ISLANDS & SKYSCRAPERS

Roppongi Hills is one of my most favourite landmarks in Tokyo because of its fabulous architecture and attractions, such as shops, bars and retaurants, movie theatres and museums. However, the highlights for me are the outdoor spaces - the outdoor sculptures and event spaces. The giant spider with her eggs against the background of the sky is something to behold and I like nothing more than standing under the cool mist spray on a hot day cooling off. However, it is the views from the top that really made my day on this occassion. I had been to the inside 360 degree walk around observation area, but never before to the outdoor observation area. You can walk all the way on a wooden deck around the helipad and from 238 metres above the ground get terrific views in every direction: across Tokyo Bay, to Mt Fuji, the Imperial Palace, Shinjuku and so on... what a geat city Tokyo is!

I love Japanese food and shabu-shabu is one of my favourites, so having shabu-shabu at the famous Kakiyasu Restaurant in Ginza was a meal I will always remember. Wonderful presentation and delicious food!

On this occasion, a 35 degree bright summers day in downtown Tokyo wearing the Yukata was very enjoyable. We had fun deciding which style and colour to wear and putting them on in the shop with the patient help of the 'dressers". We also enjoyed showing off which ones we had chosen, especially the girls who really looked good in them. But we had even more fun putting on our geta ( Japanese wooden sandals) and prancing around the main Ginza street like actors on a stage. Our walk certainly attracted alot of attention from locals and tourists. The photo shot of the four of us on the zebra crossing is one cool way to remember our visit to Ginza.

As much as I like Japanese green tea, I normally wouldn’t have it in such a famous and nice shop as Tsuruya Yoshinobu where you can sit at the counter and order your sweet to offset the bitterness of the green tea, and watch it being made in front of you. An authentic and unique experience of classical Japan!

The SkyBus tour of Tokyo at sunset was a good way to see the city from a different perspective - with a clear view afforded by the open double decker bus you can see all the streetscapes and buildings up, down and from all angles. Especially going right under Tokyo Tower is a good way to see the beauty of its sweeping structure. Its also a bit of a thrill to fly over the Rainbow Bridge high above Tokyo Bay with the wind in your hair. The highlight was seeing the sunset while crossing the Rainbow Bridge with the lights of the city shining around us.

The dinner we had at Aqua City Daiba was a classic Japanese dish that I never grow tired of - soba and tempura. In this case it was very special because they gave us fresh wasabi that we had to grate ourselves to mix with the tsuyu or dipping sauce. The prawns were huge too! Daiba is the perfect spot to capture Tokyo's skyline at sunset since you can see the city across the bay with the sun setting behind it - makes for a romanatic dining spot.

I have stayed in many hotels in Japan over 25 years but I can say that my stay at the Palace Hotel has to be one of the best - great service in English, delicious beeakfast spread and amazing high tech and spacious room. The built in TV to the bathroom mirror was something I have never seen before, as was the drapes contol from the bedside.

ANA flight from Haneda to Matsuyama was like all flights should be - on time, smooth and comfortable.

Matsuyama Castle is how most people imagine most castles to be looking impregnable high up on a mountain overlooking the city with moats around it which is definitely the case with Matsuyama Castle. This was made especially so by our guide who invited us to pretend we were attacking the castle to see if we could figure out how to over come the defences. Needless to say, we would have failed miserably as there were alot of built in tricks such as gates that lead to dead ends where the trapped attackers would end up in a cull de sac and be slaughtered. Or side gates where the defenders would sneak out and attack the attackers from behind. We went right up into the magificent wooden castle donjon and enjoyed the cool breeze and fabulous views.

Lunch at Kyodo Ryori Kadoya was a unique local Ehime dish where sashimi of Sea Bream is mixed in a pouring bowl with raw egg and sauce and then poured over a bowl of rice. Unexpectedly delicious!

The Botchan Train is a unique way to get to Dogo Onsen from Matsuyama City Station as it takes you back over a hundred years ago to the age of steam. Definitely something for adults and children to enjoy on a trip to Matsuyama and Dogo Onsen.

The main street of Dogo Onsen is a covered mall with many small and interesting souvenir shops. We stopped by a few of these which have unique locally made products and even bought a few! One store stocks all kinds of the famous Imabari towels - so smooth and good for drying off. The store also sells locally crafted pottery and glassware. We also went into a traditonal Japanese rice cracker store where you can see the crackers being made and where they display a mind boggling range of different kind of crackers and sembei. And to cool down we made sure we tried local citrus flavoured popsicle which were indeed very refreshing.

I really enjoy old wooden buildings and Dogo Onsen Main Building has long been on my list of must visit places. Although buillt in the 1890's the building is on top of the oldest recorded onsen bath in Japan - over 3,000 years. The building is a maze of corridors and stairs and has 2 main bath houses plus a separate bath quarter for the Emperor which we were showed around. Sitting on the tatami in the large open rest area with the breeze flowing through the building and drinking Japanese green tea was really relaxing.

We stayed in a classic and famous Ryokan called ”Funaya”, where the Emperor has stayed. My room was huge and I even had my own wooden bath. However, the best part was the main onsen bath - modern and clean but with a delightful outdoor rotenburo which I had all to myself.

The JR "Anpanman" train we took from Matsuyama Station to Imabari Station was really cool because it was painted with colourful anime and mascot characters related to " Ampanman" - it was on time, clean and easy to catch too.

We got off the Anpanman train at JR Imabari Station for the start of our cycle tour of the Shimanami Kaido Cycling tour and dropped our luggage off so it would be delivered to our hotel in Onomichi before we got there. We then went to the start of the series of bridges that crosses about 8 islands of the Seto Inland Sea where we collected our rental cycles. I couldnt believe how good my Giant bicycle was - light and easy to use the gears.

We stopped for lunch at an outdoor seafood BBQ restaurant at Yoshiumi Iki-iki Island. It was fun because you could choose your seafood and then cook it on a small charcoal grill at the table.

The cycling was the highlight of the trip for me because I'm a keen cyclist and I had heard so much about the ShimaNami cycling course from freinds who had done it. Needless to say I was not dissapointed. The actual dedicated cycling road is wide on all the bridges and the route well signposted with maps at strategic points - and in English.The views on the blue sky day we rode were absolutely stunning and we couldnt stop taking photos. There are so many islands scattered in the sea with rocky shores and sandy beaches with crooked pine trees hanging off the cliffs and forests and terraced mikan fields rising up the slopes. We were constantly stopping to take photos and discovered many interesting things along the way such as the stone masonary worshops and salt ice creams ( delicious !) Most fascinating was the tidal currents sweeping between the islands.After about 45kms we reached Setoda and returned our bikes there and went for a walk to see Hirayama Ikuo Museum. Hirayama is one of Japan's most famous modern artists but who used the traditional Japanese way of painting and he was born and grew up on this island.

We took a small inter-island ferry from Setoda Harbor to Onomichi for about 40 minutes which gave us another perspective of the Seto Inland Sea from the water.

The U2 " Cycle Hotel" in Onomichi has to be the funkiest hotel I have ever stayed at in Japan. It has a trendy bar, shops, library area and the western breakfast, especially the croissants are the best!

Our flight from Hiroshima Airport to Haneda on ANA was on time and we got a great view of Mt Fuji from the left hand side of the plane. Our bags came out of the luggage collection place just as we got there - what great service!