We'd been looking forward to this trip for almost a year now. Jodi had 2 weeks off for school holidays and Brenden had a s*** load of leave he needed to take. Bonus was that our holidays timed perfectly with the Cherry Blossom season in Japan.

Sunday 24th March
So we got a direct flight from Manila to Osaka with Jetstar. Pretty good actually, 3 1/2 hours, around $200 each way, cheaper then going to Perth from the east coast. First thing we notice is the weather. A nice overcast, brisk 11 degrees, a vast difference to the 26 degress sunshine we've been a customed to for the past few months in Philippines. Second thing we notice is how clean it is. Japan is so clean compared to other Asian countries we've been too. So we exchange our Japan Rail Passes at the train station - unlimited rail travel for 2 weeks including the Shinkansen (Bullet train). If you come to Japan we highly reccommend you purchase one of these, it made travelling so much easier..and the rail system is awesome! The longest we had to wait for a train was about 15mins and we weren't really following any timetables. It makes Queenland Rail look like, well, um, Queensland Rail.

So we catch the train into Osaka and find the place we are staying at - Bonsai Guest House - located in Momodani directly on the Osaka Loop line, which made for easy access to the rest of Osaka. This place was really nice and we got a free upgrade to a private room - nice Grabbed something to eat, Udon Noodles - delicious, then crashed out for the night. Tomorrow is gonna be a big day.

Monday 25th March
First stop, Osaka Castle Park. Unfortunately we were a bit early for the Cherry Blossoms here as there were only a few trees blossoming. The Japanese define full bloom when there is at least 60% of the trees in blossom at the same time. I think there was about 10% when we were here. But beautiful none the less. We both love the way the Japanese create their gardens - so maticulously planned and manicured. The park is home to Osaka Castle. Can't remember the entire history of the castle but it had been destroyed and rebuilt in the past couple of centuries. It does look amazing too! It's actually a museum inside and there is a lookout at the top that hosts some pretty nice views of Osaka and the park surrounding the castle. Definitely worth the visit and a nice introductory to the Japanese culture.

Second stop, Osaka Aquarium! As well as the above ground rail system, each major city also has an underground subway that is basically set up like a grid. The trains run about every 10 minutes and cost less then $3 to get most places. Unfortunately the Rail Pass doesn't cover the subway so we had to pay everytime we used it, although most trips cost us about $2 so it's not that bad. So we get the subway out to Osaka bay and then follow the signs and crowds to the Aquarium. This place is huge. It costs about $23 to get in and it's definitely worth it. There is all sorts of stuff in there but the main attraction is the centre tank that houses a manta ray, whale shark, hammer head sharks and then an assortment of different fish and rays. It is quite spectacular but after seeing whale sharks in the wild and then watching this one swim in circles the whole time we were there, it did question our morals somewhat. There was some other cool stuff there like the seals, king crabs (Deadliest Catch), penguins and some jelly fish that looked cool under different lights. Well worth the visit.

After lunch and an afternoon nap (we're getting old) we headed out to Dotombori. This is really the shopping capital of Osaka and it's like nothing we'd ever seen before. The place is made up of massive screens and lights and is divided up with canals that you can take boat tours on. There is an area called America Mura that is basically every Western style shop you could imagine. We then found this Arcade called Shinsaibashi-suji. It's just 1 street, about 1 km long and hosts about 180 shops. It's really quite cool and it's well worth seeing, even if you don't really enjoy the shopping. We eventually found somewhere to eat in a place called Hozenji-Yokocho Alley, which is home to about 60 different traditional bars and eateries. A really nice way to end our first full day in Japan.

Tuesday 26th March
Up early (ish), packed our stuff and got the local train up to Shin-Osaka. From here we got the Shinkansen up to Kyoto. Our first experience on a bullet train. These things are awesome. They are so smooth you hardly feel like you're moving and they're equivalent to travelling business class on a plane, lots of leg room, big seats - and that's standard class. It's really cool when you pass another train going 300km in the opposite direction as well, the whole train pushes to one side as the air compresses between the carriages. Adding to the experience is the Japanese conductors - they take this very seriously. All dressed up in suits and they've got this little procedure/ritual that they all do when the train arrives and leaves. Then as they leave each carriage, they turn around and bow to the passengers. It's so different to the ticket officers on QR yelling "where's your fkn ticket little Johnny".

