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Malaysia and Japan
We have decided to not do long flights if at all possible so we decided on a few days in Kuala Lumpur,leaving Perth on the 28th April. The time zone is the same as Perth and then onto Japan where there are only an hour ahead of Perth so we arrived refreshed to stay with Maurice’s son, wife Yuko and her parents at their home in Yokohama about 1 1/2hours from Tokyo.
Yoko, Yukos mother treated us to delicious meals. The weather was cool and called for jackets and scarves. We visited Sankeien Garden which features many historic buildings that have been transported there as well as beautiful gardens. Craig and Yuko, Kazuo and Yoko and we departed to the western mountains via beautiful Mt Fuji and had a couple of days in old towns like Narai-juku and spent a couple of nights at Nezame and visited the lovely Akasawa recreational forest where we had a cute 15minute train ride before walking back through the cedar forest. This was during Golden week which occurs 29April-5th May and contains many public holidays so there were many local tourists especially at the enormous service centre off the highway at Suwa. We returned to Yokohama and had excursions to the Motomachi shopping area and the Yokohama Bay area where it cost me $12 for a flat white with 2shots. They charge the whole coffee double if you have another shot. Lesson learnt there. Yuko and I ventured to Planet Team lab an enormous interactive experience which involved wading through knee deep water as well. We later had a delicious Monja-yaki different from the also delicious Okonomiyaki which we had another night at the same hole in the wall we visited a few years ago in Yokohama. We also caught up with Yukos brother, wife and three children who were happy with the presents I had brought from Perth.
Japan is such a beautiful, orderly country with extremely polite locals and amazingly innovative and technically advanced products and methods and trains which run perfectly on time.
We found food to be quite reasonable and a 8course lunch in a private room with impeccable service and drinks came to $45 a head.
We also had a wonderful endless meal at Yukos cousin’s restaurant/bar in Tokyo where we had countless dishes turned out from a tiny kitchen.
We left Yokohama the next day via the train to Tokyo airport. It was lovely spending time with the family again. Craig and Yuko will come at Christmas again so that made us happy.