Day 05 - Tuesday 31st July

Today we would be travelling by train from Tokyo to Takayama. Last night, we did most of our packing. The plan was that each of us would leave one large suitcase here at the Century Southern Tower Hotel in Shinjuku until we return from Kyoto in five days time. We'd packed our smaller suitcases with what we'd need for Takayama and Kyoto - I hope.

After breakfast in the hotel restaurant again, we checked out and left our bags. I then remembered that I'd let my camera and hat on the bedside table in the room and so I had to ask the reception for a key so I could dash back up to get them.

The trip to Takayama would consist of three train journeys on JR. The first was a suburban over-ground train trip from Shinjuku to Tokyo station that took about 15 minutes. We allowed plenty of time at Tokyo station to be able to find the next train. This turned out to be fairly straight forward and we had almost 30 minutes to wait for the train.

This was a fast train from Tokyo to Nagoya. The platform is very long because the train consists of 16 carriages. Along the edge of the platform, there is a fence about 1m high with gaps for each train door. Other people were queuing and so we did too. The train left on time at exactly 10:33am.

Most of the scenery along the way was bland until we saw Mt Fuji out of the right side of the train. I grabbed my camera and took lots of photos - some of which worked out OK.

At Nagoya, we changed trains for the final leg to Takayama. The changeover time was only about 25 minutes and once again it left exactly on time.

When we got on this train, our reserved seats were in car 1 next to the driver's window. It seemed strange to us that all the seats were facing backwards away from the driver. An announcement explained that the seats were facing this way because we would travel in one direction until the next station at which point the train would switch to a different line and travel in the other direction.

The scenery on this trip was much more interesting because the railway followed a river for most of the journey. The river itself was a beautiful blue colour and there were steep wooded mountains on either side of us.

At Takayama, we were met by a driver and van from the place where we are were staying - about 1km up the hill from the station. The town is a fascinating traditional Japanese town dating back over 400 years.

Oyado Ryokan is a traditional Japanese guest house. At the entrance, you take off your shoes and put on slippers they provide. I took a few steps and decided to take them off because I was sure I was going to trip over. They said it's OK to wear socks or bare feet.

Our room is on the second floor. One thing to note about the bedrooms in a ryokan is that there are no beds. You sleep on a mat and pillow on the floor. The only furniture is a very low table with chairs with no legs. The floor of the bedroom is covered with tatami mats (a traditional Japanese mat made of rice straw) whereas the hallways are carpeted.

There are some modern features. Thankfully there is air conditioning because Takayama is even hotter than Tokyo and still very humid. My guess is that it must have been close to 40C when we arrived.

There is a lift in the building and a TV and safe in the room. The main bathroom is a public bath in the basement - one for men and one for women. However, they've installed a private shower on the main level for anyone who is too modest to use the public shower and bath. Thankfully, each room has its own toilet.

After settling in and having some green tea in our room, we set off at about 4:30pm to explore the town. We found a couple of narrow lanes lined with cute little shops selling an amazing and impressive array of trinkets, food, alcohol, clothes, etc. Lots of character. Very different from the modern buildings in Tokyo.

Dinner and breakfast are included in our stay. They say that the dinner is prepared in the traditional Japanese style by local mothers. They staff were certainly women, were probably local and could well have been mothers but I didn't ask to see photos to prove that they had children. I doubt if they would have understood me.

The dinner was brilliant. Once gain we sat at a very low table on chairs with no legs. I wasn't sure I'd be able to get up again - especially after all the sake we had. It was a genuine banquet with an incredible variety of interesting dishes. We ate most of the dishes but left a few we weren't sure about.

The dinner reminded me of a big Christmas lunch on a hot December day in Sydney. After lunch you just feel like lying on the floor to recover - except we were already sitting on the floor.

When we climbed back up the stairs to return to our room, the staff were just going into our room to get our beds ready. When they'd finished, they had moved the table and our bags to the side and had laid out our mats, pillows and quilts on the floor.

