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It’s so good to be back in Shinjuku! It is our spiritual home in Japan. Actually it’s not spiritual at all, it’s totally materialistic, loud and flashy. But our day started in a highly spiritual place in the Arashiyama area of Kyoto. When planning this holiday one of the activities I wanted to do was…

Anyone who has only travelled on a Shinkansen and thinks that they have seen the best the Japan Railways has to offer is sadly deluded. Okay, the regional trains may not be as comfortable as a Shinkansen, but the often fantastic views more than compensate for this. We bought day tickets for the Matsue Lakeline…

We set out to visit the world’s best Japanese garden, but we barely set foot in it. That’s okay, because it’s designed to be viewed through glass windows. A local express delivered us to Yasugi with it’s very wooden station selling all manner of local crafts and foodstuffs. From there the free shuttle bus took…

It is such a struggle getting out of the hotels on time. We had to race down the main strip of Yamaguchi in the rain rolling our bags noisily behind us in order to reach the station in time for our train to Tsuwano. It’s the first day of wet weather on this trip, which…

I have a fondness for goldfish and I love lanterns, so how could I resist combining the two? Today we caught the train to Yanai where Kingyo Chouchin, or paper goldfish lanterns, are made. It was a journey of sniffles as Alex has given us his cold. I hate getting a cold in Japan, a…

We tried to get out early from the hotel this morning. We did make it down for the free Japanese breakfast of rice and soup, but couldn’t quite check out on time. Our luggage left in the care of the hotel we eventually made it to Hakata Station, where we tried to book some seats…

It proved impossible for us to leave the hotel before midday. We woke up too late for the free breakfast and then washed our clothes in the hotel coin laundry. Eventually we made it to Hakata station, where we visited a travel agent to try to book some hotels for the 20th and 21st. It’s…

The original plan for today was an epic railway ride as far as the continuous Shinkansen tracks go, from Hachinohe in Japan’s north to Hakata in the south (actually, there’s another stretch of Shinkansen track down to Kagoshima from Shin-Yatsushiro, but there is a break in between there and Hakata). Well, as noted before, we…

Before Alex, hospitals we only visited hospitals to see other patients, and that rarely. Now we have seen one in Japan. To see a doctor in Japan you generally have to visit a hospital. We woke early and walked a couple of blocks down to Eiju Hospital, where we discovered that registrations began at 8:30…

I think Alex’s first word will be kawaii! It’s Japanese for cute and it’s all he’s been hearing lately. Even before we left Australia the other Japanese passengers came up and exclaimed “kawaii!”. Alex may be a big drawcard here in Japan, but sadly he’s not the happiest little fellow. The poor guy seems to…