I visited Japan last summer with a friend and we spent about a month there. We visited the following cities: Tokyo, Osaka, Hiroshima and Kyoto.

Tokyo is a lot like London. It's made up of a number of very distinct villages - each with their own character and often populated with a variety of characters - some of whom may only come out at night - and are not necessarily vampires! Most of the main areas in Tokyo are stops on the Yamanote Line - Tokyo's equivalent of the Circle Line (only more efficient!). Getting a day ticket to go round this line doesn't turn you into a train spotter. It is an ideal way to get your bearings and it provides a reasonable overview of the City. The streets of Tokyo are laid out in a grid pattern similar to those of New York and other larger cities. At first sight, each street not only looked the same but had remarkably similar names: Ginza 1-Chome; Ginza 2-Chome and so on. In any Japanese version of the board game "Monopoly", Ginza would be Mayfair. It has some of the most expensive real estate in the world and is a particular haven for anyone who is in need of serious retail therapy. Ginza is so spotless you could almost eat your sushi off the pavement. Litter is such a rarity that I was surprised, within minutes of venturing onto Ginza's streets, to be confronted by an armed posse of 12 uniformed men and women - each with dustpan and brushes in hand. Wielding their weapons, they set about scrapping over the one sweet wrapper that adorned the particular patch of pavement they patrolled. If I hadn't seen for myself the zeal with which they tackled this single rogue, I would not have believed it.

Most amusing of all was the fact most couples used one door to enter the hotel and another to exit. When you see a couple coming out of a door in the middle of a wall into the street with wet hair busy tucking their tops in - then it didn't take Einstein to guess where they had been. These Love Hotels obviously well suit Japan's amorous populous, yet given the fact that the population growth is slowing in Japan, the safe sex message must be getting through too! Tokyo was also the first place where we witnessed another Japanese leisure activity; pachinko. These arcade games are as popular as slot machines in Las Vegas or even bingo on the piers of some English seaside resorts. The arcades are not sound proofed so you can hear the din of the machines - and the excitement of the players - as you pass by. We did not dare to even attempt to enter one of these arcades let alone try and play this fast and furious game. Those playing looked extremely serious and their speed and ferocity in the game suggested that they would not take too kindly to 2 novices attempting to play with their balls!

When we were in Osaka we decided to go to the Umeda Sky Building as we had heard we would get a panoramic view of the city from its impressive height. We were armed with maps but they were of little use as we hadn't got a clue as to which exit we had come out of the station. We waded through the crowds that were spilling out onto the streets and had little option but to go with the flow. The pedestrian police (dressed almost like traffic wardens) ordered us to wait at a crossing. They waved frantically at the traffic, whistled at everything in sight and they pointed their illuminated batons as if they were light sabres.
Before we knew it we had been marched across the road although we did not know whether or not we actually wanted to be on the other side. The Umeda Sky Building was supposed to be tall but it was no use even trying to look above the buildings around us to try and find it as the other buildings were huge too and hid it well. We decided we would have to ask a policeman. If only we could see one outside the crowd. This should have been easier than it was given the fact that, in general, I was taller than the average Osakan. The Umeda Sky Building is a very impressive twin towered complex, 170 metres high. We went virtually all the way to the top by lift at the upper levels of the building; there were rooftop panoramic views of the city. We were so high up that, in the aftermath of those vivid scenes from September 11, it was spooky to watch aeroplanes flying at the same height as we were standing.

On our way to Hiroshima, my friend and I wondered what sort of welcome we - as Westerners - could expect. Would we be greeted with the same friendliness and politeness that had been the hallmark of the earlier parts of our tour? Or, given that we were on the same side as those who blasted the city to smithereens in 1945, would there still be a legacy of bitterness, perhaps, particularly from the older generation? Virtually as soon as we got off the train our questions were answered. Friendliness was still the order of the day. Of course one of the main reasons for having Hiroshima on the itinerary was to see where the atomic bomb went off and to witness how the city has coped with it since. I suppose that it's a place that attracts a mixture of people. There are the "peaceniks" who want love and understanding and think that there was no reason whatsoever for the Americans to have bombed Hiroshima in 1945. They draw the conclusion that we should ban the bomb. There are also those who have a ghoulish fascination with the place. And finally there are historians and those who would put it in the "must see" category for tourists. We felt it was a "must see".
We took a tram to the Peace Park. The first thing that we discovered in this part of the city was how much it looked like a British Columbian city with the backdrop of snow capped mountains and water all around. Hiroshima is effectively a series of islands. The water which borders the Peace Park helps to give it an air of tranquillity.

~Kyoto~

Body and soul clearly go together in Kyoto. You seem to trip over temples and shrines wherever you go. We found it interesting wandering around the many zen gardens not just to appreciate this tradition but to witness the "odd" behaviour of some of the locals. We saw shell suit clad Kyotons putting on their aerobic music and getting down to a series of physical jerks in the middle of the park. Cyclists, abandoning their bikes, stripping off and running around the park leaving their belongings neatly piled but totally unsecured on a nearby bench. I suppose this is just one example of how crime free Japan is and how utterly safe you feel when you are there. I can't imagine leaving anything at all on a bench in London. Even if I was only going to put something in a bin a few feet away, I would struggle over with all my belongings clutched to me and risk losing my seat. I wondered what the Japanese would make of my behaviour!