Day 13 - Tokyo

Our final day in Japan today, and we are staying on the 45th floor with curtains you can open without getting out of bed, so understandably we were very excited about waking up to the view. Excitement quickly waned when the only thing we could see was grey, which rather set the tone for the whole day weather-wise! Lots of grey skies and rain, but fortunately very little planned. We grabbed hotel breakfast - poached eggs feeling like a luxury after 2 weeks of cold rice and steamed Pork buns in the morning. I had then arranged for us to do a tour of the Asahi brewery through my boss at work. We had no idea what to expect from it all, but thought it would be fun to do.

We were met at the hotel by a man called Tomo (great name...) who is responsible for the Japan side of their European business. He navigated us on a couple of trains to the brewery (about an hour outside tokyo) where we were met by a lovely lady who gave the two of us a private tour of the place.

It was absolutely enormous, producing a years supply of beer for 30,000 average Englishman for a full year every day. However, almost everything is automatic, so they only had 250 staff.

The tour ended with us being shown into a private bar where they had laid on lunch for us and let us sample their core range of beers. By sample, I mean they gave us half a pint of each. We were then given a bag with 1of each of their main soft drinks, a bottle of whiskey and a box of beer flavoured chocolates. Once again, we were bowled over by Japanese hospitality... It's really something.

Back to the hotel to pack, and our table had been delivered. Only... Not in a box. Just wrapped in a tiny bit of bubble wrap. Cue a rush trip to the nearest post office to try and find a box big enough. Or, 3 boxes that were not big enough. 45 minutes and 2 rolls of duct tape and we had something we can put on a plane.

After that, bags were packed, swimsuits donned and we hit the sauna for a final relax.

We are just enjoying a final drink in a bar just below cloud level and looking over the city. It's safe to say there is a great sense of sadness to be ending such a wonderful holiday and to be leaving such an incredible country. There was a lot that was unbelievably amazing. There were a few things that could have been better. But there is no doubt in my mind that we will certainly be coming back to see more.

Day 12

A bit of confusion this morning, as I had arranged a little trip for us, but had managed to make us think it was today, when actually, it's happening tomorrow. I'm good like that.

The only harm was an earlier morning than necessary though, as we mostly switched our plans around for the days.
We were thwarted for a second time by the Tokyo sky tree. On our first attempt at the start of the trip there was a two hour queue, this time there was no queue, but there was also no view. We got to the ticket desk and the woman showed us a blank grey screen. Then she to us that was the view from the top. Needless to say we didn't waste the time to get to the top.

Instead, we headed to Yanaka, a district to the north of Tokyo as we had read that it still had an air of the old town about it. We were following a walking tour from in the lonely planet, only it turns out the map and instructions were both incredibly vague. We may have got a bit lost... But eventually found roughly where we wanted to be and saw some more temples and another grave yard. It's been a bit grizzly all day, so we headed back to our final (swanky) hotel for some well earned relaxation. It has spa, pool and possibly the best placed gym in the world - not that we are using it!

Our room is on the 45th floor, so I'm sure you can imagine just how amazing the view is. Who needs the sky tree when you have a hotel like this? We've seen the sun set over the city and watched the neon glow become just a sea of flashing red lights.

We did venture the confines of our hotel room for dinner with Ant's friend Rich, who has been living in Japan for 12 years. He took us to a nice little restaurant and it's fair to say having someone who spoke the language was more than a little bit helpful!

We also bought a side table. Because that what people do right? Go on holiday, come back with furniture. Our figures are firmly crossed that they will let it on the plane. We've got plenty of yen left, so a bribe is not out-of the question!

Day 11 - Koya to Tokyo

Not much to report today, but we shall start with the start. Quite literally. As we were staying in the temple lodgings, we were invited to observe the morning prayer ceremony, which meant that we were up with the sun.

It was quite bizarre - there were only 4 monks, kneeling in front of quite an impressive shrine and chanting. There was a LOT of chanting. And not particularly tuneful either. There seemed to be one guy who was leading, but for the most part they were "harmonising"... You could tell which guy was the boss because every now and then he would hit a singing bowl. And of course, there was a lot of incense. Because who doesn't love the smell of incense in the morning?

This may sound quite negative, but once we'd got our heads around how it worked it was quite mesmerising and hypnotic. But also, 40 minutes long and starting at the crack of dawn.

