Sakura

I am a week and a half into a beautiful trip to Japan. Beautiful is the only word for it. Calm, contemplative, clean...... other words. We have travelled through Narita, Tokyo, Tsumago, Hiroshima and now we are in Hakone; up a mountainside in a chilled out hotel for a couple of days at the end of a period of travelling.

What stands out? Too much. A lunch by a lake with a delicate old friend of Sarah's. Carp peering out at us. An exhibition of the work of Japan's father of photography, Renjo. Walking a trail with bear scaring bells dotted along it. A meal in a Ninja restaurant with Yukiko. Sleeping in an excellent Riokan. The shocking impact of the Hiroshima museum

But the best is travelling with a wife who lived in Japan for two years; she knows the country and she loves the country. I think we travel well together.