17th May - Matsumoto to Narita airport

Breakfast today was similar to yesterday's and again very tasty. We had our bags all packed and ready for the 9am shuttle into the train station. The rest of the morning was spent on trains - firstly to Nagano and then a connection to Ueno, Tokyo. 

A quiet beverage on our last train

Our plan here was to drop the bags in a locker and walk to the kitchenware street we know so well from previous trips. Shops line each side of the road for a number of blocks, all selling kitchen items of every description. However, firstly it took a while to find an empty large-sized locker. After finding one, we stacked the bags in, and made very careful note of its location within the huge train station, including photographing the locker. We think this is exactly the same block of lockers we struggled to re-find on a previous trip, so this year we took extra care to work out how to retrace our steps. We set off on the 15 minute walk to Kappabashi Street. Unfortunately, it was bucketing down. We still decided to walk instead of finding a bus, and though we got rather wet, our coats and umbrellas dealt with most of the rain.

It was fun being back. It's an amazing area. The specialisation is epic, for example there's a shop that basically sells only the stands that restaurants have outside that have a copy of their menu. There must have been 50 variations. Lots of other people were clearly enjoying being here too. Maybe it's become a tourist destination in its own right since we were here a number of years ago or maybe is just a good spot to visit on a rainy day. It was bustling. We hoped to pick up a few items and were happy with what we found, though were a little stymied by those shops which only accepted cash. We were down to our our last $6 equivalent. It was a bit of a rush to walk back to the train station, but thankfully the rain had stopped. Happily reunited with our bags we caught a train for the 5-minute ride to Tokyo station.

Our last train of the trip, the 1 hour ride to Narita airport was very smooth and we both fell asleep for a bit. With the last of the rice paddies disappearing into the distance, it was a little sad to farewell the Japanese landscape, but it was with some relief that we arrived at the airport with plenty of time in hand.

An incredibly smooth pathway through check-in, bag drop (where our cabin bags were weighed to ensure they were under 7kg), security and immigration, we could put our feet up to relax for an hour. Phew.What an adventure it has been!

I thought it might be interesting to write up the things that have really stood out to us on this trip. 

Things that have been wonderful:

• how welcoming, helpful, friendly and polite the Japanese are
• the design, attention to detail and ambience of the large gardens
• the serenity of the teahouses
• the overall cleanliness of everything, everywhere
• the flowering plants established throughout both urban and rural areas, especially azaleas
• the cool kei cars
• the food has been delicious (especially the noodles) and having such a choice of snacks and full meals (which can be heated on-site) at any of the 7-Eleven, Lawson or Family Mart shops which  are located every 200m or so - it makes finding food very easy
• vending machines also appear every 100m or so, dispensing a wide variety of hot and cold drinks and sometimes ice-blocks, all for very little cost
• learning more about Japanese history and culture and adding it to our growing knowledge and appreciation of cultures other than our own

Things that confound me:

• the baffling toilets with all the bells, whistles, chimes, air vents, variable pressure and volume systems, automatic lighting, seat raising/lowering/flushing and more. Most distressing is when you can't identify the flush button! The potential solution is to press everything and run ....
• Having to wait at pedestrian crossings for the green walk signal even though there is not a car in sight in either direction. 

Things that I won't miss:

• Except for the odd one in a train station, there are no rubbish bins anywhere, including outside convenience stores. The expectation is that everyone takes their rubbish home. If you buy an ice-block or takeaway coffee, you will end up carrying the wrapper or cardboard cup all day until you get home. You can only eat it immediately outside the shop, i.e. standing within 1m under the building overhang, or eat it inside your vehicle. It is a big faux pas to eat or drink while walking.
• Changing from outdoor shoes into indoor slippers at the entrance to all accommodation, most public buildings and also at the entrance to changing rooms within shops. Also changing from indoor slippers to bathroom slippers at the entrance to the toilet and then back to indoor slippers upon exiting. The latter can be the distance of 0.3m (or less).

It's unfair of me to complain about any of the observations above though. They are designed for the orderly procession of life and, though foreign to us, have been entrenched in Japanese culture for a very long time. 

And my thoughts...

I agree with all Karen's positives, but I'd move the electronic toilets to the positive list. I like the warm seats, and the fact that you end up properly clean. In fact I'm going to look at getting one in NZ!

