Cameras have become the bain of our life - firstly D lost all his camera leads rendering his camera useless, then we lost my camera in Hiroshima, then, having purchased a new (pink - to D`s disgust) camera we managed to pick up a virus on our memory card from one of the Youth Hostel computers and the camera stopped working. I wouldn`t mind but the photos of Hiroshima`s Peace Park on this memory card were the second take as the first round disappeared with the lost camera!!! The good news is that a very helpful chap at BIC cameras, Chio a Manchester Utd supporter, replaced the memory card, got the camera working and managed to retrieve the pictures from the damaged card and print them off for us. Breath sigh of relief!

Since the last blog we have done many things....

We have visted Miyajima where we were attacked by mean deers intent on eating anything that resembles food and where we saw the `famous floating torii`.

We took the bullet train to Kyoto but unfortunately the speed was too much for me and I threw up - I now understand why Japanese travellers shut the blinds! The highlights of Kyoto were hiring bikes and going Geisha girl spotting. Have to say came up trumps with the Geisha spotting but I can`t share the results with you in this blog as the photo was on the damaged memory card.

We then headed off for Tokyo (sat in an isle seat this time with my eyes firmly diverted from the window). Tokyo is bright, neon, crowded and noisy. We have visited Shubuya to witness Japan`s busiest pedestrian crossing, Harajuku park to see the rockabilly dancers, street bands and teenage girls dressed in a wierd outfits which are a cross between goth and little bo peep and Roppongi to see the Tokyo Tower a replica of the Eiffel Tower only 9m taller. Our hostel is located in Shinkuju which is mad with 2m people passing through it`s station every day!

Last night we went to the `Cavern Club` famous for its Japanese Beatles act. Once we sussed out the lie of the land it was quite a good evening. D managed to knock over his third drink of the holiday - the tally is rising!

Everything in Tokyo is expensive. It is also perfectly acceptable to slurp whilst eating and as I type this a guy is sat next to me slurping away on his noodles - disgusting!

The other strange thing here is that if you have a cold you wear a face mask so as not to infect other people - could you imagine if that was introduced in the UK. See we all thought Michael Jackson was mad when he wore a face mask but he must have just had a cold!

We are staying in a youth hostel at the moment in dorms of 28 - basically you are all assigned a wooden box. It is supposed to emulate the famous men only capsule hotels used by businessmen who miss their last train home (taxis in Tokyo are very expensive) but I think it falls short somewhat!