Kyoto is about 50km away from Osaka so it took about 15mins to get there on the train. Upon arriving, we got another local train up to a place called Uzumasa and checked into this awesome little guest house called Bola-Bola. It's a traditional Ryokan where you fold your bed out onto the floor. So simple. So we checked in and then got the train up to Saga-Arashiyama, grabbed some lunch and then went and explored Tenryuji Temple. Absolutely amazing gardens and buildings. There is also a bamboo forest that you walk through. It's almost a completely different climate in the forest and gets really dark as well. We found it really cool, definitely worth the visit. From here we walked through some more gardens and then down on the banks of the Katsura River and across to Iwatayama Monkey Park. It's at the top of a small hill, takes about 30 mins to get to the top but it's worth it. The view from the top is pretty good looking back at Kyoto - the added bonus is you're sharing it with a heap of monkeys that you can feed and get photos with.

For dinner that night we ended up at this Balinese place (random we know) but the food was really good. However we have never been so cold that night. To give you an idea, when we ordered our beers with dinner, they brought them out and poured them into a frozen glass. Then we waited about 2 mins and the froth would overturn. What was happening was the froth closest to the beer would freeze and then as the beer bubbled, it would build up enough pressure to lift and turn the froth over. Then you were left with this frozen beer froth at the top - so goooood!!!!! And the beer, Suntory it's name - delicious!!!

Wednesday 27th March
Up early (ish) and time to explore Kyoto. First stop, Hirano-Jinja Shrine. Not overly exciting but the main attraction for us were the cherry blossoms. Although they weren't quite in full bloom, they were still very beautiful when you've got a whole garden filled with the same type of flower/tree.

Next stop, The Golden Pavilion. It's quite an incredible building and we are glad we came. The gardens around the pavillion are quite beautiful as well.

Next stop, Kyoto Imperial Palace. We missed the guided tour as it was full and we weren't coming back the next day. So we just hung around the gardens, which again were beautiful, taking photos of the cherry blossoms, watching people painting pictures of the cherry blossoms, then taking photos of the people who were painting picutres of the cherry blossoms........ The gardens are huge though, the vast area of space that the palace and surrounding gardens take up is quite mind boggling when you realise it's basically in the middle of the city.

From here we walked along the Kamogawa River until we got to Maruyama Park, another cherry blossom park with trees that we think are over 100 years old. However we didn't stick around as it started raining and they were also setting up for a Hinami party, which we'll explain a bit later.

Then we ended up at Gion. This is the main Geisha area of Kyoto. We tried for about an hour to try and find this tour we read about but failed. So we decided to walk around ourseslves. There's an entire block that is completely traditional japanese Geisha style houses. It's packed with tourists but it is worth it. We saw some younger women walking around looking like Geisha's getting photos with all the tourists but it wasn't real. It's all part of the experience I guess. Although as we were leaving we saw a real Geisha rushing back to her residence to avoid the tourists.

Thursday 28th March
Up early (ish) and then started the trek towards Mt. Fuji. We got the Shinkansen up to a place called Mishima Station and then got a 2 hour bus ride across to Kawaguchi-ko. From the bus station we decided to get one of the local taxis just to say we did. So $25 and 4km's later we got to our guest house. It wasn't without incident, the taxi driver took us to the wrong place. We paid him without knowing but then the driver decided to ring the guest house and make sure we were at the right place. We were about 700m further then we should have been so taxi driver actually tried to give us money back when we got to the right place. We couldn't believe it, no where else on Earth would this have happened. Any way, the place we stayed at, Den's Inn, was really good and the manager was really good. The added bonus, we had this beautiful view of Mt Fuji from our bedroom window.

Friday 29th March
Up early (ish) and we grabbed the 2 bikes at the guest house and started our long day bike ride around Kawaguchi-ko lake with Mt Fuji in the background. It was such a good day and the scenery was beautiful. We also climbed a small little mountain which over looks the lake on 1 side and then Mt Fuji on the other. It wasn't the clearest of days but it didn't rain so that was a bonus.