I'm a bit sick of the shoe palaver too, but for me a big bugbear has been having to duck when moving from one space to another inside accommodation, castles and other historic buildings. In all the older places that means every doorway, and all the points in larger rooms where shoji screens can be used to divide it. And then in the middle of rooms they have hanging lights, also below my head height. I've only hit my head hard once, lightly a few times, and felt the lintels brush my hair countless times. It will take me a week or so to get back to standing up straight.

The futons I quite like, though some have been pretty solid. Not so keen on them being at ground level - it's easier to get in and out of an NZ-style bed.

Japan's a fascinating country. It's so different from the rest of Asia in so many ways - cleaner, quieter, more modern (in some things, yet the underlying philosophies are thoroughly Asian. Despite all the time we've spent here now, we still find surprises.

Overall Numbers:

• 18 days
• 32 trains
• 23 buses (mostly free on our JR train pass)
• 2 ferries
• 1 ropeway
• 212.3km walked (average 11.8km/day)

We're looking forward to a final beef udon noodle dinner on our ZipAir flight as we head to San Francisco!

16th May - Matsumoto

We are waking very early (for us), partly because we are falling asleep by 9pm or not much later, at least I am, and partly because the rooms have mostly been very light. With shoji screens, light permeates from about 5am.

Despite the elaborate meal last night, I was feeling quite peckish this morning. Everyone seemed to appear at the breakfast room at the same time at 8am, and the range of little dishes arrayed before us was beautiful. Pottles of salad, pickles, mackerel, salmon, shrimp, natto, omelette, miso soup, hard boiled eggs and so on, as well as a small variety of European options (cereal, white bread, croissants and yoghurt). We avoided the European food. We admit a downfall in buying a single French pastry last week, otherwise we have been completely  European-food free. The pastry wasn't very good anyway.

Our choices from the options for breakfast

The guests are our ryokan are a mix of Japanese and tourists. It's actually quite strange to be bumping into other tourists because we have encountered so few non-Japanese apart from Kyoto. It was therefore really weird to have awful western music played during dinner last night. This morning My Way was on the system. We managed to keep our breakfast down all the same.

Today is our last day exploring and we are rather sad to be leaving. Having said that, we are both winding down and have been enjoying the rest options and settling into train seats when on offer. We've covered a lot of territory, seen many new and wonderful sights and feel our understanding of Japanese culture and the Japanese people is growing. 

Some things, of course, we find very odd. We have not seen a single (live) animal during the last few weeks except for a few cats and a small number of toy dogs, normally miniature poodles. The latter are typically dressed up in outfits, often matching if the owners have two dogs. The most bizarre we have seen was a pair wearing matching jeans and glittery t-shirts! 

Yesterday we watched a real Japanese greeting. Everyone, everywhere, bows all the time as a matter of politeness. However, when we were on the train yesterday, a young man came into our carriage and greeted an older man in the seat in front of us, perhaps his boss. Clearly they were pleased to see each other, and enthusiastically exchanged words. The younger man formally bowed very low about 20 times during the three minute exchange and the older man about five times. We have read about how the social hierarchy dictates who bows, who bows the lowest and how often, but it was quite something to behold. The politeness and helpfulness of everyone we have met has certainly left a lasting impression on us.

We both love the little Kei cars here. It would be awesome to take one home with us and use it as a little run-around to get the groceries in town. They remind me so much of Lego cars but I realistically think their crash rating wouldn't be too hot! John has seen a comment that your shins form part of the impact absorption.

My favourite Kei car is the Daihatsu Canbus, a bit like a VW Camper.

Our accommodation is about 15 minutes out of the centre of Matsumoto, so a shuttle is provided early and mid-morning. We opted for the 10am departure because the day we have planned is supposed to be relatively easy. After being dropped at the train station, we walked to the highly regarded Matsumoto Castle. I have been trying to get here since our first trip to Japan in 2019, because the castle is one of the oldest remaining in Japan and has the oldest five-story donjon (tower). When the Edo Period ended and was superseded by the Meiji Restoration, the castles were suddenly regarded as obsolete and many were totally dismantled. Matsumoto castle was built in the late 1500s, when various clans were at war with each other. Many have been restored at some time in the last century, normally by completely dismantling them and rebuilding them. All the massive woodwork is pegged together, so it isn't destructive.

Matsumoto Castle

The castle had a particularly good old firearms collection - these are incendiary mortars

Although we've seen many castles by now, this one was stood out for a number of reasons, but the main one being the incredibly steep stairs between the various stories. At one point the stairs rise 40cm with every step, on a 61 degree angle of steepness. Added to this, the lintels were often very low, so you seemed to be crawling upstairs while also ducking your head. It was tough work for John but quite a hoot. Even the shorter Japanese were finding the steps hard to navigate, so they must have been a real test during times of war when samurai were rushing up and down them. 

