We had a late flight home from Haneda Airport on Sunday night. The transport system is so reliable that we were happy to spend the morning in Nikko, confident we’d make all of our connections. We walked up to the Nikko Tamozawa Imperial Villa Memorial Park. It was used as a temporary palace for the Emperor and as the Crown Prince’s residence until 1898. The villa has over 100 rooms, with expert craftsmanship inside and sublime views out into the gardens. As a child, the Emperor Akihito was evacuated here in 1944 and we could see entrances to the air raid shelters as we wandered though the gardens. At the end of our visit we went back to the hotel, collected our bags, caught the train to Haneda Airport, and flew home to Hobart.
