Hiroshima

Hiroshima-the-atomic-dome(1)Having settled into our very comfortable room at Hiroshima Aioi, a lovely traditional ryokan right by the Hiroshima Peace Park, complete with a sobering but incredible view straight out onto the Atomic Bomb Dome, we took advantage of our location and headed straight out to the Hiroshima Peace Park and Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. Continue reading

Kyoto – part one

Kyoto-Higashiyama-with-view-of-koyashu-pagodaI think it’s fair to say that most visitors to Japan spend at least a little time in the fascinating city of Kyoto which was Japan’s capital for over a millenium. Kyoto is known as Japan’s most beautiful city and it is easy to see why but as it is hugely spread out and hosts an overwhelming number of shrines and temples (some sites put it at 400, others at 2000!) it can be a little intimidating when you sit down to plan your trip…so hopefully my tips over the next two days on my favourite sights will help in your itinerary building. Continue reading

Nara

Nara-daibatsu(4)

The ancient city of Nara is often overlooked in favour of its bigger, and better known, sister Kyoto. But it really is worth making some time to visit Nara – the best of its sights (which have UNESCO World Heritage status) can be visited in a day and what’s more you aren’t as hampered by the crowds .

Continue reading

Tokyo Tuesday – top five bars

Bars---Code-Name-MixologyJapan is famous for lots of different types of alcohol – whisky, sake, umeshu, beer but what is perhaps lesser known is the quality of the cocktails that you can find in the most unassuming of places. Making cocktails is taken seriously in Japan – it is considered an art and it really shows in the perfectly balanced finished products. One point to note is that location is not the key when it comes to finding the best cocktails bars – the bars where the bar-tenders focus on a smaller number of covers (thereby preserving the quality of their drinks) are often hidden on random floors at not particularly fancy addresses. From perfected classics to new and inventive drinks, there is a bar for you in Tokyo – in no particular order, my top five are…

Continue reading

Tokyo Tuesday – Japan’s top five winter hotspots

 

Japan-winter---niseko(2)

I haven’t got any trips planned for a while so I’ll fall back on the usual routine of raving about my favourite country I’ve visited to date…Japan.  Not strictly a Tokyo based post this week, but I’ll try to justify it by saying that if you are visiting or living in Tokyo over the winter months it really is worth getting out and seeing a bit more of Japan as it has so much to offer over the colder, snowy months…

Continue reading

Dubai – top ten things to do

Dubai-Burj-Khalifa

If, like me, you crave sunshine in the winter then Dubai is the perfect spot…only a seven hour flight from London and you arrive in the shiny, perpetually sunny metropolis that is Dubai. And, as well as soaking up that vitamin D, there are loads of ways to while away your time – my top ten (in no particular order) are…

Continue reading

Copenhagen – top ten things to do

Copenhagen-Nyhavn(3)

Copenhagen is one of those cities which lends itself to walking…there are beautiful buildings around every corner, great cafes and bars to drop into and shops full of beautifully designed goodies.  One of my favourite things to do on both my trips to Copenhagen was to mooch around and see what I discovered. 

There are so many different things to see and do in Copenhagen but I’ll cover my top picks over the course of this post (in no particular order).

Continue reading