Fukashi-jinja Shrine

With not too much on the agenda for the rest of the day we thought we'd check out the Matsumoto City Museum of Art. What a delightful surprise we had in store for us. We felt a little sad about missing the giant spotted pumpkins on Naoshima Art Island in favour of more time in Okayama last week but we needn't have worried. The Matsumoto Museum of Art had a large and amazing Yayoi Kusama exhibition - the artist of the giant pumpkins. Best of all, there was indeed a giant pumpkin! There were also some amazing and huge fibreglass tulips, a rotating chandelier in a completely mirrored room, a corridor of strange spotted worm-like fabric objects and more, plus the pumpkin. Absolutely lovely.

Entrance to the museum with Yayoi Kusama tulips

Mirrored corridor of lovely little worms

Rather beautiful objects

Infinity mirrored lights

The famous pumpkin

Yayoi Kusama is clearly a character - she's over 90 in this shot, and still creating works

After the exhibition we thought we'd look in a few shops, having done very little shopping so far. Complete failure. Prices in the nice stores are pretty high, and we couldn't see anything we liked, so headed back to the station. As an example one touristy place here was selling lovely wooden children's lunchboxes. I had bought one in Tokyo on our first trip at well under $10. A shop here had the same style and quality, smaller but double height, for over $150. Ouch!

We were intending to do a bit of shopping in Matsumoto tomorrow to fill in a few spare hours, but there's nothing here we could find, so we quickly traded in our old reservations at the station for new ones that will give us some hours in Tokyo's kitchen shop district, which we know and love.

When we got back to our ryokan we had a last soak in the onsen. The men's onsen was very hot (44 deg), hotter than the women's.

Men's pool tonight - they swap each day

Some Boy's Day traditionally clad samurai in the ryokan lobby

Dinner tonight was even better than last night. The timing of dishes was spot on. The dishes included duck and pickled celery, tofu skin, black sesame tofu with ginger, sashimi and scallops with wasabi, cold noodles in soy with eggplant, courgettes and shallots, fish fried at the table on miso paste with a yam ball, crusty ball filled with vegetables, seared wagyu-like beef and courgettes, tempura salmon and tomato, miso soup with rice and pickles, and finally delicious ice-cream. It was a feast indeed.

15th May - Omihachiman to Matsumoto

After some fairly strenuous walking days we were looking forward to putting out feet up just a little today, and we achieved it because we were on the move most of the day. Kicking off with a bus from our accommodation into Omihachiman station, we then caught three consecutive trains, with transfers at Meibara and Nagoya. We are finding the transport system very easy to navigate, and having just 10 minutes between transfers is fine.

Rolling into Matsumoto station at 1pm, we found the bag lockers, rammed our bags into a single large locker as usual, then jumped on the local train to take us out of the city and to a small town further inland. We have been eagerly anticipating this excursion for a long time because our destination was Japan's museum for Ukiyo-e. It seems pretty strange to have the national museum sitting out in the backblocks of a smallish city miles from Tokyo, but there you go! The museum holds over 100,000 woodblock prints (the world's largest collection), however only 70 prints are on display at any one time.

Ukiyo-e is the name given to woodblock printing, and it flourished in Japan particularly between the 17th and 19th centuries. The subjects were principally of courtesans, kabuki play actors, folk tales and landscapes such as the Nakasendo and Tokaido trails and Mt Fuji. Both John and I became intrigued by this artform on our first trip to Japan, reinforced on our second. We took home various prints e.g. our placemats, as a result. Our favourite artist is Hiroshige, who produced amazing landscapes depicting real life in Japan, some of which relate to the Nakasendo Way. The latter is the trail we hiked on our first trip and we can recognise some of the locations he painted.

The ukiyo-e museum

We weren't sure what we would come across with only 70 prints currently on display, but we very pleased we made the effort to get there. Most pictures were arranged in order so we could follow the daily life of a courtesan, others from when the courtesans had to be relocated to new quarters due to fire, and other interesting examples of typical life a few centuries ago. There was clearly a distinction between courtesans and geisha. The former were more or less very fancy prostitutes, the latter were entertainers, with sex thrown in after a certain point for their top sponsors. It was very interesting, and clearly the prints were the best examples of their type. We haven't seen them with such rich colours before. The finery worn by the courtesans must have been incredible.

