Sunny Sunday in Nice

A week since we're back from Japan, it's been a bit hard to get back to our normal routine. Jet lag, reverse cultural shock, and so forth...

But, this weekend, we decided to get off our bums and cycle down to Nice, to meet up with Marie for lunch. Nice was, as always, beautiful in the August sun, as we cycled towards Place Garibaldi along Le Coule Verte. Life on the Riviera is pretty nice, after all ;-)

Great to see Marie too, we see her far to rarely these days!

The Grand Finale: Tokyo

Our stay in Japan was, sadly, coming to an end. But we still had a few days to spend in Tokyo before that. No problem with that, Tokyo is, unsurprisingly, one of our favourite cities in the world. This time around, we were staying at a business hotel in Nihonbashi. Not one of the most charming neighbourhoods of Tokyo, but centrally and conveniently located.

The plan was to meet our good friend and excellent Tokyo guide for dinner, but before that, we had a few hours to kill. So we decided to walk around kind of randomly near our hotel. We ended up at the Tokyo main station, a rather impressive building with, naturally, a rather underground impressive shopping centre. Just across the street, we discovered a rather interesting shopping centre called Kitte. Kitte is Japanese for stamp, which makes sense, as the place used to be the main post office of Tokyo. It was a pretty cool place, we particularly enjoyed the Sumo exhibition. A profound experience that changed me, as you can see from the photo.

Next stop was Tokyo International Forum, a rather impressive piece of modern architecture, built in 1996 by Rafael Viñoly. It's a big conference/exhibition centre, this time there didn't seem to be anything on display, so the place was almost deserted. Kind of nice, it was almost as if though we had the entire place to ourselves.

From there, we walked back to our hotel, crossing the Ginza district, apparently a Mecca for shoppers.

After a quick stop at the hotel, we jumped on the train to Kita-Senju station, where we were meeting our good friend Matsuoka for dinner. Expectations were high, as always, when Matsuoka-san takes us for dinner. Much to our delight, he took us to the same place we had a simply unbelievable meal last time we were in Tokyo. And we weren't disappointed this time around either. It was all about fish. We had quite simply the best sashimi ever here, after which we got to pick our fish, which the friendly chef kindly grilled for us. Yet another unbelievable meal - and great to catch up with Matsuoka as well, of course!

The next day, we finally managed to visit the Ghibli museum. We already wanted to do it last time we were in Japan, but it's not the easiest museum to visit, as tickets need to be booked well in advance. Again, or good friend Matsuoka helped us out, and got us the tickets. The museum is located a bit outside of Tokyo, in the Inokashira park, in Mitaka. Mitaka itself seems like a pretty cool place, the main street is lined up with quirky-looking shops and restaurants. Inokashira park is very nice too, with its zoo, and a nice little temple.

The museum itself is just what one could expect from somehting that's the fruit of Miyazaki's imagination . The museum building itself, and the surrounding park, is like something from one of his movies. It's quite a lovely place, with plenty of stuff to see and do for kids and adults a like. I particularly liked the collection of sketches and books (which I suppose fed Mr Miyazaki's fertile imagination....). And of course we got a ticket to see a short story in the movie theatre as well (which showed the Ghibli magic we love so much). So we loved the place. But just be aware, I'm a Ghibli fan, if you are not one, you might not appreciate this place quite as much as we did.

The plan was to have lunch with Matsuoka and his son afterwards. Matsuoka picked us up with his car, and took us to Jidanju temple, which is actually the 2nd oldest temple in Tokyo (it was originally built in 733). A rather lovely place to walk around. The reason we were here, though, is that this is the best place in Tokyo to have soba noodles - there are loads of shops/restaurants to choose from around the temple. Predictably, we had a great meal. And nice to meet Matsuoka's son finally!

For the evening, we decided to head to Shimokitazawa, which, apparently is THE hipster neighbourhood in Tokyo. And certainly it's a pretty cool place to walk around, with plenty of quirky and trendy shops to check out. I did feel a little bit out of place, mind you ;-) Anyway, once we'd had our dose of shopping, we found a nice little place where we had yakitori for dinner. Yummie.

We decided to start the next day with a museum. We decided to go for National Showa Memorial Museum, located just next to the imperial palace. It's a pretty interesting museum, telling the story of life in Tokyo during World War 2, and also Japan's development in the aftermath of the war. Pretty grim stuff, but well worth the visit. Afterwards, we checked out the controversial Yakusuni shrine (controversial because a number of war criminals are buried there, and because it's a place often visited by Japanese Nationalists).

