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About halfway through the boat pulls into shore and we all disembark for a short walk around. There is spot across the river where there is a hole in the rock wall where it is said if you successfully throw an undama (clay good luck ball) into the hole your wish will be grant. ShelleyB-son had...

Day 18 and we are off to Geibiki Gorge for a boat tour. There is a train station at Geibikei serviced by a very infrequent local train (about every 2 hours). In warmer months there are buses but they don’t seem to run in winter. So the train it was. Shinkansen to Ichinose then transfer to local...

ShelleyB-son feeling a bit off overnight and this morning, so I stayed with him during day as Mr ShelleyB had only just arrived and barely had any holiday time. Mr ShelleyB decided to head to Matsushima bay, only about 25 minutes on the train. I won’t dwell on Matsushima Bay as I did not go...

After some time at the Castle ruins we travelled back to the city centre and checked in to the Sotetsu Fresa Inn, another Japanese chain. We chose this hotel for its proximity to the station but also because we are now 3 people and the Sotetsu had connecting rooms as a reasonbly priced option...

After the mausoleum we made use of the loople bus to get to the Sendai Castle ruins site. No castle any more but the walls still stand as do some of the foundations. There is also a statue of Date Masamune. The main reason to come up here is the view it accords of Sendai. The loople bus:

Off to Sendai today, which will be our base for the next 5 days. Smooth trip on the shinkansen and arrived in Sendai just before lunch. Too early for check in so utilised lockers at the station before heading out to explore Sendai. First stop was Zuihoden, the mausoleum of Date Masumune, one...

There were few people at all at the bigger attractions where we were. Hirosaki castle, for example, we were in the castle park for 2 hours at least and saw perhaps a dozen people. Those of asian appearance that we saw on our travels were speaking Japanese. My Japanese language skills are only...

The trail is meant to continue behind the temple, but the trail was closed, perhaps for the winter. So we made our way back down the road and to the final stop, Kotoku-in which houses the Daibutsu or great buddha statue. Entry fee is 300 yen. The statue itself is very impressive and dates from...

This section of the walk is the only moderately challenging section, but came with the reward of excellent views. The temple has a lovely rest area with a dozen or so picnic tables and multiple vending machines with cold drinks. From here we headed to Zeniarai-benten. The route to the temple...

Day 15 and Mr ShelleyB is arriving today. We are meeting him in Tokyo, but as he is not landing at NRT until 3.15pm we have the day to entertain ourselves. As we are only one night in Tokyo, sent the bag on to the subsequent hotel in Sendai. Again, less than 3000 yen to leave us only with the...

Finally on to Chinatown, which is the largest in Japan. Our intial plan was to grab an early dinner here but the cream tower ruined that idea. If we had been hungry there was no limit to the number of options. And if you want you palm read this is clearly the place to come. After a...

After breakfast we headed out towards the waterfront on the train, where there are many sights to see. First up was the Yokohama landmark tower with the now (mainly) retired Nippon Maru training ship scenically moored alongside. The tower is a lovely building which has an observatory on the 69th...

Day 14 and a day to enjoy the sights of Yokohama. I forgot in yesterday’s report to describe the breakfast at The Knot, which is a big oversight as it was fabulous. It is a mix of cooked to order (from a menu) and a buffet. Yesterday I had the omlette and today the roll. The omlette was...

Day 13 and we are off to Warner Brothers Studios and the making of Harry Potter. ShelleyB-son is a Harry Potter fan, ever since he first read the books. The original plan was to do this on Wednesday, when we are transition to Tokyo to meet Mr. ShelleyB, but over the Christmas period the studio...

ShelleyB-son was keen for some shopping, so headed out. I won’t bore you with the details but to comment that the Kinokuniya bookshop nearby had an extensive Japanese languange learning section (better than the Dymocks in Melbourne CBD) and we both bought texts to continue our language learning...

Day 12, halfway through our trip, and heading back to the big smoke. For the next 3 nights we will be staying in Yokohama. We haven’t visited this city before, even though it is not at all far from Tokyo. So back to Hachinohe station and on to the shinkansen. On the Hayabusa it is slightly...

For dinner we returned to Miraizumi the Izakaya from our first night. Busier tonight as it’s Saturday. Had to put name on list and come back. But was worth the wait, great food again. A highlight (for me) was the tuna sashimi.

Our aim for today was to walk to Tanesashi Natural Lawn in Tanesashikeigan. From there buses or trains could return us to Hachinohe. The weather today was fantastic. I had tried to time our walk day for the day with best forecast, but it was positively warm, and I walked only in my fleece with...

We love to hike and for us one of attractions of Hachinohe was its proximity to the start of the Michinoku, a long distance hiking trail down Japan’s north east coast. The trail runs 1000km or so from Hachinohe to Soma city in Fukuoka prefecture. The trail is actually a response to the...

Ooh exciting. We had initially planned Sapporo as part of this trip but with Mr ShelleyB’s mid trip arrival it made it challenging. So next time hopefully for us.