Absolutely LOVED Japan - Deirdre

I absolutely LOVED Japan and the Japanese. I have never come across (and I have travelled widely) such friendly and welcoming people.
And so absolutely honest. I could leave my wallet open on a counter and go around a shop looking at things without ever worrying about anyone stealing............ unlike London.

I found the language very difficult and for the first few days could not remember any words at all. After a bit my ear got tuned in and I had a few phrases memorised.

One word that caused huge hilarity and smiles was Kampeki（かんぺき、完璧） of course that is how it sounds . It means perfect and as everything was I used it a lot which brought great laughter from the person I said it to :)

I think Japan is a very difficult country when you first arrive but once you get told how to do the trains, buses, customs etc (there is always someone to help) it makes alot of sense and becomes very easy.

Loads of helpful staff at stations, department stores and even the general public.
I did find that younger people, mostly the women were able to talk a little English and were more than willing to help. Older people sometimes found it too difficult.
As you know we arranged our tour ourselves and it wasn't hard. The Nakasendo Way is absolutely wonderful.
The Ryokan in Miyajima Momiji-so was absolutely wonderful and the woman who ran it looked after us so well we called her Mama-san. The room and the food there was really fantastic.

At Koyasan we stayed at Shojoshin Temple which I just couldn't fault Wonderful food, totally vegetarian and great room. The monks take care of everything but you don't see much of them.

We got up at 5am and did morning prayers at 6am................ such a great experience. And it is right next to Okonuin the cemetery where Kodo Diashi's mausoleum is.. the most sacred of places.

Osaka.............. I can't say I liked it as a city. Very noisy, fast and like many other cities in the world I guess.

Mr and particularly Mrs Sano were so kind and generous.
She speaks quite a bit of English, I think he understands most of what we said but didn't speak much English.

It was interesting to stay where there is a temple onsite and I did morning prayers with Mr Sano the mornings I was there. The Sano's took us out to dinner one night and also drove us to the train station to get to Kansai airport.

They also showed us around one evening walking from the Bunraku where we had seen the puppets to their home. So I cannot say more strongly that they treated us so well and gave us gifts on leaving as did we to them. April 2006