Well put simply we would. Having booked to travel to Amsterdam some time ago our excitement mounted as the holiday came nearer. But that gave way to listening to, reading all, dissecting all weather reports about the upcoming Storm Dennis. Pete gave me various Geography lessons as to how to interpret the shipping forecast. Catching snippets about veering wind directions etc it didn’t put me at my ease one bit. But to be honest it was quite easy to read that all hell was breaking loose round the coast as the whole area was enveloped in red!

Really hard to know if this was going to be the storm of the century or a way of deflecting the news away from what the Tories are doing daily. Flights cancelled, warnings not to drive and stay put and batten down the hatches. On the way rain lashed down and we passed police cars and car mangled having gone into the central reservation. All seemed like the run up to an apocalyptic film.

DFDS began cancelling ferries down south but steadfastly resolved to continue with the Newcastle to Rotterdam ferry. Pete explained that up north the coast can be more sheltered depending on the wind direction but deep down I think it’s because up north we are made of sterner stuff. No actually that’s a lie, I think that up north we are deranged.

Traveling up to the ferry port I furiously oscillated between googling air b and b sites around Northumberland , convinced that the ferry company would come to it’s senses and cancel and the DFDS twitter account gaily emojing that it was Valentine weekend and it would be going ahead. I twittered away to Pete, saying that if there was a Titanic situation he must think of himself and not me, save yourself I said. To be honest, not exactly the sentiments you should be having on your way to your ‘jolly hols’.

Got to the port. All seemed calm. Picking up our berth keys etc I commented that I had expected it to be cancelled. The DFDS worker looked askance at me and slowly explained that they always run. Of course! How utterly stupid of me to expect that a ferry would be cancelled because of what was being touted as the worst storm ever.

In fairness going through passport control etc at the ferry port is far more civilised than at a airport. Really stress free. Sharp knife in your bag? Who cares! Bottle of liquid? No worries. However, you can’t carry on alcohol. People were stopped and searched but we were waved through. I have a sneaky suspicion that my very large and obvious burn on my chin caused by a molten cherry tomato possibly put them off. I do look like some kind of plague victim.

Even up to the point that the ferry began to move I really thought that they would relent. But off we set and all seemed very civilised and relatively calm.

We pottered round the ferry and the various bars. Stopped at one to have a lime and soda. At this point things started taking a surreal turn. Having asked for a lime and soda the barman poured the soda into a glass and then picked up a bottle of brown liquid and added it to the glass. Since when is lime juice not green? Questioning my sanity I tentatively had a sip. Whatever was in the glass was not lime juice. Sheepishly I called the barman over and apologetically explained that I really wasn’t certain that it was lime juice. He shrugged and picked up the said bottle that clearly was labelled ‘coconut syrup’. But still he insisted it was lime juice and explained that yes the bottle was labelled ‘coconut juice’ but in fact lime juice had been decanted into it. Standing there incredulously my mouth began to open and shut, trying to get the words out to say what utter bollocks his explanation was. Another big shrug and said glass was whisked away. ‘I’ ll get you another one’. He went to the back and in his hand was carrying a bottle of…. Roses Lime Cordial. Surely he had noticed one was bright, lurid green and the other bottle was brown.

Later we went to the cinema to see David Copper field. All very pleasant and just the hint of a gentle swell below us. What do those weather forecasters know I thought!

Actually…… Quite a lot as it happens. After midnight the cabin began to take on a life of it’s own as we climbed over waves created by force ten gales. Up, up, up, up went my stomach, then crashing down again. Then repeat,up, up, up, up and crashing down. All my insides swooshing around, head throbbing as brain seemingly doing likewise. The anti travel sickness tablets were working. Although you can’t be sick if you’ve not really eaten.

Lots of places to eat on board.

But very pricey. Mains around 30 pounds. Not much point if it’s probably going to reappear.

In fairness I probably had about the same amount of sleep as I normally have.

Pete was above me in the bunk counting in his head backwards from a 100 in the vain attempt to take his mind off being violently sick. Then trying to remember all the Dr Who’s when they didn’t seem to be working. {Having passed on the anti Seasickness tablets earlier in the day, as of course…. He is never ill on a boat: he rushed to shove them in his mouth.

So here I am counting the seconds until we dock. The motion now is just up, up and then down, down. I feel like I have had an involuntary work out in the night. Cannot wait to put my feet on dry land…..except we are delayed by about two hours. But the sea is a bit calmer.

So we managed to find the train station… Tick. We managed the navigate the very large train station… Tick. And finally got on the train, the right one… Tick. We got the super economy tickets so we were expecting the worse when in actual fact it seemed much better than British Rail.

When travelling I like making a mental note of how visually impaired friendly places are. Tactile marking was good and they had tactile maps.

The Braille is pretty much like French Braille – which is heartening to know. But as Pete pointed out, I may be able to decipher it letter by letter but I still wouldn’t have a clue as it would still be in Italian. A fair point I guess.

I loved seeing these signs as we were walking through the station.

‘Kiss and Ride’ something to conjure with. But it’s far more prosaic than anything I imagined, you can park for free as long as you only stay as long as it takes to kiss your beloved. Of course the equivalent in the UK is ‘drop off’ which has none of the romance. Like dumping your loved one like a sack of spuds on the side and then speeding off.

I loved the fact there was a screen that told us how fast the train was going. 245 km an hour – which sounded to me quite super speedy. I had prepared myself for lovely views as we headed for Florence but the train just went through a very, very long tunnel. The line is 78.5 km long and includes 73.8 km of tunnels, so I didn’t really stand a chance really of seeing Italian countryside!

The main market, Mercarto Centrale, was the closest stopping off point from the train station. The market is in the heart of the San Lorenzo neighbourhood, a massive 19th-century indoor market hall, constructed from iron and glass. Lots of stalls selling local produce but with very much the eye for the tourists, especially Chinese ones, as many signs were in obviously Italian but also quite a few in Chinese.

We got to see pasta being made first hand too.

From here we walked to the Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze. We saw David by artist Michelangelo between 1501 and 1504. We had a bit of a wait but it wasn’t too bad. Standing in the queue we saw one group pass by after another. With there group leaders at the front herding them through, flags etc aloft so they were visible at all times. We found Florence quite rammed but I think that it had more to do with the fact that most tourists visiting here travel in packs. Moving as one, like armoured tanks down the narrow streets.

David is produced using one block of marble, two other sculptors had given up on the project, Agostino di Duccio and Antonio Rossellino but both experienced sculptors were pretty much stumped by the task in hand. When Michelangelo finally got his hands on it, the marble had been waiting for 40 years for someone who was up to its challenge.

