mallen

On day 12, we arrived into Hiroshima at about noon (once again, a seamless journey thanks to the Japanese rail network). We had a bit of trouble finding our hostel, but after a few minutes of walking around, we were eventually inside, and being shown to our rooms.

Without further ado, we headed for the peace park, A-Bomb dome and A Bomb museum. Whilst the museum was slightly confusing in the order it lays things out (non-chronological), it does well to convey a sense of what it must have been like on 6th August, 1945. Some of the most pertinent exhibits being pieces of children's clothing and several watches stopped at 08:15, when the bomb was dropped.

The Children's Peace Monument was incredibly touching and encapsulated the feeling of positivity and hope which managed to come out of the devastating events. (The story goes that a young Japanese schoolgirl, Sadako Sasaki, who was two at the time of the bombing, resultantly (due to radiation exposure) developed leukaemia. During her time in a nursing home, she started her mission of folding 1000 origami cranes, an action which according to an ancient legend, would grant her a wish from a crane. Sadly, before she was able to finish this endeavour, she became too weak to fold any more. Her classmates, inspired by her story, continued - and completed - the task. There is now a collection of cranes that is added to by schoolchildren around the country in hope of world peace.)

From the museum, we had a brief wander around the city before going for some dinner. We went into a specialist okonomiyaki arcade. 3 floors of small stalls each with their own take on a local dish. The food was delicious, and the portions huge. The concept of okonomiyaki is that your food is cooked on a hot plate in front of you. The dish consists of a pancake topped by noodles, topped by shredded cabbage, topped by meat, topped by an omelette, topped with special sauce - a very filling dinner.

Days 13-16 were spent in Oita with Charmaine (my aunt), Koyo (her husband), Emma and Kei (their children). A big shout out to them for putting us up, entertaining us, being our tour guides, feeding us and generally putting up with us.

Oita was a real change of pace for us, and it was gave us an opportunity to see a completely different type of existence to in the big cities we had previously visited. Charmaine and Koyo's house (built by Koyo) is away from other buildings and commerce, and occupies a lovely plot in the mountains. On our first evening with them, Koyo cooked us a delicious dinner (which was to become a theme) which included sashimi, rice, soup and, for me, my first experience of raw chicken. It was tougher than I expected, but the flavour was delicious - although it was difficult to shake off the nagging feeling in my mind that eating it was a cardinal sin that I had been warned against for most of my life. Needless to say, I survived.

During our stay in Oita, we had a trip to the local town where Kei and Emma go to school, and Charmaine and Koyo teach, called Oguni. We also had a trip to the local volcano, Mount Aso, which was unfortunately closed to visitors due to the toxic gases that were being blown in our direction (one whiff of the air outside the car triggered coughing fits all round). We also visited two separate onsen; one at which we cooked lunch of sweet potatoes, eggs and prawns on the natural steam vents, and the other we visited during snowfall - I 'd probably go as far as calling it poetic.

One of my favourite things in Oita was to learn that I really like hot Sake - especially when the weather outside is cold - it's a real winter warmer.

Befitting the hospitality that they showed us throughout our stay, Charmaine gave us a lift to Hita train station on the morning of Day 16 for us to start our trip to our final destination in Japan - Nagasaki.

Days 16 & 17 in Nagasaki featured some long walks, some more cemeteries (the best views), a hike up Mount Inasa with a dance at the top, a journey down on the cable car (which scared Emily a bit), a meal of the local speciality of Champon (with the last few Yen we could scrounge together), a trip to the restored part of Dejima Island (the man-made island on which the Ducth were allowed to stay - the single place of direct trade with the outside world during the Edo period) and a nice walk around the harbour (very picturesque)

Days 5-7: Tokyo – Takayama - Kyoto

Befitting the level of service in the Tokyo ticket office, the train journey itself was smooth, timely and offered excellent picturesque views. We travelled through a valley containing Japan's 3rd fastest river, often known as the Japanese Rhine for the similarity of its blue-green hue. I made a terrible decision with lunch; a bento box comprising some sort of rice balls wrapped in dripping sweet pastry and dried whole tiny fish sprinkled on top.

  In Takayama, we stayed in a nice – albeit very quiet – hostel called J Hoppers, where we were hosted by a very pleasant English guy living with his Japanese wife. First impressions of Takayama, from walking around the heart of it were that it was very quiet and could be compared to a ski resort in the French Alps; an abundance of fairy lights, overpriced souvenir shops and very meaty local culinary specialities.

  We stayed in Takayama for two days. On the first, we just walked around the city (it is a city, but definitely feels more like a village), visiting some hillside cemeteries – often our favourite haunts in Japan (excuse the pun) as they offer an escape from crowds and unrestricted aerial views of the area. We tried the local speciality of Hida beef buns, which were delicious, and visited a nostalgia museum, which was surprisingly good.

