I have officially reverted to type and am now back to my old insomniac ways. I was absolutely knackered last night when I got into bed but Jim kept the three of us awake making us laugh and then conveniently fell asleep, leaving me wide awake until 4am. The 9am start today has made for a very grumpy Samways (sample quote: "Jim, the rule is you have to stop making me laugh - I need to conserve all my energy to walk.") We went on a daytrip to Nara today ...

Back to civilisation today! We left the mountains and Koyasan for the concrete jungle of Osaka. My first impressions are really good - it's quite an ugly city but it comes alive at night with all the crazy neon (it's how I expected Tokyo to be). And all the people here seem younger and look more interesting. And instead of being teeny stick insects, the girls here seem to have boobs and hips which is making me feel less of a freakshow! Don and Jim are loving it.....

Wooohoo no trains today! In fact, no public transport of any kind - we've been exploring Koyasan on foot. Our first stop was this huge, sprawling Buddhist cemetery. We walked through the forest past literally thousands of elaborate Buddhist tombs until we reached a line of Buddhas that were surrounded by praying tourists. Crossing the bridge we entered Toro-do (the lantern hall) - the walls and ceiling were covered in hundreds of lanterns and there appeared to b...

Well, I didn't find my camera. We set off at 8am from Matsuyama to Takamatsu and I ran back to the cafe but it was closed. I asked at the information desk and apparently it's closed all day on a Monday. Meanwhile Donald was checking with the train station staff and the police but with no success. So, a fortnight's worth of amazing photos, not to mention my evidence of the spoon bending, lost forever! I know I can get copies of Jim and Don's snaps but it's not th...

After every high must come a low and mine happened at approximately 8pm today... We got the train to Takamatsu in Shikoku today, taking in the excellent views of the clear blue skies (pretty much the first time it's not been cloudy and muggy since we've been in Japan), the hills and the sea. It was a 2.5 hour journey and we'd primarily gone there to see Ritsurin-koen (a park that there was an amazing picture of in the Lonely Planet guide). Our body clocks and i...