Home, the end of this journey. First I'll bring you up to date with what we did after my visit to the Internet café. We discovered, hidden away in the railway building complex, the Traditional Crafts of Japan Centre which quite naturally features traditional crafts from throughout Japan. On the first floor a large number of tables were laid out each showing items and the region where they were made. There were displays of pottery and porcelain, lacquer work, cherry bark, from Kakunodate, weaving, examples of knives and swords, paper and pieces of carpentry and marquetrie. Each item was not just an exhibit but was available for purchase. The range of prices was amazing. Chopsticks from £5 up to a beautifully decorated pair in cherry at £50, lengths of woven cloth from £500. The next floor was given over to traditional dolls and figures. Roof tile makers produced the first figures. They made models of the figures, cast them into moulds and fired them along with the tiles. The figures were then painted. Many of the exhibits were of traditional subjects and quite a few were aimed at the upcoming Kodomo-no-hi, or Boy's Day, on the 5th of May. There were two items that we really liked. One was of a craftsman making a Noh mask about 10 inches high. The whole thing look so natural from the way the man sat in a relaxed position to the flow of his clothes. We both saw it across the room and made a beeline to it. If it had been a little cheaper than the £4,000 price tag we may have bought it. The second item was a pair of old peasants each about two inches high. Rita thought they looked like us after a day of sightseeing. The price tag was a more reasonable £27 each but one had already been bought. I think that if we had bought then we could not have taken them until the end of the exhibition, by which time we would have been back in England.
On the subject of Boy's Day the local department stores had vast displays of dolls and samurai armour known as Gogatsu ningyo which are put on display in house during the festival. Some of these were rather expensive costing up to £10,000. We were already beginning to see the display of Koinibori, streamers in the appearance of carp, which are traditionally flown during the festival.
We discovered another hyakuenya close to the hotel. I am still amazed what they manage to sell for 50 pence. We bought a pair of neon bright things used to put hair in bunches which we will use to help identify our suitcases.
Back at the hotel we did our packing before venturing out again for our last proper meal in Japan. We went back to the Tempura restaurant we had visited a couple of days earlier and tried another of their set meals. While eating the meal I was idly scanning the various sighs in the restaurant to see if I could understand them and realised one had some deserts listed one called Isukure-mu tenpura, Tenpura Ice-cream? For those who don't know tempura is a way of cooking food by coating them in batter and them dropping them into very hot oil for a short period of time. I was so intrigued I ordered it. And was presented with a scoop of ice cream in a hot battered coating. The batter was sweeter than normal. The experience was wonderful, a type of high-speed Baked Alaska.
We went to bed early and arose at 5am the next morning (9pm the previous day London time) to a damp overcast day. The journey to the airport was smooth and uneventful, which is the way I wanted it and by 8:45 we were sitting in the airport lounge. Narita airport does not have the range of duty free shops that are found in Heathrow or Gatwick, and it is certainly very much quieter. The plane took off on time and arrived on time. We live at the other end of the Piccadilly line so we didn't have to change trains. By 5pm, 20 hours since we had set out, we were sitting in our living room drinking a cup of coffee. Twenty-four hours after getting up, after doing a little shopping, unpacking and a snack, we were back in bed.
Tomorrow I will post one last blog giving some of our impressions and thoughts of Japan.

 
Sorry to have been away so long. I have only just discovered an Internet cafe, hidden away on the 7th floor of a corner building. Anyway to make up for lost time I've booked an hour on the machine and sent Rita to Starbucks with an Agitha Christie novel.
We got down to Tokyo in one piece, in fact it was very relaxing. While trying to get from Tokyo station to Ikebukuro we discovered the JR Yamanote which runs in a circle on the western outskirts of Tokyo and then through Tokyo and Ueno Stations. The best bit is it is free with our JR passes. The taxi driver outside Ikebukuro station had a little trouble finding the Hotel, New Star, but we got there about 3:30 and checked in. It was then I discovered the info on the web about them having Internet access was not true.
We had a nap in the western style beds, what bliss, and as the night settled in we went out for a walk. Whata place Ikebukuro is. According to the guide it has been designate the second centre of Tokyo. Bright lights and quite a bustle all around the place. We walked into one road, a pedestrian precinct, with an interesting banner at the entrance in katakana - RoMaNChi Dori - Romance Street. It lived up to its name. There were hostess bars, strip joints, ladies of the night and young lads in very sharp suits trying to drag people into their estalishment. We finally ended up in the Tobu department store where we wandered around looking at the wares. They have 8 floors of restaurants, with 6 or seven restaurants per floor, on top of the 10 floors and two basements of store. It was quite a site from the top floor.
