Day Twelve - Wednesday 23 December 2014

The final day of our holiday.
Our flight didn't leave until midnight so we all went to the famous cable car ride - called Ngong Ping 360.
We had to take four trains to get there - but the rail system is pretty impressive here and we didn't have to wait more than 3 or 4 minutes at any stage.
The cable car is amazing - takes you on a 25 minute journey up the mountain side on Lantau Island.

 At the top is a thriving tourist village - including a Giant Buddha, up a surprisingly large number of steps.
The place was very busy and the views were pretty impressive.

Day Eleven - Monday 22 December 2014

Jane went to Disneyland with her friend today while the rest of us strolled around the shopping areas of Kowloon. We discovered a thriving hub of shops just behind the hotel - a mixture of high end shops and street market stalls. 

John bought some clothes and haggled with stall owners quite successfully. 

We ate at the Peking Garden restaurant again and had the Peking Duck special. Delicious again!

Day Ten - Sunday 21 December 2014

After some aimless wandering around the city, we decided the best way to see Hong Kong would be on a guided tour. (Jane spent the day with her friend getting her hair permed and her nails done.)
We set off, full of high hopes, but after changing buses three times as we picked up more people from different hotels, we started to have our doubts about the quality of the tour.
We finally met our tour guide - whose name was Ban Bi - but let Jim call him Bambi.
He was as camp as a row of tents, so the name seemed rather appropriate.
The first real stop on our tour was the Victoria Peak Tram, which was a tram built up the main mountain in Hong Kong about 80 years ago - but still functioning. It was an amazing ride. It felt like we were on a 45 degree angle but apparently it's a 27 degree angle at its steepest point. The view on the way up and at the top was absolutely sensational.
This is what the tram looks like: -

And the view from the top is like this: -

A funny little photographer joined the tour at this stage - Mr Lam - who was pretty much as bald as an egg. He made us all pose against the backdrop of the amazing view and then later presented us with a plate with our photo on it. It was absolutely awful! But he was so sweet and cheerful and enthusiastic that I think everyone bought their plate.
After the tram ride, we visited Aberdeen Fishing Village - which didn't seem to be a village at all but a collection of old fashioned boats - or sampans.

Fisherman in Hong Kong can no longer make a living out of fishing so exist by taking tourists for rides. Our boat was manned by a little old lady who spoke hardly any English.
The only words she knew were "pay now" and "fish".
She slowed down before taking us back to the pier and say "pay now, pay now!" very loudly and without a trace of a smile on her face.
Needless to say, we all paid up promptly. (We discovered the boat ride wasn't included in the cost of the tour.)
After this, Bambi took us to the coastal town of Stanley, to a jewellery warehouse (why? I'm not entirely sure), on a ferry ride across Victoria Harbour to see the lights and then dinner at Sky 100 - the tallest building in Hong Kong.
Here's a photo at the top, taken by Bambi. (It was facing away from the view so you'll have to take my word for it that we were up high.)

 It was a long tour - lasting almost 8 hours - but we certainly feel we saw lots of Hong Kong - along with a running and flamboyant commentary, with lots of giggling involved.
The final part was a walk along the Avenue of Stars - where lots of famous Hong Kong celebrities have put their hand prints. (We recognised about four of the names - including Jacky Chan and Bruce Lee.)
We reached our hotel tired but satisfied.

Day Nine - Saturday 20 December 2014

Breakfast this morning was on the 54th floor of the hotel. What a view!
The airport is on a man-made island connected by a bridge to the mainland. An engineering marvel.

We caught a shuttle bus out to the airport and boarded our flight on time.
What a fabulous country Japan is. Millions of people but everything organised and efficient and the people so polite and helpful.
We had a wonderful time.

We arrived in Hong Kong in the middle of the afternoon - and already it is suffering in comparison to Japan. Busy, people everywhere, noisy and a bit run-down and grubby.
We're staying in Kowloon - and perhaps this is the less posh part. 
The hotel - the Royal Plaza Hotel - is above a train station and is part of a major shopping centre - so we went downstairs to have a look.
It is a rather exclusive shopping area but when we ventured out into the street, it seems like quite a slummy area. It also felt like rush hour, so we decided to eat in the shopping centre.
We found a restaurant called Peking Garden Restaurant - specialising in Peking Duck.
Of course, we ordered the duck and they brought out at least 12 ducks and carved them on a special trolley as part of the entertainment for all the diners.
We got a whole duck - a soup made of the bones (presumably a previously cooked duck), a mixture of the breast meat with vegetables in lettuce - and then the Peking Duck itself - 30 slices of duck with crispy skin - with the pancakes and cucumber and special sauce.

And this was after some fabulous dim sum.
We groaned as we staggered out of there!

Day Eight - Friday 19 December 2014

Today we left Shinosaka for our final Japanese destination - Rinku Town so we will be close to Kansai International Airport for our flight tomorrow morning.
We had a sumptuous buffet breakfast at the hotel first - the best so far - a mixture of Japanese and Western food.
Jim and I took the suitcases to the Kansai Stargate Hotel - taking two trains - while the kids stopped off at a major shopping area at Shinsaibashi. We dropped off the suitcases and turned around and came back on yet another train to look at the shops ourselves.
Our hotel is quite impressive - about 50 storeys high. The view from our window is quite something.

Tomorrow we leave Japan for good!

Day Seven - Thursday 18 December 2014

Well, when we woke this morning, we realised why it was so cold yesterday. We woke to this view out of the hotel window

 And this view in the street. Amazing!

We also realised that snow in a city is not half as pleasant as in a quiet country town.
The traffic turns the snow on the street into brown sludge and the streets are very slippery until they have been cleared properly - but it's still quite exciting.
After breakfast, we headed off to Shinosaka - just outside Osaka.
Jane decided to blend in with the locals - about 50% of whom wear these facemasks - either to stop spreading their germs or to stop catching other peoples, I'm not quite sure.
We all fell about laughing though.

After reaching the hotel, Jim and I headed off to Kyoto to visit a wonderful temple complex - over 1300 years old.
It was up a winding road full of interesting shops and while we were there, it started snowing again.
It was fairly light snow but it made the place more magical.

We had dinner at the hotel - the New Osaka Hotel.
The menu provided great entertainment. I had "hotpot of the eggplant and the mozzarella" and Jane had "the mixture pizza". Some other highlights were "chips of the anchovy flavour" and the piece de resistance was "height of fruit alignment". We couldn't even begin to imagine what that was!
The hotel is an interesting mixture of a modern lobby, restaurant, lift and corridor - and then a room that looked like it hadn't been updated since the 1960's - but at least there were beds!
We are all heartily sick of futons.

Day Six - Wednesday 17 December 2014

Today was a day of travelling.

We left the hotel bright and early and trekked to the station in a snowstorm. Amazing!

We then took a total of five trains - including two bullet trains and a subway train to get to Nagoya.
It was odd to find it colder here in this city than at any time in the snow - but there was a vicious cold wind blowing through the city streets.
We are staying at the Nagoya Hilton in yet another Japanese style room with futons. Here is the room before a little Japanese man came and set the futons up.

We didn't do a great deal today - a bit of cruising around shopping centres and walking the streets, but that was about it.
We had dinner at a restaurant at the hotel - fiendishly expensive and a bit of a disappointment.