In Japan it is common to see children and adults reading Manga comic books. Enjoying comic books in Japan is not seen as geeky like in other countries, instead it is seen as rather cool. Kyoto is home to a Manga museum, so for our third day in the city we thought we'd pay it a visit. The musuem turned out to be more like a library than traditional museum and it was full of people enjoying reading the thousands of Manga books available. Adults and children were sat in nearly every available space, some were out on the grass in the garden area, all deeply engrossed in their books. It was great to see so many people reading. There was a childrens room, and all the children (some that looked very young) were independently reading or walking around calmly. There were various exhibits in the museum that showed the history of Manga and how it is used in many walks of life, from purely entertainment for all ages to satire, instruction and education. They said it's sometimes easier to explain difficult concepts in comic form rather than in just text. It was very interesting and made me wonder if something similar would be of use back in the UK especially for improving boys reading (sorry - in teacher mode!) There were artists in the museum doing illustrations for the Manga books. They were very talented. After exploring all the museum, we decided to get a book and sit in the garden area to read for a while. It was a lovely atmosphere. The museum was well worth the visit.

Near Kyoto (less than an hour on the local train) is the ancient capital town of Nara. Apart from two very nice shopping streets and lots of nice restaurants and cafes, there is a big park with lots of shrines and temples, as well as hundreds of wild deer. The weather was perfect for strolling and the park was absolutely beautiful. We checked out some of the temples from the outside, however we didn't go in any. They cost £5 each to get in and didn't look that big. We could have spent a fortune! The wild deer were so calm and friendly and often wandered up to us. They were probably just wondering if we had food though. It was funny because we saw quite a few Japanese people feeding the deer, and then getting surrounded by the deer's friends who were also seeking food. We saw one girl shrieking and running down a path being followed by several hungry deer. It was very funny (she wasn't in any danger I might hasten to add.) As we wandered we saw some very cute young deer and decided to buy some deer biscuits fron the shop. The shops tended to attract lots of deer (they knew where the food was) so when we bought the biscuits we had to do it quickly and secretively to avoid being mobbed. After feeding a few adult deer and getting our clothes chewed in the process, we found a young deer on it's own looking a little hungry and a bit shakey. We gave it the rest of our biscuits and it was very affectionate, rubbing its head against us and making a rather strange noise. It was very cute.

Also close to Kyoto (again about an hour away) is the second largest city in Japan, Osaka. We visited the aquarium which housed the largest fish tank in the world. It was a brilliant place to visit and put Blackpool's Sealife Centre to shame. You start off by going to the top floor and then working your way down to the bottom. We saw sealife there that neither of us had seen before. We saw water otters both above water and below. We saw a dolphin barely 2 feet away doing tricks with its trainer. The star attraction of the aquarium was the enormous whale shark which lived in the large tank that could be viewed on 4 floors of the building. The tank also held massive stingrays along with possibly a hundred other fish. We took so many photos. After the aquarium we headed to downtown Osaka to Dotomburi. The area is famous for its food, and on the main street we saw lots of different restaurants. Many of the restaurants had some sort of giant model outside, from giant mechanised crabs to crazy looking Japanese chefs. It was a crazy place, and it looked brilliant, especially at night when everything was lit up. We ate in one of the restaurants and the food was delicious.

Kyoto's most famous site is the Fushimi Inari Shrine. If you have seen Memoirs of a Geisha you will have seen it. The Shrine is situated on a hill and is in fact not just one shrine, but hundreds of shrines. To get to the shrines you follow a path which is lined with a thousand tori. Tori are red gate like structures that you see in Japanese gardens. It was a very cool place and felt a bit other-worldly at times, especially on the quieter parts where there was no one else around and all you could hear was chanting in the distance. It was very peaceful. In Memoirs of a Geisha, Sayuri (the main character) was seen running to a shrine through the tori to pray she would see the chairman again. Charlene re-enacted the running bit. Silly.

In total, we spent 10 days in Kyoto. Apart from visiting the places I have already mentioned, we also saw the Golden Pavillion, the Imperial Palace Park, saw the musical fountain display, explored the huge station malls and went to the top of the Kyoto Tower. I know I've said it before about places, but Kyoto has been our favourite city we have visited this year. It has everything - the old and the new. We really couldn't fault it.

We got the bullet train from Kyoto to Hiroshima and again had a very pleasant and quick journey. We stayed in the same type of hostel (K's House) as in Kyoto and it was just as nice. Hiroshima is a lot smaller and quieter than Kyoto. There is an old tram system goes through the city, however we didn't use it as everywhere was within walking distance. There are several large malls and a covered boulevarde of very good shops. The majority of shops seemed privately owned, and many were boutiques and very interestingly decorated. It felt very different to our high streets in the UK with the big branded shops and lack of any uniqueness and originality. Hiroshima had a very cool and hip feel to it.

