It has certainly been a fantastic four and a half months, with so many experiences and sights. It wasn’t an easy decision to come back earlier than planned, but it is only by five weeks. The most common question that I’ve been asked whilst travelling around and now that I’m back is what was my…
This is a list of all the items from my travels. What I consider to have been the most useful I have indicated with a (*) and where relevant for which part of the trip. The following items were carried home in my main ruck sack (75lt Karrimor Panther). Everything in the main compartment was…
Saturday 21st June 2008 We were up at 5:45am and on the train by ten to seven. It was almost as busy as during the off-peak times during the week except that everyone was in casual clothes apart from a school girl. We made it to the 7:15 Narita express and got off at terminal…
Friday 20th June 2008 We were up relatively early this morning and were at Ueno station before nine. We looked for the Shinkansen services to Tokyo, but couldn’t find any so got our usual Yamanote line train. We made it in time for the 9:26 Kodama service to Odawara where we paid 300 Yen each…
Thursday 19th June 2008 The overnight train was not the most comfortable I’ve been on and the top bunk was really hot. We both woke up at about six and heard loads of announcements, but of course didn’t understand them. At quarter to seven the Japanese guy in our compartment spoke to me and explained…
Wednesday 18th June 2008 We were up fairly late, had breakfast and packed up our stuff. We decided against staying in Sasebo for the afternoon so went to the station and changed our booking to the next available train to Hakata. After finding three lots of lockers completely full we finally managed to find an…
Tuesday 17th June 2008 We wandered down to the ferry terminal to see what was available and decided to get a boat up the coast. We were out of cash so headed back into town before buying tickets for the 11:20 boat to Hirado. We were the only people on it and we ended up…
Monday 16th June 2008 We were up early again to catch the train from Kyoto to Hiroshima. Because we can’t use the JR pass on the Nozomi trains we got the 9:16 departure and had to change in Shin-Osaka. We had glorious sunshine in Hiroshima and after getting a cheap lunch in a restaurant that…
Sunday 15th June 2008 We were up early to get the 8:52 train to Tottori. It was a three hour ride through towns, pine clad hills and valleys and lots of tunnels. The Limited Express Super Hukato train was a tilting diesel unit equipped with driver’s eye camera and screens at the end of each…
Saturday 14th June 2008 We had breakfast at the hotel again and then walked down to the station to catch the 10:50 rapid train to Nara. Once there we popped into the tourist information office and got a town map, which the enthusiastic guy behind the counter marked up with a suggested route. We followed…