Japan 2020, February 26th, last day and journey home

Up bright and early! 6 am alarm call, coffee, Shower and salmon rice triangle for breakfast! down just in time to get shuttle bus to airport, arrived waaaaaaay to early but that's fine. Self service check in and bag drop off, all tickety boo. My bag got checked at security because i
had put my anti perspirant in there! After that we got to our boarding gates 3 hours early! But we just sat and chilled and I spent £53 on lipstick …. But it was very pretty lipstick!. Latte and cinnamon roll for breakfast. I started cross stitching at the airport, great fun, with plenty time to spare we boarded the plane, I was excited to see what snax and films we would get!
First film on plane was Parasite, Pretty funny i could see why it got best film. good first meal too Salmon and rice, chocolate éclair bun and salty crackers and cream cheese.
Sitting on the plan is basically enforced chill time! punctuated by snax!
Half way through and i am stonking on with films, 2nd one was real action Aladin. enjoyed it.
Now trying some new films, first up was library based on the novels by Hiro Aikawa - hated it, all a bit too breathless and girly.
then went onto the Great Detective, Japanese a bit like Poirot and Sherlock Holmes, pretty and it passed the time. Based on the Huo Sang series of detective novels
Still  over 3 hours to go  so lets give Killers anonymous a go, its got Gary Oldman in it. I had to give up on it because sound was too bad so i played a few games of solitaire. My scoobs, my saviour went to get me some noodly things, we were both starving! Then i remembered there was some music in the entertainment thing so i had the best time listening to the Carpenters, Fleetwood Mac, Elton John. Its 10pm Japan time but when we land it will be 3pm Europe time. Slowly getting back to normal but i am Determined to take these lessons back with me, chill relax, take time out and stop thinking.
5 1/2 hours at Schipol … we made the best of it! and we found a lovely Asian restaurant/bar really nice dim sum and Gyoza beer, nice end to the trip. Eventually got the plane and had nice snax! Taxi back was all hunky dory.
simply the best holiday ever!

Japan 25th February last day in Kyoto



 

 My heart is almost breaking typing this but i need to do this and i need to start moving on and getting to grips with whatever reality we are now in! Enough of that for now!

 Last day in our beautiful hotel, sad saying goodby to our lovely cleaning lady, reception staff and breakfast waitress.

The shrine beside our hotel.

 



so we took a taxi and headed off to Kyoto train station one last time, hoppity skip and we were on the train to Tokyo.

 We managed to get some sushi for the journey, how pretty is this! just ordinary sushi from the train station shop.

a bit of a grey and misty day but i did manage to get a wee video of mount Fuji.

 

the lovely hotel staff gave us a present for following them and mentioning them on Instagram!

 

Bit of difficulty in finding the Narita express at Tokyo station but we did get there thanks to the nice station helpers. a wee pootle to terminal 1 where we got the shuttle bus to the hotel Narita tobu, fairly decent hotel big 7/11 so that was out dinner sorted!

 

 

Japan 2020 24th February - Shrines and Temples

OH * MY * GOODNESS!!!! 24k steps, six more temple stamps plus a final fling at Nomura tailor,  thats a cracking day in my book!!! Starting off the day with a lovely breakfast, I went for the Western choice today, still lovely.

I  just loved this view, sitting today surrounded by fear and trepidation this takes me back only a few weeks to such a happy time.

The first stop was up in the hills.

I was heading for another Temple but i rounded a corner and saw this! how incredible!

The Ryozen Kannon shrine with this huge Bhudda statue. A monument to the unknown soldier. Such a beautiful shrine and gardens. My first stamp was here, I changed my prayer here , previously i had prayed for good fortune for my friend Sally who is having a rubbish time, here i said some words for Marks Great Uncle Walter who died in the great war. Mark recently bought his medals back into the family.

Next was the Kodaiji Temple and just by chance i wandered to the Yasaka pagoda where i got my second stamp of the dy!

I took a beautiful path up to the Kiyomizu-dera temple, stunning views and my third stamp of the day!

I happened across a path which took me through a bamboo forest to the Seikomji temple, this had no people there but it was stunningly beautiful, small but perfect.

On my way back down i found a graveyard, i do love a graveyard!

I wandered back via the Kiyomizu-dera temple then dropped down to the main street. I wandered along trying to find my next temple. On the way i passed by and into the Chishaku-in temple.

Very very beautiful, i was even brave enough to take off my shoes! the man who did my stamp was lovely and said that my "Arogato" (thank you) was very good :-) he used newspaper to blot the stamp.

After what felt like ages i got to the Tofukuji temple. Beautiful magical place where i got my last stamp. 

I managed to navigate my way to the JR Tofukuji railway station and from there get back to the main Kyoto station. I got the subway back to K09 and with not too much difficulty navigated my way back to the Bukkon temple but by this time it was 3.30 and it was closed. I found my way to the Nishiki food market, i was starving! I had dumplings on a stick! I tried to find the Hozoji temple which has the skulls stamp but it was closed.

It would have been nice to get it but it wasnt meant to be. I toyed with the idea of going back to the hidden needle store but i was tired and hungry and i just wanted to keep the perfect memory of the first visit. I got everything i needed or wanted on that visit.
I pootled back home via the Nomura tailor store and bought some gifts for friends plus some panda and sloth canvas fabrics, vury cute!
26k steps later i was back at the hotel, getting my favourite melon cream soda on the way!