The guide book suggested that there isn’t much of interest in the rest of gallery but we found it interesting. Of course all the artwork was religious in nature and to be honest by the end of the day we had seen so many variations of the baby Jesus that it really was mind boggling. This depiction of Jesus is great, he looks like a chubby naughty boy.

I liked this early Renaissance hipster too!

By the end of our day in Florence we saw baby Jesus with blonde hair, light brown hair and ginger hair but never black. The lyrics of Black Grape were a bit of an earworm for me during the visit to Florence going on auto repeat… ‘Jesus was a black man.’ I spent some time later googling why not a darker skinned Jesus. Some of it’s to do with the fact the powers that be didn’t want him to look Jewish – which he was. So he was made more ‘palatable’ for one an all and in doing so completely re-wrote what little historical evidence there is about him.

I watched a very informative video on how the religious triptychs were made. I really did enjoy it but if anyone has trouble sleeping I can go through each stage in the process in great detail! There are quite a few stages and I seem to have remembered them all.

Leather is really big in Florence and handbags especially can be bought from the market stalls upwards.

I think Pete was looking a bit overwhelmed with it all.

I can’t imagine why anyone would want to spend 10,000 on a bag, it seems more than obscene. Even if you consider it as a bag for life it is still way over the top.

Walking around spotted this. What an angelic way to say ‘bugger off’. Tourism is an issue in Florence as it is in most of the major tourist sites in Italy. I was reading a thread before I came here on TripAdvisor from a women in Illinois who was complaining about a lack of places to picnic in the city, a lack of green space and no metro. She was very much lambasted as one reader pointed out the place wasn’t built for tourists and asked her should the Mayor sanction bulldozing down a few Renaissance buildings. I think it is problematic though as if you want to keep costs down you aren’t supposed to eat publicly. Florence bans eating in the street. The city ordinance, which bans people from pausing in the historic centre to eat food on pavements, by the roadside and on the doorsteps of shops and houses. With 10.2 million visitors a year this is quite a headache. The Mayor has stated that, ‘Only those who love Florence deserve Florence.” So Pete and I were super well behaved.

Winding our way towards the Uffizi we stopped to look at the Ponte Vecchio, or Old Bridge built in 1345. During World War II it was the only bridge across the Arno that the fleeing Germans did not destroy. It is really impressive.

Later we walked over it and had a coffee overlooking it. Each side of the bridge was lined with shops, a mixture of tat and the blingiest bling.

We had booked tickets in advance for the Uffizi which was a good idea. The Uffizi was a must as it is considered to be one of the best art galleries in the world. It has had its fair share of drama over the years.

 In 27 May 1993, the Scilian Mafia carried out a car bomb explosion in Via Del Georgofili and damaged parts of the palace, killing five people. The blast destroyed five pieces of art and damaged another 30. There was almost another explosive event when I had a bit of an altercation with a group leader. She said sorry but carried on being really annoying. Eventually I just told her that she wouldn’t need to apologise if she just stopped being rude.

The highlight of visiting the Uffizi was seeing the birth of Venus.

The painting was ground breaking for the time because Venus was naked. During the Middle Ages, almost all art was Christian based, therefore, nudity was rarely if ever portrayed. Thousands flock to see it every year which is ironic as the painting wasn’t meant to be viewed in public. In fact, it was meant to hang over a marital bed.

Next to it was a tactile version.

There were so many paintings that I really liked. Hard to pick a favourite.

I liked picking out details from some of the bigger paintings.

It was a really big place and we could have been there for hours but there gets a point when enough is enough. You can only look at so much before you get completely saturated by it all. One sculpture did stick out for me, Socrates. Bizarre to think that all these years later we know what he looks like.

Wish that there were more people in government nowadays who knew about his philosophy and applied it, especially education when he said, Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.

We left the Uffizi and headed towards the of Santa Maria del Fiore or Duomo. Many of the stalls we passed on route had Pinocchios.

Who knew? I didn’t but Pinocchio was born in Florence. There is even a museum with an extortionate admission price.

The Duomo boosts the largest stone dome in the world. I think it also had the longest queue to get in, in the world too.

One thing I really enjoyed in Florence was the canolli. They are so tasty, they originate from Sicily.Cannoli consist of tube-shaped shells of fried pastry dough, filled with a sweet, creamy filling usually containing ricotta, different flavours and haven’t had one so far I haven’t liked.

To finish the visit to Florence we visited what is considered the oldest pharmacy in the world, which began in 1221 by Dominican monks. It was the furthest you could ever imagine a pharmacy could be from Boots.

I think things were really expensive as there were no price tags anywhere.

Bologna is known for it’s music scene so last night we went to a funk and soul open mic night. It said it was a cafe but it was huge. On the website it said it started at 9pm so being terribly British we made sure we pretty much got there on the dot, for all the usual reasons of making sure we had a seat etc. It was….. Totally empty and the manager told us the music would start at 10. 30pm. Quite a difference but actually the time passed quickly and the place did get completely rammed. One by one people trotted in with various instruments on their backs.

The first band was amazing, they really knew their instruments and were so happy and enthusiastic, it was very infectious.

Then more and more people joined in with them, a sax player, another bass player and a trumpet player. The place was rocking! It is a strange phenomenon to be somewhere and be the oldest person in the room. As if there is a cut off point for having a life.

It would have been great to stay later but we had to be up early.

On the way back I saw this bit of graffiti :

Almost a haiku but not quite… It seemed quite poignant seeing it lit up on a pillar as we headed home.

So we have arrived in Bologna. For a while I had thought that due to Pete’s appendix removal we would have to cancel but luckily he perked up sufficiently, although with the proviso we don’t try and cram a zillion things into one day.

The journey over was surprisingly seamless, despite being frisked at security – damn my underwire bra! Then the contents of my bag upended as solid shampoo constitutes a liquid. The explanation given was that the shampoo was ‘creamy’ despite the fact it is rock solid!

Bologna Airport seemed much bigger than we expected but we got through passport control really quickly. What a lovely feeling to still be able to go through the EU line. The airport bus was directly outside the airport and within minutes we were on and off on our way. Disembarking at Bologna Central Station and after a few minutes walk we had arrived at our destination.

Having booked an Air B and B I felt all the inherent nerves, was it legitimate, was it a scam or would the description not really live up to our expectations. Luckily Valentina, our host was waiting on the street for us and led us up to the flat.

Phew…. It looked brilliant. Lots of quirky artwork and bold colours. Valentina explained that she is an artist, working in porcelain.

After a good night’s sleep (ish) the nearest tourist destination from our flat was the MAMbo, which is the Museum of Modern Art of Bologna, only 1 minute walk away.

