The city of Nikko, nestled among the mountains of the Tochigi Prefecture, boasts beautiful natural surroundings and a plethora of UNESCO World Heritage shrines and temples. And being only a couple of hours from Tokyo, a trip out to this city is definitely worth adding to the destination list.
There seem to be new restaurants popping up in East London all the time and so it’s easy to find yourself a bit behind the curve. Bethnal Green’s newest culinary edition, Typing Room, pretty early opened back in May and I’ve been keen to try it ever since…not least because head chef, Lee Westcott’s instagram feed is unbelievably mouth-watering.
Despite the comfort of our lazy lifestyle sunbathing and spritzing in Gallipoli (see last Friday’s post here), we managed to drag ourselves away from our sun-lounger and take a road trip down the coast to explore more of the delights of Puglia.
The majority of our time in Puglia was spent soaking up the sun in the beautiful town of Gallipoli and its surrounding beaches.
As we drove towards the beach portion of our trip in Puglia we decided to take a significant detour via the Itria Valley to see the trulli houses. These traditional Apulian houses (small white buildings with a conical roof) were really a sight to behold and I’m so glad that we went out of our way to see them. I’d definitely recommend building in a visit to this unique town if you’re heading to Puglia.
Puglia is one of the less usual destinations for Brits in Italy but we decided to try and brush up our very rudimentary Italian and head to the heel of the country to check out the abundance of history, beaches and food it has on offer. First stop Lecce…
I’ll admit, I was a pre-packaged sushi regular before I moved to Japan. But during my time there I learned to appreciate the art of real sushi, the taste of fresh, seasonal fish and expertly cooked, vinegared rice. I came to recognise the tradition and respect that goes along with a sushi meal – something that is not reflected in today’s fast-sushi culture. There is, however, one haven in London where you can have fantastic, fresh sushi in a traditional set up – Sushi Tetsu.
Just an hour or so outside of the centre of Tokyo, Kamakura is the perfect day trip for a change of scenery from the hustle, bustle and bright lights of Japan’s capital city.
There are so many things to see in Tokyo that you can spend months there and feel that you have barely scratched the surface. I by no means pronounce this a definitive list, but based on my experience to date the below are the top five traditional cultural sights that you should definitely try to fit in on a trip to Tokyo.
Seeing as I’m yet to be let down by any of the restaurants/pop-ups run by the Young Turks, The Clove Club has been on my list since it opened in Spring 2013. The focus of the tasting menu is on seasonal, British ingredients and innovative flavour combinations. Their approach resulted, overall, in a really delicious meal and I would definitely return.