Naturally Nihon

That's all folks! The adventure is over. D and I popped over to Odaiba, a spot on reclaimed land in the harbour facing Tokyo City from the sea. They even have a replica of The Statue of Liberty here... But the heatwave continues with temperatures in the high thirties and feeling like high forties (°C), and it's just too hot to be sightseeing, so we left Tokyo and headed out to Narita Airport earlier than we'd planned. Goodbye Japan! 👋   Just in case you thought I'd forgotten, here's another power pylon, my favourite that I have named 'Godzilla'... 😆 

This morning we experienced the aftermath of Tokyo morning rush hour, crammed into a metro train to get to Tokyo's tallest structure for our 10am booking. The Skytree looks out over metropolitan Tokyo which is home to 38 million people!!! Weirdly, even though we didn't go to the topmost viewing gallery, it was so high up that it didn't seem real. It could just have been painted scenery two floors beneath us... And when we got back to Shibuya, we manged to get a view down onto the famous 'scramble' crossing... Check out this video for a 20-second insight into the madness that is The Shibuya Scramble...

Most of today was taken up by a 700km train journey back to Tokyo, crossing The Seto Ohashi Bridge on the first leg... ...and then Shinkansen all the way from Okayama to Tokyo. Sadly, Mount Fuji was swathed in cloud, so we didn't get to see that iconic scene of the snow-capped volcano. Back in Tokyo, and staying very close to the Shibuya Scramble, that mad multi-way pedestrian crossing. I only took video footage, but here's a shot from a nearby street, just to give you some of the big city vibes...

A good lie-in today followed by an excellent brunch of pancakes, bacon, an egg and maple syrup! Fuel to face another inferno of a day out there. Something like 34°C and 67% humidity. Phew!  The reason we're in Takamatsu is to visit the third and last of Japan's famous gardens that Diana and I will visit. Ritsurin Garden is a 2km walk from our hotel which means we probably sweated a litre of fluid each just to get there. Anyway, here are a few of the photos we took... What a beautiful place! Lots of water and islands. Over 1,400 pine trees, of which, 1,000 pruned by hand! We grabbed lunch from a corner shop and ate it in our room back at the hotel, then I left Diana to go and find a 'bonsai village', at Kinashi, a short way from Takamatsu. Unfortunately, all the proprietors of the businesses were sheltering indoors. I tried hailing them from outside their homes, but to no avail. Finally I saw one old chap and ma...

This morning we investigated Matsuyama Castle, fearing it might be a mock-up, Osaka-style; concrete and an elevator inside.  Well, the castle sits on a hilltop overlooking the city, so it has a natural defensive advantage. Although it doesn't have an elevator inside the Castle, it does sport a quaint cable car to get you from street level up to the lower grounds of the castle, or if you're more of a thrill-seeker, a chair lift (no belts or restraining bars). Once at the top of the 'ropeway' - as the Japanese refer to cable cars - there's still a healthy climb to the top. There are at least three zig-zag gateways, natural killing zones, that an attacker would have to break through to reach the castle itself. Admittedly, the castle was rebuilt in 1852 (of course) after a fire, but it was rebuilt in wood which means it has a lovely old feel to it, and it's not hard to imagine stepping back in time. Arrow slips and loop holes give out into th...

Today's main experience was a 3 hour ferry journey across the Seto Inland Sea that separates the island of Honshu from Shikoku. Our destination was Matsuyama, which perhaps is not a premier sightseeing spot, but I love a ferry crossing, and it is en-route to Takamatsu where there's another fantastic garden to visit. Anyway, cracking weather for a sea cruise! I couldn't help but notice the megaphones mounted on poles near the sea once we got to Matsuyama. I guess these are the tsunami warning sirens which really makes the danger of this area seem real! That said... We've been here two whole weeks now and still no sign of Godzilla 😞

I'm just going to post two photos I took, both with a brilliant blue sky that disguises the horror that took place here. I was briefly tempted to add an image from the Internet of a victim of the atomic bomb that was dropped here, but decided against it. I leave it up to the reader to do their own research and see the burned flesh, charred skin etc. 8:15am on a bright, cloudless morning on the 6th of August 1945, one bomb was dropped here. 140,000 people died on the day and in the following months to the end of 1945. It sometimes seems as though the human race has not ascended much above the club and spear in terms of thought and civilisation. The so-called leaders of the world appear to be the most reckless among us, expending lives for political ends. We'll need luck if our species is to persist much longer. The Peace Memorial Museum should have been a moving tribute to those who perished and suffered, but sadly it was ruined by the staff who failed to...

This evening we fetched up in Hiroshima, but not without a brief stopover in Okayama to stroll through Koraku-en, "one of the Three Great Gardens of Japan." Completed in 1700 on the instruction on feudal lord Ikeda Tsunamasa it was passed to the Okayama Prefecture in 1884. Our journey from Osaka was on the speedy Shinkansen... And from the hustle-bustle, into the relative tranquility of a beautiful Japanese garden, with all that thought that goes into views and telling a story through the placement of stones and water and sculpted trees... This was such a different experience to Kenroku-en in Kanazawa which was much busier, not just with people, but with trees...almost no open space except above the water. Here in Koraku-en by contrast, much of the central are is taken up by an expanse of (I'll call it) lawn, which evokes rolling countryside leading to lakes, mountains and trees in the distance... Ignore the white lanterns. They were pr...

It wasn't a destination on our itinerary, but Diana and I decided we'd had enough of the retail&food paradise that is Osaka, so we decamped to Kobe for a few hours. Easy to do and the train was free, thanks to our JR Passes. I wanted to see the sea. I like the sea. We didn't see it while in Tokyo, and while we could have got close to it here in Osaka, there wasn't an obvious destination that chimed. And so, Merikan Park, harbourside in Kobe, with the added blessing of a maritime museum! I know, we're squinting, but it's very bright! Small trees, small boats...there's a theme developing!