Inside a courtesan house - a brothel as they described it

A courtesan

The top courtesans of three courtesan houses

With only an hour at the museum, which was just enough, we backtracked to the train station, rode the local train and collected our bags. We were immediately picked up by the shuttle to take us to our ryokan, our accommodation for the next two nights and our final accommodation here in Japan.

As always, the welcome was very friendly, we were shown to a nice room, with another room across the passage which is a private sitting room for us. This is the only place on the whole trip where we don't have an ensuite, so we have been spoilt so far. With a quick strip off, then donning of our yakutas, it was off to our respective onsens for a leisurely wash and soak in the onsen. 

Dinner was, as we expected, amazing. We chose the early sitting, which in retrospect wasn't wise as most people came later on and their service was slower, whereas we had plate after plate arrive perhaps a little too rapidly. We complemented the meal with a small taster flight of three different sakes.

Our table on arrival

Rice cracker bowl with lemon and grapefruit.
Shrimp and octopus, ginger and greens. Yam cube.

Tasting flight of sake

Grilled whole trout and shiitake mushroom.
Salmon sashimi and horse sashimi with ginger and garlic dressing.
Local beef with apple and greens, seared at the table in miso sauce.

Miso soup with tofu and other goodies, pickles and rice

Bamboo shoot, lotus root fried and as a ball, pickles in sauce, tofu.

Tempura fern fronds, leaves and prawn

Cold soba noodles with soy dipping sauce, radish, spring onion and fresh grate-it-yourself wasabi

Cheesecake with blueberry jam and caramel sauce

It was as good as it looks. Highlights were the miso soup, the crunchy shiitake mushroom, and particularly the miso sauce beef. Apparently the beef was fed on apples and soba noodles! Weirdly the background music was an awful version of The Sound of Music, Simon and Garfunkel and other inappropriate tunes.

14th May - Omihachiman

A rare day of being self-propelled - no buses or trains, though we did use a cableway to go up a small hill.

Up this morning at a more sedate hour than has been normal for this trip and away on foot to go up Omihachiman's hill by cableway. At the base of the hill was yet another shrine. Just as well they are all very different as we have seen probably hundreds.

Up to the top of the hill on the funny little cableway, which only had two cars, one heading up as the other heads down. Great views from the top of the hill, looking back over Omihachiman and out the other way to Azuchi where we were yesterday. Quite a few steep step from the cableway end to the very top, and more coming down. Our legs are a little weary after three consecutive days of very tall and steep steps.

Looking back to Azuchi Hill where we were yesterday

The maples are spectacular, green or red

On coming back down we thought we'd have a look at La Collina, a strange place that was a mix of a theme park and gifts shops. The architecture was interesting, with various gift shops all round a central garden area. One shop for example had a London bus, a Fiat 500 and an old Citroen van, who knows why, as its private theme, but was in fact just a cafe. 

The prime place was a factory producing little sponge rolls, where you could see the whole process and then buy a few rolls afterwards at vast expense - over $20 for three slices. Almost every Japanese group leaving the complex was carrying a little bag of goodies.

A small part of the sponge roll production line

On our way back to our room we were looking for antique shops and had tagged a few on Google Maps, but we stumbled on another on the way, and managed to find half a dozen of the little sake bowls we have collected each previous trip. Better still, they were priced at rates we saw on our first Japan trip, i.e $1-3 each!

Back to our room for the afternoon to sort things for the next leg to Matsumoto.

Dinner was fun. We have had very few udon or soba noodle meals, so thought we'd try for one tonight, given our next two nights are already sorted. It was tricky finding one, but we did find one in the end and headed out at 6pm. It was a bit of a walk and so it was quite disappointing to be turned away at the door as the restaurant was full. We found another using Google (the wifi gizmo we carry has been invaluable) and headed off an another 15 minutes' walk. This next restaurant was open.

It was a family udon fast-food place. You stand in a queue, let the first staff member know what you want and you collect a tray. You can see the nice fat noodles being cooked in front of you. He dips them in boiling water again, then puts them in a vacuum machine which sucks away the water. They are dropped in your huge, large or standard noodle bowl on the tray. You collect another flat dish and load that with any extras you choose, from a selection of tempura goodies - shiitake, prawns, sweet potato, fish etc. 

Prepping the noodles

Collecting tray, noodles and extras

As you get to the other end of the counter the till lady looks at the tag you've been given (blue=meat) and the size of the bowl to work out the cost. She has seen your tag and already has your chosen main toppings sizzling away ready to de dropped on your noodles. After you've paid, you use a dashi tap to add the amount of nice dashi soup you desire. It's then off to another table where you add tempura bits, nori seaweed, spring onions, chilli, garlic and ginger. You fill a little bowl of tempura dipping sauce and take it all to your table.