The forecast for the next few days showed sunny, rain and more rain, brightening up on the day we leave, so we decided to make the most of the sun. We caught the Yamanote line to Ueno and then to Asakusa were we caught the river cruise boat which took us to Hinode pier. The trip was excellent and there were only about 40 people on the boat so I could walk around and take pictures. From the pier we walked to the Hama Rikyu Gardens which has a salt water lake. Much of the land and buildings had to be rebuilt after the WW2 bombing of the area. The gardens were beautifully layed. Our next destination was the Tokyo Tower which we arrived at after passing through the grounds of the Zojoji temple, quite a large building. The tower reminded me of the one Blackpool. Not because of the shape but because of all the other attractions. They had an aquarium, waxworks and 3D picture gallery. There are 2 viewing platforms, one at 150 metres and the highest at 250 metres. As the lift started to ascend Rita's eyes suddenly got wide and it was obvious she was having second thorghts about going up. Unfortunately it was too late to turn back. Part of the lift trip meant we could look out through the girders to the city below, which did effect her, but as we got to the viewing platform this was hidden. The platform is quite wide so she felt more comfortable. I left her and wandered around taking pictures. After a while she joined me feeling a little better. She decided that the trip to the next stage would be too much, so I went on alone. The lift journey was even more open and Rita was certainly right in not going. I took a few more pictures and then got into the queue to go down. The wait was quite long and I managed to get into the sixth lift load!
Yesterday, Wednesday, was supossed to be rain but after a slight downpour it was just overcast. We first went to Shinjuku but found noting of interest and then went on to Shibuya and wandered the area. From the Tokyo Tower Shibuya sticks out of the low rise buildings like an island. We discovered a 7 floor hyakuenya (100 yen shop). They, like the first shop had the hanko stamps at 100 yen. The Tobu store were selling the exact same thing at 1000 yen, ten times the price! We also discovered the sleazier part of the town where you could book hotel rooms - resting or all night. Our next destination was Tokyo station so we could book our seats on the Narita Express on Friday. While travelling round to the station (so far we had used the Yamanote line so had not paid anything) Rita found a piece about the book district where shops had painints and printes for sale so after buying our tickets we set off to Jinbocho. At our first stop we found two very nice prints that were not too expensive.
While sitting in our hotel room I discovered a major problem - the time of our departure was not, as I had thought, 13:35, but 10:55am. I had been looking at the departure time for our outward trip! So before coming along to the Internet Cafe we had to stop off of change our train tickets. We also discovered we could travel from Ikebukuro thus reducing the number of interchanges.
Well I think this is the last posting before we get home, unless there is access and time at the airport. Tonight we will get early to bed. The train leaves from Ikebukuro at 6:35am and we must be on it!

 
Today is our last full day in Yokote and it is throwing it down. It hasn't stopped all day. The rain has also meant it has got colder. We have finished off the ironing and done most of the packing. The worrying thing is that we don't appear to have as much as we arrived with. I hope it is because I packed better. Liz went out with Libby and Alison for lunch to Mosbaga (Mos Burger in real money), while Rita and I enjoyed grilled Tuna steaks, udon and salad. Liz came back with some cakes so we had those for desert. She also picked up an English to Japanese mains converter so I can came keep mine to charge my camera batteries. I have burned all the photos I have taken onto a CD. There were 460 pictures, 575MB, written to the CD. I created a second for safety. I will now be relying on two 256MB memory cards and a 1GB IBM Microdrive for the remainder of the holiday.
I mentioned a while back about how much I like onigiri. Onigiri is basically a ball of compressed rice. The ones sold in shops and in railways stations are made from a equilateral triangular shaped block of rice about three inches on each side and one inch thick. It normally has a savoury filling and the whole thing is encased in a sheet of seaweed (nori). The fillings can be small portions of fish, chicken or pickles. The packaging is quite special. If the seaweed was left in contact with the rice for any length of time the seaweed would go soggy. So the seaweed is separated from the rice by a cover of cellophane which also acts as the outer protective cover. There is a proper method of opening the packet which results in the seaweed sheet in place. It feels like you are doing a magic trick, or whipping the tablecloth off the table leaving all the cups and plates still in place. They make a very tasty and filling snack which can b eaten anywhere. My favourite has been the pickled plum, both for taste and colour. I discovered the local supermarket was selling the onigiri development kit. Nori sheets already packed in the cellophane packet. I bought two packs of 12. Now I can make the great snack when I get home to England.
I haven’t used my camcorder much this trip. The only time was in Ueno Park, Tokyo when I took about 7 minutes of film. I did dig it out again to do a ‘trip’ around Liz’s apartment, flat, nest, tip.
While typing this I am watching a demonstration game of Go, a game played widely on Japan. I first came across the game at University and in the mid-70s and later I joined a club in Wanstead. I enjoyed Go because I could play it quite well, whereas I was totally rubbish at chess or checkers. I got up to 5 Ku, a long way from First Dan. You can find more information on ow to play the game on the Japanese Go Association’s web site. Let me know if you fancy a game I am always looking for someone to play against.
Tomorrow we will be back in Tokyo. If all goes well we will catch the 10am local train from Yokote to Omagari and the 10:39 Komachi 12 to Tokyo, arriving at 2:08pm. The really important thing is that we will sleep on Western style beds at the New Star Hotel in Ikebukuro. Heaven.