Japan

Thirteen days, five cities and a lot of shinkansen : Tokyo, Nagoya, Hiroshima, Kyoto and Osaka, from 25 May to 6 June.

Tokyo first. Tokyo Tower from directly underneath, the red-brick station lit up at dusk , and an afternoon among the old shops and streetcars of the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum. Then down to Aichi for a day at Ghibli Park: Totoro behind the counter , Yubaba counting her jewels , and Howl's Moving Castle against a perfect blue sky.

Hiroshima was the most moving stop. We stood at the Atomic Bomb Dome and among the paper cranes of the Children’s Peace Monument, then rode the trams , ate okonomiyaki at the counter, and took the ferry to Miyajima. The deer there wander between the stone lanterns, and the great torii stands out in the bay.

In Kyoto it was lanterns at Yasaka Shrine by night , the tunnel of torii at Fushimi Inari, a rainy street crossing and a very good bowl of duck ramen . Osaka finished the trip: the castle , hydrangeas , a craft beer flight , and Dotonbori after dark with its takoyaki , karaage , the giant octopus and the Glico running man . Then the shinkansen back to Tokyo and the flight home .