The guide book states: 9,500 square meters are dedicated to visual culture and experimentation, the site of the former bread oven qualifies as a centre of production and a critical laboratory for contemporary interdisciplinary culture.

To be honest we weren’t blown away, the building was great and we did see a few good pieces that ‘spoke to us’. But overall there pieces that had more of a ‘message’ than a ‘substance’. I think we have been spoilt by places like Yorkshire Sculpture Park on our doorstep.

Bologna is famous for it’s left wing politics, historically the home of the Italian Communist Party, so it was good to see some art that reflected that.

This painting is by Renato Guttuso, called “Funerali di Togliatti” (showing the imagined funeral of Italian Communist Party leader, Palmiro Togliatti)

The procession is made up of people past and present eg Angela Davis, Chairman Mao and for some reason I haven’t fathomed out despite a Google search – two images of Lenin. Maybe the artist forgot he had already done one.

Going round anywhere by foot is better because you see far more. I love finding things that make a place seem ‘foreign’ to me. Like this condom ( preservativo) machine I found on the street with a mind boggling array of ‘preservativos’ as well as a solitary pregnancy test. Maybe there a subliminal message here.

Apparently these are a relatively new phenomenon and seemed to me at odds with the Roman Catholism of the country. With that question in mind and a quick search later I found out that indeed these machines had caused some unrest particularly in Rome when 6 machines were installed in a school. A recent study published in June this year attributes the rise in these machines in bringing down unplanned pregnancies in Italy and taking away the embarrassment factor. Although I do wonder how these machines would fare on the streets of Sheffield.

You can’t walk round Bologna and not be flooded with images of graffiti everywhere. Of course the word ‘graffiti’ has it’s origins in Italy and examples found as far back as Pompeii, where catacombs had declarations of love, magic spells and area rivalries etched into the walls. so it should be anticipated. ‘Graffiti’ comes from the Italian word ‘graffiare’ meaning to scratch something into a surface, certainly there is a lot of evidence of ‘scratching the surface’ here.

Maybe having been to the Modern Art Gallery I did wonder “When does graffiti become art?” but whilst some did look ‘artistic’ is seems that overall most of it just looks like vandalism and detracts from the beautiful architecture. But I feel quite conflicted to be honest . Some just seems a bit bonkers too:

A lot of effort was put into this but….. But what profound statement are they making with ‘love me like I love your potato.’ Apparently there have been attempts to legislate against it but how can you stem the flow of something that is a centuries old tradition.

Today we visited two cafes. I got a bit confused and asked for a Gingseng. I thought it was akin to a herbal tea but is was anything but. Caffè al ginseng as it is known is not tea or coffee or anything else I can think of.

Gingseng coffee is the new trend hitting Italian streets. Warm, milky and very, very sweet, caffè al ginseng tastes nothing at all like coffee. Allegedly an aphrodisiac, a tonic for fatigue etc it is apparently commonplace in Italy having originated in Milan. I am a bit shocked that Italians would deign to have their national staple messed about with but as they say travel broadens the mind,so perhaps they aren’t that fussed.

Walking round Bologna you can’t help but also notice the 40 km of covered walkways or porticoes. Various sites/books cite different lengths but basically there a lot! I thought they were really handy as it had promised rain and I wondered if this is how they originated. But they started to be built during Medieval times when Bologna was getting a bit crowded due to the flourishing university and trade businesses. They began to run out of space t within the city walls. They needed bigger buildings but didn’t want to develop on the many public outdoor spaces. So the city officials came up with the idea of requiring buildings to add extra space by extending outward towards the street- but only on their second story or higher. These new floors were held up with wooden beams (most have been replaces with marble or brick now) resulting in covered arcades for walking.

We headed to Piazza del Nettuno which has the famous Bologna landmark, Fountain of Neptune.

Made in the 16th century it is said that the artists and the church who commissioned it came to blows over the size of Neptune’s manhood. The collaboration (between architect Tommaso Laureti and Flemish sculptor Jean de Boulogne) calling themselves Giambologna were pretty miffed, so got their own back by making the thumb on the upturned hand look like an erect penis from some directions. However, what I can’t understand is why the Church got themselves all hot under the collar with this but didn’t seem too perplexed with the very sexy nymphs shooting water out of their pneumatic looking breasts.

Crossing this piazza we went directly to the next, Piazza Maggiore, the main piazza in Bologna. All roads they say lead to this piazza. We walked up the steps to San Petronio Basilica and lit a candle for Annie and Joab, with the hope that their house woes will end soon.

San Petronio BasilicaThe San Petronio Basilica had the option of a panoramic view of Bologna, with the added benefit of a lift, a better option than the Towers which you have to walk up. But before we could go up we had to fill in a disclaimer and sign in stating if we had an accident there definitely not be a ‘where there’s a blame there’s a claim’ situation.

This smile belies the fact that I was feeling quite apprehensive going 52 metres up to the top of the church in quite a rickety lift.

The views though made up for the weakness in my knees.

All the architecture of Bologna seems to be made up of red roofs and ochre walls. Bologna known as ‘the red’ not only because of it’s politics but also the overwhelming colour of the centre.

You can see the famous towers, Garisenda and Asinelli which we could walked up but for my lungs and Pete convalescence. At 498 steps I was very glad to give it a miss but we did get quite a few photographs at different angles. Not as famous as Pisa but they both have a distinctive lean to them.

Bologna also has a network of canals, 60km of them, linked to the city’s Silk industry in the past. A lot is underground, like the Roman aqueducts. They are there around the corner here and there in the city centre but can quite easily be missed as they are not exactly full. That said we did see quite a few fishes which weren’t that tiny.

This is the Canal di Reno and when full does look more impressive and probably the fish are happier too! Below is how it should look.

So like many European bridges there were the obligatory locks symbolising the eternal love of the people who have crossed it. This is the bit where I sound an utter grouch but they look a bit tacky and by the law of averages a large percentage of the ‘lovers’ will have moved onto pastures new!

Sniffing out a bargain we found ourselves at Piazza VIII Agosta. Sadly we won’t be here on Friday when La Piazzola takes place, a historic market with 400 stalls. However, we did happen upon a few stalls with very cheap clothes.

They were also selling various sizes of Donna’s…. Intriguing! So we didn’t stay long in case I got snapped up.

I got two great, colourful scarves for a euro each- bargain!!! One had a label on it for the original price of 6.90 euros.

So tonight is the last night of our holidays and we leave tomorrow. We’ve had a brilliant time, certainly there have been some downs, that’s inevitable but overall there have definitely been more ups.