If you're in connect with us on Facebook then you would have heard the next bit of the adventure. We decided to go out to dinner on the Friday night. We weren't actually sure what we wanted so we just grabbed the bikes and went exploring. We ended up at this restaurant, nothing was in English so we just ordered what looked good. When it arrived at the table we actually asked what it was (so smart) and we found out we'd ordered a big plate of horse. Actually, it's all the restaurant actually served. So we had this assortment of horse in front us, horse sashimi, horse liver, horse dumplings and fried rice with bits of horse in it. The horse sashimi was actually pretty good, Brenden nearly threw up on the horse liver, which Jodi found most amusing. It wasn't as bad as it sounds, it really tastes like beef but lesson learnt, we ask what the food is before it arrives at the table.

Saturday 30th March
Up early (ish) and we got the bus up to Tokyo. Only took about 2 hours and we were there. We grabbed a locker at one of the train stations and dumped our bags then went and did the touristy things. First thing we did was the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Buildings to go up to the observation deck where you get an amazing view of Tokyo. On a really clear day you can see Mt Fuji, but it wasn't really clear, so we couldn't see it. Then we walked to Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, this is what we'd come to Japan for. We'd timed it almost perfectly and the Cherry Blossoms were amazing. We spent probably 2 hours walking around the park and probably took about 300 photos. It was worth it though, so glad we did this.

Then we walked back to the train station, 1 argument and 30 minutes later we finally located the locker with all our bags in it. Then we got the subway across town and checked into our hotel. Quite possibly the smallest room we'd stayed in but the most expensive. We were expecting it to be expensive but not $160 / night. One of Jodi's friends from school Jacob Pratley then showed up. He's been living in Japan for about 3 years now so it was good to catch up with him. We headed over to a place called Electric City. It is just an entire district made up of lights and television screens. We'd been told we had to go to the Sega store and go for a pee in the male's bathroom. Highly recommend you do it, we won't wreck the surprise for you :) Then we went out for dinner, all you can drink local beer for 2 hours for about $15 and then sushi and sashimi as you want it. Delicious! The best bit was you ordered your beer and food off an iPad on your table so you didn't even need to call a waiter over.

Sunday 31st March / Monday 1st April
We met up with Jacob in the morning at a place called Shibuya. It's known as the busiest pedestrian intersection in the world. It's nothing spectacular but worth the visit just for the people watching. After a delicious sushi train for lunch we headed up to Yoyogi park for Jacob's 'No Frills Hinami Party'. For those who don't know, a Hinami party is a party to celebrate the cherry blossoms flowering. What happens is you go to the park with a tarp or blanket, accompanied with a selection of beer and food, then you proceed to get drunk under a cherry blossom tree. Awesome!!!! We had such a good time. We met some of Jacob's friends, played soccer, watched a bunch of teenagers film themselves dancing to a full song with no music playing which was kinda cool and weird at the same time. One thing we did see on the way to the park was a protest against the government turning back on the nuclear power plants after the Fukishima disaster. It was so ordered and structured it was weird. So ordered in fact that the entire protest stopped to let people cross the road in front of them on a pedestrian crossing. Hilarious!!!

After getting drunk in the park all day, a group of about 7 of us headed out to dinner at this amazing restaurant. The food was delicious and the sake was too. It was all in Japanese so we didn't know what we were ordering but we made sure it wasn't horse. Towards the end of dinner, Jodi ended up making friends with the people on the table beside us. They were a bit 'in your face' and there was a guy with no shirt and tats all over him. The guys in our group basically ushered us out the door. We're not entirely sure if it was but everyone in our group basically said that there was a strong possibility that they were part of the Japanese Mafia. Nice one Jodi, out of all the people you could make friends with . It's all good. Puts a whole nother meaning to the line 'Fly to Japan and drink Sake with the Mafia' from the Hilltop Hoods song, The Nosebleed Section

Then it was off to Karaoke. We hate karaoke but we didn't really have a choice. The trains stop running at midnight and we weren't really ready to go home. So we hired a booth to ourselves and proceeded to destroy all songs we attempted to sing. Brenden also broke the toilet cubicle door when he tried to open it the wrong way and jammed it. He ended up having to climb out over the top. Dickhead!!! By about 3am we'd also passed out asleep in the cubicle. We woke up and ventured outside at about 5am to get the first train. We'd planned on checking out that day and heading out of Tokyo but there was no way that was happening. So we handed over another $160 and spent the entire day hung over sleeping in our room. But we wouldn't have changed it for anything. Big thanks to Jacob for an awesome experience.

