Day 23 – Kyoto

Is Japan expensive? 

The simple answer is yes, especially if you are travelling on the Somalian Shilling, the Peruvian Sol or the New Zealand Dollar. In general, prices are pretty much comparable to London. 

The most expensive beer I have seen was in an Irish Bar which wanted £9 for a pint of Guinness – which I have to admit is about as authentically Dublin as it gets. As for food, I have kept coming across what is known as 'Gift Fruit' which, as the name suggests, is a fruit given as a gift, but this is not your token bag of grapes for a twisted ankle variety present. I am to talking about a watermelon – a normal-looking everyday watermelon – that retails for...

...those of you with a weak heart or figure-hugging pocket may want to sit down…

...that retails for... £120! 

Yes you read that correctly, I did not miss a decimal point. How about a single strawberry for £8?

Apparently each piece of fruit is grown on its own vine, with the temperature, sunlight and moisture intake strictly controlled by the farmer (he'll be the one towing the horse box with a Ferrari). Another strange one was the tin of Spam I came across for £7. The message is clear: avoid melon and spam fritters at all costs.

Having eaten nine fruit salads at the breakfast buffet – some hope, it was sushi and seaweed for the 23rd day – I took the train to Nara to visit one of Japan's most impressive World Heritage Sites – Tōdai-ji, or to use the more common English translation; that big bloody Budda thing. 

Enormous he is (one of the world's largest), sitting comfortably inside the largest wooden building in the world (settle down, I know that is exciting), the entire temple area is surrounded by hundreds of deer who are regarded as messengers of the gods, and it appears that the message is 'Hey tourist, have you got any biscuits or crisps I can eat, or will I just follow you around and sniff you constantly?'

I'll be honest, I expected more from the gods.

Day 22 – Osaka to Kyoto

Having caught an early train to Kyoto I dump my bags at the hotel and visit the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest. This took longer than expected as Ciara was in charge of map reading, the first train took us an incredible distance in the wrong direction, the second train (to get back to where we started) only a short distance in the wrong direction.

Relinquishing Ciara of duties we arrived at the forest where closely knit bamboo trees tower into the air, knocking against each other, causing mysterious eerie echoes throughout the area – if it hadn't been for the swarms of dumpling sellers and tourists it would have been very, very spooky indeed. There were no crouching tigers or hidden dragons – although admittedly they could have been very well hidden

In the evening I discovered the finest  Chu-Hi (flavoured alcohol) drink I have tasted since arriving. I am not exactly sure what it was, but it was close enough to whisky that a Scotsman would buy one (well, steal one) with just enough of a kick of ginger to make the whisky drinkable.

I have no idea what is was called either as the writing on the can was entirely in Japanese, however, I was impressed enough by the amusing cartoon character that featured on the can to splash out the required £1.20. 

Japanese designers seem to love a cartoon character, a huge amount of advertising and packaging feature them. I particularly like the illustrations used on alcohol packaging as it is stupidly banned in England (as it's seen to be promoting drinking to children) a policy which has proved such a fantastic deterrent to underage drinking. 

What, Eh? Oh.

Day 21 – Osaka

Due to the Osaka hotel room shortage I am forced to move to another hotel a couple of streets away, annoyingly I cannot check in until 4pm. The silver lining is that as I have stayed at the Toyoko Inn chain for ten nights they are giving me tonight for free – I almost regret taking all those complimentary sachets of green tea now. Almost.

I spend the day visiting Osaka City Museum followed by Osaka Castle – which looks splendid surrounded by the changing colours of the Autumnal red, green and yellow trees.

In the evening I visit the main shopping area and see why Osaka was bombed so extensively during the World War II as the amount of light bulbs on display must have been visible from Washington. We have another Okonomiyaki which is quickly becoming the only food we eat in Japan.