Up early to mist and rain we both headed out for an early morning run whilst leaving Barbara in her bunk bed. Today we head back to the centre of San Francisco, but before we did we headed out to Berkley to try and get some sunshine away from the coast. We didn’t find any and it continued to pour down. None the less we headed for a coffee shop for a hot drink and found some great newspaper / what’s on guides. Café Intermezzo was very busy and people were flocking inside to order soups, massive sandwiches and gigantic salads. We couldn’t resist and all ordered our very own sarnies.

We dropped off our beloved Hyundai Sonata at the returns parking depot a few streets away and checked into Parc 55 hotel, which Barbara kindly paid for. Overall we drove 3325 miles in 30 days. We attempted to eat our sandwiches, got half way through and then went for a walk around the city, our first proper look. As it was continuing to rain we headed to China Town and decided to treat ourselves to a foot massage which was a nice relaxing way to avoid the showers. The Cheesecake Factory above Macy’s in Union Square was recommended to us by Barbara and we decided to give it a go. The food was surprisingly good considering the vast menu and slightly Planet Hollywood / Universal Studios feel to the place. The cheesecake desert was very good but we were too stuffed and all shared one, struggling to even eat that!!

We enjoyed our night in the 4 star hotel very much but instead of going for the overpriced breakfast hotel menu we opted for Puccini & Pinetti over the street from Parc 55. It was after 10am when we set off for the Golden Gate bridge opting to take the bus there, we took two buses intact and as we were en-route the sun came out, but when we arrived at the bottom of the bridge it was foggy! There’s always some fogginess going on in San Fran! This was our first time walking on the bridge and we decided to walk from one end to the other with several stops along the way, walking in and out of fog as we did so. It was very atmospheric seeing the giant cables coming out of the fog and we couldn’t see the waves below, only hear them along with the massive amount of traffic driving by. It was pretty surreal and a great experience. It took us around an hour and 45 to walk the bridge but we were much slower crossing it the first time. At the headlands end the path is currently closed but on the other side cyclists could make it all the way across.

We walked back towards Fort Mason getting more views across to Alcatraz and the headlands,  and eventually we ended up taking a bus from the top of Fishermans Wharf. When we got to the hotel Barbara picked up her suitcases and as we were hugging and saying our goodbyes an airport shuttle bus came along so she hopped on and we waved and waved until they turned around the corner. Thanks to Barbara for joining in our adventure!

So now it was back to the two of us, but not for too long as Dave’s friends were flying out that same day! Although we weren’t planning to meet them until Wednesday so we collected the mass of our bags – 2 rucksacks, 2 small rucksacks, camera bag, camping gear in new wall mart $15 bag, a water container and a cool box!!! Jeez!! What has happened here? We packed ourselves into a cab and made our way to our next home, a basement studio underneath the home of fellow travellers Heather and Jamie. Heather found our blog when she was researching for their trip to South-East Asia and sent us a lovely email about how  helpful it was! Yay! So when she knew we were coming to her home town she offered for us to stay in their basement studio at no cost to us! Wow! An amazing help in hand towards our travels and we couldn’t say no!

So our next home was located in the Mission District in between Mission and Castro. We could tell straight away that this neighbourhood had personality and it seemed to suit us! We spent our first night in the area roaming around Mission, found a great Vegetarian Japanese place to eat at on Mission Street called Chaya and followed this on with drinks in a nearby cafe. On our way home we stopped off at Bi-rite, an organic supermarket heading back towards Delores Park on 18th street. We couldn’t stretch the budget to afford their lovely wines, cheeses and deli goods but we did find a few things for us. They also own the famous ice-cream parlour over the road which has queues going on for streets! Crazy but it must be good!!

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

Up early for our last time in Yangshou we were picked up by taxi from Trippers to be dropped off at the coach station for our journey to Nanning. It took around five hours or so to reach Nanning and we jumped on a bus to make our way to the Lotusland hostel. We found it relatively easily and checked into our double room which was small but functional and clean. We headed to the booking office to book our bus journey into Vietnam which cost £15 each. Looking for some food we followed the map provided by the hostel and decided to go to a restaurant with an English menu. The food was pricey and not very good, with Dave having a difficult time eating his food with all the bones in his chicken curry! On the plus side the steamed and fried dumplings with a custard style sauce were the highlight of a disappointing meal.

The following day we ate our own breakfast in the hostel, as they do not provide food, but a microwave and bowls and then washed clothes and hung them out to dry on the roof of the hostel. We walked into town to see what Nanning was like during the day. It’s a typical Chinese city full to the brim of shops and little food places.

