2023: Land of the Rising Sun

The highlight of the year and possibly the highlight of all of our travels was the trip to the other side of the world to the Land of the Rising Sun - Japan. More about this shortly.

Our first holiday of the year though was unplanned, something that doesn’t happen often for us. I booked a week off work during Eurovision week because the UK we’re hosting the event in Liverpool, so I hoped to get tickets for at least one of the shows, even if it was a jury show or a dress rehearsal during the week. However I was not successful in getting tickets due to the unprecedented demand and so we had a week off to fill. Due to the fact that our main holiday in Japan was going to cost most of the holiday budget for the year, we decided to look for something to fill the week that wasn’t too expensive. I looked at cruises, and considering it was only about 4-6 weeks before we were having the week off there were some good last minute deals, and none better than a 9 night cruise to western Spain and Portugal, to ports that we had never been to before and costing just £750 each for a balcony. It was too good to miss, so we booked it and had a lovely time. The undoubted highlights were Lisbon and Porto. Lisbon was particularly beautiful, lots to do and a great vibe, and better still we had an overnight docking there so we had two days and one evening. Lots of shopping, a trip on the cable car and we went on the famous Funicular that was the same tram that unfortunately resulted in a significant fatal crash just two years later. We loved Porto too, Judy got some nice dolls, the area around the bridge was lovely and contained yet another cable car ride on which we travelled with a new pink soft fluffy toy who we decided to call Porto. A really lovely trip overall.

So then it was on to the main event of the year, a trip to Japan. We don’t enjoy the long haul flights, but it was more than worth it. Best holiday ever. We had the most lovely hotel in Shinjuku in Tokyo, modern, high floor with a great view over the city. We felt instantly at home. Although Tokyo was obviously busy, one of the biggest if not the biggest mega city in the whole world, it didn’t feel much busier than London. The reason for that is how orderly the people are, nobody raises their voice, messes about, people are quiet, keep themselves to themselves, and everything ran like clockwork. The infrastructure was on a different level to anything I had ever experienced. It was our idea of heaven, everything was so efficient and worked like clockwork. Aside from the logistical set up meeting our needs, the bright orientalist lights in the evening, particularly in Shinjuku are something we will never forget. We did some great activities in Tokyo, including going up Shibuya Sky with an open rooftop view of the amazing city, by day, by sunset and by night. Lots of shopping, of course, and the character shops meant that we were always feeling like we were in heaven. Tiredness did not come into it as we were living on the adrenaline rush of it all. We also remember some great cultural activities and the temple at Asakusa surrounded by hundreds of stalls that sold all local souvenirs, it was packed but it didn’t matter somehow as we were having such an amazing time. Although Tokyo was our base for the trip, we did also get out and about and had three fantastic day trips. Firstly, we had to see Mount Fuji. We made our own way setting off at 5am for the long haul, going initially via the superb bullet trains and then heading to Hakone via a series of local trains, funiculars and cable cars. The views were perfect, we picked a fantastic day to do the trip, and seeing Mount Fuji from a cable car was extra special. On the way back we stopped off at the high speed station and didn’t hop on the first train, and instead stood on the platform for about an hour getting the thrill of watching the high speed bullet trains whizz through the station at over 300km/h, due to the fact that only a small number of trains stopped at that station, it was an experience to just see the speed as the long trains came and left all within in a few seconds. Our second trip was another excellent adventure covering Enoshima, a lovely Japanese seaside town for which we travelled on an upside down monorail, such an experience dangling from a rail above and gliding over the cars and streets below. Kamakura had a big Buddah to see, as well as some shops and a tram ride. Our final trip was to the city of Yokohama, where we did a cable car ride and funfair by the sea, and finished with a wander around their famous Chinatown. The Chinese dragon just happened to be out that day going into shops and giving them a blessing and it was great to watch and was the unplanned highlight of the holiday as I had no idea it was happening that day. I’m sure I could write more about this trip, and I may add more stories here as I remember them, but suffice to say that everything about the entire two weeks in Japan was absolutely magical. We must return again and see even more of Japan.