Maybe the downs are more linked to frustrations around language and knowing how to do things right initially but getting the hang of things eventually has come with a real sense of accomplishment. Travel does broaden your mind for certain.We had another great sleep in the hotel and another great shower. We decided not to pack a ridiculous amount in today as we need to be able to get through the journey home, so energy levels need conserving. Stopping via Moscow this time will be less challenging as there is a much shorter stopover. We went to the Edo-Tokyo Museum after breakfast. The museum focuses on life in Tokyo during the Edo period (1603-1868) and life in Tokyo after this period.  They had goodwill ambassadors there and luckily the language they were offering today was English. So we decided to sign up for this personalised service as it was really good the other day, added to that it’s free.So our ambassador was Hayshimi, he was really pleasant but I had the sneaking suspicion that he was new to this game as he was very nervous,despite our best efforts to put him at ease.

He was interested to know where we had already visited and was genuinely happy to know that we had been to Matsomoto. He said he had run a business from there for 10 years and really liked the city.

In the museum there is a reconstruction of a bridge from Edo times. Hayshimi explained that the posts were actually good luck charms that people would touch on their way on and off the bridge.

He explained about how society was organised in the Edo period, with the Shogun being the most important. In the model village he pointed to a large area of houses and said that this was a harem, with 3, 000 women. The Shoguns would marry someone from Kyoto and then they would try to get as many women pregnant to strengthen the dynasty.We had wondered why the warriors had fake beards. We were told that it was to make them look fierce but in reality they would look to me almost like something from Monty Python.

Hsyshimi asked Pete to try to lift these up, which he did. They weighed 25kg each. These would have been used for collecting and transporting ‘night soil’, so literally Pete was carrying other people’s shit.It was funny as after Pete had done it, a Japanese lady coaxed her husband to have a go. He really struggled but what was even funnier is that directly after this a young slip of a thing came over and lifted it up as if it was absolutely nothing.We had been wondering what the bits of paper, like bolts of lightning were and were told they again are lucky charms.Fires regularly broke out in the city and firefighters would carry one of these so that people knew who they were. Again Hsyshimi roped Pete in!I really liked some of the prints in the museum. Hsyshimi explained that the printing process was very involved and up to or more than 16 blocks could be used. The techniques were alien to Westerners so during the 19th century many artists such as Van Gogh became very interested.Inevitably there was a section about the famous Edo painter Hokusai.Where all his paintings feature Mount Fuji. There was a Kabuki stage with mannequins.
Kabuki is a very old form or dance-drama. In 2005, the Kabuki theatre was proclaimed by UNESCO as an intangible heritage possessing outstanding universal value. Yesterday Pete and I had watched something on TV about it, the programme looked like their equivalent of This Morning. We gleaned that the actors kept the tradition in the family, Hayshimi confirmed this. Watching it, it looks decidedly odd, but then so does a lot from the UK if you dissect it. Anyway they had the same tradition as Shakespeare’s time where only boys could play women but Hayshimi says it’s changed now. There were games being played in one area, I think they were linked to geisha. One was balancing a piece of paper on top of our noses. Pete was much better but I think it’s not about skill his nose is bigger. I wasn’t so good! Hayshimi let us do the Tokyo bit by ourselves, which was better as otherwise the poor man would have had to cope with us for another hour. There was one display showing what school dinners have and do look like. I wish ours looked this good. There was also a part about the war including the declaration of surrender. It’s interesting to hear about the atrocities that happened to ‘the other side’. The USA pretty much annihilated Japan during the war. It makes you realise the futility of war as the people who get hurt have more in common with us Pthan we have with the leaders of our own country. After this we headed off to the Sumida Street Jazz festival. We found out about it from the Time Out site, a free festival in it’s 10th year, with bands etc playing in different sites around Sumida, but mainly in Kinshi Park.The first band we saw were a girl band. I was a bit crestfallen as we had, had to navigate two subway lines to get to this. The ‘girls’ were out of tune, even not understanding what they were singing about I could tell they were off key.

Maybe I was a bit lacking in appreciation as the audience, made up of entirely middle aged Japanese men seemed to be really lapping it up. It’s hard to pinpoint whether it was their musical talents or their itsy bitsy dresses and frilly knickers, which they showed quite a lot of by bending over a lot. A tough question to answer!Heading closer to the park we saw a Japanese steel band and they were utterly joyous. Getting a bit closer still to the park we saw this band, who were really excellent musicians.We had a picnic at the park of injera pockets and Japanese Swiss roll. Walking round the park there was a lot of activities going on, including a belly dancing troupe. The band on the main stage were great and I had a little jig, African/Japanese fusion.It was a superb end to our holidays!
And then our final meal of ramen!

Woke up in a proper bed today – what luxury. Had a little look at what was on TV. We started watching a channel dedicated to learning English. One was related to language on twitter etc. Things like SMH meaning shaking my head which I have never heard of before. Phrases such as ‘head off to’ and little cartoons with origins of words such as ‘curfew’ meaning to cover the fire, when lights in town were non electric and had to be physically put out. Such detail in language learning.

We walked to Ueno Park, at one point there was quite a bit of a group gathering with excitemen. Wondering what all the fuss was about we decided to move in closer. There were a number of cat,the first time we have seen cats being just that, cats.
passing Shinobazu Pond and indeed quite a few of the lotus had flowered. It was lovely as what we hadn’t realised was that there are viewing platforms going into the pond so that you can have a much more immediate experience of the flowers.

There is even something quite spectacular about the leaves. To the left of the pond is Shitamachi Museum – our destination. What a name to conjure with and have a few sniggers.

The museum is about preserving the culture and tradition of the old style shitamachi area in Taito. Shitamachi has nothing to do with anything linked to scatology but rather it means downtown.

We were really lucky as there was a Goodwill Visitor guide who had brilliant English and showed us round the museum, including showing us parts that other visitors would not have been party to.

We had a photo taken with Kenji our guide (the photo makes us all look a tad strange as we are all looking in different directions. We are all wearing hatten jackets – which both men and women can wear. Oh dear – what a trio!

Kenji was great and answered all of our questions. We had many questions and he answered all with good humour. His English was good, he said he had visited London, the Cotswolds, Edinburgh and Inverness. Kenji was yet another Japanese person who hadn’t heard of Sheffield. Realistically I wouldn’t expect them to but there is always the hope. If you say not too far from Manchester then everyone knows… Ah yes Manchester United. It’s been the same wherever I have travelled. I remember in Makele, Ethiopia when passing a corrugated ‘shed’ there was suddenly a lot of cheering and whooping, they were watching Manchester United. But by making that link I feel a bit disloyal as there is more than the Woodhead or Snake Pass that separate Manchester and Sheffield as two very distinct places.

