I have walked MILES AND MILES in the last few days and my legs are aching so much! It's 11.30pm here in Tokyo as I write and, for those of you who know me well, it's long past my bedtime! But I'm committed to keeping you all updated so here goes: we bought a one-day travel card for the Tokyo metro today (about 5 pounds) and spend the day hopping on and off the underground seeing as many sights as we could pack into one day. First stop - the Imperial Palace in the district of Marunouchi, former residence of the Tokugawa family (who are they?). The Nijubashi bridge in front of the main entrance is famous, apparently and made a nice picture. We expected the palace and grounds to be open to the public, but they were not. Next stop - MacDonalds for lunch which was quite a bizarre experience because they played classical music, the atmosphere resembled that of a public library, seating arranged for solitary eating with privacy screens separating one side of the table from the other! On the the Tokyo Tower, built in 1958, a 333m tall broadcasting tower. We went all the way to the second observatory (250m) for a great view over Tokyo - the tower is higher than the Eiffel Tower. More underground stops to the Nishi Shinjuku skyscraper (yesterday's picture) and Kabukicho which is basically Oxford Street - lots of people and flashing neon signs. I really wanted to try some sushi while I was here (Japanese dish with raw fish) but it was difficult trying to identify what was on a menu as we searched for restaurants and so we ended up in an Italian cafe! Not brave enough! As the day grew old, we made our way back to our district, visited the oldest temple in Tokyo (Sensoji, supposedly built in 628) -surrounded by a street market; pretty lanterns and ladies in kimonos. General observations about Tokyo - incredibly clean as already mentioned; the young men like to wear their hair long, styled and preferably dyed an orange-red colour! The women are mostly petite and very feminine - most of them wear skirts and high heeled shoes. Knee length black socks appear to be fashionable! Can't imagine our teenagers going for that! Unlike Hong Kong, there is no one central area to the city but lots of different areas you can travel to very easily on the underground. That's about it really. To San Francisco tomorrow via Los Angeles. We cross the international date line which means that although we leave here tomorrow afternoon (Tuesday), we arrive in America on Tuesday at 2pm! Isn't that strange. At that point, you will be ahead of us in time, not behind. So tired, must go to bed now. Love to all. PS Tried to download some more photos for you today but took far too long, so you may have a few extra ones of Thailand, but none of China yet. Apologies. Will try again in America. Failing that, will do it when I get home!