Next, we decided to head towards Kagurazaki, for two reasons. First of all, our guidebook recommended a restaurant there, 2nd of all, it's one of the few remaining places in Tokyo where one can apparently see real geishas. So off we went - it turned out to be a bit of a long walk in the end (funnily enough, we crossed the French part of Tokyo during our walk - I ended up buying a French book about Japanese history, some light reading for the flight back then!). Unfortunately, the restaurant was closed by the time we located it, and Kagurazaki is actually more of a shopping district than a geisha district these days. Unsurprisingly, we only saw wannabe geishas. Still, there are a couple of quite atmospheric streets that evoke an older era....

Before leaving the area, we decided to visit nearby Koishikawa Korakuen Garden. It's one of the most famous landscape gardens in Tokyo, and rightly so. A real haven of peace in the midst of all the hustle and bustle. It's one of only two gardens in Tokyo that date back to the Edo period, and has been designed a "Special Place of Scenic Beauty". Unfortunately, the weather was a bit dodgy, and the flowers weren't in bloom, so we didn't see the garden at its most beautiful. Still, well worth a visit, should you be in this part of Tokyo.

Our next stop was Azabujuban, located near Roppongi. There was a kind of street festival on, something we've not experienced so far in Japan. Now, usually, Tokyo doens't actually feel particularly stressful, in spite of the huge amount of people living in Tokyo. But this was different - the place was simply completely overrun with people. But, it was quite good fun watching the Japanese go a bit crazy and eat, drink and party. What was quite interesting to note was that loads of young Japanese seem to be quite proud to wear traditional Japanese clothing (Yukatas and Kimonos) - in fact it seems to be more popular with young than older people. We took the opportunity to enjoy that famous Japanese street food. Delicious, as always in Japan. Is it actually possible to eat badly in this country?

From Azabujuban, we carried on to Roppongi, from where we were planning to catch a metro back to the hotel. Not so fast though - in Roppongi the party was also on! The Roppongi Hills Bon-Odori was on! Basically they'd put up a big and colourful stage in the main hall of Roppongi Hills (Roppongi Hills is a huge museum/shopping/entertainment/office complex, almost a miniature city, if you will), where traditional dances were performed. With the enthusiastic participation of the audience (us excluded).

After having checked out the dance performance, we had a walk around Roppongi Hills. Quite an impressive complex, it is, kind of reminded us of the Marina Bay complex in Singapore. We naturally posed for the mandatory heart picture as well.

The next day, sadly, was our last day in Tokyo. But thankfully, we had pretty much a full day ahead of us, so we headed off early, keen to make the most of the remaining time in the city we love so much. Actually, we ended up heading back to Roppongi, since we wanted to check out an exhibition in the National Art Centre. It was a pretty interesting exhibition on anime and computer games. Cool stuff! Pretty impressive, modern building too!

After a quick visit at Tokyo Midtown (another modern shopping complex similar to Roppongi Hills, but slightly less impressive), we started walking towards Tokyo Tower, where we were planning to have lunch. On the way there, we came across rather an unexpected sight, that Mathilde quite appreciated. Just have a look at the picture, I'm sure you can figure it out ;-)

Lunch, then. As this was our last day in Tokyo, we'd decided to spare no expense, and go for a fancy restaurant. After some research, we decided on Tofuya Ukai, a restaurant specializing, unsurprisingly, in tofu. But Tofuya Ukai isn't just any restaurant. There actually used to be a bowling alley on this site, but they tore it down and replaced it with a 200-year old sake brewery, which they had transported from Yamagata prefecture. It's a wonderful building, one really feels like being back in the Edo-era.

The lunch takes place in private rooms, with a view over the amazing garden, which is located in the middle of the building complex. Actually, the whole experience is quite similar to staying in a Ryokan. And the food, oh dear, the food was just amazing. Kaiseki-level food, basically. The theme was Tofu, and it was all good. 'nough said. After hanging around in the garden for a while, we reluctantly left Tofuya and carried on...

The rest of the time that remained to us, we spent doing last-minute souvenir shopping. And then, alas, it was time to head to the airport. As you can probably guess, we felt pretty gutted about leaving, already promising ourselves we'd be back sooner rather than later. Rather than rample on about what we love about Japan, I will just say: Yes, we still love Japan and we will be back soon.

