After brekkie we head out to the bus stop where we were collected and taken to the bus station, given our tickets and sent off to Mount Fuji, along with 3 other buses do tourists. Not long after we got out of Tokyo it started raining, and as we got closer to Mt Fuji the rain turned to sleet, slush and finally snow. Our first stop was to be Mt Fuji, but the road blocks were up - no-one was allowed up the road, so then we headed off for the lake cruise. The narrow ...

This morning we set off for the station, buying our breakfast from one of the shops on the way to the platform. Tom chose a Japanese selection like mine - the same as the one I had the other day, with the decorative lotus root in it. This is our second last journey on the Shinkansen - the last will be our return to Tokyo this afternoon. Nine trips on the Shinkansen! We have enjoyed them so much. This train is 17 carriages long but splits into two at Morioka. All ...

We took it easy this morning, running on no-one's timetable but our own. After brekky we caught the JR Yamanote line to Shimbashi where we alighted, walked across the road to a different, private railway - the Yurikamome line, where we caught a driverless train to the Telecom Centre out on one of the man-made islands. From there we walked into Tokyo's Academic Park to the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation. I then installed myself in the cafe whil...

Our trip to Japan was Tom's ambition. The only thing I could think of, apart from experiencing an intriguingly different culture, that I really wanted to see apart from Hiroshima, were the snow monkeys. I came for the snow monkeys, and we've always said "see what you can , while you can - while you have your health and mobility". I just never realised that I could have mobility one day, and have it compromised for I-don't-know-how-long, the next. So, a 35 minute ...

After a breakfast of sandwiches (with broccoli on them? But they were nice!) and coffee, we went out of the station and around the corner where we were collected by a bus and taken to a bus depot where we were given our tickets and told which coach to board and the off we went. Our first stop was the Meiji Shrine, a large shrine dedicated to the empower Meiji, renown for the restoration of the country. The original shrine was bombed during World War II and a new ...