Wednesday:

A two hour train journey this morning gets us to Nikko. Nikko is designated a national park and there are lots of elaborate temples and woodland. There is definately too much to see here in one day. We found a path that lead us up the mountain side, it was very quiet and we felt compelled to walk up there. Part way up there was a strange, small and padlocked door at the side of the path but we couldnt work out what it was for. At the top was a shrine with some headless buddahs outside of it, we assume the heads had worn away with age. On our return journey to Tokyo we sat in the train station watching a thunder storm whilst waiting for a train, I can't say I enjoyed this.

Tuesday:
We tried to go to Nikko on the shinkansen but sort of got lost and where not sure which train to be on, we will try this again tomorrow. Instead we went to Kamakura, we saw another temple then went for a long walt to see a big bronse buddah statue. I sat at the tourist shops while Jo made the last 30 metres or so to climb up inside it. Afterwards we wander around all the shops and have a few ice creams, it was very hot!

Sunday:
We went to a couple of parks in shinjuku, the first one was the wrong one so we had a little wander arround, at the enterance there where people sitting on mats selling things, a bit like a car boot sale without the cars and boots. There where homeless people living in this park in a small settlement at one end of it. The path we should have taken was accross the other side of Shinjuku so we mad our way there. There was hundreds of thousands of people at the enterance. As you arrive you are cordoned off with a rope then the rope is dropped to allow a few hundred people through to the ticket machines and then through the turnstyles. We had a small picknic here and a walk around. Later we went to the Ginza district where all the major shops have a department store, it is very big. Jo tells me later we will have to return there as we missed the Sony centre.

Saturday:
Jo is hard to motivate this morning and we need to vacate by 10 and its on to another long train journey. We should have eaten before starting. We arrive in Tokyo at about 12:30, the tourist information kiosk at the train station had given us a list of places to call. Jo soon tired of phoning places and getting a poor response so after much wandering we are directed to the JTO who managed to find us accomodation for the remainder of our stay. For the next few nights we will be in the Lutheran Ichigaya Centre. We have real beds, much to Joes dissapointment, and the usuall shared wash/toilet facilities. After check in we went for a walk and found a japanese place to eat, I had chicken carlilige on a stick. It was good to speak to Sara and Melissa while I was looking for a coffee.

Friday:
(I am determined to finish writing up my holiday notes, sorry this has taken a while for those who had read the earlier posts.)
We paid for an extra night in kyoto and decided to go for a walk in the other direction, after a mile or so Jo noticed the sign for Niji Castle so we head in that direction with a minor detour down a dimly lit stall infested covered street.. Niji Castle is surrounded by a moat and we made our way to the enterance. Once insidethere ar two palaces surrounded by beautiful gardens which are very well kept; I think all the trees have thier leaves trimmed like bonzai. The second palace has its own moat arround it with koi swimming in the shade of the bridge. Before we leave here Jo has green tea ice cream. The afternoon finds us taking a long slow walk, through the shopping area, back towards our final night in this ryokan.