Sitting in a bar in Kamakura, I told my host, that I had always wanted to visit the country, to which she replied what took you so long. A good question, how is that I have got so old before fulfilling this dream. With more time and more money, I would go back, but sadly this really is probably a once in a lifetime's dream fulfilled. And at my age I was happy to cheat rather than the fantasies of my youth staying all over the place and staying long, I just had a fortnight's organised visit. But I am feeling more than blessed that I finally got there and I think I saw a really good range of places: Osaka, Hiroshima, Kyoto, Kanakawa ,Tokyo, Hakone and, on a day trip from the capital Kamakura. I have been on I hate to think how many fast trains, how many local trains, I have even been on a pretend pirate ship and what the Japanese call a ropeway. Travel does not fully ease the demons, but every day Japan put a smile on my face.
 |
| Japanese entertainment - a rainy Sunday in Kanagawa |
It turned out to be a very easy to visit, though that might be because the company I went with made travelling there very easy. They booked the flights, they organised my JR pass, gave me the card which I could use on buses and tubes, already loaded up with credit, and they booked my hotels. Each new town I got to someone met me, showed me around, and then let me lose on the town. I enjoyed everything from the adventures, trying to work out the fancy loos, to the use of the lifts, to using an onsen. When I paused to try and work out what I was doing, someone would often come forward to ask if I was okay, when I actually really was lost and feeling a bit frazzled, I was instructed how to unpick the situation. When I did not want to go up really high towers on my official tour, I was accomodated. And when I got too tired to walk another step, I was happy to sit on a bench in a warm street and watch the mothers on bicycles cycle by me.