The WiFi reception in our room is almost nil and so I went down to the lounge area near reception where there is good signal. I think that I might melt if I stay here much longer and so I might need to go back up to our air-conditioned room instead.

Day 04 - Monday 30th July

Today we thought we'd go somewhere different for breakfast - however most places near the hotel were closed or unimpressive. So we went to the hotel restaurant again because we knew we'd get a good breakfast there.

After breakfast, we went to the nearby department store. I didn't stay long - leaving Suzy to shop in peace while I went back to the hotel to catch up on my blog.

For lunch, we went to a cafe near our hotel. The decor and food resembled the Costa coffee shops that we often go to in London. The tables here were very small - only about 20cm square. Also, Costa has a wider choice and better food.

We went to the Airport Limousine to ask about our trip to Narita airport next Monday morning - primarily because we needed to know how much time to allow in peak hour traffic.

Next we went to the Japan Rail (JR) information office to activate the 7-day Japan Rail Pass tickets that we bought in Australia. This would let us use their trains today and for the travel to and from Takayama and Kyoto over the next six days. We also booked our seats on the trains for tomorrow.

It was a little easier this time to find the correct line and platform. After only a few minutes, a train arrived to take us from Shinjuku to Akihabara on the Sobu line where we changed to the Yamanote line to go one more station to Okachimachi station.

The plan was to visit the Ameyoko shopping area that consists of narrow lanes with small stores selling clothes, food, trinkets, etc.

After walking down open-air alley ways, we decided to explore the indoor stalls. This turned out to be a good idea because it was air-conditioned and so we could escape the heat and humidity.

Even so, we were getting tired after less than 30 minutes. By this time we'd reached the next JR railway station, Ueno. So we caught the train back to Akibahara.

Here we planned to visit "Electric Street" which is an area that has shop after shop selling electronic and electrical goods - every kind of gadget and accessories you could imagine.

Most of the shops look quite small but when you go inside they are bigger than they first appeared and often consist of four or five levels.

We caught the train from Akibahara back to Shinjuku. It was interesting to note that the platform has painted lines and arrows to indicate where to queue to get on at each door on the train and where to allow for people getting off the train.

Back in our hotel, Suzy managed to contact Nicky and Amelia in London using FaceTime on her MacBook Air.

For dinner, Suzy wanted to go to a tempura restaurant in Shinjuku that had good reviews on Trip Advisor. She plotted out a route to the restaurant in Google Maps and we set off at about 6:30pm hoping that we would be able to find it.

The restaurant is in a narrow street on the eastern side of Shinjuku station. This area has bright lights, busy shops, interesting restaurants and crowds of people. It is clearly the place to go for young people looking for a good night out.

We managed to find the restaurant without any trouble. It's a small restaurant with narrow benches for the customers facing the chefs who cook the meals. We were the only westerners there.

Although they handed us menus in English, we were unsure how big the dishes were and how many we would need. They had set menus but we were put off these because one of the courses was eel.

When we asked the waiter for clarification, he didn't understand us and got someone else to help. She knew a few English words but was out of her depth. She found someone else who spoke excellent English. She convinced us to go for the set menu and agreed to substitute the eel for something else.

We'd never tried sake before and we decided tonight was going to be the night. Since we didn't know if we would like it, we just ordered one to share between us - thinking that we could switch to wine later. It turned out that we liked it and we ended up ordering another serve later in the meal.

It was fascinating watching the chef cook our food in front of us. While waiting for our food, we watched the other diners with their meals so we could learn the proper etiquette.

The meal was delicious but I was still hungry and so I ordered two more pieces of fish. At least I thought I did. I'm not sure if the waitress understood but the cook seemed to understand because he said "fish" and I indicated two. After a while no fish had arrived and the chef wandered off. We had to find the waitress who spoke good English to sort it out.

