Japan, the final leg of this part of my travels, and somewhere I’ve wanted to visit for a very long time. The flight from Hong Kong was just about 4 hours, and I’d arrived to Narita airport, east of Tokyo, in the evening. This immigration queue has beaten Hong Kong for the longest on my trip but it moved very efficiently. I would definitely recommend filling out the online arrival immigration and customs form in advance of arrival as it saves a lot of time, though you can still fill out a paper form at the airport.

As I was arriving into Narita in the evening, I had booked an hotel close to the airport as I didn’t want to try and navigate the Japanese rail system to get me into Tokyo late at night. This was definitely a good decision after a long travel day as I got into my hotel room after 9pm.

After a decent nights sleep, a bath, and a play with the fancy Japanese toilet, I was refreshed and ready to figure out how to get the 40 or so miles (65km) from Narita to my hotel in the Ueno area of Tokyo.

I headed back to the airport to get the Skyliner train to Ueno station, and then took a local JR train to the station nearest my hotel. Google maps has been so helpful here for public transport, and I have been surprised at how much of the transit system signage and audio announcements are also in English. Some of the stations are a little overwhelming as there can be several different types of trains which all require different tickets. But the internet is my friend, and with the help of Reddit, Google Maps and Google Translate, I made it to my hotel about 2 hours after I’d left which I was pretty pleased with.

I was too early to check in so after leaving my bags, I walked to nearby Ueno Park, which had helpfully been advertised at me on Facebook the previous evening, telling me they had a Sakura festival on. It was a Saturday and the park was extremely busy, mostly because the Sakura (cherry blossom) was in full bloom in Tokyo at the end of March which I understand is early. Despite it being very busy, it was very orderly to walk up and down to view the cherry blossoms as you are directed to walk on the left and everyone complies. In coming to Japan at this time of year (late March) I was keeping my fingers crossed that I would be able to see cherry blossoms and I was successful on day 1!!

I grabbed a sandwich from 7-Eleven – everyone says that the food in Japanese 7-Eleven’s is amazing and they are not wrong! The best sandwich I’ve had since I left home.

After checking in at the hotel, I still had a couple of hours until the welcome meeting for the trip I’m doing in Japan with Intrepid. I walked to Sensō-ji temple, through the narrow streets of Matsugaya and Asakusa. It was extremely peaceful as I walked, despite it being busy on a Saturday afternoon. Everything is orderly, walking on the left, and everything is immaculately clean. Someone was even hosing down the road near a construction site. It somewhat puts the current state of the UK to shame.

After meeting the group in the evening, we went for a group dinner at a small yakitori place, where helpfully the menu was available in English and we could order on tablets.

The next day we started with a visit to nearby Asakusa and the Sensō-ji shrine (again!) though this time we approached through all the little stalls and shops which were already heaving with tourists at 10am on a Sunday morning.

After having an early lunch of tempura and udon noodles, we headed across the city on the metro to the Meiji Shrine, in the Harajuku district. Harajuku is a very busy shopping area, but the Meiji Shrine, which is in a forested area, is a peaceful retreat from the hustle and bustle.

Afterwards we also went to experience the Shibuya Crossing, an extremely busy pedestrian crossing at a crossroads which maybe something of a self-fulfilling prophecy given everyone seems to go there to experience how busy the crossing is!!

Dinner that evening was in the Ameyoko Market area, where I had a plateful of sushi and a beer for £12.

The next day we left Tokyo and headed to a homestay in Kawane. 4 trains (including a Shinkansen) and a local bus later, we arrived for lunch at a small restaurant run by 2 local women where I had a delicious bowl of curry soba noodles.

We went to a local tea farm in the afternoon and learnt how to properly brew green tea (turns out I’ve been doing it wrong for a long time…), before meeting the families who we would be staying with tonight. We went to walk around some cherry blossoms which were just beautiful. I could honestly fill an entire day just wandering and looking at them. Daffodils and tulips were also out, and this area in a river valley was so picturesque. It reminded me a little bit of parts of the South Island of New Zealand with wide river beds and forested valley sides.

Before dinner we went to an onsen (hot springs) which was so relaxing, though one of the pools at 44C was a bit too warm for me! I have more onsens included later on this trip and I’m already looking forward to them.

In the evening with our family, we cooked okonomiyaki pancakes (grated cabbage, bacon, cheese, eggs – delicious) and had chicken wings. We also learnt how to make the Japanese origami cranes, I was quite proud of my efforts! Google translate was super-helpful in allowing us all to communicate and getting this glimpse into rural Japanese life was really special.

We had an early start the next morning for the reverse of the bus and 4 trains to our next stop in Kyoto…