Beautiful lakes in Hokkaido

The next stop on our Odyssey was Lake Akan. Not only is Lake Akan one of the most famous scenic spots in Hokkaido, it's also one of the main places one can still find traces of the Ainu culture. So I was rather looking forward to visit the renowned lake.

Unfortunately, the weather continued to be rather depressing, so we didn't get up to much on the first evening. We did head out to check out some of the handicraft shops that litter the main road (yes, Lake Akan is rather touristy, so if you go one day, don't expect an authentic, desolate, traditional Ainu village or anything like that...). We had a very simple, but tasty dinner at one of the Ainu restaurants in town.

The next day, we got up early, eager to explore the lake. Unfortunately, though, our bad luck with the weather continued, as the sun refused to make an appearance. Undeterred, we walked along a footpath that follows the lakeside. Quite a nice hike, with some nice views across the lake towards the islands. And actually, the misty/cloudy weather added a kind of sense of mystery to the place.

Now, the one thing to do on Lake Akan is take a boat cruise. It takes you across the lake to one of Churui island. The boat  ride is very nice, following the lakeshore, going down some pretty narrow passages between islands. Again, the misty/cloudy weather all added a bit of an extra touch of atmosphere to this legendary place. We were even treated to the beautiful sight of 2 Deers on one of the islands we passed.

We eventually arrived at Churui island. The island itself is nothing special, but it does have a small visitor centre that tells the story of the mysterious Marimo. This mysterious green algae ball, which plays a very important part in Ainu culture (there is a 3 day festival each year dedicated to the Marimo), has been designated a national treasure in Japan, no less. We also learnt that most of the Marimos they sell on the mainland (unsurprisingly, they sell them in pretty much every shop in town) are not, in fact, real Marimos.

So, all in all, quite an interesting boat trip then, and a great introduction to the area. We spent the rest of the day exploring the Ainu village. It's clearly also a very touristy place, but since the main trade is traditional handicraft, it's a very positive kind of tourism. And there were some truly beautiful items on sale - normally we are not that enthusiastic about buying local handicraft but this time we made an exception.

We decided to go for a short walk before dinner, so drove up just past lake Akan to start the hike towards nearby Mr. Otakan. The plan wasn't to make it all the way up to the mountain (it's a good 6 hours hike - and the mountaintop was covered in clouds anyway) - but apparently there are two nice lakes on quite close to the start of the trek, which we were keen to check out.

Excellent idea - the hike was a very pleasant one, we were greeted with some very nice forest scenery, and both of the small lakes (Lake Taro and Lake Jiro) were both very nice indeed. Again, the cloudy weather added to the atmosphere of our little expedition (one could almost imagine bears, that the signposts leading onto the trek warned about, shuffling behind the mist-covered tress). Joking apart, it was a really nice little walk, a nice way to finish off a rather busy day.

After our little hike, and dinner at another Ainu restaurant (where I had the Genghis Khan barbeque  - how could I possibly NOT order a dish called that, eh?) we headed off to check out some Ainu dancing at the Ainu theatre, in the village. Quite interesting and informative little display, there was a nice explanation about each dance/music number in English, which gave some nice context to the dances. Pretty national dresses they had, too!

The next morning, it was time to leave Lake Akan behind and head off to another lake, Lake Shikotsu, located on the Western side of Hokkaido, near Sapporo.  But before that, we decided to do a morning hike, especially since the weather looked a bit less miserable than the day before ;-). We decided on an easy-seeming hike which started from a nearby ski resort, Kokusestu.

The hike started with us hiking up one of the ski sloped, but quite soon (thankfully, as walking up a ski slope is actually quite hard going!) the path veered off into the forest, from where the footpath gently climbed up through some very nice forest scenery (again, signs warning about bears kept us on our toes!). We walked past a couple of hot springs (with very graphical signposts warning us about the dangers of stepping into one!). I also nearly stepped on a snake during our tiresome ascent (apparently my reaction to the wildlife encounter was a somewhat none-masculine, scream-like sound??).

Our hard work was awarded as we arrived at a nice little wooden viewing platform (Mount Hakuto-San observatory), from where we were greeted to some absolutely stunning views over Lake Akan, and the nearby mountains. Thankfully, the persistent clouds were less sparse than on previous days, so we could actually enjoy the view - the sun still stubbornly stayed out of view, though. Anyway, fantastic little finale to our short stay at Lake Akan.

