ESSENTIAL JAPAN

WENDY WU - 12th May 2016

Day 1We flew premium economy from London Heathrow to Hong Kong, then on to Tokyo Narita. The service was exemplary and I would not hesitate to recommend the airline.

On arrival we were met by a Wendy Wu representative who welcomed us and took us to our transfer vehicle. We were arriving alone and therefore received a car transfer; however, having spoken with my group clients, who all travelled with Emirates via Dubai, they were also met, welcomed and put on a very comfortable minibus.

The hotel was in the Shiba district of Tokyo, close to the Tokyo Tower. On arrival at the hotel our guide greeted us and arranged a time for dinner.

Dinner was in a local restaurant, a five-minute walk from our hotel – a traditional restaurant and our first chance to use chopsticks!! The 10-course meal arrived with small sharing plates; after course six we were getting full, and very competent with the utensils. It was lovely to meet all the fellow travellers – and the guide, who talked us through each dish and explained the etiquette involved in the order and way you eat.

Day 2After a buffet breakfast in the hotel, our guide and driver met us in reception for our short drive to Hama-rikyu Gardens in the south of Tokyo. The landscape gardens form a public park surrounding a large pond, with a teahouse in its centre. After a gentle stroll around the gardens with the guide, or on our own, we rejoined the coach to visit the Edo-Tokyo Museum. Edo is the ancient name of Tokyo and the museum recreates life in the capital, with permanent and special exhibitions from the ancient through to the modern era. The group were given floor plans, though the guide was on hand to offer a tour if required; but the majority of the signs were also in English.

After lunch we visited the Tokyo Skytree, the worlds’ highest freestanding tower at 634 metres, with commanding views over Tokyo. We were lucky: it was a very clear day and we could see Mt Fuji, 130 kms distant. View the city from this height, we began to understand the sheer scale of the place.

A quick change back at the hotel, and then the coach took us to the Symphony Dinner Cruise. The group had their own private dining area at the bow of the ship as we cruised under the Rainbow Bridge and viewed the Tokyo skyline at night. The meal was excellent and afterwards we went on deck to take photographs and admire the views.

We had a couple of hours free, which gave us the chance to explore the area around our hotel. The Zojoji Shrine was a five-minute walk away and this was the destination for some of the group. Our guide also offered to take people on a walking tour of the local fish market; I did not choose to do this, but it gave those who did a chance to use the Tokyo underground, and those who joined the tour thoroughly enjoyed it.

The guide and driver took us to the Asakusa Temple, a Buddhist temple and one of the most colourful and popular in Tokyo. It was festival day and it felt like the majority of Tokyo were here to enjoy the procession. The noise, the colour and the people dressed in traditional kimono was certainly an amazing sight.

The guide and driver then met us for lunch, after which we drove to the Imperial Palace and Gardens. The palace is built on the site of the original Edo Castle and is home to the imperial family of Japan. The palace is out of bounds but the grounds are open to the public and are magnificent. The late afternoon saw us at the Meiji Shrine, ded-icated to the Emporer Meiji and his Empress and completed in 1920. Emporer Meiji was the first modern ruler of Japan and brought about the mod-ernisation and westernisation of Japan as we now know it. We then went straight to dinner in Harajuku, famous for the “Harajuku Girls” and a place where teenagers hang out and shop. The atmosphere was fabulous and once again the meal was exceptional. Instead of returning to the hotel my partner and I decided to walk around Harajuku and then on to Shibuya to take in the atmosphere in one of the most vibrant areas of Tokyo. We took the metro back to our hotel: not as confusing as it first looks, and there are many people on hand to assist.

Day 3

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Day 7

Aft er breakfast we checked out of the hotel and made our way to Mt Fuji.

En route we stopped at the Hannoki Bayashi Musuem at Oshino Hakkai, a small open-air museum set amongst eight ponds fi lled with water from Mt Fuji. Th e gardens and grounds were beautifully maintained and a stroll around the museum was most welcome.

Th en we made our own lunch!! Soba noodles are part of the staple diet and we learnt how to make them. Th en our eff orts were cooked and served to us with tempura vegetables: great fun.

Th en on to Mount Fuji and our traditional Japanese “ryukan” hotel for the next two nights. Bathrobes and slippers were the order of the evening and the whole group dressed appropriately for dinner.