Adding toppings to my udon

It was delicious, as good as we've had. And what a lot of fun working out the menus and how it all works. We have had to stand back and observe many times this trip to see how to go about things, from the automatic coffee machines at 7-Eleven, to how to order and then deal with your used plates at a restaurant. Mostly we get it sorted ourselves, sometimes somebody comes and helps.

13th May - Omihachiman to Azuchi and return

We woke to our first completely sunny blue-skied day on this trip. After doing some washing and hanging it up we did a speedy 2km walk to the railway station to try and catch the 9:51 train. We missed it by about 30 seconds, but it didn't matter. The next train was along in just 15 minutes. We used the time very wisely to buy a coffee (pour moi) at the adjacent 7-Eleven, and also two onigiri rice balls for our picnic lunch.

The train ride was a ridiculously short 3-minute ride to the next station of Azuchi. This was to be our last planned hiking day. John had sorted out a 9km loop that took us out of town, up a hill, down again, up another hill, down again and back to the station. The sights along the way included the usual, i.e. a castle and temples.

It started out well. We soon accepted that the climb up to the ruins of the castle was as steep as the online information about it had suggested. We'd brought out walking poles with us in anticipation and were very pleased we had. The track started off with a wonderful temple, flanked by some seriously aggressive looking guardian lions. The loop track above this was closed off so we had to walk around to the end of the loop and start our ascent there. 

The castle complex is now in ruins but it must have been very impressive in its time. It was built on the whim of one Oda Nobunaga in 1576, principally to provide him with his own personal temple. The buildings were constructed over a number of levels up the sides of the hill, with a 7-level castle keep on the highest point. The buildings were burnt down at various times over the centuries. Even though the structures were no longer there other than foundation stones, it was a site well worth visiting, both for appreciating the stunning location and also the effort that must have gone into levelling the terraces and building the structures.

View out across Lake Biwa

Nice little 4-level pagoda

With a fair amount of panting we managed the ascent and descent pretty well, though John was annoyed that his knees were quite sore. Around 11:30am we snacked on our rice balls in the shade of a tree and considered the options from here. The prospect of doing an even steeper ascent and descent over double the distance to visit the nearby temple was not tempting, at all. Instead, we opted to wander along a path that would bring us back into Azuchi town in 2-3 kilometres.

The path led us past some modern-ish buildings constructed in perhaps the 1980s or 1990s. They featured an inexplicably bad pastiche of European design, e.g. abbey-like, turrets, arches and more. As bad a group of architecture as you could get. Their location in amongst the rural landscape and well away from the town was also quite bizarre. One of these buildings housed the Azuchi museum, others the district headquarters. Behind the latter there was an original farmhouse, built in 1754, and supposedly with the original thatch. This was really interesting, especially the thatched roof, and contrasted wildly with a very large square brick building and associated trellis which was signposted as a 'multi-purpose square toilet'. Japan never ceases to amaze us.

Ghastly architecture

Perhaps we were a little lacking in electrolytes by now to appreciate the finer points of the assembled 'modern' buildings, and it was a warm 25 degrees by now. It was with some relief, and 15km total later, that we arrived back at the Azuchi Station. The ride back was superfast and this time we opted to catch a bus rather than walk the final 2km back to our accommodation.

Sinking a cold beer (0 alc) was a perfect tonic after a big day's effort. It was a fun expedition and, as with visiting other castle or temple sites, not one has disappointed us. In fact, each has intrigued us.

12th May - Okayama to Omihachiman via Hikone Castle

What another great day! A very reasonable start time of 8:51am for our first train today, an 18-minute transfer time to train number two, and a 19-minute transfer time to train number three. At the end of that we found ourselves in the small town of Hikone beside Lake Biwa. After squeezing all our bags into one locker at the train station (we're getting pretty good at this) we had a 15 minute walk up the main street to the foot of Hikone Castle hill.

We are very much enjoying seeking out these castles. Like the castle at Matsue, Hikone castle is one of only five in Japan designated as national treasures. It was built in 1607 and the style of architecture and system of construction are stand-out features. Hikone castle was not a place of residence but a donjon i.e. it was a heavily fortified military tower. An unusually wide moat was dug around the base of the hill with multiple levels of walls layered up the hillside, complete with gateways, baileys and turrets. A tower complete with a large drum was used for signalling if required. At the base of the complex is an old stable which once housed 21 horses and is the only remaining stable at any castle in Japan. 