After the service we were shown through to breakfast which was strikingly similar to dinner last night. Which mostly meant pickled things, warm rice and tofu. This was the first meal we'd had that we just didn't want to eat. Bit of a shame, but, at least there was rice.

Once we had got showered and checked out it was 8:20 and time to get on the move back to the big city. Pretty smooth journey - we are clearly transport experts now... We even worked out we could get off at a random station before Tokyo to get to our hotel earlier than planned! Which meant we arrived at 3:40. So. 7 hours and 20 minutes of trains. Ant did some sleeping, I did some reading. We were hoping for a good view of Fuji, but the weather was pretty bad, so no joy. Still, a nice journey though and the super fast trains are super fast.

After we had settled into the hotel, we headed out to Shibuya to visit a few shops - Uniqlo and Muji are both ridiculously cheap here, so we wanted to refill our wardrobes. Bit of a dead end clothes wise, although I am now the proud owner of some snazzy new glasses. Woohoo.

Dinner, swim in the pool, bedtime.

Still a nice day but too heavy on the travel. Given how much we wanted to see, it had to happen. We had just been avoiding thinking about it.

Penultimate day tomorrow and we have exciting things planned.

Day 10 - Koya

A lovely, relaxed day today.

Osaka was as bright and sunny as ever, but we didn't have much time to enjoy it. We were packed and out of the apartment by 9, heading to Namba to catch the big train to Koya.

Koya is a mountain top town/temple complex and is one of the most significant Buddhist sites in all of Japan.

In order to reach it, we had to get the train, then a funicular, then a bus. Lots of effort, but totally awesome - the funicular was particularly impressive... We climbed 300 meters vertically in 5 minutes. The town itself is some 850m above sea level, so we are pretty high up!

There are two main regions of Koya - the temple region in the West, and a massive graveyard and mausoleum to the east. The town itself has only come in to being because of the two major religious sites, and the pilgrims and tourists that head here because of them.

Our accommodation was right in the middle of the two making exploring very easy.

Almost all the places to stay in Koya are monastary lodgings - our rooms are part of a functioning monastary and are run by monks. It's really beautiful and an amazing place to stay.

We headed up through the graveyard first as we had read it was very impressive. Again, we've found the the pictures don't do justice to the size, scale or magnificence of the 2km walk through to the mausoleum.

The mausoleum itself was truly breathtaking, it was surrounded by lanterns (apparently, 2 of them have been alight for the past 1000 years!) and candles and there was a load of incense burning. One of the "religious" highlights of our time here. On the other side of town, the temples were... Temples. Although there was finally a Pagoda we could go into and it was definitely worth the wait!

Dinner was served at the monastary at 5:30, so we were back early for a quick soak in the unusually deep bath, then monk dinner. This mostly involved cold vegetarian stuff although there were 2 hot soups. We had heard excellent things about the temple meals, but, seeing as I hate tofu, being served 3 big chunks of it was not ideal! However, following Ant's lead with the sushi earlier in the holiday, I gave it my best shot.

After which, we came back to our room for a lovely evening of reading, playing games and generally hanging out. An early night is in order as I hear the monks wake up EARLY!

Day 9 - Nara

So, before we crack on with Day 9, a quick mention of: The Nice Man From Osaka. He was a nice man. From Osaka. When we were trying to find the big building we wanted to get to the top of, he clearly noticed we had no idea where we were and offered, in very broken English, to help. When we showed him the picture in the guidebook, he couldn't explain the directions to us, so ended up walking us there! It was definitely out of his way, but he chatted to us as we went, and seemed to enjoy the good deed. He definitely got some good karma yesterday!

So. Day 9. Definitely the best weather we have had so far. Not a cloud in the sky the whole day, so quite hot, very sunny and a lovely day to be able to spend in the beautiful town of Nara. It's a lot smaller than the cities we have been to, and the majority of it is built around the bottom end of a massive park. Within the park are all of the sights to see, so it means a day wandering through greenery from place to place surrounded by the number one attraction of Nara - wild (but very friendly) deer! The main temple was being refurbished, so not a lot to see there... There have been a few that are getting some attention while we have been here, so we might have missed a few of the biggies! However, it's quite impressive to see, as they build a warehouse over the whole structure, I presume so that we don't have to look at lots of ugly scaffolding. But the end result is that they look like, well, warehouses!

We then went to see the Isui-en Gardens - an historical and very traditional Japanese garden. However, we took the wrong entrance and ended up in the Yoshiki-en garden just next door. These were smaller and much less impressive, however entry was free, so no big deal. Having had a quick wander round and realising our mistake we headed back to where we wanted to be.

