More pictures of Japan...

Whilst the husband is taking a "business trip" to New Orleans (he's away for 3 days for 2 meetings and a party!), I am in my office and so here are a few more photos from Japan, as I realized I still have loads to show you...

Japan is a VERY clean country, and the trend for everything clean starts at home, with very high-tech toilets everywhere... Here is the one we had in the first hotel, and below a little video that H took in the men's loos of the very posh Park Hyatt in Tokyo. Basically, the seats heat up, and your bum gets sprayed by a jet of warm water when you press either the "shower" or the "bidet" button. Then you press "stop" to stop it (lucky it's all in English as well as Japanese)! Some loos are more high-tech than that, and with those you can adjust the pressure of the jet, and they open and close by themselves etc...

Here are a few travel pics, from the signs on the platforms... (luckily translated!)...

... to the Shinkansen (bullet) trains...

Clean, clean, clean... There was a little army of cleaners in pink waiting for the train, and in about 5 minutes it was cleaned up, and all the seats turned around so all the passengers would face the direction of travel...

And here's little me waiting for the train doors to open...

On time, always on time... Japanese trains are famous for their punctuality... apparently it has happened that some train drivers killed themselves because their train was late...Train crew are also extremely polite, it's quite a sight to see them bow to the passengers every time they enter or leave a carriage...

On the train... lots of legroom and good views (yes it is Mount Fuji).

Only problem, the husband seemed to have developed a very anoraky attachment to the Japan Railways timetable!!

In a station, the policeman on a box so he can see what's going on!

Interesting architecture... the station in Kyoto:

And last but not least, the key to all this travelling around: the Japan Rail Pass! You buy it from abroad before arriving in Japan, collect it from the airport station, and off you can travel for free on nearly all train services in Japan.