Hikone Castle stables

The lowest gate to the castle

Nearby is the ex-residence of the Ii clan, the regional rulers or daimyo at the time. The daimyo's area of influence could be extremely large. His ex-residence was a very large complex and was the largest we have been through yet, and certainly much bigger than the residences of senior samurai or merchants we have visited. The residence is attached to the Hikone Castle museum, where our favourite items on display were the kimonos, swords (some 13th century) and lacquerware.

The daimyo's personal armour

A particularly splendid and famous set of screens

The daimyo's view from his main living area

A contemporary plan of the residence - it's vast and complex

It was a stiff climb up the steps to the main donjon at the top of the hill, and then the stairs inside to ascend the five levels were exceedingly steep. Again we saw a woman freaking out at the prospect of having to descend them - they really were brutal. After coming down the steps our legs were like putty. The steps were 30-40cm, and the flights were much steeper than 45 degrees.

Entrance gate to the upper bailey

Hikone Castle's main tower

From the donjon it was a short walk to the adjacent Genkyu-en garden. We are not tiring of these gardens. Quite the opposite. Each is different in their form, landscape elements, extent and intent. Genkyu-en garden is quite small in relation to many others we have visited, being essentially a stroll around one good-sized lake. However, it evokes a wonderfully calm feeling and is very enjoyable for its simplicity. These gardens really are one of the highlights of our trip, as in previous visits.

We managed to get back to the train station by 2pm in time to catch the train for the short hop back to Omihachiman, where we are booked to stay for the next three nights. Our accommodation for the last two stops has been in hotel rooms attached to the main railway station. This time we are in a little 100-year-old Japanese house and have the whole place to ourselves. It's lovely. The host met us when we arrived at 3pm. We are pretty much in the historic quarter and are right beside a canal. Ten metres away is the historic merchants' street, with its iconic architecture. We're pretty excited about staying here.

Part of our rental house

An Omihachiman street

The weather is balmy and a bit humid, as it has been for most of the trip. Despite forecasts of sun or temperatures of mid 20s, most days have been part or full cloud, in the high teens or early 20s and with a little drizzle or rain. 

A quick unpack, followed by picking up a few items from the supermarket nearby and then we were out for a short wander around, on the understanding that the next stop would be to have a local craft beer beside the canal, at the Two Rabbits Brewery. That worked well! Soon after we found the little eatery that John had Googled, and had the most interesting and partly identifiable meal that we'd had in quite a while.

It was quite some effort finding the restaurant. We knew exactly where it was, but even standing there it was very hard to work out which building we needed to go in. This isn't unusual as restaurants very often depend on the clients knowing exactly where they are, and only learning through going with other people.

Our restaurant, impossible to find until lit up after we arrived

On this trip the only food we hadn't had so far was yakitori, i.e. charcoal grilled. Our restaurant for tonight was Minna-no-Ie, a yakitori-based izakaya. We picked a whole load of little dishes to make our meal, along with our first flask of sake - delicious by the way. Pickles, fluffy meatballs, a weird but tasty sticky tofu ball, garlic anchovy crunchy potato wedges (outstanding), 2 rounds of 5 assorted skewers of chicken chosen by the chef, shiitake mushrooms and eggplant. 

The chef came out to make sure we really wanted him to choose the 5 types of chicken! We ended up with plain chicken, special thigh chicken wrapped in chicken skin, chicken liver, gizzards and cartilage. All were delicious, with an odd range of textures, particularly the last. The charcoal grill flavour was specially good. I think it's only the third dinner we've had without rice or noodles. We walked out thoroughly sated and pleased with our choices. As always the staff were super helpful.

Pickles, strange rubbery tofu, sake

The helpfulness of everybody has been a theme this trip. Yesterday we were in a shop looking for origami paper. A woman noticed us looking at the shop plan, asked us (in good English) what we were looking for, and walked us some distance around the shop to the section we were after.

This little town of Hachimori is a delight. Very small scale, and well-preserved after a past of being a trading centre. Here and at Hikone we're back to being almost the only Europeans around. It's a relief after the people-dense horrors of Kyoto. Our room is actually a full holiday house - it can sleep 8 people. We have a little Japanese garden outside our main room, two other living areas, a full kitchen, and so on. It's lovely having so much space. The railway station hotels have everything you might need, but are pretty tight. 

P.S. I wasn't so enamoured with the chargrilled cartilage!