From Kyoto we made a slight detour to spend a couple of days in Nagoya - a modern industrial City in central Japan that also happened to be the location of a concert by Casio P - a Japanese Jazz fusion band that A is a big fan of.
While we were doing our Danube cruise A mentioned that one of his favourite bands was doing a concert whilst we were in Japan - he said that I may have heard of them as they had been founded in the 1970s (!). He asked if I would like to go along with him so of course I said yes.
This involved a visit to Nagoya and in the event it was a really interesting concert - we were among the the very few non-Japanese audience and there was excellent music (think Level 42 without the vocals) and plenty of inter-song Japanese banter!
Nagoya also boasted a very impressive Castle complex (including a huge pagoda) - as the photos below testify, it was all in absolutely pristine condition having been restored following the Allied bombing in the war. The palace was a lovely combination of airy rooms with walls covered in beautiful animal and landscape paintings as well as the usual mix of nightingale floors (designed to squeak when walked on to give away intruders at night) and wooden panelling.
Out hotel room was very high up with splendid views o f the surrounding city and whilst we were only there for a short period it was a very pleasant interlude in one of the industrial heartlands for Japan.
Our next stop was the central region where Mount Fuji was located and we were heading for Hakone - a tourist area within easy striking distance of the Mountain. Our arrival was marked by one of the heaviest downpours that we had seen in Japan (a pretty high benchmark given the typhoon in Tokyo) although as you can see from the photos below, the breaks in the mist, rain and clouds revealed spectacular landscapes, Mountain views and…..a Pirate Ship!
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