Tuesday 2nd April
Up early and off to the fish markets, well sort of. We didn't really have a plan and just sort of walked our way through the markets where we weren't supposed to be. Then we walked out to the other side and there were people standing there saying that today's tour group was filled. So unfortunately we couldn't do the actual tour but we did walk through the markets nonetheless. We found a small little restaurant and had sashimi for breakfast - delicious!! One more thing off the bucket list.

After checking out of our shoebox, we took the Shinkansen back down to Nagoya then jumped on another train up to a place called Kanazawa, which is on the nothern part of central Honshu. Kanazawa is sometimes referred to as 'Little-Kyoto'. Checked into our hostel just after lunch then went and explored the Kanazawa Castle Park. Another beautiful castle and gardens, definitely worth the visit.

The hostel we stayed at, Nakayasu Ryokan, also has an Onsen, a public bath that you share with everyone else, which is one of the reasons we stayed here - another bucket list item you could say. So we researched the correct procedure you're supposed to follow - Rinse, soap, soak and then rinse again - and then it was time.

Wednesday 3rd April
Up early (ish) and off to visit Kanazawa's main attraction, Kenroku-en Garden. This garden is one of the top 3 gardens in Japan and the only way to describe it is beautiful. It's crazy how manicured and precisely planned everything is and to think this garden is over 150 years old. It was raining when we were there but we spent at least a couple of hours walking around. Highly recommend this to everyone, we took about 200 photos

After Kenroku-en, we grabbed some lunch and then walked over to Higashi Chaya District, another Giesha district. We actually did a tour of one of the houses, which was pretty cool. Again the buildings are beautiful. Then back to the hostel, another Onsen experience.

At around 2am we experienced our first sizeable earthquake. It measured about 5.4 on the richter scale but only lasted a couple of seconds. Was enough to throw you half-a-foot across the bed however. Another item off the bucket list.......

Thursday 4th April
Up early (ish), checked out and then off to Buke Yashiki-ato Nomura-ke House. This is an old Ninja house that you can take a tour through. It was really cool to see all the swords and armour on display. Definitely worth it. Was a bit disappointed we didn't see any masked men jumping over walls and rooves but you know, can't get everything you want.

From Kanazawa we got the Shinkansen up to Takaoka and then a normal train down to Takayama. The scenery on this train trip was amazing. You head up through the mountains on the southern side of the Japan Alps. There was still snow up on the top of the hills that was melting and creating these massive water falls down into the rivers. We really didn't expect this on our trip so it was a pleasant surprise.

Arrived in Takayama at around 2, checked into our hostel, which unfortunately had private bathrooms and then off exploring. There are 2 designated walking trails in Takayama, the first 1 we did was the Kitayama. 3km in length and it takes you through the heritage part of the city, which was pretty cool. Then it winds up to the top of the hill where you can look back over the city. If you have a look at the photos Brenden also discovered where all the witches live too. The 2nd walk is over 5km's in length and zigs zags across the side of this hill that is scattered with all these amazing temples and structures. Then you walk through a forest on the side of a mountain and then back into the city. Quite a beautiful walk, which has a bit of everything. It was really ice but we did see our first bit of snow. Jodi tried to start a snow ball fight but it wasn't going to happen.

Friday 5th April
The main reason why people come to Takayama is the old houses in Shirakawa-go. It's a 2 hour bus ride from Takayama further up through the mountains (again beautiful scenery) and then you arrive in the bottom of this little valley. There are about 100 houses and they've all got thatched rooves about 700mm thick. Inside them it's all exposed beams and quite homely. In the winter time they would look amazing with 2 foot of snow on them. They are so different from everything else in Japan so we're both really glad we did it and it was a really nice way to bring our holiday to an end.

Saturday 6th April
Up early (ish) and got the local train down to Nagoya and then the Shinkansen through to Osaka. Did some shopping, got some lunch enjoyed our last Suntory beer and then off to the airport and back to Manila.
Thank you Japan for an amazing holiday. See you in December for some fun in the powder!!!!