There is a free museum called The Guangxi Provincial Museum not far away from the center of town, it took around half an hour to walk there from the hostel. They were showcasing the Nanning Institute of Art and Design degree shows, which were quite impressive with fashion and product design, architecture, 3D and visualisation. It was great to see what the students are completing for their degree levels in China. There are also some permanent exhibitions in the museum featuring ancient drums, jewelery and other artifacts. Afterwards we were feeling hungry and found a Japanese restaurant in a shopping mall which helped quench the hunger pains.

We met up with Jane, who we had met in Dali, at the hostel and decided to go for food. Walking around we found a fast food style Chinese restaurant and had some pretty good food. The food was served in a wooden basket which was interesting, but tasty.

Neon lights and people dancing in the parks were our entertainment for the walk back to the hostel and then an early night as we had a change of Country tomorrow and we were excited to see a new landscape and culture of Vietnam.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

After the loveliness that was Dave’s birthday day we got up early, packed our bags and took advantage of our late check out time but going to one of Japan’s most famous and most beautiful gardens; the Kenrokuen Gardens. The light was quite flat so we weren’t able to capture the gardens as we would have liked, but there were good views and the gardens were kept in pristine condition so it was all worth while doing. They were making some wooden scaffolding to protect the trees as a typhoon was on it’s way. It seemed pretty calm considering the typhoon was due to hit Japan today!!

With the Kenrokuen gardens ticked off our list we went back to Namaste, checked out and said our goodbyes before setting off to the train station to pick up our next part of the travel. Kyoto was our next destination and we had changed our itinerary a little so we could stay for 3 nights as opposed to two. We were planning on staying in Nara, however we changed our minds due to the accommodation that we had booked was nearly 3 times more than Kyoto and it seemed like another place where you are surrounded by bus loads of tourists, every day you’re there. We may decide to do this as a day trip from Kyoto, but it felt good to be flexible on this.

So at around 3pm we arrived in Kyoto at their amazingly large station right opposite the Kyoto tower. Having got our bearings (it often takes us a while on the ‘You are here!” maps) we walked to K’s guest house, something like a 10-15 minute walk from the station. We knew we were on the right track though when we came across other backpackers and westerners making their way to the same place.

We checked into our little room, bigger than the Sakura Hotel in Tokyo, but a little prison like with bunk beds and a small desk with enough floor space that Helen thought she could do some yoga in there! The rooms are tightly packed in here though with metal doors and there wasn’t much of a feel for personality on our floor. In the communal areas the space is much more welcoming with sofas, a kitchen, books, music, an outdoor seating area and so on. We soon bumped into Mel and Cane who we had met at Namaste in Kanazawa as we were about to explore the streets by bikes. This was so much fun exploring backstreets and the river paths nearby our hostel. You can go some distance and we managed a spot of filming from the bikes which extended our creative processes somewhat. At waist level, sometimes from the handlebar view-point we rode past joggers, lovers, beggars, cats, people chatting on the riverside, skaters and other cyclists. Once the sun had set we made our way back through the busy down town area and eventually found K’s again!

For dinner we went to a Japanese restaurant just over the bridge from the hostel and Helen had some of the best udon noodles to date whilst Dave enjoyed another traditional style cooked Japanese set dinner. Very good. There’s a great bar at the hostel that attracts backpackers and other westerners from around the area so we sat in there for a drink, people watched and then went back to our little cell, we were getting a good feel for the place already.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

We started early with a Japanese style breakfast provided by our Minshuku. It was much nicer than we were anticipating having been warned the night before. There was a traditional Hoba-miso from the area which is a miso sauce cooked on a leaf with a few shitake mushrooms and spring onions on it. You leave it to cook over a candle flame and then add it to the sticky rice, this was very pleasant. Accompanying was some cold grilled salmon, cooked squash, green tea and soup. Perhaps not your ideal breakfast start to the day but it was well worth trying and we left feeling pretty satisfied.

The temperature dropped significantly today and was somewhere around the 5 degrees mark, so with a brisk walk up to the famous morning markets we took in some of the local sights and stopped for a few photography opportunities of local trade. We were disappointed though as it all seems very contrived and set up for tourists. It is mostly Japanese tourists who come to the area along with lot’s of school trips. So off load the tour buses and suddenly the town becomes alive, but perhaps not in the way we had hoped. The word “Tacky-ama” comes to mind. It wasn’t all bad though as we did come across a nice cafe where we helped to translate some tour-guide info for a Japanese chap and then went on to Takayama Jinya.

