Today we woke early as we had secured tickets to tour the Imperial Palace in Kyoto. The palace grounds can only be entered on guided tours that are held by the imperial household agency, they are free and take about one hour although booking prior online is paramount. The palace used to be the residence of the Japanese imperial family before the capital was shifted to Tokyo in 1868. It is situated within the beautiful imperial park in the heart of Kyoto and is...

Today we woke just before seven forty five and felt amazing, although I also felt a little sad that our wonderful experience was nearly over. At eight o clock we were given a call to say the bathroom was ready and that breakfast would be served soon. Steven headed to the bathroom and I enjoyed a few mins checking my mail in the lobby. At just before eight thirty we headed back to our room and found the table was covered in little trinkets. There was a plate w...

Today I woke up at seven thirty and thought I would quickly get dressed and meet Steven for breakfast... We had a long day ahead and wanted to get an early start. However due to the fact I was sharing a room with a collection of Japanese dolls... This was never going to happen. There was already four of them crammed into the small sink space putting on their fake lashes and make up, they were very friendly and sweet and it made me recall living back at home wi...

Today we woke separately and met in the lounge at about 8.30am... We had both slept well surprisingly and were well rested. We sat for a while catching up with mail, writing the blog and researching what we wanted to do while in Kyoto. We planned our days excursions over a cup of tea or two and a sweet bun offered by the hostel before I finished writing the blog on Hiroshima which was emotionally draining. We then thought we would get some fresh air, the hoste...