We have decided the Japanese weather is even more changeable than at home. The temperatures go up and down like a roller coaster and despite quite a bit of rain, we've not had more than one wet day in row. After a duck day yesterday, we were hoping for better things today for our visit to Himeji. Himeji is a small Japanese city of around half a million people between Hiroshima…
Today we finally got our lazy day. Matt and I headed down to the local supermarket to stock up on breakfast to kick start the day. It gave us the energy to laze around some more - our excuse was the rain and a need to catch up on things like washing and blogs. It was well after midday by the time we ventured out in search of some lunch. We…
We woke to a dreary cold Tokyo morning. I always feel better about leaving a place I have loved when the weather is bad, and 3 degrees with rain qualifies as bad in my books. Hotel Richmond in Mejiro had been a brilliant place to stay, with great transport links but very quiet and calm by Tokyo standards. It reminded us a bit of Richmond where we lived in London. We…
Our plan was for Hiroshima to be a more relaxing part of the trip, and a chance for our tired bodies to rest a bit. With the promise of a fine day ahead, we headed for Miyajima Island, just south of Hiroshima. We took the local train and then a short ferry ride, all covered by our JR passes. Miyajima is home to the Itsukushima Shrine with its iconic red Torii…
After the wobbles of yesterday, Monday went a lot more smoothly. Our city-survival strategies are definitely improving. We woke to sunshine so we grabbed the chance to visit Skytree. Tokyo has a number of high places offering great views of this mega sized city. The kids were desperate to visit Skytree - the tallest tower in the world at 634 metres high (and the second tallest structure, only beaten by Burj…
Our last trip to the USA was a theme-park free adventure. The kids were never going to agree to that a second time. Tokyo Disney has two theme parks on offer - Disneyland and Disneysea. We had told the kids we would devote one Tokyo day to the mouse in a park of their choice. Disneysea was the clear favourite - it's the only sea themed Disney park in the world…