The second garden was incredible, based around 2 big ponds with some streams and a few tea houses and other little buildings throughout. You could also see the top of the Todai-ji temple as well. The maple trees here were in the middle of changing colour, so a lot of the backdrop looked like it was on fire. Very serene and a lovely place to mosey round in the sun.

The Todai-ji is the largest wooden building in the world, and was built to house one of the largest bronze statues in the world. The statue in question is of the Daibutsu, or, Cosmic Buddah. We have found that the pictures don't really do it justice, so for some perspective, his ear is 8ft tall. It was awe-inspiring to say the least, but again, lots of people. But compared to him they were tiny ;)

Now, on to the Deer. These cute little guys were EVERYWHERE. Outside the temples, wandering the pathways, sunbathing or even going shopping. There were a few places dotted around selling Deer Biscuits which you could buy to feed them. Which is all good, except once you've fed them a little bit, they just start following you round. Or, as we found, they eat your guidebook - we were so busy taking photos we didn't notice him go for it until it was too late! Our number one favourite deer though was the one who stood in a shop sniffing around, then swiftly stole a bag of sweets. Full marks for brazenness! Final point to note about the deer is that they seem to have also evolved the habit of bowing their heads just like the locals, especially when you give them a treat.

So, having finished Nara, we jumped on a train back to Osaka to head to the Shitenno-ji. This is the first temple that has a Pagoda you can actually climb up inside, so I was quite excited. Until we got there. And it was closed. However, fortune favours the bold as, on doing a quick tour of the grounds, we found a large pond filled with at least 100 turtles. The most we've seen in the "wild" before was 1, so that's a fair jump. Plus, we managed 2 of Ant's top 3 animals in one day. Success.

Quiet night - a bit sun tired and weary legged - just a quick bowl of ramen and some beers.

Top day so far, but we are predicting some competition from tomorrow.

Day 8 - Kyoto to Osaka

This morning started with a hasty repack of all our bags ready to head over to Osaka. Having bought some new threads, it was a case of "one person sit on the bag, the other do it up" but we managed it this time!

We headed over to Kyoto station so that we could put our bags in a locker and see a bit more of central Kyoto before leaving. We had to make a quick stop at the post office as we'd accidentally stolen the key to our hotel from day 4 and wanted to return it, a process that was actually surprisingly simple! Plus earned us good karma to make sure we have a good reincarnation!

After that we went to a couple of temples in the station area - we'd purposefully left them as we knew we'd have some time today. The first was Nishi Hongan-ji the second Higashi Hongan-ji. They were both very similar, but were both vast and incredibly beautiful, so quite glad they were similar.

After that we went to a garden called Shosei-en, which was nice enough, but would probably have been nicer in a couple of weeks!

Our final call in Kyoto was the Nishiki Market, a very long street full of all sorts of crazy food and random stalls selling souvenirs. We were looking for a cafe that was meant to be very pretty, but couldn't find it amongst all the other things. It doesn't help that the guidebooks are written using the English alphabet, whilst all the signs are written in Kanji. Lesson learned: Google what the front of the shop looks like before heading there!

With much sadness in our hearts, the time came to leave Kyoto and catch the shinkansen to Osaka. We were on the quickest train possible, covering the 60km journey in just 13 minutes.

Our first destination, as with everywhere we go, was the tallest thing we could get to the top of. In this city, it's the Umeda sky tower. At 40 stories high the views are very impressive. And, even better, it had a bar with a great selection of world beers.

At 5:30 we were able to check in to our final apartment. It's a similar set up to the last one with a death ladder up to a sleeping platform. It's smaller than the last, but much more comfortable and has a balcony over looking the Dotombori river. Very nice. It has an awesome host who has given us a long list of things to do and places to eat. We also have pocket WiFi again, which should make getting lost a lot less likely!

We showered and did some washing before heading out for dinner - more ramen, this time an extra rich broth with lots of garlic. My favourite so far. We then took a walk through Dotombori arcade - it's very gaudy (think Soho meets Camden meets Picadilly Circus) and not really our scene, however it's definitely a sight to behold.

Hidden away in amongst all the craziness was a lovely whiskey cabin. Barely big enough to hold 6 people standing up, it still managed to have a very impressive selection, with some particularly excellent Japanese choices.
Then it was home time (with a quick stop at a craft beer bar we saw one the way)

Good day, but already missing Kyoto.