Hello again from Diana and Dave,
We are now in a place called Ise just south of Nagoya and met our friends this afternoon and we have gone straight to an internet cafe.
We have not had a chance to use the internet much since being here.
We have been having a fantastic time and everyone is so polite and friendly.
We had five hectic days in Tokyo seeing all the main sights and racing around on the subway trains there. The train system is amazing and so crowded, it is overwhelming at rush hour.
Our hotel was in a place called Ueno and there was a lovely park there with one of the main cherry blossom viewing places in the whole city. People were having parties, eating and drinking on mats under the trees. The white blossoms were out mainly and were like white clouds in a huge area either side of the pathway. The pink blossoms were just starting to come out.
Walked around the Ginza area and saw all the expensive designer shops. Didn't buy anything exciting just a pair of tights there to wear under my trousers as has been much colder than expected!!
The crowded streets with all the neon signs were amazing and like Times Square in NY or Piccadilly Circus in London. The sheer number of people rushing around and the huge number of shops and shopping areas is incredible. The busy pedestrian crossings were a sight behold with people all merging in to each other. One is seen a lot in movies and on videos called Shibuya Crossing, it is a sea of people.
Have been enjoying the food, most restaurants do not have the menus in English but they have pictures of all the different dishes so we just point at them and hope for the best! It has worked out so far!! It has been too cold for sushi though!!
Saw lots of temples in a place called Nikko all in the lovely woodland with snow on the ground.
We caught the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Nagoya and then up in to the mountains on a slower train to a place called Takayama. We got a fantastic view of Mt Fuji close up going past on the bullet train at 300 km per hour! would have liked a slower view of it actually.
Takayama is up in the mountains and was very cold with snow on the ground. There are lots of old historic wooden houses there. The best thing was the luxurious hotel we stayed in that had the hot baths (onsen) on the 13th floor rooftop. They were inside and outside bathing areas. We managed to bathe the Japanese way i.e. with no clothes on but they are separate male and female baths so it was OK but took a bit of getting used to at first with the etiquette and knowing what to do! No shoes were worn in the whole hotel and you had to put them in lockers at the entrance. They had the lovely tatami matting throughout on the floors. The breakfasts were totally Japanese there and most of the time you have no idea what you are eating but most of it tastes good and we both of us eat most things luckily.
We are with our friends in Ise now and will be doing a tour of the area tomorrow. There is a big Shinto temple nearby and we will be going out for a meal with our friends family which will be good.
It is a bit quieter here and more rural with lots of rice paddies nearby and will be a nice change before we head off to Osaka, Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
As we said before we have not had much change to send emails or even find and internet cafe. Our Japanese friend knew straight away where the nearest Internet cafe was as her children wanted to spend some time on the net so we were happy to oblige! Not sure when the next chance will be.. The text keeps changing to Japanese if I miss the space bar like this 案d異 案d意sv栄えあ and is a bit annoying!!
Hope everyone is well.
I have just about shaken the cold I had before leaving Sydney!!
All the best
Love from Diana XXXX
Dave says konichiwa too!