And then, time to jump into our car and head to our next destination, sadly our last one in Hokkaido for this visit, Lake Skihotsu. It was quite a long drive to get there, but we arrived early afternoon, which still allowed us time to check into our hotel and explore the lake for a bit. Our hotel, a rather classy Onsen hotel was rather nicely located on a cliff overlooking the lake (no direct views over the lake though, due to rather abundant tree growth).

After checking out the nice hotel garden, we made our way along a nature path, which was supposed to take us a bit along the lake side, to a sort of scenic spot. Unfortunately, we realized the footpath was closed after a while, so we had to do a U-turn. Again, the trees growing by the train only allowed us tantalizing glimpses over the lake.

Undeterred, and determined to see the damn lake, we walked down the Onsen town down at the bottom of the hill, and yes, we finally got to see the lake! Shikotsu is a caldera lake (so basically a dormant volcano that exploded), and a very deep one at that (363 meters at its deepest, which makes it the 2nd deepest lake in Japan). It's a real stunner, too. Especially, since, yes, believe it or not, the sun finally made an appearance! So we spent quite some time just relaxing by a secluded beach, enjoying the view. With me naturally taking "a few" piccies.

We walked around the town for a bit, more a collection of hotels and shops actually. There was a nice and informative visitor centre which gave plenty of information about the lake, which was pretty cool. But mostly we just enjoyed the sun and the great views.

As the sun started to set, we made our way back up to the hotel, and prepared for dinner (with me enjoying the Onsen, naturally).  The dinner was a pretty good buffet meal. So all in all, a great finale for our trip to Hokkaido.

So yes, this did signal the end of our trip to Hokkaido. We were a bit sad to leave Hokkaido, as it seemed that the weather was just getting good as we were leaving. Oh well, I suppose we have to come back another time. At least we still had a few days in Tokyo to look forward to!

Daisetsuzan national park & Abashiri

So, or next stop was Daisetsuzan national park, slam bang in the middle of Hokkaido. But before arriving there, we stopped for lunch at a rather interesting restauarant in Biei - called Restaurant Asperge. The theme - French cuisine with a Japanese touch. We took the set menu, and had a great meal. I suppose the cuisine is best described as typical French ingredients cooked in a Japanese manner. Fusion the Japanese way, if you will. Normally we only go for Japanese restaurants in Japan, but we were happy to have made this one exception!

We arrived at Sounkyo Onsen, where we were staying, around late afternoon. It's a rather scenic place, surrounded by mountains (unfortunately the weather was very cloudy, which kind of spoilt the view for most of our stay). This time, we were staying at an Onsen hotel. In some ways it's a bit like a bigger version of a Ryoan, with similar Japanese-style rooms, set meals (not as classy as in a Ryokan), good onsen baths, and a less personalized service. A pretty classy establishment, all in all.

We spent the afternoon settling in at our room, trying out the onsen (excellent Onsen baths again, with outdoor pools with a nice view towards the mountains) and having a walk around the village (not much to, Sounkyo Onsen is more like a collection of hotels than a village as such). After our buffet dinner (which really impressed us!), we headed off to check out some nice fireworks just outside the hotel, which was pretty cool. And to top off a nice evening, bingo time! Yeah, not the sort of thing we would normally do, but hey, this is Japan, gotta try everything, right? I even won a bag of rice biscuits, yippee!

After a tasty buffer breakfast, we decided it was time to explore the national park a bit (it is, after all, the biggest national park in Hokkaido!). The thing to do if you are based in Sounkyo Onsen, for those not too ambitious, is to take the cable car up to Mount Kurodake, which is what we decided to do. (we thought it would be a nice and easy introduction to the area). Unfortunately, it was a bit of a wasted trip, as the weather was very cloudy up at the top, to such an extent that we saw none of the (apparently) gorgeous landscapes. Oh well...

The next thing to do in Sounkyo Onsen, for those not too ambitious, is to visit the Ginga & Ryusei waterfalls, that are an easy drive from the village. Thankfully, we were far down enough in the valley to able to actually see the two waterfalls. Well worth the trip!

We very still quite keen to do a bit of walking, so decided to sort of randomly drive around the natural park. We drove past Taisetsu lake, and up a rather dodgy dirt track, which took us to an Onsen. We could see a footpath indicated from there, so decided to head up that way. And a nice hike it was indeed, a quite steep climb took us up to a scenic plateau, with proper mountain scenery.


