Our last four days in Japan were in the hustle and bustle of Tokyo and we stayed right near the heart of things in Ueno. I loved the atmosphere in Tokyo and the lights and strangeness of it all. Our first day we wondered around the Skinjuku station area. I was amazed by all the buildings full of arcade games (Enda, you would have loved it!) and all the people in suits playing then. Rick got to play Street Fighter but I stuck to taking photos. As it got darker,the...

To reach our next stop, we crossed the country with a 6 hour train journey from Kyoto to Nagone and then through the Japanese Alps to Takayama. We spent two great days there, staying in an actual temple. Our room itself was a brilliant experience - it had Japanese style futons on the floor, a dressing screen, sliding doors without a lock and a Japanese garden right outside. Actually there were no locks in the whole building, even on the front door, which shows ho...

Hiroshima & Miyajima Island Our next stop was Hiroshima, and although totally different to Kyoto, it was still a brilliant experience and definitely worth a visit. Our first day there we spent visiting the memorials and museums about the Atomic bomb. They were exceptionally sad and scary to imagine a whole city centre being turned to dust in less than 2 seconds. It also made us both very angry to learn more about the background to and the reasons behind the ...

Kyoto & Himeji Castle We arrived no problems in Japan and got straight off the plane to the super fast train to Kyoto. And what an impressive start to Japan - the train seats could be rotated to always face forward at the touch of a button, it had vending machines, a telephone and was on time to the second. Uber-efficient...a sign of things to come! Kyoto is a gorgeous city, the cultural capital of Japan. We got to see all the main highlights there....beau...