Aso Nakadake Crater The hotel room came with an awesome buffet breakfast of hot and cold items.  Of particular note was the tempura beef slices and a yuzu jelly. I had planned for a departure at 0900 but we managed to push off at 0830 driving to Aso Nakadake Crater as our first stop.  The […]

Moving to Kyushu Today we make an interisland rail trip from Hiroshima to Fukuokka (or strictly speaking Hakata) to begin our Kyushu road trip.  We left the hotel around 0820 for our 0905 train. The interisland crossing by tunnel was so short, I must have blinked and missed it completely.  Arriving at 1011 at Hakata, […]

We had opted for an early start in the hope of catching Miyajima Island’s iconic torii at full tide.  We left our rooms at 0730 and got to the boat at the Atomic Bomb Dome by bus in time for the 0815 departure. Our arrival at Miyajima at 0900 was perfectly timed for the high […]

Above:  View of Mount Fuji on the shinkansen from Tokyo to Hiroshima.  Leaving Tokyo Today we say goodbye to Jacqueline as she flies home to Vancouver.  On the other hand, Alice and I take the shinkansen south to Hiroshima, about 4h away. All three of us left the hotel around 0930 to give ourselves plenty […]

Chureito Pagoda Today we make an excursion by organised day-tour to the Chureito Pagoda and other points in the Mount Fuji area.  I had checked the weather forecast about 10 days in advance before selecting today’s date.  With long-range forecasts not being accurate and a cancellation deadline of one-week beforehand, there’s a lot dependent on […]

Cup Noodle Museum The plan for the day was go to Yokohama, which has a Chinatown.  As with previous days, we left the hotel around 0930 so as to avoid the rush hour in the rail and metro. Our hotel is connected to a station which served Yokohama directly.  At Yokohama station, we had trouble […]

Gotokuji Temple The target for the day was Gotokuji Temple, famous for its numerous maneki-neko or happy cat statuettes.  We left the hotel at 0930 by train and arrived about an hour later. The forecast sunny weather appeared to be a lie when we arrived.  Fortunately, the skies brightened up considerably towards the end of […]

Smoke protection This morning, I noticed that the inside of my hotel room door had a plastic bag attached to it.  Instructions suggested that it is to be used over the had, puffed out with air, during fire evacuation as protection from smoke.  It really goes against all the things we’ve been taught with plastic […]