May 2023 (Japan)
I decided to barrack for Collingwood when I was about 6 (a story for another day!). When I started going out with Andrew, I joined a Collingwood-mad family which reached back a few generations. For our kids, there was no choice. In fact, I remember our eldest son coming home from school and saying, “Mum, you never told me there were other teams!!”
Arguably the biggest game outside Finals is played on ANZAC day* - 25 April - between Collingwood and Essendon. Whenever we are in Melbourne, we go and it is a wonderful day! Collingwood won this year too so an extra wonderful day!!
On the morning of 26 April, we flew to Tokyo for a two week holiday. Andrew has wanted to go to Japan for years so, when the borders re-opened, we booked. I wasn’t so keen. I wasn’t sure that I would like Japan and I was apprehensive about the crowds. I needn’t have worried. Yes, there were crowds everywhere but I never felt claustrophobic. In part at least I think this is because I never felt crowded nor jostled. The people were so, so lovely – unfailingly polite, gentle and helpful. The train systems (bullet trains and subways) were easy to navigate (signs and announcements were in English and Japanese) and I never saw people being squashed into carriages. Everyone queued so politely, waited for people to get off and then got on – again, no jostling. Just quiet and orderly. Same with the traffic – no one toots their car horns. We might have a thing or two to learn here. Where does impatience, rudeness and road rage get us anyway?!
Apart from one booking at a Michelin starred restaurant in Kyoto (Motoi – yummm!) and one ramen cooking class where we ate the ramen we cooked for dinner, we ate meals wherever we found ourselves. That did mean some interesting menu options – cow’s guts and horse mane weren’t our cup of tea – but we had plenty of yummy meals. Nearly everywhere had an English menu with photos. Between that and Google Translate, I think we always knew what we were eating!!
We found the food pretty cheap. And there were so many choices. We were surprised at how tiny a lot of the eateries were. Some were stand up only; some were bar stools only. At many, there was a queue outside. Again, people queued quietly and without complaint.
Funny the things you notice when you’re somewhere new – we were stunned at how many Starbucks outlets there were. All seemingly doing a roaring trade. 7-Eleven stores too and another brand called Lawson. It seemed there was one or more than one on every corner.
We based ourselves in Tokyo and Kyoto and day tripped to Mt Fuji, Hiroshima, Osaka and Nara. We saw amazing temples and castles and beautiful gardens.
Tokyo - what a city of contrasts! We stayed in Ginza which reminded me of Manhattan. Wide boulevards and loads of high end shops. Next door to Ginza sits the Imperial Palace. None of the surrounding buildings are allowed to have neon signs facing the Palace so that the Palace can have peace!
Everywhere was so clean despite there being no public rubbish bins! (That was the case everywhere we went. We couldn’t work out where people put their rubbish!)
Outside of Ginza, the neighbourhoods of Tokyo vary so much that it felt like we were stepping in and out of time depending on what part of Tokyo we were in.
Kyoto – two hours’ away via bullet train – was smaller with less “glitz” than Tokyo but it had more Temples than we had time to visit and it was a gateway to other cities. We had child-like delight being “close up and personal” with thousands of deer in Nara. Completely different and particularly moving was visiting Hiroshima Peace Park and Memorial Museum.
A wonderful couple of weeks where we were pushed out of our comfort zone…but not too much!! I've uploaded a few photos - we took soooo many photos it is almost impossible to choose which ones to post.
We have our big post-selling our business holiday coming up in June. 7.5 weeks which will be our longest trip for many years. Both our daughters are coming for some of it which will be lovely but I am worried about leaving our beloved pooches, Albus and Harry. I will have to FaceTime them I think!!
Regarding the doggos, I had another article published which was a bit exciting – https://www.australiandoglover.com/2023/05/pet-friendly-road-trip-in-south.html
I think that I may have a little job to come back to in August too which is also exciting. More to come on that.
*ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The soldiers in those forces became known as ANZACs. Anzac Day is a commemoration of the anniversary of the landing of Australian and New Zealand troops at Gallipoli, Turkey on 25 April 1915.ANZAC Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand that broadly commemorates all Australians and New Zealanders who served and died in all wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations.
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