Kenji showed us the merchant’s house first, where hanao were made. Hanao are the thongs that are used in either wooden sandals geta or zori straw sandals. This area has been a footwear manufacturer for many generations. So what we hadn’t realised was that hanao are interchangeable and that different ones would be worn for weddings, dating, funerals, the seasons and ‘fashion statements’. This small merchants sold 1000 hanao a day.

Kenji also told us about some of the good luck ‘talismans’ in the shop, like the maneki neko, the cat with the moving paw. Kenji said that the maneki neko was supposed to bring good luck or bring in business. The cat has a raised right paw which is said to bring luck and a raised left paw is said to bring money.

The other thing in the corner of the room (terrible photograph) is a fukuyose kumade. I was interested as we had seen a huge one in the Tokyo Metropolitan Observatory.
Kenji explained that every year in November these are sold at the torinoichi Festival market to bring thanks for a successful year and pray for a good year to come.

The bamboo pole is a rake, symbolic of raking in good fortune. He said old ones are taken to the shrine and new ones are bought for the new year. This one was quite small but it was worth around 260 pounds. To be honest when I have seen them elsewhere I just thought it was a load of tat thrown together….. Whoops!

Kenji then showed us a toy shop and family living quarters. He opened things up and so we got to see bits other visitors wouldn’t have been able to see.
Another thing he showed us were wind chimes. He explained that wind chimes would only ‘comeout’ at a specific time of year to herald the start of the summer.

Outside the coppersmiths house hung dried tangerine skin. This was powdered and then made into tea when the inhabitants had colds. Pete says he’s going to try it but I think he will probably stick to Beechams.
Kenji showed us a replica of a shrine. He explained that this particular shrine was linked to Inari, the God for the Neighbourhood. I thought Inari is what I like to eat off the conveyor belt at Yo Sushi, I didn’t realise it meant so much more than the cheapest vegetarian option available! So Inari is the god of agriculture but also success in business, which would have been important in this area, doka-ya, where there were lots of little businesses.  At the shrine for Inari there will always be a statue of some kind of a fox and this will be given a plate of the food Inari. As apparently foxes like Inari.

After this Kenji asked if we would like to find out our fortune. He explained that there are different types of fortune:

• (大吉, dai-kichi): great blessing
• (中吉, chuu-kichi): middle blessing
• (小吉, shou-kichi): small blessing
• (吉, kichi) blessing
• (半吉, han-kichi): half-blessing
• (末吉, sue-kichi): future blessing
• (末小吉, sue-shou-kichi): future small blessing
• (凶, kyou): curse
• (小凶, shou-kyou): small curse
• (半凶, han-kyou): half-curse
• (末凶, sue-kyou): future curse
• (大凶, dai-kyou): great curse

Pete said he didn’t want to do it because he didn’t want to know if he had more bad luck heading his way. I was game, so Kenji shook n ancient box with a hole at the end, and then a small bamboo stick with a number fell out. This was numbered and corresponded with a chest with small numbered drawers. I had picked out 21, I joked that this was odd as it was also my age, it either went over Kenji’s head or he couldn’t be bothered to respond to such a lame ‘joke’. He pulled out a small sheet of paper called a omikuji. This was interesting as this is what we had seen people buying from shrines.
So wonderful news… I had good luck.
To ensure that I was fully aware of all the wonderful things that are coming my way he gave me an English version of the fortune telling.
What we have seen when we have visited shrines in Japan are these little sheets of paper folded and tied to branches of trees, traditionally it had to be pine. Ones with bad luck would be tied to the pine branches, this relates to a pun, as in Japanese the word for pine is matsu and wait is also known as matsu. So if you tied your bad luck to the tree, the bad luck would stick by the tree or rather wait by the tree and not follow the person. Kenji said that people nowadays often leave behind the good fortune ones too but he didn’t go into why, but I would have thought you would want to keep the good fortune as close to you as possible. My fortune telling also gives me career advice, to train to be an engineer or crafts person instead, indeed food for thought!

After this we had planned to rejuvenate ourselves by visiting Momi No Yu cafe. It’s a foot spa cafe, you put your feet in a hot ‘spring’, have a healthy tea and just relax. You put your bags inside the chairs. First you clean your feet and then you can put them in the water, which felt great. Then they bring you a cold cloth to cool yourself with. Pete got quite attached to his, throughout the visit!
I had gotukola tea, which is good for memory and aids sleep. So hopefully I will feel the benefits soon. Pete had Wen wen tea, it didn’t say what that one was for. I will need to pay close attention to him to see if anything seems different.

This brief sojourn gave us the energy needed to tackle Ameyoko Street, a bustling Warren of shops close to Ueno Park.
Pete was drawn to Hard Off (interesting name) and you can see why.

They seem to sell literally everything. One of the places Pete has been keen to see is one of the gambling places. There was a large one next to the street so we went in. It was utterly deafening and the punters can smoke in them. You can’t smoke publically in Japan, only in designated smoking areas, you can’t walk around with a fag, it is illegal. The upshot is no fagbutts littering the floors. In Ueno Park, a recording of dos and don’ts of smoking is blasted from these metal containers. The gambling place was like no place I have ever visited.   
The noise was the sound of hundreds of metal balls going through the machines. We asked one of the people working there how much did it cost to play and exactly how do you play it. The starting price was 1000 yen, around 7 pounds and he handed us a laminated A4 sheet with the instructions. 1000 yen is far more than we would normally gamble with, it’s normally 2p in the slots at Whitby!

We found out the game is called Pachinko. Japan Visitor explains it well:

Commonly mistranslated as ‘vertical pinball,’ pachinko is a noisy, smoky, time-consuming, and hypnotic form of gambling that plays a huge part in the Japanese economy.

Newcomers to Japan often ask just what those garishly lit, cheaply built buildings with names like Stardust, Paradise, and Omega are. Churches? Banks? No, they are pachinko halls, an integral feature of the Japanese cityscape.

To be honest it seemed really stupid but the same glazed look they had on their faces would match mine which I am determined to win some utterly ridiculous piece of tat at the arcades in Whitby.

We then headed to the edge of Ueno Park for a ‘picnic’ of sushi and bananas. Our friends Lyn and Jack had given us a book about Ueno Park, fiction but based on the homeless who congregate there, which Pete had read before we came out. Looking at this part of the park there seemed to be quite a few people who seemed a bit disenfranchised.

Apparently there is quite a sizeable homeless population in this area, which you wouldn’t expect in this area. The problem spiked in the 1990s when the economy slowed down. Word on the street is that now Tokyo has won the Olympic bid, these homeless people will be shipped out of the capital.

