From Fukuoka we took the local train (no more Shinkansen's down here :-() to Nagasaki - which took 2 hours. Even this train was pretty nice - like a Virgin train at home. We arrived in Nagasaki and our intial thoughts were that the city looked a lot prettier than the majority of big cities in Japan have. First stop was obviously the epicentre of where the 2nd atomic bomb was dropped, this actually wasn't in the centre of Nagasaki at all. The bomb nicknamed &qu...

From Hiroshima we took the Shinkansen to the end of the line - a station called Hakata, but the city is actually known as Fukuoka. This was where we were basing ourselves for the next 3 nights. We also found a bargain of a hotel which was out of town, a 4 star resort, that came up cheaper than the hostels in town - called the Luigans. Since we have the Japanese rail pass it didnt matter to us that it was out of town so we took advantage saving about a tenner a ...

Hiroshima was an hour and a half by Shinkansen from Kyoto/Osaka and we think we may have got on the bullied Shinkansen becuase this was a long hour and a half (there seems to be different trains which stop at different stations). Anyhow after being passed by the big brothers Nozumi and Hikari trains, we eventially got to Hiroshima. Our hostel was near the station and the bunkbeds had curtains surrounding each of the beds! Something we had not seen before but we...

Well Osaka is much bigger than we expected, stupid really as it is Japan's second city after Tokyo, so we are not sure what we expected. The city itself is just a normal city, we didn't find any wonderous parts - maybe because we had already been marvelled by Tokyo. There is a cool shopping and nightlife district called Dotonbori - which in essence is a tribute to Times Square, with loads of neon lights and funny shop signs (including moving giant crabs). Its ...

Nara is accesible via Kyoto on a local line train - but don't be fooled - catch the rapid service as the local one is freezing! After an hour and a half of utter freezing weather we arrived in Nara, didn't look that great to be honest. However Nara's beauty is through the town, up the hill and into the park. Now we know we have raved about Tokyo being so modern and Kyoto being such a cultural experience but Nara is sheer beauty. As you walk up the street you e...