Ok, final blog from Japan. In Kyushu, the southern most of the main islands. We went to the largest volcano crater on EARTH! It is just massive- bigger than me with jen standing on my shoulders! In fact it has a circumference of 75miles. wow, geography heaven. We got off the train and realised that the town, station and all, was actually inside the crater (or caldera to be geographically correct!). The huge crater had 5 smaller active volcanoes within it- which ...

We arraived in Hiroshima on Friday (8th May), from the moment we got off the super fast train we loved the city. We made our way to our hostel and dumped our luggage and decided to head for the beach. After 4 days of torrential rain we were loving the fact that there was not a cloud in the sky! We got the free ferry (short arms long pockets, Marky, was loving it!) across to Miyajima Island which is this hidden gem just 15 minutes from Hiroshima. When we arri...

Hello there, Right Kyoto..... We were really looking forward to this city as we had heard only good things it being the ancient capital and all. We arrived to spitting rain which we thought we could handle seeing as we had climbed that god awful mountain the day before in the torrential rain! We got to our hostel which was not great and decided to go and wander to see if we could see a Geisha in action. No such luck. We did see lots of seedy bars and ladies w...

Sorry, Monty again, as Princess Pez wishes to do the next one. Also I think hiking all day up a mountain suited me a little bit more than it did Jen! Well, we got to Lake Kawaguchiko on the foot of Fuji San and found the most friendly, hospitable hostel to stay in. It had a big kitchen to play in too! Also found that climbing season for Fuji had not yet started so no chance of getting up there. nevermind, still lots of smaller mountains to conquer! Got up the ne...

Right- blog number one from the jen/monty travel fest. We start our tale in Tokyo, Japan. Landed rediculously smoothly and Jen did not even draw blood on my arm! Got through immigration with minimal immo talk from the pez and then we went on our merry way (via a pig cold checkpoint). Our Ryokan in Asakusa was brill and very central. I(M) insisted on walking most places and mastering Japanese maps (which I did pretty brilliantly). Saw a demonstration in Tokyo and ...