A bit of a day of contrasts as after this we looked at the shops that there is no way we could afford to buy anything. Shinjuku Takashimaya Times Square was the most notable. I would put it akin to Harrods. 8 floors of a lot of expensive things. One floor puzzled us as they had Coq Sportif amongst some very posh brands, as if this was a clothing line that people dream of. What was really odd was when we went down some ‘grubbier’ side streets there was a tiny scruffy shop – it was Super Dry. Whereas when  I have seen this clothing line in the UK its been in a prime location. So really these things are not based on one thing being better than another.

We decided to go to the top floor to see if we could see the roof garden. Very, very posh lifts. They actually employ young women to press the buttons….. And what a meal they make of it. All of them in uniforms that harken to the 1950s topped off with a pill box hat. At each level they would get out, elegantly move one arm up and down while calling gently that the lift was either going up or down.

So we got to the top floor, very windy and saw the garden and a bit more of how the other half live. S
Heading to shops that reflected our budget we passed a giant lobster tied up in the back of a van. This country always seems to have surprises round the corner.

We got rid of the van today. I wasn’t overly disappointed, it had served it’s purpose. We had decided to finish our last few days in Tokyo at a hotel. It worked out more reasonable than parking up on the outskirts and traveling in.

The camper people gave us a lift back to Narita Station. He was from Poznan, in Poland. He was really surprised that we knew where it was and had been on holiday there. He commented that many of his Polish friends in the UK are now seriously debating about whether to stay…. So yet again the spectre of Brexit loomed. I think he was quite touched that we liked Poland, as well as remembering the goats in the towns clock tower.

It was great traveling back to Tokyo with the prospect of having a proper base, with a shower and toilet right next to us. No pulling on clothes in the early hours to tramp to the loos. We are staying in the Comfact Hotel near Ueno Station, which is a great location for looking round. As the national holiday ends today we have been very fortunate in getting somewhere at a reasonable price.
But…… Comfact, is a mix of comfort and compactness. It doesn’t roll off the tongue, it doesn’t have a comfy sound. But it’s lovely and that is all that matters. Especially as for some inexplicable reason it has two sets of stuffed dogs on two tables in the foyer. Also yet again near a shrine, one opposite and one round the corner.

It always seems odd to be walking round the big cities in Japan where skyscrapers dominate the landscape, but then a little shrine is dotted here and there.

Despite the heat, the toilet in our room has a heated seat, haven’t found how to change it but in a perverse way it is quite comforting. Not as high tech as the loo at the michi last night, that had a function I had never seen before, the magic wand function. Another thing which I don’t know if I have mentioned is that you can change the volume and speed of the water flow. It can at times just feel like an enema. Deeply odd! Yesterday in the michi I had to buckle my sandal up and had to lean on the toilet seat. As I did this a white recorder like thing with holes slowly came out of the toilet bowl, interesting to see the ‘magic wand’ close up.

I know I have mentioned loos quite a bit but I really think the Japanese obsession with them is rubbing off on me! Toto the favourite toilet manufacturer in Japan has built a 60 million dollar museum dedicated to toilets on the island of Kita-Kyushu, such is their interest in all things linked to bathrooms. There is also a god of toilets kawaya kami, who is also a god of fertility. It links in with the past with human poo was collected for agricultural purposes. There is also a multi-million pound industry linked to teaching kanji, the Japanese characters in their writing system. Primary children need to know 1000 kanji characters before they leave to go to secondary school, Professor Poop, a poo like character helps them with the arduous task. There’s also toilet ghosts, like Akaname, aka the filth – licker who licks up poo with his long tongue. So whilst I have been taking an inordinate interest in Japanese loos  I don’t think I will match the heady heights of the Japanese obsession.

The hotel has a sky lounge at the top. We ventured up but it was really windy and added to that my knees felt quite weak when I looked down. Then the wind whipped up even more and there was a deluge of rain. Don’t know if this is the tail end of the typhoon, Typhoon Krosa, they are experiencing in the south. But on the plus, the gentle breeze makes for a cooler night, so much better for sightseeing.

The view from the window makes it feel like the metropolis it is.

Despite having spent a few days here earlier in our holiday, being back is very disorientating,  so far we haven’t quite got into the swing of things.

We were early to the hotel and weren’t allowed in as they were still cleaning. So we had a curry and naan (shared) round the corner. It came with a salad. When we get back to the UK  I think I will just munch through salad and fruit all day everyday, as there has been a distinct lack of it in our diets thus far here.

Walking round before we could get into the room Pete got very excited to see aseismic design for earthquake proofing buildings.

I was reliably informed by my resident Geography teacher that this is an example of triangulation which is rare to see as mostly the buildings have things like special foundations that you wouldn’t see. But again it makes us realise that this is a country that is very much at the mercy of it’s position on the tectonic plates. Pete has also pointed out in detail where is best to take cover if there is an earthquake here. That’s a comfort or as they say in this hotel that’s a comfact!

The plan is to go back to some areas we probably skimmed last time and then try to also add a few new things. The Time Out guide is invaluable as it highlights free events daily, of which there are surprisingly plenty of. Also we haven’t bought any presents, so heading towards the Shimbuya area seemed a good place to start to shop properly.

There were practicalities to sort, like getting a 48 travel pass. It is really good value, 1200 yen and unlimited movement on the subway. Now before we left the hotel I did tell him that we needed our passports to be able to buy them…… Ah but what fo I know! When we got to Ueno station it took a while to find where we could buy the passes from, it wasn’t on any of the main concourses, tucked away down one of the many labyrinthic passages. The place was closing at 8 and we had managed to get there by 7.35, so good going. When we got there the man explained as it is a pass for tourists you need to prove you are a tourist by having….. A PASSPORT! So, Pete had to run all the way back to the hotel, which was now quite a distance away, then manage to find the place again. He got back at 7.58…… Phew!

Tokyo at night is like a light show, neon signs everywhere, all gigantic and vying for attention and no more so than in the Shibuya area.
We read in a guide that the best view of the famous Shibuya crossing was going up a level in a nearby Starbucks. We decided to do this without buying one of their drinks. I have been reflecting for some time that as you get older you become in some ways more invisible, like you a wearing a Harry Potter, invisibility cloak. But this invisibility is great because you can get to do things without being challenged. So up we went to Starbucks to get a better shot of the Shibuya crossing, with the safe knowledge we wouldn’t need to buy a double frappe latte with sprinkles.

It’s not quite as impressive at night, as the volumes during office hours reach the thousands. But from Starbucks we definitely got the best viewpoint.

We did some shopping,it was I think successful but can’t say what I bought, but it was good.

We visited Tower Records, a 9 storey building dedicated to all things music. Although originally linked the the American company, they became independent in the early 2000s,which was a good idea as the company went bust and the Shibuya store went on from strength to strength and is open until 11 at night.

