In episode 4 of Top Gear season 11, Jeremy Clarkson raced a Nissan GT-R against the Shinkansen across Japan. The goal was Mt. Nokogiri in Chiba, where they met at a Buddha dedicated to road safety. So this weekend, we decided to follow Jeremy's track from Tokyo to Chiba and see that Buddha - but not with a GT-R ;-)

A guy I don't really like for a product I dislike. Good match. PS: so as to clear any possible ambiguity, this is NOT beer.

Natsu (summer) is very hot and humid in Japan. 10 minutes outside and you need another shower.

Awa Odori is popularly believed to have begun in 1587. Lord Hachisuka Iemasa, the daimyo of Awa Province hosted a drunken celebration of the opening of Tokushima Castle. The locals, having consumed a great amount of sake, began to drunkenly weave and stumble back and forth. Others picked up commonly available musical instruments and began to play a simple, rhythmic song, to which the revelers invented lyrics, alternately praising Lord Hachisuka and encouraging others to join the dance - wikipedia

Matsuri is the Japanese word for a festival or holiday. In Japan, festivals are usually sponsored by a local shrine or temple, though they can be secular. There is no specific matsuri days for all of Japan; dates vary from area to area, and even within a specific area, but festival days do tend to cluster around traditional holidays such as Setsubun or Obon.

Kagurazaka (神楽坂) is a trendy neighbourhood in Tokyo, near Iidabashi Station. It has a sloping street at its center, lined by numerous cafés and restaurants. In the early 20th century, the area was renowned for its numerous geisha houses, of which several remain today. Currently, Kagurazaka is experiencing a popularity boom due to its traditional, sophisticated atmosphere in the middle of modern Shinjuku.

Takayama is best known for its background in carpentry. It is believed carpenters from Takayama worked on the Imperial Palace in Kyoto and on many of the temples in Kyoto and Nara. The town and its culture, as they exist today, took shape at the end of the 16th century, when the Kanamori clan built Takayama Castle. About a hundred years later the city came under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate. However, the high altitude and separation from other areas of Japan kept the area fairly isolated, allowing Takayama to develop its own culture over about a 300-year period - wikipedia

Located in a mountainous region that was cut off from the rest of the world for a long period of time, these villages with their Gassho-style houses subsisted on the cultivation of mulberry trees and the rearing of silkworms. The large houses with their steeply pitched thatched roofs are the only examples of their kind in Japan. Despite economic upheavals, the villages of Ogimachi, Ainokura and Suganuma are outstanding examples of a traditional way of life perfectly adapted to the environment and people's social and economic circumstances - UNESCO

Himeji-jo is the finest surviving example of early 17th-century Japanese castle architecture, comprising 83 buildings with highly developed systems of defence and ingenious protection devices dating from the beginning of the Shogun period. It is a masterpiece of construction in wood, combining function with aesthetic appeal, both in its elegant appearance unified by the white plastered earthen walls and in the subtlety of the relationships between the building masses and the multiple roof layers - UNESCO

Extra security measures in Tokyo during the G8 summit in Hokkaido. BTW, the summit took place in the very same hotel I went on holiday a few years ago! I'm sure they all had a chance to enjoy the three Michelin-stars Michel Bras restaurant over there...

Five minutes! That's all it took me to get from the door of the plane to the exit door of the airport, including the time to get through immigration and customs. And yes I even had to wait 20 seconds for my suitcase (shown above). Qui dit mieux?