under another sun

Breakfast at the hotel Trusty. A poor night's sleep for some reason, but a nice buffet and cups of coffee. Once we'd got ourselves organised off for another walk through Kanazawa. First another nearby shrine with another gorgeous pool. Then off through little more residential back streets, stopping at a little bakers, and walking through a busy food market. As usual lots of fish, including barrels of thick octopus legs coloured scarlet, and ranks of long legged crabs on their backs, and various bony fish and dried flattened squid. From there we wandered some more until we found ourselves on the edge of the Old Geisha district. More picturesque streets, and we happened upon an artist studio of a Finish American artist called Clifton Karhu who, after his death, has a growing reputation.  Beautiful work, highly graphic and excellent colour choices. A very friendly animated man told us all about Karhu, and showed us many of his fine prints. From here a wander through the lanes o...

In and around the geisha district. Bottom is where we had a cup of tea. Elegant.

The best night's sleep so far sleeping on the floor in a futon, under a huge snow white duvet. The colds that had plagued plagued Lorraine and I now officially in abeyance. Up at nine and off for an an unforgettable breakfast. Romy chose western style, and Toby, Lorraine and I opted for a Japanese, which was unforgettably delicious, with bowls of rice, soup, salmon and plates of dainties. Then back to our rooms to complete packing to move on to our next hotel a short distance away in Kanazawa. The ladies of the Ryokan could not have been more gracious. They helped us locate the new one, and the lady who had been looking after us led us down the street to our new hotel. Unfortunately this was the wrong hotel, so she secured us taxis on the street and instructed their drivers. This all conducted in her traditional kimono. Warm farewells. The new hotel where we will stay for the next two days is a just-opened business hotel called Hotel Trusty with impressive Christmas decorations...

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...