Pete wanted his photo taken with Ed Sheeran. While traveling round Japan we seem to have come across an inordinate number of these cardboard cutout things, all of which Pete has wanted to gurn through!

While at Tower Records we promised a friend that we would take photos of any displays linked to one of her favourite bands, Kat-Tun. Obviously I had b never heard of them. But have subsequently found out they are a boy band but not much more. Sorry if I have spoilt the photos Hazel by having my mug on them!

Anyway they look very hunky!

One thing I did see as I was leaving was Michael Jackson’s handprint.

Woke to pouring rain, which was lovely. You miss it when you haven’t seen it for a while but realise how awful it is in the UK at the moment so should watch what I say!

Writing this in some ways feels a bit self indulgent or maybe very self indulgent but it has really helped me remember things. Mostly our holidays tend to be a bit frantic and things become of a blur so it’s good to have time to reflect on the days.

Today was our last day on the Izu peninsula, it was a lovely place. Travelling over the mountainous central area I felt that we had picked the right side of the peninsula. When we reached the other side it was far more commercial, with massive hotels and the beaches didn’t look as good.

We were heading to Kamakura. Which seemed a good stop off before we stopped at Chiba. Kamakura is to the south of Tokyo, it was the medieval centre of Japan, with more temples and shrines than you can shake a stick at. But we were only going to visit one even the guide books say there becomes a point when there are too many.

The one we were going to was the Kotoku in. The temple is one of the most renowned in Japan as it has a giant bronze Buddha.

In some ways it felt more impressive than the Golden Buddha in Nara because it was in the open air. It’s 11.4 metres high and is the second tallest Buddha in Japan, after the one in Nara. What makes this one a bit different is you can actually go inside it!

It was built in 1252 and since then it has been reinforced against earthquake damage – the top picture shows how they did this. It cost 20 yen to go in – which is about 10p. I thought it was a bargain! Before going into the shrine we had to wash our hands and mouth. With the searing heat I fancied a bit of a drink, you are supposed to spit it out. I may have had a few sneaky gulps. Still here hours later!

To be honest whilst in many ways these places seem quite spiritual it is hard to completely feel ‘at peace’ as there so many stalls selling tat. Buddha fridge magnets, Buddha pens and the list goes on.

From here we went to the station by bus – cramped but luckily cool. We got our ‘picnic’ from a very swanky shop called Tokyu Store. The Food Hall was amazingly delicious looking. I love the precision of detail they have here. But it’s a bit like Kim Joy’s column in the Guardian, what she makes always looks super cute but I can’t imagine making any of her things. But certainly it is a delight to the eyes and I would feel a shame to eat.

We got two crispy onion things, they look like onion bhaji but flatter. They seem to be one of the only veggie fast food we have found. Also got a cake. The person serving me asked if we liked Japanese sweets, I nodded and she gave us samples.
The one we bought had aduki beans in it so definitely part of our 5 a day.

On the way into Kamakura we saw a monorail. It looked so futuristic we decided to look into having a trip on it. We would check out prices first and weigh up if it was a good idea. It turned out that the tickets wouldn’t come to more than £1. 50. Someone helpful in the train station suggested a route to Pete and so we embarked on yet another type of transport.


We thought perhaps we were a bit silly to feel giddy but they had monorail lunchboxes and a whole shop full of monorail goodies, including a Hello Kitty monorail pen!

It was a bit of an odd experience, not exactly a smooth ride but interesting to glide over the houses.

The picture above shows the rail in the background that we had just traveled along. Pete did look very excited. When I see foreigh students getting giddy in our local Tesco and taking photos I am going to be a lot more forgiving.

We travelled to Enoshima, what an interesting place…… Enoshima is an island which is the only one hour from Tokyo. We caught a glimpse of the Kannon statue on the mountainside above the station.
The walk from the station to the island is a bit of an eye full in lots of ways. It seemed very much the party place.

Again you have this juxtaposition of loving animals here but then shoving them in tanks ready to eat. From dressing up inanimate animals to the real thing. These two dogs were wearing tutus in very high temperatures in a pram. Why, why, why?????

I love the notices in Japan, trying to work out what they mean. Run after your child if it does a huge fart, run from exploding child, the options are endless.

The beach wasn’t the nicest in Japan by any stretch, the sand was dark and it was very crowded. But of course only being an hour from Tokyo it must be a great, easy to get to getaway. Anyway it didn’t matter as I have had to get rid of my swimming costume as there has been a strange malfunction. After yesterday’s swim my swimming costume had filled up with sand, on either side it looked like sand bags. I can’t work out what happened but the amount of sand in it could have kept a toddler amused for hours, having made quite a few sand castles!

Music blaring, bar workers half heartedly beckoning us in to sample their tequila etc, djs playing. Fun for sure but not our kind. Although maybe getting overly excited about a monorail is questionable.

On the way back we saw this notice:There is a lot around in English and children and adults alike wear clothes which have odd English translations. Making sense but never quite hitting the mark.

And of course the ever present tsunami warnings… Found the van, no mean feat and set off for the nearest michi to Tokyo. On route you always see interesting things, especially as we haven’t done the toll roads.

Pete got us to the michi. He has been amazing as I couldn’t have driven the van at all. He had made quite a chilled play list so that kept us calm. Driving through places like Yokahama and part of Tokyo in the night with light glaring made me feel quite anxious but Pete took it in his stride.

We passed places in Tokyo that we had seen on foot, like the big wheel by the Borderless Teamlab. And so we reached our very last michi of the holiday, after only a few Googlemap hiccups. Not a bad looking michi, we have either stayed at a michi or had a drink in one on route, becoming quite discerning. Again many of them have great tactile maps and when I have a moment I am going to look into how they make Japanese into Braille. I have been brave enough to use the private function on the toilets. As they have a musicsl note symbol invariably, I thought if I put it on I thought it may play something loud like Wagner, then everyone would know I was doing something noisy myself. But all it does is make a very noisy sound of something like a cistern filling and refilling.

And every michi has a whole host of bright, colourful vending machines.

To end the journey we used up all the food leftover. A spicy bean and rice stew.

I will be glad to be sleeping in a proper bed tomorrow night but have been glad of the freedom the van has given us, added to that we could never have afforded accommodation to the places we have been to for this length of time.

What a brilliant sleep we had. We were able to take our washing to the campsite, which was a bonus. By the time we had sorted that out the Observation Area cafe had opened. We splashed out all 600 yen on breakfast.

It was very tasty but yet again forks were brought over as I am terribly bad at using chopsticks. But I don’t mind being bad, I eat more slowly.

There was no view of Mount Fuji, it was very misty. On a perfect day it would look like this :

Washing done, we put them in the dryer and popped down the road to see a local attraction. On route we crossed paths with a Japanese badger. I didn’t have my camera but… We weren’t quite certain what it was but as we parked up we could hear piped English folk music coming through the tannoys.


