkeep of the path. The Japanese gentleman who organised it for us was very serious and wanted to do his job very well.

Keith went off to get our first Japanese Geocache while I took the kids to the bus stop. Some other foolish tourists were waiting on the right side of the road in full sun. We sat in the shelter on the wrong side. The bus driver still let us on. Shade is key in this heat.

Catching the bus to Nagiso allowed us to level up in our skill at public transport attribute. So proud.

We had to wait almost a hour to catch the train to Nagano in a waiting room with no air con, only to nearly miss it because someone decided to go and get a pocket monster. Grrr.

Due to the anxious attention of the lovely station lady we did make it (there was a little running involved) and spun our seats around once more to enjoy a peaceful trip to Nagano.

We had another wait at Nagano station for our first bullet train to Kanazawa. There was no time to get bored though as this waiting room had air conditioning AND karaoke on a massive TV. Mila almost combusted when she found actual sandwiches in the food shop! Real food as she put it. Poor abused children. Keith and I stayed slightly more adventurous with unidentified meat products, spicy crispy corn and a pork bento box.

[Note: in case you haven’t noticed… I am obsessed with food. Either I am currently eating or I am planning what I am going to eat next.]

Out patient wait was rewarded with our first close up of the Shinkansen! Keith turned into a proper train spotter and Danny was all ready to start rolling his eyes when he realised that there were men walking around under the platform! I presume for loading or maintenance.

We stood at the right number on the platform and sure enough, our bullet train pulled into exactly the right place. There is hardly any gap (maybe 1″) between the train and the platform and the doors slide sideways into the wall. The whole train looks like a grounded aeroplane as it is so aerodynamic and the pointy nose looks enormous when you see the super smart driver in his white gloves and cap perched at the top.

Needless to say it was quick. It was a bit disappointing that there was no screen telling you your current speed and altitude and what percentage of your journey you had completed. Maybe a suggestion they could take on board?

A lot of the journey seemed to be through tunnels, but then you would emerge (without the ear popping effect we are so used to at home) to the most vivid colous: bright green rice paddies and deep blue skies, even some seascapes with thousands of white horses.

At the end of our journey, we arrived in Kanazawa. The fabulous thing about the detailed itineraries that we are working from is that we know how long each journey is before we set out- including the walk to the hotel. It was crazy hot: 36 degrees and 80% humidity. Yuk. The 5 minute walk was entirely uneventful but left us dripping again.

The hotel is big and impersonal but all the staff seem friendly and speak enough English to be helpful.

We had a little rest and then followed Tim’s suggestion of taking a walk to Kanazawa Castle Park. This resulted in very unhappy children. I think it was hotter than it had been in Tokyo, or at least it felt that way due to the humidity. Once in the park, there was shade under the trees and we plotted a route through this beautiful park.

I tried to record the sound in the trees: cicadas, little chirpy birds and massive beaked scary Japanese crows. Mila was having a moment and had walked on ahead. Keith and Danny kept walking so they didn’t lose her and I found myself alone in the woods with a pair of enormous black and white butterflies. Then I realised that the crows had gathered round me….

I am not kidding when I say there were three in the tree above me, one about 6 feet from the path with his head on one side looking at me like I was food and two on an adjacent branch. Generally I like birds. I decided I would look like prey if I ran (and a big jessy) so I walked briskly to catch up with the rest of my family and cooled down gradually over the next 10 minutes or so.

The clever gardeners had decided to set up some rotating sprinklers on one of the lawns and the children ran straight for them. Danny thought to take his hat off. Mila had a cool head for a while after as hers got soaked. Keith and I were not too serious to join in and felt much better for the next 20 minutes or so until we dried out again.

The park was deserted by this point and announcements were being made about the closing times. Officious gentlemen in fawn uniforms beckoned to us urgently and then smiled and bowed in relief once we were on the correct side of his movable wooden barrier. Keith couldn’t understand how a 2 foot high wooden fence across each entrance would keen anyone out overnight, but then the highly respectful Japanese don’t strike us as being that keen on invading or destroying their local community…..take note Igirisu Jin (English person).

We made our way to the recommended restaurant for the evening: Oink, Oink. They specialise in pork (obviously!) and we chose from the menu somewhat randomly: Keith had a pork steak that was so delicious he forgot to take a photo until he had eaten half of it! I chose a salad just because I could, which was delicious, and the children both had spaghetti and tomato sauce! Red mouths and happy smiles all round once they had carbed up.

