Subtitle: A trip to Japan as depicted by feet in front of various manhole covers.

I, my hubby, and my eldest younger brother (whom I'd not seen in the flesh for over a decade) met up in Japan recently. My brother didn't want to come back to Aotearoa and I (at the time) had no plans to go to Australia, where he now lives, so we decided to meet halfway … or, rather, quite a long way away in a perpendicular tangent.

We hit up Ōsaka (big and fun), Kyōto (just the Nintendo Museum), Kanazawa (beautiful), Hiroshima (Miyajima!), Matsuyama (so calm), and Tōkyō (best transport ever). Along the way, I found these manhole covers. I took photos of them.

Ōsaka

First stop: Ōsaka. This is my favourite city in Japan, granted I've only visited five. It's true what they say about people from Kansai being much more forthright in their views, less afraid to say something, less shy. It suits me much better than, say, Tōkyō.

Unfortunately, this trip was in Japanese autumn, so it was difficult to enjoy my favourite city in suffocatingly heavy humidity and overbearing heat. Just walking out of the airport made sweat run down my back; arriving at Namba Station and navigating the tunnels almost made me choke on the lack of breathable air.

Fortunately, I grew gills in time to snap this manhole.

We didn't actually go to the expo. We'd take a step outside of our accommodation and instantly turn into vertical rivers. The thought of sweating out in the open, exposed area waiting in interminable queues may excite some people but not me, particularly when the aim was to look at … advertising.

My brother and I went to Universal Studios Japan, me for the second time, he for the first. We purchased the VIP express tour that went into Super Nintendo World and skipped all the queues. I highly recommend it over having to stand around in the sun, especially if you're going during the summer or autumn. We had a delightful English-speaking tour guide called Yoshi who took this photo for us.

Kyōto

Then, Kyōto at the Nintendo Museum. I didn't go in bare feet because entrance to the museum uses a lottery system; I was lucky enough to get tickets for us three on a day we planned to be in Kansai (the area where Ōsaka and Kyōto are) so I didn't want to risk ejection. I had games to play, history to look at, and hanafuda cards to paint!

Hiroshima

Then, Hiroshima. There were koi on the pavement near my hotel. What can I say, they were cute. Hiroshima isn't a terribly exciting city, though I'd certainly be happy to live there. It has things going on but it's much quieter than Ōsaka or Tōkyo. It felt like Wellington in that regard.

Of course, we went to Miyajima as well. We'd already visited there, so details of Miyajima in a previous post. The only difference between then and now was the stifling heat. My brother decided to walk up to the ropeway station; hubby and I waited at a café for the van that goes up, a one butt-cheek driving experience if ever there was one along some winding roads that seemed to be physically less wide than the vehicle itself.

After we made our way down the mountain, we stopped to have lunch at a local café (air con!), visited the aquarium, and then headed back to the ferry. On our way, we noticed the tide had gone out and people were venturing into the ankle-deep sea to stand under the torii. I went out as well.

Something that really gets my goat when I visit Japan is the other tourists. It's a bit of a cliché for Westerners going there to hold the other Westerners in disdain; it's easy to think that everybody else is loud, rude, crude, vile people making a great big nuisance of themselves whilst you're the considerate, thoughtful, tidy one.

I can't claim any superiority; whilst all the other foreigners sat in passage ways, blocked stairways, and jumped queues, I committed the heinous crime of not wearing shoes for most of the trip. I'm sure the locals found us all equally infuriating. It's just as well we're an excellent source of revenue.

Matsuyama

Finally, as far as manhole covers go, Matsuyama. Located in a shōtengai (covered shopping street) with a picture of Masaoka Shiki, a poet from the area. Apparently, there were some other Pokémon-themed manhole covers here, too, but the humidity demanded we stay under the shōtengai. Happily, our hotel was located directly inside it.

We also went to Dōgo Onsen, inspiration for the bath house in Spirited Away. It was a nice experience bathing in the hot water amidst so many men (stop it), just enjoying the warmth and the sense of shamelessness.

Tōkyō

I didn't take a snap of a manhole cover here, but we might as well finish the trip.