Sitting on Japanese all-singing all-heating toilets was strange enough while I was over in Japan recently and at the time we discussed what problems there would be in relying on British plumbers and electricians getting together to install the things. Well, it seems they’re not that safe, as 180,000 are up for repair through catching …
Too much bacon ‘bad for lungs’ This has to be made up science, I’m sure. There’s no way that something as good as bacon could ever be bad for you. Eating large quantities of cured meats like bacon could damage lung function and increase the risk of lung disease. BBC NEWS | Health | Too …
No, it’s true. “…studies in rats show JAM-1 is linked to raised blood pressure, but the exact mechanisms behind this are still unclear. They are now looking at the human brain to understand more.” BBC NEWS | Health | Blood pressure ‘is in the brain’
From Osaka we took a train and then a furnicular to Koyasan (Mount Koya), where the monks live. Billed as ‘staying with the monks’ it would be more accurately described as ‘staying in a hotel the monks have set up to cash-in on the area’ and, although interesting, it wasn’t quite the spiritual experience it …
From Koyosan we had to travel back to Osaka and then a bullet train all the way to Tokyo (in about 3 hours) for our last night in Japan. I certainly don’t feel like I’ve seen anywhere near enough of the country and even with four nights in Tokyo had barely scratched the surface. On …
From Nikko we took a bus to Shirakawago, further into the mountains. Shirakawago is similar to Hida No Sato in that there are a collection of authentic traditional buildings, but the difference is that they’re all lived in and the whole place is a combination of working village and tourist attraction. Shirakawago nestles nicely in …
At the end of a day in Shirakawago we took another bus to Kanazawa. The journey between the two was particularly impressive as rather than navigate winding mountain routes the road cut right through mountains, with bridges over valleys, getting us to Kanazawa in under an hour. We must have travelled a fair distance and …
From Kanazawa we took a few trains to Kyoto. The journey wasn’t particularly interesting as ended up standing for the whole two hours but we were glad that our bags were being shipped around without us having to carry them, making good use of the Japanese baggage shipping system which really did seem very efficient. …
From Kyoto we took the short train journey to Osaka and our hotel New Hankyu, next to the main stations in Osaka. Trips on the menu included the castle at Himoji (Himoji-ji) and then a general wander around Osaka itself. Another of the strange sights we saw in a vending machine. This was 12 year …
From Tokyo we took a bullet train (or Shinkansen, as they prefer to be called on the train station signs) to Nikko which is up in the mountains northest(ish) of Tokyo. There’s a large temple complex up there as well as our first taste of a Japanese Ryokan, which is basically a type of hotel …