  Our second day in Takayama included a visit to Hida Folk village, which provided a faithful recreation of how a village in the Japan Alps would have traditionally functioned around 500 years ago. If I could sum up their way of life in two words, it would be “bloody freezing”. After an Arctic couple of hours in the folk village, we decided to go and warm our bones at an onsen town called Gero. An Onsen is a Japanese hot spring, and although there are several natural ones (in rivers, lakes, etc.), several towns with a high hot spring activity have drawn water from hot springs into sculpted surroundings at their hotels or spas. In the case of Gero, there are both, but we opted for the hotels, and visited two such establishments. Each of these hotels had an outdoor and indoor hot pool, and each of them are divided into a ladies' and a men's area. The etiquette is that you are wash yourself in a small shower before entering the pool, and then bathe in each of the pools, possibly rinsing / cleaning in between (as far as I understood). The onsens were great, and very relaxing – they felt like an insight into local life, especially when a barrage of pensioners came to join us in the pools.

  Days 8-11 – Kyoto

Arrival in Kyoto presented us with a huge, labyrinthine station which we struggled to navigate our way out of for some time. When we finally emerged in the real world, on the right street, it wasn’t until we’d walked for about ten minutes that we realised we’d been walking south rather than north – not a happy realisation when you’re lugging so much weight (nevertheless, good practice for much more testing situations in less forgiving climates). We got to our hostel, K’s House, which was bright, clean, airy, warm and friendly – exactly what we wanted after freezing for 3 days in Takayama. After checking in, w ventured out of the hostel, and found ourselves picking up some lunch and supplies in a department store called Yodabashi Camera. This was a wholeheartedly overwhelming experience during which we also trawled through several floors of electronics to find a mini tripod and a Kobo E-reader (I sat on my Kindle on a train). Words can’t describe how many individual electronic items can actually fit under one roof, it’s quite astounding. Finding the right foods for the hostel and for lunch was, needless to say, an equally stressful and overwhelming task.

  Surfacing from the all-consuming department store, we realised it was just starting to get dark, so we decided to make a small detour on the way home and ascend the Kyoto Tower. A tower atop a hotel which offers amazing views of the entire city and the surrounding mountains. Somebody described Kyoto as being like a city shaped by tea-tray-like confines – this seemed an apt description – as you see the city coming to an end as the hills begin.

Our next few days in Kyoto gave us a chance to explore an unimaginably picturesque city and the temples, shrines, markets and gardens it has to offer. It seems that each corner you turn, you’re faced with another inspiring vista.

  Day nine’s favourites included Kiyomizu Dera – a temple built onto the mountains using a series of complex beams and struts. Within this temple, you can find the Tanai Meguri which is a pitch black underground room that you walk through (representing the opening of the womb of Daizuigu Bosatsu, a Bodhisattva who can grant you one wish). When you’ve descended the stairs guided only by a rope banister, you touch an illuminated, spinning stone and your wish will come true. While in the area, we took in some other sites in and around Southern Higashiyama, including the Maruyama Koen, a park with one of the oldest cherry trees in Kyoto.

  On day ten, we started with the Nishiki market, a seemingly never ending market street, known as Kyoto’s Larder. It goes to say that just over a week in Japan had already desensitized me to some of the foods that may previously have made me squirm slightly. I tried a lot of sweet things, lots including eggs and bean curd at various levels of cooked-ness, fermentation or pulp, but none of them quite lived up to their hype. From the market, we made our way up to the bamboo groves in Arashiyama in the north-western reaches of the city. The groves were very peaceful and tranquil, but this was intermittently ruined by the buzzing of the bamboo timber yard just out of sight. Also in this area was Okochi Sanso, the gardens of an old Japanese silent movie star. While entry was steeper than most other sites we visited (in both cost and in gradient), the perfectly manicured gardens were incredibly beautiful. On our return to Kyoto proper, we had a look around the train station, which is a staggeringly impressive 13 floor giant with a skywalk, three levels of train platforms and a floor dedicated solely to ramen restaurants.

Day 11 was slightly slower, and the main event was walking along the Philosoper’s Path, so called because Nishida Kitaro, the Japanese philosopher and Kyoto university lecturer supposedly meditated there. I wonder what Kitaro would think now if he saw that the Kyoto women’s university bus was called the “Princess Line”? Later that day, we chanced upon a 390 Yen shop (just over 2 pounds) and found some very snazzy Christmas waistcoats for our troupe to wear on Christmas day. In the night, we went out to a great little bar and drank plenty of gin fizz and plum wine.