Japan, October 2004


Tour index
(Tokyo)
Kyoto & festivals
Hiroshima & Miyajima
Hakata/Fukuoka & Nagasaki
Okayama & Kurashiki
Tottori, Higashi-hama & Matsue
Kobe
Osaka

Tokyo

October 16-21

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This year's jaunt to Japan started in Tokyo, where I was lucky to have a local guide, and unlucky to have an incoming typhoon...

A couple of days in, it started raining in quite a big way and suddenly every shop magically started selling umbrellas. I was feeling out-of-place in a waterproof (everyone uses umbrellas, including people riding bicycles - somehow it manages to work, even on crowded pavements & zebra-crossings). So I became the proud owner of an expensive cheap umbrella: 500 yen (£2.50 in "not accurate, but easy" maths) was pretty much top-of-the range in the cheap umbrella stakes.

No Akihabara pictures, by the way. Did them last time.

Tok Tok Tok Tok Tok Tok Tok Tok Tok Tok Tok Tok Tok