So from what we could gather it was a shopping and cultural experience, which included an English village with a London double decker bus, some Canadian type buildings as the area linked to a Canadian town, a railway line based on something in the UK and topped off with traditional Japanese dwellings. It was very pricey and as we only wanted a short distraction while the clothes dried we passed. But we did have quite a debate with each other before we left because we felt if they let us in at a reduced price it would add a certain verisimilitude to the visitor experience. Although I think I may have ended up trying too hard and coming all Dick van Dyke, but realistically there isn’t anything more surreal than being up a Japanese mountain listening to English folk music.

Washing dried we headed to Odoi beach, it looked very clear, so good snorkeling conditions. Japanese beaches tend to be run quite strictly and this one was no exception, only open between certain hours (how can that be possible) and run by very vigilant lifeguards, who looked about 15. But still, the undertow was very strong. The lifeguards were not adverse to admonishing burly men, luckily we did not get into trouble this time….

We saw all sorts of fish and wildlife, prickly sea urchins, large red Pacific sea bream and striped beakfish, striped jackfish, blackfish and squid. Really exciting as we saw things we hadn’t seen before, inevitably we were in the water for quite some time. This is how sealife should be seen, just going about their business, in the sea rather than a glass tank in a shop!

Lovely sculpture where we parked. Headed back to Heda to give our feet a spa treatment for our feet.

It’s a bit hot to begin with!
Headed back to our site that was enveloped in a mist that made it look like something from a Stephen King novel. Had a shower, with much head nodding and thanks with the lovely man at reception. Our second to last night in the van!

On the way to the beach we had breakfast here at an observatory point, on Mount Hakoda, on the Pearl Road. It’s 23.8 kilometres long and winds it’s way from Toba to the mountains to Shima. From here we could see the sea and islands down below. What a perfect spot for breakfast. The michi had been so full the night before, we decided that we would return here to make tea and relax.

It was great, somewhere to cook, relax and look at the scenery as the day ended. Occasionally we would hear motorbikes whizzing past, it’s a popular route for motorbikes, a bit like The Snake Pass.


We had a lovely tea, tucked ourselves in for the night. Because we were high up it was slightly cooler but not much. So snuggled up and happy we were, we sent Annie a photo. We eventually managed to sleep.


The next thing we knew we were woken up by an absolute cacophony of noise, cars racing along the road, braking abruptly into the car park, giggling youth, the list goes on. It was just after midnight!

Pete peeked out of the window, about 6 or 7. Pete could see one that looked like a Lamborghini (?). But far more people milling about. My bladder went into overdrive and I needed to head to the loos. Put a top over my nighty (as you notice from. Photo 7and walked determinedly to the Ladies. No one looked in my direction, they were all intent on looking at their phones, no doubt looking at video footage of their drives.

So again I googled it, was this normal? Would the police be involved (we haven’t seen many).

Of course the Top Gear site proved helpful:
While street racing around Tokyo has died down, it doesn’t mean it’s not prevalent in other parts of Japan. … Formed in 1987, Midnight Club was an illegal Vmax street racing society where you could only join if your car hit 160mph. To be competitive, you had to have a 200mph car.

We knew they weren’t a threat, it in some perverse way we were seeing a ‘cultural experience’ first hand. The noise of the cars was fine with me but the sound of high pitched giggling of the youths as they replayed their videos was very much something else.

I think they stopped around 3 in the morning, but not certain. We woke up considerably more bleary eyed. We packed up and headed to Heda on the Izu peninsula. A slight detour but still on route to Tokyo.

To limit our driving we cut out 190 kilometres by getting a ferry from Toba to Irago. Balancing the cost of petrol etc it made sense and added to that only took 55 minutes.

On the way to the ferry terminal we passed this odd shop!


The journey was lovely and painless. Although I did leave the dongle at the ticket office and whilst Pete ran back for it the Captain handed it back to me. Typical of me! We have carried it round with us when we think that we need to use Google translate – which isn’t as often as we thought as we have become very good at miming and gesticulating.


Even though it was 55 minutes we did have time to scoff our favourite mochi – dango mochi. It’s sweet and savoury as it’s covered in a sweetened soy sauce. Yum!
Pete pretty drove non stop to Heda. The reason we chose Heda primarily was because there was only one michi on the east of the peninsular and one on the west, Heda being on the west. Heda is tiny, only 2,700 inhabitants, very remote, with the nearest real transport links 50 km away. 1

What we hadn’t realised was that it was quite popular place. There were street food sellers,
a little museum, a spa, a cafe making home cooked food, a shop and also offices. We got a place but to indicate how busy it was there were two pa111 they all have a ubiquitous red stick they wave around. I didn’t want to photograph them in case they got too handy with their red stick so have used a stock photo. So we hadn’t parked exactly how they wanted us to – we needed to reverse in. But it did give the parking attendant lots to do, as well as show off his knowledge of ‘straight, straight, straight’, ‘left, left, left’ etc.

As they had a spa they also had a free foot spa, which was heaven after the journey. My feet getting quite stripy!

Had a quick look at the museum, shop etc. The museum of such had quite a bit about the town’s links with Russia but very little in English (but why should there be).


A fleet of Russian ships perished in a tsunami in 1852, there were some survivors, they were looked after by the people of Heda, who also built them a new schooner. Tokens of gratitude were sent from Russia to the people of Heda. It’s odd as when we got to the port there seemed a real Eastern bloc feel.

We had a bite to eat and walked to the port. Getting a drink on route we found these lazy tree frogs.Apparently the calling behaviour of these frogs has help to develop an algorithm for WiFi systems, I find that very hard to believe as they just seem to loll around drinks machines.

The port was buzzing, so many people, all genders and ages fishing. We saw some lovely little blue fish in the harbour.


Heda is the centre of spider crab fishing, you couldn’t get away from it. Spider crabs taka-ashi gani, are caught here as the Surago Bay is so deep.
These are the largest crabs in the world and claw to claw they can reach a length of 5.5 metres. It all seems awful, seeing these beautiful creatures in a tank, though realistically no worse than factory farming. But all the same not nice.

As the michi did seem very busy we went up Heda Pass to a campsite. Darumayamakogen Camping Ground was right on top of the mountain. No room at the Inn! Quite a few people on the campsite got involved in translating what we were saying. What was great was that the receptionist, who was really sweet said we could park at the Mount Fuji Observation Area and use their facilities.

Sorting that out we went to Observation area and the clouds started dispersing and we could see Mount Fuji.
We showered, I made an aubergine and tofu salad, going to bed Happy and very clean.