Interestingly, she suggested two other types of fish including flathead. When the chef showed us the two types of fish, they were only about 5cm long. I told the waitress that in Australia flathead are "this big", she laughed.

It was a delicious meal and an adventure.

Day 03 - Sunday 29th July

Our hotel room faces east and so gets the morning sun. The curtains are heavy enough to block out most of the light so as not to wake us up. When we opened the curtains, it was another bright sunny day with hardly any clouds in the sky - but still hazy.

Today we'd booked to go on an all-day bus tour of the highlights of Tokyo. We set the alarm and had breakfast in the hotel restaurant again. The bus was due to leave from our hotel at 8am and so we made sure that we were at the pick-up point five minutes early. Just as well because the bus left at exactly 8am.

As usual for these tours, we went from hotel to hotel picking up passengers and so it was just after 9am before the tour proper started.

The first stop was Tokyo Tower which is a tall communication tower with an observation platform at 250m above ground level that gave us a good view of the city.

The next stop was the same park and shrine (Meiji Shrine) that we'd visited yesterday on our own. At least this time we got a guided tour.

Back on the bus, we drove past the Akasaka Guest House (where visiting royalty and presidents stay) and the National Diet building (parliament house). We stopped at the Imperial Palace East Garden for a pleasant stroll through the beautiful grounds.

The bus then drove past the Ginza shopping district and stopped at a commercial area for lunch. Some passengers left the tour at that point. Of the ones who, like us, were continuing on the full-day tour, everyone except us had paid extra for a Japanese banquet for lunch. We'd decided we didn't need another banquet and so we just had a light lunch at Starbucks.

After lunch, we were joined by people who'd booked for the afternoon tour and drove to another pleasant garden, Hama-Rikyu Garden. Next we went on a cruise of the Sumida River for about 30 minutes.

At the end of the cruise, we met a Samurai warrior who gave us a brief performance. The plan was to spend about 45 minutes walking through the shopping street (small stalls) at Asakusa. At the end of the shopping street were several impressive temples including one that was five stories high.

The bus was due to leave at 5:10 but four passengers were almost 30 minutes late!

Next we drove past various shopping centres at Kappabashi, Ueno and Akihabara. By this time it was about 6pm.

Our guide had told us that, if we stayed on the bus, it would be 7:30 or 8pm by the time they dropped us back at our hotel and so we decided to catch the train instead.

It took us a while to find the correct train line (JR Sobu line) and the right platform but it was worth the effort - partly because of the experience of the train trip and partly because we were back in our hotel soon after 6:30pm.

It had been a tiring day. Although an all-day tour would normally be tiring, it was more tiring because of the heat and humidity. Each day so far, the daytime temperature was over 30C.

For dinner we decided to go to the hotel restaurant (where we go for breakfast). The meal was fairly expensive but very delicious.

Day 02 - Saturday 28th July

We slept well in our king-size bed. For breakfast, we went down to the buffet in the hotel restaurant. He gave us an excellent table next to the window overlooking the city. It was a nice start to the day. The Olympic opening ceremony was still going on the TV when we got back to our room.

After breakfast, we set out to explore the area near our hotel. Someone had told us that we should go to the government office complex which turned out to be only about 1km from our hotel. This complex has two large towers - both of which have an observation deck with a view of the city.

There was a queue for the northern tower but not for the southern tower and so we decided to go with the crowd for the northern tower. This took us to the 45th floor. It was a worthwhile view but limited by the haze.

A Frenchman in the queue behind us said the southern tower is better at night. So we decided to come back in the evening for that tower.

On the way back to our hotel, we visited the shopping area that is part of Shinjuki station complex. The little stalls were interesting. The department store was just like going to Myer.

For lunch, we found a pizza restaurant in the same building as our hotel. I liked the sound of the "painful chicken and salami" pizza. It turned out to be very spicy. I couldn't claim that I wasn't warned. I also tried a Japanese beer.