It was a strangely very quiet walk back to the hotel, but that might have had something to do with the huge fireworks display north of the station. We couldn’t find out anything about it and as it didn’t start until we were back in the hotel and into our hotel-supplied, beige pyjamas, we didn’t go out to investigate. I discovered that I could see the reflection of some of them in a shiny building from the end of the corridor in the hotel.

Speaking of the weird brown pyjamas, imagine my delight when Keith put his on and we realised that they were the same size for me and him. How the children laughed and how strange that the cameras all seemed to disappear at the same time?!?

The green fronds of rice

wave gracefully to the wind

as she passes by.

I am getting old. My back does not like change and complains about new beds. I regularly have to roll out of hotel beds onto my hands and knees to go through my stretches and warm up my back. Sleeping on the floor was no worse or better than normal, but the process of rolling out was less dangerous! What made getting up this morning more entertaining (in retrospect) was the fact that my right leg had gone completely to sleep so when I tried to put weight on it, it collapsed. I was only trying to close the curtain as the sun had risen but Keith woke up at my crashing and flailing about.

Anyway, once we were up it seemed only fair that we go back to the Onsen. At midnight, they swap sides so the men’s becomes the ladies’ and vice-versa. The boys weren’t bothered, so Mila and I went over to the dark side and got naked again. It is so relaxing to go through the process of cleaning and soaking and cleaning that we nearly missed breakfast.

Another meal of 7 courses stretched in front of us and this time we got to try horse, duck, a butterflied sweet fish and a minced chicken tofu parcel thing. The kids were keen on this as they got to cook it all for themselves on hot charcoal. EU regulations would never allow it. Then there was a ham salad, fruit in yoghurt, miso soup, Japanese omelette and various terrifying pickles. It is an exhausting process when nothing is familiar and Danny is particular is getting a bit anxious about the pressure to try stuff at meal times. Still most of it was lovely and we left with full bellies.

Keith did some clever packing so that we could leave the kids’ rucksacks in a locker for the day as our 8km hike was on the agenda.

We got the ryokan’s shuttle back to the bus stop in Tsumago and then caught another public bus to Magome which was the start of our hike. I would like to state at this point that we had almost infinite faith in the timeliness of the Japanese travel network. But this bus was no less than 3 minutes late. Needless to say I was panicking that we were at the wrong bus stop, in the wrong town or otherwise incorrect but it all turned out fine. Phew.

Magome was a total tourist trap and we were easily suckered into buying souvenirs. Danny’s favourite shop was a village food shop. He found an apple Danish and was beyond giddy to have recognised something edible! We found bananas as well and I encouraged Mila to get a yoghurt drink. We took it all to the bench outside and prepared for second breakfast (with reference to hobbits) before we began. Mila gave me a full on pre-teen evil when she tried her yoghurt. Imagine a peach flavoured jelly that you have spent some time sucking backwards and forwards through your teeth. Squeeze this into a foil bag and refrigerate. Oops. Not yoghurt. Once we got over the frogspawn-like consistency it was really nice but it was not yoghurt.

We had been encouraged by a sign telling us that it was only 24 degrees Celsius today and that we would have a pleasantly cool walk. This turned out to either be a lie or the temperature at that point in the day.

The first section was in full sun: bloody steep and bloody hot. Much moaning ensued… and that was just from me! It took us through a section of Magome and past a woodworking shop that smelled deliciously of local cyprus wood. Danny was fascinated by the shrink wrap process the owner was using to prepare the goods for sale but Mila found a wee dragon that we just had to have. The quality of the woodwork and the closeness of the grain was very impressive and it is a good job we were just setting out and couldn’t manage to carry the larger pieces.

The views from the top more than made up for the struggle and when we got to the cool of the forest, a lovely, older Japanese gentleman reassured us that we were nearly at the top, 450m higher than out start point in Magome. Sign language and smiling is all you need!

The children got adept at ringing the bells but I was a bit disappointed not to have seen a dog sized bear!

I turned around just as we emerged from the forest to view the panorama behind us and saw either a Harris hawk or white tailed eagle performing aerial acrobatics and soaring on thermals. I always think of my Dad at such moments and wanted to exclaim its genus loudly to passing tourists. In reality I have no idea what it was. It was big, had white patches on its wings and looked like it was master of the skies it soared in. I have checked Google images and made a good guess. That’s enough for me.

Just over half way was a free tea room – a cool dark wooden building where a Japanese man in traditional dress kept ashes hot enough to boil water for making green tea and served boiled sweets and water to the children. He even allowed Keith to take his photo. We left a donation and returned to the trail.

