First of all, I love the letter your sister wrote. The photos are wonderful and this is such an interesting and creative way of you and Flutsi sharing your journey to Japan.
Very cool :) Next time you go, I'm going show up on your doorstep with a letter so maybe you'll take me along :biggrin:
LOL you guys do realise that would involve you paying air fare to get to the UK in order to appear on my doorstep..? XD
Okay, so I've seen a few of these kinds of travelogues before, but none of them have ever been this sweet.
How lovely is your sister to have thought of this for you! And it looks like you and Fluttsi both had a great trip! :)
(Also, how STEEP are those stairs in Himeji-jo?! omg, I almost passed out before we reached the top, and there were little grannies with canes ahead of me on the climb that I thought were going to actually die!)
Okay, so I've seen a few of these kinds of travelogues before, but none of them have ever been this sweet.
How lovely is your sister to have thought of this for you! And it looks like you and Fluttsi both had a great trip! :)
(Also, how STEEP are those stairs in Himeji-jo?! omg, I almost passed out before we reached the top, and there were little grannies with canes ahead of me on the climb that I thought were going to actually die!)
Haha the stairs in Himeji - not to mention IN SOCKS because no shoes allowed! I am pretty sure that is absolutely the least safe way to climb shiny wooden steps, even if they weren't so steep.
But actually the Himeji ones were not so bad compared to the ones at Hikone castle, which were seriously MUCH WORSE. I swear they were practically ladders. Fluttsi was lucky - she got to travel up them in my bag :)
I still have to sort out all my Kyoto images, of which there are many, as I spent most of my time there.
Thanks all for your comments :D We had fun - even if we did get occasional funny looks from people.
Yep, that is exactly what they do :DI think you and my partner would get on quite well, actually. He loves that sort of research, though it's not his formal field of study. He was actually sad about Himeji for that reason, because while it was a very important strategic position, it didn't have a lot of history in the way of famous battles.
See, in Japan it's customary to take off shoes when you enter a house, a temple, or in fact, a castle. You either have to carry the shoes in a bag or leave them on shelves outside before you can enter. So you will be inside a castle in your sock feet or bare feet. And going up means steep steps...on a smooth wooden floor :D The steps at Osaka and Hiroshima weren't so bad, being that they were rebuilt castles, but the ones at Himeji and especially at Hikone were quite steep...and sometimes you had to duck to avoid hitting your head on low beams.
Fluttsi was therefore better off inside my bag during these adventures...
@jinxxy - I wish it had been a holiday! I was there for research fieldwork, so there was some library time and much photographing of warrior sites/graves/imperial graves as well. I actually do have a couple of pictures of Fluttsi at warrior/imperial graves, so I guess she learned something about mediaeval Japanese society as well...
But I think ponies make great travel companions :D
I haven't posted any of the pictures from Kyoto yet. I was there the most time so most of my Fluttsi pictures are from Kyoto, but I don't want to explode this thread.
Imperial Grave Bingo sounds like a great way to do a cross-country (or at least, cross-capitals) trek. XD