Haven’t been much of an early morning start this journey round compared to previous trips where I would get up at 5am to get ready for the early train. It was almost 3 hours to get there from Ueno so I put in the effort this time for the 6:30 train. Took the Hakutaka bullet train from Ueno to Shin-Takaoka early morning and the station was...

After Kyoto, it was making base in Yonago because it was closest to Sakaiminato and Izumo. I had wanted to visit Shigeru Road and the Kitaro author's hometown since my first trip to Japan but the distance from Tokyo seemed too daunting at the time. As far as hotel choice was concerned in Yonago, there were only two choices during the...