Th e hotel has its own natural hot springs, “onsen”, and over the next couple of days the majority of the group experienced the Japanese bathing ritual.

Our luggage went to Kyoto ahead of us, and aft er breakfast we went to the Mt Fuji Visitors’ Centre, and then the 5th Station, about halfway up the mountain.

Th e morning was shrouded in mist and the opportunity to see Mt Fuji was looking slim. However, on leaving the museum the sun broke through the clouds and as we moved further up we glimpsed a snow-capped mountain. “Fujisan” is Japan’s highest mountain at 3,776 metres, and is worshipped as a sacred mountain. It is an active volcano but has not erupted since 1708.

We came back down the mountain for lunch in a village on Lake Kawaguchiko, and a chance to walk along the lake and buy some Fuji cookies.

Th e late aft ernoon was spent in the hotel enjoying the onsen, before another delicious dinner.

Following breakfast we were taken to Mishima Station, approximately two hours from our hotel, to board the Shinkansen, or Bullet Train, to Kyoto.

Th e Bullet Train is an amazing experience: always on time, spotlessly clean and all the staff were amazingly polite, bowing when entering and leaving each carriage. Seats are pre-booked and extremely comfortable and spacious. On arrival in Kyoto we were taken for lunch, then off to a Japanese tea ceremony with a “maiko”, a trainee geisha between the ages of 15 and 20. Once they have graduated they become fully-fl edged geisha. Aft er the ceremony and the dance the young girl took questions about her life and the life of a maiko: fascinating. Th e group then checked into our fi nal hotel in central Kyoto to freshen up before dinner.

Kyoto felt like a city where you could quite happily spend a few hours strolling and taking in the contrast of the modern shops and small quaint alleys.

In the morning we headed off to tour a few of the many important sites in Kyoto. We began at Kiyomizu (“Pure Water”) Temple, one of the most revered in Japan. Set in the wooded hills over-looking the city , the temple was one of the oldest schools of Japanese Buddhism. Th e temple was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1994. Aft er lunch we visited the Kinkakuji Temple and its Golden Pavilion, an impressive structure overlooking a pond. It’s a Zen temple with amazing gardens and a Zen-inspired teahouse. Before going to dinner we visited the Nichigin Kimono Centre for a talk about the kimono and a fashion show, followed by a fun lesson in origami. Dinner in Kyoto, and we chose to walk back to our hotel, allowing us time to wander the streets of the ancient capital in the evening.

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Aft er breakfast at the hotel we caught the Bullet Train to Himeji Castle, dating from the 1400s and also known as White Heron Castle, and considered Japan’s most spectacular. Th e castle, built over fi ve levels, is well preserved and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Th en back to Kyoto by Bullet Train in time for a quick change.

Our farewell dinner was held in a beautiful French-style restaurant – and (docked one star, maybe?) was the only evening that we could not use our chopsticks! To sum up, the whole trip was amazing and beyond my or the group’s expectations. We never seemed to stop eating ! Th ough we had full explanations on what we are eating and how we were expected to eat it.

Our guide, Ted, was superb and I cannot off er too much praise for him, his organisation and his understanding of the needs of our group.

I cannot recommend Japan enough; nor this Wendy Wu tour. For those who want to experience a wonderful, and very diff erent, country – this is a perfect introduction. And there will be more.

Day 8

Day 9

An early breakfast and departure from the hotel to the railway station to catch the Shinkansen toHiroshima.

Our fi rst stop is the city, and the Peace Park and Museum. On August 6th 1945, during World War II, an American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s fi rst deployed atomic bomb.

Th e rest as they say is history. Th e museum is extremely moving and tells a story of a small girl whose life was aff ected by the bomb, a statue to her memory is in the Peace Park and is visited by hundreds of people daily who make off erings of origami paper cranes. It is worth looking up the story of Sadako Sasaki and the Children’s Peace Monument. Lunch was at the port. Th e local delicacy is conger eel and oysters, but it’s not compulsory. We then took a short ferry crossing to Miyajima Island, famous for its large torii gate which at high tide seems to fl oat on water. “Shrine Island” is home to the Itsukushima Shrine, built on stilts over the water. Th e island is inhabited by wild deer; however, they have become so used to people that they wander around looking for tidbits.

Th en it was all aboard the Bullet Train back to Kyoto, followed by dinner.