From here onwards the trail snaked back and forth down the hillside though the forest. It emerged occasionally into the fierce sun to cross the road and then dived back into the gloom. We all prefer the gloom to the glare when it is this hot. We were expecting rain and wind today as the edge of a big typhoon brushed this area. It was almost disappointing not to have the variety but I am glad we did not have to abandon our plan.

Keith and the children managed to get some epic photos of bamboo and rice fields while we were walking and I got to keep pointing out butterflies, dragonflies and enormous bees. For the first time today we saw an animal other than a cafe cat or a handbag dog. This is supposed to the region for Shin shu beef: fed on apples and cider and subjected to regular massages, except we haven’t seen a single cow. Where have they put them?

We saw a lot of farmed fish in tanks fed by the water pouring off the mountains that floods the paddy fields. We saw a single solitary goat and a handful of ducks. There were a few people fishing in the river for the invisible fish (they have another name I can’t remember but they are so good at hiding under rocks they may as well be invisible and are very hard to catch).

No chickens. No pigs. And no sign of these much famed cows. No wonder they eat bee larvae. But I am jumping ahead to supper.

When civilization reappeared at the side of the trail, we knew we had reached Tsumago and needed to dig out the instructions to find our ryokan for tonight. It is fair to say we were all stinky-hot and Keith and I could have wrung out our t-shirts under our rucksacks.

We completed our successful navigation (Google Maps is our friend!), checked in and agreed times for dinner and breakfast. This ryokan feels less pretentious than the last one. The lady who showed us around didn’t walk backwards for a start! There are fish in the pools front and back and beautiful traditional gardens.

The children voted to stay in the air conditioning while we went back to this morning’s starting point to retrieve their rucksacks. I would like to point out at this point that I was entirely vindicated in advocating the use of the lockers. The children moaned less and our stuff was untouched by the Japanese crime wave my husband seems to believe may swamp us at any moment.

By this time it was 3pm and second breakfast felt a long time ago. The lovely host at the ryokan suggested a local delicacy from a cafe directly opposite as a light snack to get us through to 6pm and dinner: oyaki. These are light bread rolls stuffed with various fillings. The children were practically delirious at the idea of a bread product and Keith and I were very pleased with the price at about £1.30 each. We tried spicy vegetable, vegetable and mushroom, pumpkin and apple. They were all delicious but I burnt my fingers trying to tear them all into quarters. Fortunately we had invested in a melon soda so I could cool the throbbing on the side of the glass!

We were not as fragrant as we would have liked by this point so we made a move to the shared showers and bath to scrub off the heady mix of sweat, sun cream and bug spray. The bath was super hot so there was not much soaking or relaxing this afternoon but clean was a huge improvement.

Going outside again did not get many votes so we rested and repacked and tried not to fall asleep for an hour or so.

By 5pm the sun had gone in – replaced by thick cloud so we thought it would be safe to go for a wander up and down the streets of this town from the Edo period. Hearteningly, this town has been preserved because the locals felt it should be and not because of a government initiative. It is a beautiful place where power cables are hidden behind the buildings and the mountains loom in green relief in every direction. It is so peaceful here, I will be sad to leave (the apple oyaki) tomorrow.

By the time we returned to the hotel, it was time to slip into our yukata and go down to dinner. You will be relieved that tonight’s offering was not nearly as scary as yesterday’s. Keith ate all of it and Danny managed a proper meal for the first time in days. Hurrah!

The only challenging items were bee larvae (and as Mila said- but we are not supposed to eat baby bees Mummy!) and the sashimi which they were kind enough to cook for the children and allow Danny to gobble it up. I did try the larvae but wasn’t a fan. I still struggle with the texture of raw fish when the pieces are too thick but this fresh water salmon was excellent and I managed more than yesterday. By the end of the holiday…..

The owner of this ryokan came around to explain the menu was all locally sourced and strictly warn us which order everything should be consumed. There was also a menu on the table which was very helpful.

Generally the food was delicious and seemed to be trying far less hard than last night. Roll on breakfast!

Standing on the balcony of the ryokan this evening, all I can hear is birds tweeting and the odd cicada. No shouting, no fire engines or police, no music. I can’t see any other dwelling- only trees. All I can smell is the steam rising from the onsen. Contrast is what this adventure is all about.

Our day started with the usual buffet (which I still did justice to after a ropey night) and a dash to the train station. For the first time we saw evidence of drunk Japanese who hadn’t made it home. Apparently this is a real problem but the first time we had experienced it. We also saw a fight outside our hotel and had to hustle our staring children away from it. Somehow it made the area seem much seedier than it had the night before when all the music was blaring and the neon lights were flashing.