Thankfully, the clouds were sparse enough to allow us to actually behold the beautiful scenery, even if the sun kept well out of sight. All the signposts were in Japanese, so we didn't actually know where we were going, or even if we were doing a circular walk. So eventually we decided to walk back the way we came. No matter, All in all, we were very happy to finally have been able to do a bit of hiking!

We were rather nackered after our hike, so didn't do much else other than have dinner.

The next day, we decided to attempt the cable car up to Mount Kurodake again. This time, we were luckier with the weather - no sun this time either, but clear visibility. So we decided to take the ski lift up to the base of the summit. Conditions were a bit cloudier up there, but we still decided to hike up to the summit, as it was a relatively short, if steep, walk.

It was well worth the effort, even if the clouds prevented us from much enjoying the landscapes, the satisfaction of reaching the summit made the effort well worth it. Actually, the clouds parted for a couple of minutes, giving us a glimpse of the landscapes - we could only imagine how gorgeous the view would be with a clear, blue sky... ;-) Anyway, time enough to get a picture taken! And as an added bones, we spotted a deer on the way back on the ski lift! (apart from that, a few cute chipmunks also made an appearance before our hike)

That brought an end to our stay at Daisezusan national park. A stunningly beautiful place, it's just a pity we weren't luckier with the weather. And I really enjoyed the onsen, needless to say!

Our next stop was Abashiri, a small town on the Northern shores of Hokkaido, by the sea of Okhotsk. After checking in at our hotel, we headed off to explore town. Only to find that, hmm, there really isn't all that much to see in Abashiri. Apart from a few fishermen's boats in the harbour. There are a couple of interesting museums outside the town centre, apparently, but it was too late to visit those. So a bit of a disappointment, then. We did stop by to try the famous Okhotsk Blue Draft beer, that's brewed in Abashiri (there's a restaurant next to the brewery that serves it). 

It's all natural as well - apparently it comes from a combination of Gardenia, seaweed and melted iceberg water. 

Back at the hotel, we had a rather impressive set meal - made up for our somewhat disappointing town visit! I especially appreciated finally being able to try the giant crab Hokkaido is so famous for. It's not the best time of the year to have the crab, apparently, but it was still damn good.

We started the next day by heading off to Cape Notoro, a nice scenic spot about 10 kilometres from Abashiri. The views from the lighthouse (which is the focal point) are for sure pretty stunning. A pity the weather didn't show much signs of improving, I'm sure we'd have appreciated the place more on a sunny day.

In fact, as things got from bad to worse (it started raining), we decided today was perhaps a good day for visiting museums. So we headed off to the Abashiri prison museum. It's a kind of famous place, having featured in a number of Japanese movies, apparently. The Japanese equivalent of Alcatraz, if you will. It's a pretty cool place. 

There are plenty of exhibits describing the rather hard life the prisoners had here. (apparently the temperature got to nearly zero on some nights, as the heating provided wasn't quite up to standards for Hokkaido's climates). There's also an interesting exhibition about how the prisoners helped build one of the first roads across Hokkaido. Quite a project, one that cost a lot of lives... The museum really does a good job at describing the conditions of prisoners in the old days and today. We also decided to have lunch at the museum - they actually serve the same meal as prisoners get! (Mathilde had that - whereas I decided to upgrade from Mackerel to Salmon...).

Unfortunately, the weather showed no signs of improvements, so we decided to visit another museum before heading off - the Hokkaido Museum of Northern people. Another great museum - much better than the similar museum we visited in Hakodate. This museum tells the story of not only the local Ainou people, but also of other northern people - including the Finnish Sami. And it does so in a very informative and modern way, using a mixture of traditional  (with a nice collection of items used by the various people) and modern methods (like multimedia, video clips and so forth). Really interesting visit.

And then, time to carry on, direction Lake Akan.

Via Noboribetsu to Furano

From Hakodate, we jumped on the train and made our way to our next stop, Noboribetsu (enjoying a nice Bento lunch on the train). Now, on each visit to Japan, we indulge ourselves at least once in a high-class Ryokan (Japanese Inn). The best ones are typically located in Onsen or hot spring towns. And apparently, Noboribetsu is the place to enjoy your Onsen in Hokkaido.

