After a quiet night in Nagoya, we switched hotels (after some unnecessary reservation issues!), stocked up on snacks for the day and took a 20 minute stroll to the Nagoya Gymnasium where the Grandmaster Sumo tournament was being held. The tournament lasts for two weeks and each day starts around 10am but the best wrestlers don't fight until mid-afternoon. Before that the lower leagues of younger, smaller, inexperienced wrestlers scrap it out in their quests to c...

The next morning we got the metro to the airport and made the short flight to Okinawa - a group of tropical islands south of the mainland (and also the home of Mr Miyagi from the Karate Kid films!). After picking up our rental car we drove North in search of our hostel. A couple of hours later, having driven from one end of the island to another, we found it but we were far from impressed with what we saw! Situated in a rundown neighbourhood the hostel was nothin...

Osaka to Hiroshima should have been a 3hr train ride but an unexpectedly long (2hrs) layover in Himeji meant we didn't reach our hostel until 5pm. After a couple of drinks in an izakaya across the road we decided to buy some food and drink and spend the night chilling in the hostel. For a small place it was very social and after a drinks we got chatting to a bunch of different people. It was gone 2am by the time we finally hit the sack, waking up everyone in our ...

Kyoto well and truly done, the next morning we caught the train to nearby Osaka. The city didnt make much of an impression on us at first and as we walked around the shopping district and downtown area it was very much a case of 'just another city'. In fact, probably the most interesting thing about it was the tiny bar near our hostel we visited in the evening. With room for just a bar and 4 stools, it had a strong claim for the title of Smallest Bar In The World...

A brief but bumpy flight took us from South Korea's coast to Japan's capital city. By the time we arrived at our hostel in the southwest suburb of Asakusa, it was late afternoon but there was plenty of time for us to have a wander and get our bearings. After a quick look round the most appropriate thing to do seemed to go and drink some sake! Settling on a traditional looking place packed with locals, we took a seat outside and ordered beers and some warm sake. T...