More Kyoto. More temples. Frankly, it’s all about them… oh and the geisha too… So after the Fushimi Inari shrine/amazing red torii gate experience we headed back to the hotel for breakfast and then out again for more: first up this one, dedicated it seems to a while boar. No English description (and why should …
Kyoto is magical. President Truman, when choosing a target for the first atomic bomb discarded Kyoto because he’d spent his honeymoon there and loved it so much. It was for century the old capital of Japan (before to move to Tokyo a couple of century ago. It houses 1700 temples and shrines. It will capture …
I’ve just said goodbye to the boys for the their first day of school, Lilli – the ferocious beast – is snoring on the sofa already, the builders coming to take down the terrace with their pneumatic hammer have not arrived yet so all it’s calm and quiet in the house. Today it all begins …
Just under an hour from the centre of Hiroshima, half way up a hill, in a quiet residential street there is the most gorgeous ‘ryokan’ you can possibly imagine. A ryokan is a is a type of traditional Japanese inn that typically feature tatami-matted rooms, communal baths, and other public areas where visitors may wear …
We’re back. I decided to leave the computer in the suitcase in the end and simply enjoy the time away. Good choice on my part. It’s been an amazing trip and I’ll never forget it. Also, I’d like to go back! So, let’s see where was I?… Hiroshima. Yes. Wow. What can be said of …
Day 3. Hot. Even hotter because the sun came out and literally baked us because of course today was the day we choose to walk through the Imperial Palace Garden (you’re only allowed freely into a small portion of it, but it’s really pretty)… go us! Funnily enough there weren’t many people out and about… …
This morning we left Tokyo on the bullet train and it’s about time I summarise our time there. We have had a great time and it was the perfect introduction to a world so different from ours (even if the weather wasn’t the the best, extremely hot and humid but also overcast which is a …
And we’re back. The sky is quite grey this morning, but we’re bracing ourselves for a heatwave in the next few days… we’ll see. They’re never as hot as they say. The laundry is almost all done – well, until no 1 and no 2 arrive back from their trip tomorrow and then we’re back …
Day 4 We were offered the use of a free rental car for the afternoon but none of my travelling companions wanted to leave the resort for an adventure so I went on my own… (I get totally restless after a few days of no activity… I’m not good at the ‘lizard in the sun’ …
Day 3. But let’s talk about ‘Forces of Nature’, by Jane Harper. It’s another case for Aaron Falk, the Australian policeman whom we first met in her debut novel ‘The Dry’ (also brilliant). this time it’s a case of a woman missing ‘in the bush’ during a team building exercise gone wrong. Whilst I got …
while you're ahead... 