So today we done an organised tour which we had booked with our honeymoon fund. It was a trip to Mount Fuji, a traditional Japanese lunch, a boat trip on Lake Ashai, a cable car up a mountain on lake Ashai then the bullet train back to Tokyo.

This was a truly awesome day. Firstly due to such clear weather we were able to go up the 5th stage of Mt Fuji. This is about 2030 metres and it was freezing!!! It was quite something though and the views were stunning.

We then went for a traditional Japanese lunch and yes we did try some raw fish! We both tried raw tuna steak. It was ok but it was quite chewy and half way through chewing it I suddenly thought "I am eating raw fish". Suddenly it didn't taste so good! We also ate some other quite interesting dishes. I am glad we tried them but I don't think I could eat them again.

After lunch we went on the boat on Lake Ashai - the scenery here is lovely and it is popular with the Japanese tourists in the summer. Being winter is was a little cold but we just wrapped up warm.

We then we on the cable car which they call "Ropewalk" up a mountain on the lake. Now I am not a fan of cable cars - I find them very scary. Needless to this journey was no different. Thank goodness Paul is there to keep me calm - otherwise I would have curled up in a ball and cried the whole way up it! Again the views from up here were amazing as we were about 1000m above sea level.

So our mode of transportation to go back to Tokyo was the Bullet Train or as the Japanese call it Shinkansen

Whilst we were waiting for our train in Odawara one of the express bullet trains passed us in the middle track. OMG it was so fast and passed you so quick which is quite something as it was 15 carriages long!

We tried to photograph our train when it arrived but it went passed us too quickly! On board the train is very luxurious - quite like a fancy plane really. It does go very quickly but you don't feel it too much. It was quite an experience to be on it.

When we got off we took a video of the train leaving. This is uploaded in our Video section of this website.

Thoughts on Japan

I really enjoyed Japan mostly because it is so different to our culture and society. The people are lovely - very polite and helpful. Everywhere is very clean and we seen no homeless people or beggars. Yes the are a very conforming society (they queue in lines for the train and no one dares to step out of line) but I like this as they believe in the greater good of society. The country is really quite beautiful and they are working hard together after the earthquake to rebuild their lost communities. I do think it is a very expensive country to live though. Food and drink is very expensive even compared to Ireland. Yet cigarettes are like £4 a pack and they smoke everywhere. Being asked if you want smoking or non smoking in a restaurant is very weird. Guess we are so used to everywhere being non smoking. I had to laugh as you can smoke in the certain carriages of the train but if you are outside you must smoke in designated covered areas and some places even have smoking booths which are enclosed but outside!

I am not a big fan of the food and even some Western dishes have Asian twists but I survived it! Not likely that I was going to waste away after a few days anyway!

Some of my things during this trip is to collect magnets, any ladybird items and a new one is Kit Kats of Foreign Lands!

As some of you may know I am very fond of Kit Kats - the chunky ones especially! (I have even managed to lock myself out over the excitement of a chunky Kit Kat bought for me by Paul!) So this trip I am going to try and photograph Kit Kats from around the world. Japan loves the Kit Kat!! They have many variations on the standard 4 finger - Strawberry, Strawberry Cheesecake (white Choc), Blueberry Cheesecake (also white choc), Green Tea (Green Choc!) and plain as well as milk chocolate. They also have the Kit Kat bites too.

I bought a Mt Fuji branded Kit Kat box which contained Blueberry Cheesecake flavour small 2 finger Kit Kats. They were quite delicious and I love the box - which of course I have kept.

So I will keep you updated on my Kit Kat adventures and who knows what Singapore will have in store for me!