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…
Friday 13th June 2008 Our beds are Japanese style futons, but much more comfortable than the last hotel and the bathroom is bigger. After breakfast we hired a couple of bikes from the hotel for five hundred yen each to cycle around the city. Our first stop was at Nijo Castle where we paid two…
Thursday 12th June 2008 We were up and out of the hotel by half nine despite Ady feeling worse this morning. We walked to Ueno station in the rain and got the local train to Tokyo central to pick up the Shinkansen to Kyoto. We arrived in Kyoto at quarter past one and walked in…
Wednesday 11th June 2008 After another late start we walked into Asakusa to have a look around the markets until our washing was done. We ate a bit of lunch at the hostel whilst the washing was drying and then caught the train down to Akihabara to have a look around the electronics district. The…
Tuesday 10th June 2008 We were up and out of the hostel just after ten and walked to Ueno station. We booked tickets through to Ito and then got on the local train to Shinagawa. The guy in the ticket office had taken a while and by the time we got to Shinagawa we’d missed…
Monday 9th June 2008 After a late start we had breakfast in the hostel and headed out to get the train up to Komagome and walked around the very pretty Rikugien Gardens in the rain. We’d picked up some bits for lunch at a bakery in the station and ate those whilst sheltering under the…
Sunday 8th June 2008 My plane arrived into Tokyo on time and it didn’t take too long to get through immigration and customs. After enquiring at the information office I managed to work out that Ady’s flight had come in to Terminal 1 and mine in to Terminal 2. A short, free shuttle bus ride…