Golden Week Kansai Tour

Our Golden Week holiday took us in a large loop via the ancient temple complex of Yoshino near Nara, down to a cluster of old onsens in Wakayama, then back up through Mie. Many, many hot baths were had, some of them in genuine natural hot spring stinky water. A lot of the food was also cooked in the hot springs, giving everything that sought-after minerally-sulfury tang. Mmmmm.

Senmaida

The second part of our trip took in the famous and beautiful Senmaida, whose name literally means Thousand-Layer-Fields. These terraced rice paddies are very unusual in Japan. It was the perfect time of year in that the rice has just been planted so the fields were flooded with water - this only happens once a year there. However, it was also raining buckets.

Kyoto

Kyoto was in the midst of spring geisha festival madness. There were geishas on the walls, geishas in the taxis, geishas at the temples, geishas on the streets. The cherry blossoms weren't on their best behaviour but the geishas made up for it.

Shirakawa-go

This famous area near Takayama is a UNESCO World Heritage site, mainly because of the original thatched cottages still dotted throuhgout the valleys. Many of them now serve as ryokans (Japanese inns) and we stayed in one, a smoky, dark wooded old place with great river fish for dinner.

Takayama

FIona's parents' visit began with a trip into the mountains to the fabulous old town of Takayama. Here, the cherry blossoms were stubbornly refusing to come out but the town's famous festival floats were being wheeled out for cleaning and general showing off.