After yet another fabulous meal at Vogel - our newly found tiny Japanese bistro we head back to the ryokan to get an early night as we are off to the ancient capital Kyoto in the morning. Arriving at Kyoto station (a vast super modern building) after four hours of travel we check into the Capsule Ryokan, a modern simple backpacker hotel which is friendly and clean. As the name suggests our room is tiny - hardly enough room to swing a mouse let alone a cat. The ...

An early start for our next stop Takayama - the gateway to the Japanese Alps, a five hour journey from Tokyo. Whizzing through crowded Tokyo station ( with all our luggage) we manage to collect our Japanese rail passes and jump on our Shinkasen (bullet train) with seconds to spare. We begin to accelerate away before we have found our seats and settled into the one and a half hour journey to Nagoya where we change trains. The railway staff are so smart and unbelie...

Waking up refreshed and ready to start the day I look across at David who looks really tired. Poor thing - jet lag had got hold of him and he'd been up half the night counting sheep. Heading out to Asakusa, the oldest part of the city. Tokyo's most venerable Buddhist temple Senso-ji stands here whose towering worship hall is filled with a continual throng of petitioners and holiday makers. Like all great historic sites there is an abundance of stalls mostly sell...

It's true what they say about space being a premium in Tokyo - our room though comfortable is tiny - there is just about enough space to move around without bumping into one another. However, you need a degree to master the toilets, they come with warm seats and a selection of water jets to keep you clean and fresh as well as a built in air freshener and a button you can press to mask the noise of you having a tinkle. Following a refreshing shower we take a ...

Konnichiwa, as we now say. Our trip has been smooth so far, starting with a jolly taxi driver dropping us at Leeds Bradford and a hop down to Heathrow T5 for our flight to Narita airport Tokyo. The flight is called on time and we do not endure any delays taking off at 12.50. The route the plane takes is much further north than when going to Thailand (which is towards Turkey) and we head off towards the frozen north of Finland. I must say the view from the plane...