With the wisdom of hindsight, here are my thoughts on planning a trip to Japan. I've given links just for your information - they aren't necessarily recommendations - I have no links to any of these companies.

pavilion detail Shinjuku Gyoen garden 

WHERE:

Putting together...

When we've wanted to say goodbye to shop employees, doormen, wait staff or taxi drivers we've been saying matane rather than sayonara. I found the word on a Japanese app - it sounded the equivalent of au revoir or farewell. We haven't wanted to use the finality of sayo...

Each morning for breakfast we've had a table at the window looking at the fabulous view over Tokyo. Today we had this dinky little alcove instead.

We thought we'd be at Shinjuku Gyoen Park at opening time this morning before the crowds descended. It's one of Tokyo's bes...

This message by a vendor on the website of the Nogi Antique market convinced me we must go there. How could you not visit someone who says I love you? Plus it was the only one on this weekend. We were in front of Nogi Shrine when it opened, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed...

There's a word in Japanese I just love. It's hai, pronounced hi, a clipped expulsion of air from the throat, short and swift. It's a very definite breathy plosive sound with no hesitation. It has a variety of meanings: yes, ok, I acknowledge that, I agree, that's right...

You know what we could say about Tokyo's weather so far? Beautiful one day, perfect the next! Yesterday was hot with a blue blue sky, today was just right. The only hiccup of the trip so far was that cold wet day in Takayama. We've been so lucky.

I could have packe...

Gosh it seems so long since I've written to you yet it's only forty-eight hours. We've left Shiragawa, visited Kanazawa, come back by train to Tokyo, John has flown home, Ange has arrived, we're in a new hotel, and it's been another brilliant day.  OK, that's it.  Now...

                  a simple bamboo vase on a wall at Beniya Mukayu holds a single red camellia

Had things gone as planned today, we would have been visiting the Jisshoin Temple in Kaga for a meditation lesson with a real monk,...

An extraordinary art installation, Tsukubai 2006 by Kenya Hara donated to the hotel by the maker. This is between the hotel library and the dining room. I think it was originally in the National Art Museum: water travels along a raised gutter on the right to fall into...

We negotiated our way from hotel to the metro to JR Shinkansen train line this morning without getting lost and in time for me to wander the shops in the depths of the Kyoto Train Station. It's always a relief though, isn't it, when you are safely on the right train?

Th...