Japanese luxury in the Asadaya Ryokan
A splendid clear day in Tokyo, I pulled back the curtains to reveal the city in its all glory seeming to stretch to the distant mountains. A frenzy of packing for today was the day we began the next leg of our journey. Lorraine and I met Toby and Romy in reception and then took the lift down a couple of floors, then a mazy walk through subways till we caught a train for a few stops and arrived at the Shinkansen station. As we had to wait 50 minutes for the train, we had a light breakfast in a cafe. Lorraine and I braving the purchasing transaction, but this being Tokyo this was done fairly easily. Into the Shinkansen. This really is the the rock star of trains. Our reserved seats were in the lower deck of a two deck coach, however, so we arrived at the next station at ankle level. So to see things we popped upstairs and stood in the 'vestibule'. Tokyo seemed limitless as we headed north through the city, but eventually the built up areas began to thin until the train bullet...