First up on the agenda for the day was the Sagano Romantic Train. The old panoramic train winds its way along the Hozugawa River. An experience you can happily skip. Sitting on the wrong side, we spent most of the 25-minute journey staring at a hillside, whenever we weren’t going through one of the eight tunnels.

A trip on a paddle steamer on Lake Biwa was much more our cup of tea. The lake is the biggest in Japan and slightly bigger than Lake Constance.