A fairly delayed blog post re Japan.
Had a great time seeing Jul and Mayumi, and seeing the temples, shrines, parks, towers, etc. Plenty to see in Tokyo and plenty of tasty food.
day 1: a vist to a noodle restuarant followed by a trip to see the blossom. then home to bed as we’d been up for 30 hrs or so.
day 2: the temple and market at Asakusa. it’d rained all day and unfortunately the temple was covered for to repairs
day 3: tokyo tower and nearby temple. lovely day and there seemed to be an event of sorts going on. met up with jul in the afternoon in a park near the fish market. tried traditional green tea – no so tasty. walked back via Ginza.
day 4: early start to get the the fish market for the best action. arrived to find it deserted. apparently drunken tourists had trashed the place and it was closed for a month. went to the folk museum instead. then to yoyogi park to the main buddhist temple and then to Hirajuku for people watching.
day 5: yokohama. pleasant walk along the harbour. got burnt.
day 6: a bento lunch with jul in the national gardens and a spot of reading
day 7: beer museum and park near the imperial palace. trip to bic camera – impressive
day 8: made gyoza under the instruction of Mayumi. Epic taste. Visit to Ghibli museum which was good fun.
day 9: a bit ill. stayed in.
day 10: Kamakura. very nice small village by the sea. loads of surfers.
day 11: bit more ill. visit to docs, followed by stroll round the east imperial palace gardens.
day 12: back to kamakura to see bamboo grove and giant buddha
day 13: hmm, not sure
day 14: chillout day, walked around gotanda area
day 14 + 1: flight cancelled. ate roast chicken in yet another park. taste! afternoon reading on jul’s roof
day 14 + 2: still no flights. visited the national building. good views and guided tour.
day 14 + 3: still no flights. small aquarium near gotanda. good dophin show, but tanks seemed a bit small:-(
day 15 + 4: early phone call from Virgin. panic! rush to airport and flight miraculously took off!
I’ve also uploaded more photos to picasaweb.google.com/decoyotis/Japan
Great medley of photos. I particularly like the municipal workers kitted out to go base jumping. Somehow, I find it hard to believe the same healthy and and taste conscious people eating those enormous bamboo shoots would also be queing up for raw horse meat or, perish the thought, raw tripe, even if it was, as promised, ‘freshly sliced’!