After lunch, we set off for a nearby suburb called Harajuku. We caught the above-ground metro train from Shinkuju to Harajuku. It was only two stations away but it gave us our first experience of trains, ticketing, etc.

Shinjuku is a very large station seething with thousands of people coming and going. There are at least four main entrances - you need to make sure you find the right entrance to get on the right train. We were on the Yamayote line on a Japan Rail (JR) train.

At Harajuku, we first spent some time looking at the shopping area. It was very crowded. They seem to love trinkets and knick-knacks. My favourite shop was one that sold an amazing variety of accessories for iPhones and iPads.

Next we went back to the other side of the railway station where there is a very large park that commemorates an emperor who died one hundred years ago on Monday. So it turned out to be a good time to be here.

After visiting the park and the shrine, we noticed performers in fancy outfits near the entrance. So we waited about 20 minutes for the show to start.

We managed to get lost getting out of the train at Shinjuku because we made the wrong guess about which exit to use. I turned on the data roaming on my iPhone to figure out where to go. It took more than 20 minutes to walk around this huge railway station complex to reach the road back to our hotel.

Back in our hotel, we noticed fireworks in the distance at about 7pm. They were still going at 8pm when we were having dinner.

For dinner we'd decided to go to the hotel's traditional Japanese restaurant. I went in fear and trepidation because I still remember being sick for days after going to a Japanese restaurant more than 20 years ago in Sydney.

We managed to negotiate a meal I'd be able to eat. They were very helpful. Amongst copious bowing and scampering back to the kitchen, the waitress came up with suitable options that turned out to be delicious. For example, she would come back with a word such as "scallops" on a notepad so we could nod or shake our heads.

Day 01 - Friday 27th July

It was an early start - we wanted to get to the airport at 6pm because the flight left about two hours later at 8:15am.

The taxi arrived a few minutes before the time we booked but I almost got left behind. After we'd put all the bags in the back of the station wagon, I jumped into the back seat and decided there wasn't enough room for my legs behind the driver's seat and so I got out again and went around to get in the other side next to the driver. The driver must have thought that I was safely in the car and so he drove off without me. He didn't get very far because Suzy must have told him that she needed me to come with her too.

We got to the airport by 6am but we need not have worried so much because there was no queue at the Japan Air check-in counter. So we had plenty of time to relax and have breakfast.

The plane left on time and arrived in Tokyo in time. Luckily the plane was less than half full and so we could spread out. Just as well because the economy class seats seemed to be even smaller than usual.

At Narita airport, we'd planned to catch the Airport Limousine to the hotel. This sounds fancy but it's just a normal tourist bus. While we were waiting for the bus, we had some dinner. There's not much choice in the terminal - I settled for McDonald's.

The bus trip to the hotel is mainly on freeways. This part of the trip went well. However, when we got into Tokyo, there traffic was very slow and so the total trip was over 2 hours. The bus dropped us at the front door of our hotel.

The hotel is unusual - it's in a tall office tower. The reception is on level 20 and our room is on level 30 overlooking the railway station, a park and the city.

After settling in, we decided we needed a drink after such a long trip. When we went down to the bar only to be told it was full and we'd have to wait. All was not lost - we found that the hotel shop near reception sold bottles of whisky and vodka at a very reasonable price. So we had a drink back in our room.

There's free WiFi in our room. We managed to get all our equipment connected - our iPhones, my iPad, my new Dell Ultrabook and Suzy's MacBook Air. We had to borrow a couple of power adaptors from reception.

Speaking of advanced technology, I'm looking forward to figuring out the toilet seat - it has five or six buttons next to seat. One is for heating but I'm not sure what the others do.

The iPhone SIMS we bought for this trip don't seem to work very well here. When we tested them, were unable to call each other and so we don't know if other people will have success if they tried to ring us. SMS messages seem to work some of the time but are often delayed. Hopefully, we'll have more success with them when we get to the UK.