Since leaving for China Soran and I haven't had much time together so visited an onsen in Hakone which is famous for the natural hot springs. It's way up in the mountains where you can see volcanic steam arising from the rocks, rugged mountains and beautiful lakes. The scenery was breathtaking. We had a lovely room of tatami matts and sliding doors and spent the whole time in these large public hot baths and rented a private bath in the night time. It's a ve...

After quite a party the night before Soran and I ended up rushing to get out the door. As we sat down in the car ready to go it soon dawned on us with our hangovers that we had to make our way across Brisbane city in rush hour traffic and drive 150km to the Gold Coast airport when we both didn't have the foggiest idea how to do either of those let alone one. And we had all but one hour to do this in. By some miracle we arrived on time after rushing to fill up t...

Although Sarah's been to Japan before, being the same neck of the woods she decided to fly back with me so we could travel around together for a week. We arrived in Tokyo Saturday night and had a surprise welcome from Soran at the airport who said earlier he would be waiting for us at home. It felt great to be back in Japan and sat around the little coffee table in the living room drinking and laughing with the parents. Sarah got along really well with them and...

What I first noticed about Beijing obviously was the amazing airport, which was one of the best I have seen. The arrivals terminal was spotless and gleaming. And then I remembered the 2008 Olympics and realised that as soon as I got to the city it would probably be another story and it was. It's dirty, dusty with stray animals looking for scraps, frantic street vendors, babies peeing on the floor (they don't have diapers here just a hole in the crotch of babies...

Two weeks later I'm only just getting the hang of just getting around. The tube system here is about London times 5 and the train lines are a mixture of private lines and the national system so you have to keep changing between several different train companies to get on your lines each time paying about £1.50 every time you want to change which makes any journey about £5! Sheeesh. I spent the rest of the weekend hanging out in Harajuku with Tif and Chiri whi...