Final impressions

After a full day of travelling I am back in the UK! Left Tokyo, where it was raining again on Saturday morning. Had a bit of a delay on the flight on the way back, but made it to Heathrow, as did my case (two flights in a row that it managed it!)

The time I spent in Japan has been great. The first week in Kyoto really enabled me to see some different places, from the big city of Osaka to the island of Miyajima. Visiting Hiroshima was a moving experience, and one I am glad I took. Kyoto itself had some beautiful temples in it, but I am not sure whether I really got a good feel for the city itself - being based at the station meant there was so much on hand there that I never really found the real centre of the city.

Moving onto Tokyo for the second week, I had a slight concern from anecdotal comments that there might not be enough to keep me occupied for a week. However, there certainly was! The city itself was interesting and full of contrasts, from the big city areas with towering skyscrapers, to the commercial areas with all their bright lights to the number of parks and gardens that were around to give some stunning greenery. Helpfully for me, there were a significant number of art galleries around to keep me interested (even allowing for some being shut!) and the display at the Mori Art Museum was well worth visiting.

Getting around in Japan has been fairly easy. Having the Japan Rail Pass for the first week meant that I could go anywhere, do anything, which was really helpful. The bullet trains weren't perhaps the magical experiences I was expecting(!), but when you look at the time that it might otherwise take to get about they certainly had their advantages! In Tokyo the subway system was fairly comprehensive, but it did suffer from the same problem that there was in Kyoto, namely different companies operating different systems. Of the full subway there were 2 companies (Tokyo Metro with 8 lines, Toei with 4), and you could either get a ticket for one network or both. On top of that there were a fairly extensive network of local Japan Rail lines (which were not included in the ticket) and also several private lines about! Thankfully the basic cost was so small that getting a daily ticket for both subway networks cost around the cost of 1 journey on the London Underground, so even if I did not get full value I got the flexibility from it. The other useful thing was that all stations had their names in English on them, and most announcements were also translated, which certainly helped finding out where to go!

I was exceedingly lucky with the weather there, despite the occasional rain. Most days it has been sunny (as you can probably see form the photos) and temperatures were in the mid 20's - just right for me!

Both hotels I stayed in were very nice and the staff very helpful. The the Hotel Granvia in Kyoto had a great rate for the rooms by virtue of having the Japan Rail pass - with the time I was there it would have made the pass worthwhile even if I had never set foot on a train! The Prince Park Tower Hotel in Tokyo had some great views from the room, and getting a free breakfast just for having joined a free loyalty club was a bonus!

Japan has a reputation for being an expensive place to visit, but I found it generally very reasonable. Most evenings I ate out very well for £10-15, snacks were well priced (lots of vending machines about with drinks for 50p) and standard short journeys on public transport would have been less than £1 (my day pass for 2 networks was only £4). Most places charged an entrance fee to get in, but usually it was £2-3 and the most I paid was £6 for the Roppongi Hills viewing tower and art gallery.

Overall, I am really glad that I went to Japan. I have had a great time, seen some fantastic places and, despite all that I have packed in, had time to relax a bit as well (I guess the fact that the blackberry and mobile didn't work out there helped a bit to this respect!) Definitely somewhere I would recommend to go to.