To sum up this journey late tonight would not only be difficult, it would be wrong. So we will save that for the weekend. Our hectic day racing around the World's Metropolis left us out of puff. More navy blue suited males and mini skirted chicklets than you can imagine. The cities inhabitants knock Londoners into a cocked hat in terms of living life against the clock. Facinating to watch.We have stories of heated toilet heats with remote control options, det...

Our route back to Tokyo on the train network this morning involved changes at Minamiotari, Itoigawa and Echigo Yuza, before arriving on the fourth train at Tokyo. Confused? Hmm. Booking into a boutique hotel for our final two nights, we hadn't realised the word boutique applied to the size of the rooms rather than the style of hotel. Anyway, the hotel is new, brilliantly located and beautifully fitted out in a comtempory style. On day five our our cards fi...

Our plans to ski went west today as we struggled to escape from our deep sleep. A brilliant sunny day in our minute mountain village, we ventured to the gondola and took in the views from atop the ski resort. As it turned out, the ski conditions were pretty good, considering it was 6 degrees and almost mid-April. Once back at village level, we ventured two stops along the local train line to Hakuba, the venue for the 1998 Winter Olympics ski jumping event. We...

Our eyes welled last night as we remembered our travels. The feeling intensified by Snow Patrol delivered via itunes. The words were just so relevant. Or so we thought after draining the contents of our duty free litre of vodka in a little under two hours. In the cold light of day, we are struggling to see any relevance at all in the lyrics of 'Chasing Cars'. We have seen more large Asian cities in the past couple of months than you could shake a sti...

Having endured a procession of Japanese girls blow drying their hair by our room at gone midnight last night, we were a little worse for wear this morning. With the sort of determined attitude which makes Britain great, we were up with a sparrow's fart and headed for the train station. The 8.45 Bullet train whizzed us half the length of the country to Tokyo, where we are to spend tonight. Our accommodation sits happily under the 'basic' bracket. Shared faciliti...