Another busy few days and we are now at Mt. Fuji. Unfortunately the cloud is so low that we're yet to see it but it doesn't matter too much as the area here is really beautiful. It's very similar to Switzerland thanks to the lakes and mountains. We have an awesome view from our room of a temple and the mountains. I see myself doing some yoga in front of the window tomorrow.

We had a long journey to get here though. About seven hours in total. Shortly after arriving we took a cable car up to a viewing platform which was wicked. We still couldn't see Fuji from there but the views over the valley below were awesome.

Before Fuji we were in a small mountain town called Takayama. It was very pretty and we stayed in a converted temple, which was very cool. Yesterday we did a walking tour of all Takayama's temples which I realyl enjoyed. Dan says he's now seen enough Japanese temples to last him a lifetime though. Miserable thing. I think they're lush. They're so serene and so much more intricate than our grey, cold old English churches. Plus they're so much more welcoming.

The day before we explored what is said to be Japan's finest castle. It's in Himeji and is nicknamed the "white heron" because it stands tall and, you guessed it, white, overlooking the city below. To our untrained eye the castle looks like a massive temple, especially when you're looking for the grey stones and turrets we British naturally associate with castles. In fact it is very ornate and exotic in appearance. We enjoyed spending a few hours exploring the castle and the gardens which were home to lots of lovely critters.

Our stop before Himeji had been the amazing Hiroshima. To be honest Dan and I were expecting to find a concrete-clad city a little like Swansea in appearance. Instead we found a sleek, vibrant city with an efficient and cool tram system, beautiful memorials and a wonderful park. It was very Western in its layout and style. And in the middle of it all is the skeletal reminder of August 6th 1945, the A-bomb dome. This old municipal building was almost directly underneath the spot where the bomb exploded. It has been left standing in its tattered appearance as a stark reminder of the horror of that apocoliptic day. Other than that though, if you didn't read any of the memorials, or notice that there are no thick tree trunks in the parks, you would never know what had taken place there.

On our way to Hiroshima we had stopped in the modern city of Osaka, home to many elaborate sky scrapers. We decided it was how we had expected Tokyo to be - cool and slick. Instead Tokyo is very much caught in an 80s bubble with its neon signs and crazy music blaring out of all the luminous arcade halls.

I must go now as I've spent far too much time on computers in the last few days for my liking. We're having a good time though and are now looking forward to flying to Sydney on Tuesday.

Gozaimas (good bye),

Lauz/Laura & Dan

xxx