This temple is beautifully restored and did hold our attention for an hour or so along with the school groups and fellow tourist makers. We managed to overlook this though and took in the historic details throughout. Following on from the temple we had the Takayama hilltops in our sights with a castle ruin at the top. It’s a good little hike up hill and along the way there are further shrines and monuments as well as an empty children’s playground which seemed to capture our photographic imaginations. From here we walked up to the top for a short look out across Takayama before heading back down towards the rooftops and a further path lined with temples. Takayama holds so much history that it’s difficult to forget where you are.

Back at our Minshuku we had a chance to relax and take a breather before heading out to meet Kim and Ivan. This time we chose a cosy little Japanese pub with one chef and many bar-top kitsch accessories such as a fridge that is also a TV, dvd player and playstation!! Along with this he provided us with books all about Japanese food, what he could do for us, explained that we would have to buy a beer whilst apologising all the while for his poor english!! The food was fantastic, fortunately we were able to share most of it as there was so much, Helen had the hoba-miso again this time though it was 4 times the size and had loads of mushrooms with it!! Dave had the local beef dish called Hida Beef which was very very good, melt in the mouth good. The chef gave the ladies a Kirin beer postcard and some goodbye bananas with “please come again” and “thank you” written on them. Priceless!

So with one more night left we prepared for the next step of our train journey to Kanazawa. We would meet Kim and Ivan for the same train the next morning at 11am. A good night was had by all.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

Early morning rise at 5.45am saw us take photos of the pink sunrise on Mt Fuji, the best light of the day. Dave went back for more zzz’s and Helen did some yoga.

Our western style breakfast echoed some likeness to what we would have in England; fried egg, hash brown and coffee, add to this a twist of Japanese with soup, salad, vegetables, fruit and yoghurt and it was enough to keep us going until 4pm! Never have we been faced by such well presented food cooked with care and imagination.

On our way into Kawaguchiko they told us they were going to watch their sons fight in a Kendo tournament. We asked if we could go to watch thinking it would be really cool for us to see and document. They didn’t mind taking us and thought it was funny that we wanted to go. It was well worth it though as we saw something that not many other tourists would be able to witness. A sports hall full of children fighting as a team but each time it is one vs one that takes the stage to fight. They are dressed traditionally in Kendo costume and fight with a wooden sword. Hiromi explained the technique and how to win points whilst her youngest daughter Coco-lo posed for photos for us. Their friends were there too with their children so we sat with them and joined in the local support for their team. It really was a fantastic experience and again demonstrated the kindness of our hosts. Taking a break from their sons first fight who demolished his opposition in less than one minute they drove us into Kawaguchiko and left us to explore the area.

It all seems a little dated to us, something that looks like it’s hey day was 20 years ago and nothing has really changed since. We found some good backstreets to explore, the lake had great views of the mountainous region and there was some filming going on – it happens quite a lot here, so we sat and guessed at what may be the point of their project, we decided on a soap opera!

Whilst walking we found a cafe that sold chai based on the outskirts of the village in a large greenhouse. By day a funky cafe and by night a pool-bar/club a really bizarre little find and we wished we could have been there at night. The main reason we stopped was that we couldn’t locate the path to the Fuji shrine, the maps tend not to mark all of the roads and if a path is marked on a map its not always marked on the street! This has at times caused us great confusion and frustration, but we always find a way around it. This time we called for a taxi and got a lift to the shrine…naughty but with limited time until dusk and after last night’s rushed walk in the dark sometimes you have to do these things. Taxi’s are not cheap here though and a 10 minute journey cost us around £15. Still we got to the shrine and it provided us with enough worth to validate the cost of the taxi. Set at the foot of Mount Fuji from the Fuji-Yoshida side you have a large temple with lot’s of other smaller shrines surrounding as well as statues, preserved trees, fresh water fountains, sculptures, flags you name it this temple had it. It really felt like a very spiritual place though and had a real historic feel to it. We found one of the paths to start the trek to station 5 but after a few km decided to go back and make use of the hot baths at the Ryokan.

A short bus ride back and we returned to Inn Fujitomita, we enjoyed the healing properties of the spring, managed to rest our feet and sat for our 2nd evening meal here. This was even better than the first night, again the photos prove our point. Seriously the best variety and flavour of food so far in Japan, and with such a beautiful setting it really was idealic. We were set up for a good night’s sleep after a long day of walking and decided on our route to Takayama for the following day.

We loved our stay at Inn Fujitomita and most definitely recommend it if you ever get the chance to come to the area.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)