Ten days in Japan - the overview

Mike and I landed in Tokyo on June 12 to enjoy 4 cities in 10 days, following a tour organized by the good folks at kimkim. We had decided to spend two nights in each city, to give us a full day to explore each place with a guide. then off on a train to the next place. We got to experience Tokyo twice, at each end of the trip, staying in Roppongi at the beginning of the trip and Shinjuku at the end (hint: Shinjuku is way better!).

The guidance we gave to kimkim was that we like to do walking tours, learn about history and culture, sample a lot of different local foods and at some point include a hike up a decent size hill or mountain. They did not disappoint!

Here is our tour in map form:

The order was Tokyo -> Kyoto -> Kanazawa -> Osaka -> Tokyo. I will write a separate post for each stop.

Mike visits for the month of June 2025

Long suffering readers of this blog may remember my best friend Mike from England, who I visited in April of last year, when we hiked the Norfolk Coastal Path together. This year, Mike came to visit for most of the month of June, and for part of the time we headed off to Seattle and Japan.

Here are a few photos the early days of that visit, including a short stop in Seattle on the way to Tokyo. We took many more photos once we arrived in Japan!

Burlington Ontario, May 2025

A week or so after getting back from the Holland, SE Asia & England trip, I flew up to Toronto and drove out to Burlington Ontario to spend some time visiting my Auntie Ann in hospital. Ann is the matriarch of my side of the family - 90 years old, with a wit she could cut herself on, and until recently still living independently. Ann had a fall back in March and broke her upper right arm and has been in hospital since - first to heal and then to do physical therapy to recover her strength after being immobile for so long.

I love my Auntie Ann and thoroughly enjoyed this opportunity to spend some extended time with her. Also it gave a bit of a break to my cousins, Julie, Susan and David, who have made sure between them that Ann has had at least one visitor for several hours every day. Ann and I had a great time talking, going for walks around the hospital (me pushing the wheelchair) and playing Quiddler. This was precious time indeed.

Burlington is a beautiful city on the shore of Lake Ontario about an hour's drive from Toronto, so when I wasn't at the hospital I could enjoy long walks along the shoreline and sampling the city's many good restaurants. Towards the end of the trip I got to visit Julie and her husband Randy, and then the day before I flew home I had dinner at Susan's. David was out of town, but we made up for that with video calls.

And did I mention that the food was good?!