While we were on our whizz round the world, Nigel published a daily picture on Instagram. For those of you who are not Instagrammers, we’ve reproduced the photos in 4 blog posts. This one covers Hong Kong and Japan.
Day 27 and it’s #HongKong time. We arrived with Nigel’s brother, Dan, (2nd left) and his wife (right) for breakfast, scooped up some friends and went on Dan’s speedboat to Lamma Island for our first taste of Oriental food on this trip. Lovely and relaxed … 🙂
Day 28 had us eating wonderful dim sum in #CausewayBay, followed by supporting Nigel’s nephew in a rugby match at #HappyValley. We had a wander round #Kowloon after dark and captured this typical street.
Day 29 marks the half way point of our trip. Hopefully this lucky lion will keep an eye on us for the 2nd half. Isn’t this one of the most iconic urban views in the world? Amazing! #hongkong
Day 30 was temples, foot massages and markets. Oh. And a sundowner at the #intercontinental looking at the best nighttime cityscape in the world. #hongkong. Go on! Name me a better one! 😉
Day 31 and it was on to #Tokyo and Nigel’s 50th country. When we came out of the rail station, we saw these rockers. Loads of energy! #rtw #travel #japan
Day 32 was about discovering #Tokyo. We visited shrines, palace gardens and temples, but this shot sums up the city best. Luckily taken before copious amounts of sake and midnight karaoke … 😉 #travel
Day 33 was all about our first #shinkansen (#bullettrain) journey. Fast, comfortable, clean and unbelievably reliable. But most of all an immaculate workforce dedicated to providing an excellent service. Including this chap. We’re now in Hiroshima.
Day 34 was spent at the #Hiroshima Peace Park and museum. Inevitably it was incredibly moving, but both of us were particularly emotional about the children affected. One girl who contracted leukaemia after the bomb, folded 1000 paper cranes in an effort to stop the disease. It didn’t work, but now paper cranes are seen as a sign of peace. Children from around the world still send them to Hiroshima and #Obama left some on his recent trip here.
Day 35 was spent in #Miyajima. I think we’d both agree that this was our best hotel room to date. With kimonos and sandals in the wardrobe, a relaxing onsen (traditional #Japanese bath) and a superb 7course dinner. A really authentic experience on a beautiful island.
Day 36 was spent in #kyoto. From the #Fushima shrine, we went into the bamboo forest. I saw this beauty and was intrigued by the yellow and blue stripes. I looked it up. It’s a Joro spider, which according to #Japanese folklore is a spider which can change its appearance to a beautiful woman. She seeks men to seduce, whom she binds in her silk and devours. Eek!
Day 37. We took a look around the #Gion district in #kyoto tonight. We didn’t spot any #geisha unfortunately, but here is a pic of a dancer who performed for us earlier in the week. So graceful.
Day 38 was in #Osaka. During our night out with @chrispking, we tried all sorts of #Osakan #food specialities. But having realised that we hadn’t had #sushi since we’d been in #Japan, we needed to remedy the situation. We sat at a counter, whilst the chefs constructed our plate and dispatched live fish for the freshest sashimi. Our plate had (from L-R) the fatty part of a tuna, mackerel, scallop, plus accompanying pickled ginger. Delicious!
To see the photos from North America, click here.
To see the photos from Australasia, click here.
To see the photos from China, Vietnam and Cambodia, click here.
We did our Japan adventure independently as part of a round the world trip. If escorted tours are more your thing, this trip with Titan Tours covers a similar itinerary:
2emptynesters 
wow, impressive!
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