We'd booked a Ryokan just outside the main street of Noboribetsu, called Kashotei Hanaya Ryokan. The place has pretty much everything one can expect from a Ryokan. Our arrival was handled to perfection, with an umbrella-equiped gentleman there to welcome us outside the Ryokan. The interior of the Ryokan and our room was just as one expects - traditionally Japanese, decorated with taste and class. No complaints about the Onsen either - they had a nice outdoors bath with a view over the garden. 

After dropping off our things, and just chilling out for a bit, we headed off to explore Noboribetsu. There isn't much to see in the town itself, the main drag is populated by Onsen hotels, a few restaurants and shops, nothing much of interest. (well, we did find a fair few devils actually, more about that later!)

Of course the main reason to come to Noboribetsu (apart from enjoying the onsens) is the beautiful nature. We headed straight for the main attraction - Jigokudani (or Hell Valley). It's basically a valley filled with geysers and sulphuric smoke, just the kind of place where one could imagine finding Oni - Japanese devils (that explains all the devil statues we saw around town earlier).

it's a pretty interesting place to walk around - the highlight was probably the walk up to Oyunuma, a rather impressive volcanic lake, with sulphurous fumes constantly spewing out of the lake. Well worth the hike.

The "hiking to work up an appetite" bit out of the way, we made our way back to our Ryokan, eager to sample the Kaiseki meal, which is possibly the main reason to go to a Ryokan. A Kaiseki meal is Japanese cuisine (which already at its simplest is a pleasure to behold and consume) elevated to what can only be described as art. And we weren't disappointed this time either - the meal was one of the absolutely best ones I've had in Japan (which is about the same thing as saying it's one of the best ones I've had anywhere in the world).

So we were quite happy to crawl into bed, our appetites sated (well, I did of course take the opportunity to enjoy a bath in the onsen before that). The morning started very nicely too, with another delicious meal. A bit less sophisticated than the dinner, but still, definitely something to write home about!

That, unfortunately, marked an end to our visit in Noboribetsu. Time to jump on the train and head to Chitose airport, where we were picking up our car for the remainder of our visit in Hokkaido. 

"Speeding down the highway", I came to realize one thing - Japanese people aren't quite so law-abiding in everything after all. The speed limit on Japanese highways (at least the one we took), was actually 60km/h. I did you not! However, everybody seemed to be driving at least 100, so I followed suit. 

Our first destination was Furano, a rather sublime agricultural region in Hokkaido, famous for its farms. We stopped by at one of the farms for lunch - a place specializing in curry. Really cool place, and some very nice curry, too! And we were quite happy to see the sun was out for a change, too!

Our next stop was Farm Tomita, a wonderful place known for its flower plantations. Now, I'm a bloke, right, so flowers are not typically my kind of thing. But I have to admit I was rather taken with the multi-coloured flower fields at Farm Tomita, and needless to say, I put my camera too good use. 

Farm Tomita is particularly famous for its Lavender fields, which unfortunately weren't in bloom during our visit. In fact, Farm Tomita is the first place in Hokkaido where Lavander was cultivated - the flowers were imported from Provence in France, where else ? There was a quite interesting exhibition about the farms history, with some cool photographs on display (what's happening to me - since when was I interested in exhibitions about flowers !?)

Now, as far as accomodation is concerned, we really went from one extreme to another. The night before, a classy Ryokan, and tonight, Furano Log Cabin! Now, you'd be hard pressed to find more quirky accommodation in Japan - the ramshackle cabins certainly have their charm. But don't come here if you like your comfort - our tiny cabin was just big enough to fit a double bed, lighting being provided by a light bulb hanging from the roof. And don't expect any onsuite bathtoom either. The very definition of cheap 'n cheerful. 

Not really fancying staying at the log cabin all evening, we headed off to explore Furano town centre. There isn't that much to see there in terms of tourist attractions, but, luckily, there was a kind of local music festival on when we visited. So we had quite a nice night out, having a couple of beers and enjoying the delicious street food.

The next day, it was time to head off towards Daisezusan national park. We did have a fair bit of driving ahead of us, though, so we decided to stop at a rather curious place on the way, called Patchwork no Michi. It's what could best be described as a "collection of famous trees". It's an area covering a few square kilometres, of rolling farmland. And dotted along this landscaper, are various trees and groups of trees that have featured in various Japanese TV adds. All very quirky and very Japanese. At least now we know who Ken and Mary are (just google "Ken and Mary Skyline Ad" - well Ken and Mary have a tree named after them here).