I do not recommend tying to catch a 9am train from Shinjuku station as your first overland journey. It was terrifying. I have never seen so many people in one place so intent on their own business. I read that the population of Canada passes through this station every day. Now I believe it! We had to ask for help twice and an aggressive uniformed man armed with a stamp activated our Japan Rail passes. By the time we made it onto the train (which wasn’t a bullet train to the disappointment of the children) we were all hot and tired. And it was 9am. We were all instantly reanimated by the family in front of us who pressed a button on a pair of seats and SPUN THEM ROUND! You can choose which way your seats face so you can look at each other or not as you prefer. Japan is great!

Our plan was to hop off the train at Matsumoto to visit the castle recommended by Will. Everything was made a little harder by the day sacks we were all carrying. Neither Keith nor Danny have any padding on their shoulders and their straps rub on their collarbones. Needless to say my padding served me well!

We managed to look up, catch, pay for and get off the public bus in the right place and made it to the castle. We were very proud!

A lot of the places we have visited have volunteer guides- Japanese people who look to be of retirement age and who do a rota of free English tours of their local tourist sites. We decided that the castle would be a good place to get one and we were right. We had a lovely lady whose name meant “peaceful standing in a field” and her trainee whose first name meant “always beautiful”. After we had communicated how much we liked the shade, the tour was excellent and highly recommended. It was clear that they really enjoyed their day of volunteering and talked about spreading world harmony by helping tourists to understand their culture.

So, what did we learn? The castle at Matsumoto is the only one in Japan where you can see water (It has 3 moats) the Japanese alps and the castle all at once. It has 3 moats because it was built on a plain – not a mountain- and was therefore vulnerable to attack. It never was attacked, but they built a special place for the Lord to commit suicide just in case! Nothing like thinking ahead.

It was really hot again today and we were grateful to get inside. The castle is one of the oldest remaining in Japan at 400 years old, so it was built approximately when Shakespeare was writing plays. It has 6 floors (one secret!) With 60 degree angle staircases and was sooo much cooler than outside. We saw muskets, swords and Samurii armour. Mila had her photo taken with a ninja. Danny didn’t like the look of him so wouldn’t play that game!

To the south of the castle, the Lord had built a moon gazing room. He built it when the Shogun was planning to come and stay but typically he never turned up! Our guide told us that they regularly saw three moons: the real one, the image in the moat and the third one was caused by drunkenness.

The lovely guides spent over an hour showing us around, talking about construction and the protection from fire: “the greatest enemy of a Japanese castle”, but they looked a bit nonplussed when Mila asked them why they didn’t just build it from stone!

I felt a bit bemused. When you have spent time in stone castles in the UK with metre thick walls and draw bridges and enormous metal cannons you can’t feel safe in a wooden house where they have hand guns and rocks to drop on people. In fact I am not sure they should be allowed to call it a castle. Don’t get me wrong, it was fascinating and the guides were fab… It was just more of a pagoda than a castle!

Anyway, we managed to get back to the station (with a lot of moaning: heavy bags and sore feet and 34 degrees) and onto the next leg of our journey (also not a bullet train… sigh).

The views from both trains today have added to the intense feeling of contrast. It took an hour to get out of Tokyo and then almost immediately we were in the mountains. I don’t know how anyone moved between villages before the roads and railways were carved into the rocks. The mountains are not that high, but so steep you could go up and down all day and make no progress along.

It was exciting to see the paddy fields and some stands of bamboo. Really made it feel like we were in Japan, until Mila looked up from her phone and said ” it is just like Madeira isn’t it Mummy?”.

Our transfer to the ryokan was super smooth and required no thought at all. Our check-in was speedy and a Kaiseki supper was served 20 minutes later in a private dining room. 2 hours and more than 7 courses later we had all managed to find something we could eat. I am proud to be able to say that I tried horse intestine, a fish created by breeding trout and salmon together, and cooked and ate my own apple fed Wagu beef. I think even Keith is ready to crack on his pronouncement that no Mcdonalds shall be tasted on this trip. We are all desperate for ‘normal’ food and I am pretty sure the kids are losing weight!

After supper we tried the Onsen. No pictures I am afraid as you go in nude and taking a camera might have caused a scene. But imagine a hot tub with added oil outside in the dark with other random naked people and you have got it. Mila and I were lucky enough to have the ladies’ one to ourselves and it was very relaxing; Keith and Danny met a Australian man with his young son in their Onsen. Individual bubbly tubs and larger calm ones outside, then a small cold pool and a large calm pool inside. They must add oil to the water as our skin felt so smooth afterwards.

There was nothing to do but fall into bed, well onto the floor, after that and listen to the silence. One thing we are not having a problem with is getting the kids to sleep!