Hi all. This is my first entry on the journal - i being chris! Not that much to report today as we spent most of the time travelling across to kyoto. Got here around 3 and checked into k`s house kyoto - just like the tokyo version but a bit bigger! Headed straight out to meet up with Owen, one of my mates from uni. He`s over here teaching english - funny thing for a scots man to do i know. Had a wander round and went for some dinner in a cool place with booths. T...

very hectic day today so will keep it short - went to tsusuki fish market early am which was very cool and didn`t smell too bad, then strolled through ginza district past the kabuki theater and mitsokoshi (japanese harrods). walked through the imperial palace gardens and saw the famous bridge. headed to skyscraper district and went up the government building for amazing views of the city. explored the shinjuku area. then attempted to get to harajuku, ended up tak...

hi all! back in the hostel after a very busy day sightseeing...feet are very sore! we headed to some beautiful gardens in central tokyo this morning and got an awesome view of the largest bridge in tokyo and the sea harbour. after this headed to ginza (posh shopping area) and got to have a look around some cool shops - chris even found a model train shop!! eeek! plus i found chanel :) had a spot of lunch (in somewhere with no english!) and then walked up to the e...

Arrived safely at our first-stop tokyo! Didn`t take too long for us to negotiate the metro around the city and we eventually landed up at a very nice hostel near asakusa. spent the afternoon walking around and getting a feel for the place - went to the ueno district and then to asakusa itself. seen the senso-ji temple which was beautiful and tokyo zoo. found a restaurant with picture menu (the only type we can understand!!), food was very good and surprisingly ch...

Arrived in Cairns 5 am this morning, gave ourselves a little too much time to collect the campervan and hung around the depot until it opened at 8! Got the campervan sorted (although really its more like a bus!) and chris tried to get the hang of driving the monster - apparently it is surprisingly easy, i'm sure it will be strange after the mini!! Had an explore of Port Douglas - small beachside community - the drive here was amazing, rainforest right up to t...