This is a quickie which will test just how fast I can make my fingers fly over the keyboard, and whether or not (likely not) I can reduce the amount I talk... Terribly awkward breakfast on my lonesome in my posh little ryokan, with lots of little bowls of unidentifiable tofu/pickley things...I ate quickly to remove myself from this socially difficult situation and swept up my belongings asap, to get myself off to Kyoto station and on the train to Hiroshima. On...

Right, one day in Kyoto so I thought I`d make sure I had the maximum time to cover it, therefore woke at 4.30am. Actually, this wasn`t really my choice, but more the fact that the thin reed curtains of my little hostel weren`t really adequate cover for the sun waking up significantly earlier than even I consider decent. So I groaned, rolled back onto my (apparently rice-stuffed pillow) and slept until 6.30. This time I really did get myself up, made a cup of...

A Deliciously Divine Day. Packed up my wee room in Oshiage, Tokyo, folded up my futon and minimised my luggage for my pending few days off in the countryside. First though, important admin. Cutting short my time in Tokyo/Japan, has meant that a fair number of the (admittedly likely overexcessive - Elspeth you were indeed correct) items of clothing that I have brought in my mammoth monstrosity of a rucksack, are now obsolete. So I whizzed off to the Post Off...

Onsen (spa) Visit Bullet points required: lEnter exclusive looking bath, remove flipflops and deposit in a locker, pay for your visit using yet another vending machine, then enter into the female changing rooms through red curtains. lNo Tattoos! A sign of the mafia - you may well be thrown out lOnly westerner in all-women Japanese city onsen (hot spring bath), stripping naked in the changing rooms I discovered I was far more self-conscious amongst all these t...

Saturday Shenanigans: A rather pleasant morning spent hanging out with Yumi and Mai once again (we are now quite the alternative nuclear family - mummy, baby, and grown English baby no.2).First stop was to see a tea ceremony which a friend of Yumi`s had very kindly asked me if I wanted to see. Tea ceremony Feeling like the great white foreigner that I unfortunately am here, we all squeezed into Miho`s tiny shop, where I sat and watched as she took me throug...