The main place to visit in Hiroshima is the A-bomb dome and Peace Memorial Park. The dome is actually the ruins of a convention centre that managed to stay standing even though it was near to the centre of the atomic bomb blast. Only part of the concrete shell and the iron skeleton of the dome remains. It felt quite eerie looking at it and made me think about what it must have been like when the bomb actually exploded and the devastation that resulted. The park is beautiful and serene, and has several monuments to remember those who died. One monument, the Children's Memorial has a sculpture and several glass cases filled with origami cranes (the birds not the construction machines.) This memorial is for a girl who contracted leukemia as a result of the radioactivity of the atomic bomb. She set herself a goal to make a thousand cranes because she believed she would get better if she could do it. She was still making the cranes in hospital when she was very weak, and sadly died before she could finish. After her death, the memorial was built and paper cranes are still sent to Hiroshima to this day. The main monument in the middle of the park is a water feature with an eternal flame at its centre. There is a museum in the park which only cost about 45p to get in (unlike most places that cost much more! I guess they want you to visit.) The museum explains the history of Hiroshima, the build up to the war, the bombing, and the aftermath. It is a very honest museum and is quite open about the misdeeds of the Japanese, and there is no self pity. It's very factual. The main message of the museum is to promote peace and to promote world nuclear disarmament. The goal is for a nuclear weapon free world by 2020. While I felt it was a bit altruistic and naive, it was stated that they felt it was important to campaign for this. I guess someone should.

After a few days in Hiroshima, we got the bullet train back to Tokyo. It was nice to be back because after spending a week there earlier, it was somewhere familiar. We stayed at the same hostel as before, and Meiko the manager was glad to see us back.

While in Japan we had been watching some Studio Ghibli films. These are Japanese animated films which have started to become more recognised worldwide. In fact their most famous film 'Spirited Away' is the only non-English language animated film to win an Oscar. Studio Ghibli is very popular in Japan and there is lots of merchandise related to it. We visited the Ghibli Museum which like the films they produce is a very strange and unusual place. The building is part of the exhibit. Inside there were spiral staircases, small doorways and narrow bridges. Very quirky. The first room we visited showed the animation process and it was presented in very interesting and different ways. One of the exhibits showed models of various characters in different poses. The next showed the chracters attached to the side of a wheel. When the wheel was still you could see the same character around the wheel but in slightly different poses. The wheel spun creating a blur. Then the strobe lighting started and you could see the model character moving. It is very hard to explain (as you can tell) but it was impressive to see. Another room showed the sketching process and the amount of research that goes into the characters and settings. Other rooms showed scenes from films and life size models of characters. There is a cinema inside the museum and we saw a special short film. It was in Japanese but we got the gist of it. It was something to do with nursery children pretending to go on an adventure on a boat out to sea. They find and capture the whale who finds it funny. They then drag the whale onto the beach and have a photo taken with it, give it a giant garland, then let the whale slide off the beach. All this is done in good humour with lots of deep hearty laughter. The film was quite ironic really since barely a few days before we visited the museum, Japan had resumed sending out whaling ships much to the dismay of the international community. Also in the news was the story of the whale in Scotland that after days of trying to save it, sadly died when it was beached. I don't think the film was supposed to be so thought provoking.

The last place we visited in Tokyo, and indeed Japan, was Odaiba. We hadn't really heard that much about it apart from that it was a good place to see the Rainbow Bridge. We were pleasantly suprised by the area. It's in the docklands and reminded us of the docklands in London (the nicer bits). To get to Odaiba you have to ride a train that is very similar to the DLR but is on a track much higher up. The train goes over the Rainbow Bridge (which was very cool) and we got off at the next stop. The walk to the main observation point took us along the waters edge. It seemed like a very popular place to hang out, especially for young couples, and Charlene enjoyed seeing lots of cute little dogs. Just by the observation point is a replica of the Statue of Liberty, which looked good but I'm not sure why it was there. We had a great view of the city and could see not only the long bridge, but the two big towers in Tokyo, along with lots of skyscrapers. We waited around there until nightfall, and the scene looked beautiful with everything lit up. It was a nice way to finish off our stay in Tokyo.

As much as we loved Japan, we were looking forward to going to Australia. We had been in the non-English speaking world for nearly 5 months and were looking forward to the ease of being able to communicate with everyone. I'm not particularly a royalist but the thought of seeing the Queen's head on the money again filled me with joy.

D and S