Japan: Part 1. Tokyo and Mt Fuji.

I recently spent three weeks in Japan on holidays with my partner. We were there for Sakura, or Cherry Blossom season which is, as you can imagine, the most popular time to visit! This was definitely not a negative though - the whole country felt alive and buzzing with the promise of Spring. We had such a fantastic time and found Japan like nowhere else we'd ever visited before. Although I promised myself that the camera was not to be a permanent attachment whilst we travelled, I did carry it with me more often than not, and I managed to capture a little of Japan in Spring with it. I'll share my favourite images across a few blogposts.

First up Tokyo and Mt Fuji...

We hit Tokyo just as the cherry trees were starting to blossom. There was still a very fresh chill in the air and as we hadn't packed for the cold we found ourselves layering up in last minute suitcase shove-ins. But given the quirky sense of Japanese street fashion (which I found so remarkably inventive and playful) it didn't really seem to matter about our mismatched garments. I have to say that I absolutely loved Tokyo. This came as a complete surprise to me because if you ask me places that I love in the world I'm very unlikely to give you the name of a city - I'm much more of a nature lover. Give me a small town in a big wilderness and I'm in my element. However, Tokyo was just non stop surprises and fun. The city is clean and orderly, people are polite, the sky is clear of polution, the trains run on time, and modernity and tradition mix and mingle in the most fascinating way. I found it such an interesting place and in the 7 days we were there I don't feel like we even scratched the surface of this metropolis.

Of course no trip to Japan is complete without a visit to Mt Fuji. So we took a day trip out to the highlands to see the famous landmark for ourselves. We ended up at a place called Lake Kawaguchiko and took the Kachi Kachi Ropeway up a mountain to what must be one of the best viewing spots of Fuji. We lucked out with minimal cloud cover and got a beautiful view of the mountain with blue skies behind and naked post-winter forests below. It was a fabulous day trip and we really enjoyed being in quieter pastures, walking through forests and exploring a more rural area of Japan.