Shortly after arriving I met my last couchsurf host in Japan, Takoyuki, who took me round the town showing sites ranging from shrines to sex shops. So much effort had been put into halloween costumes so it was a shame I couldn't match them and slip into scoobs again... We went for a couple brews and ended up in a Yatai - outdoor tents serving ramen, sushi and sake. Had a good laugh with Takoyuki but unfortunately he had the nervy meet with the girlfriends parents...

I found out later that the area I'd picked to stay in in Nagasaki wasn't a great one and in comparison to the rest of what I'd seen in Japan, it was pretty dingy. The bars in the area were either full of hookers, old men, or both, and it was tough to find a casual medium. I went to have dinner in a Japanese-style bar but quickly moved on to scope the area out more. I landed on a place and was invited to play darts with some locals. After out classing them a littl...

For my time around Hiroshima and Miyajima I'd decided to stay in a hostel in Miyajimaguchi which was only a ferry ride away from Miyajima island. Though the weather was good I decided to spend my first day in Hiroshima, seeing the frame of the Atomic Bomb Dome and the peace memorial museum. The museum held disturbing bits like melted nails and skin of victims and donated items with tragic background stories. I went back over to the hostel where there was a dumpli...

Once getting to the hostel I tried to devise a plan for the Fuji climb the next day. With the bus times being narrowed (as it was off season), I'd have around 4/5 hours to go up and down Fuji, so near enough everyone stays the night in a tent, catches the sun rise and comes back down to the bus station. I'd heard before arriving that the hostels/huts were closed but noticed a few toilets on the trail map, but the hostel staff said these were locked now too... I'd...

Once we reached Tomo's place in Chiba, he went straight in to drop an old school hip hop set on his technics. After some funny conversation it dawned on me that I was staying with the Japanese version of Niki. The thing at the top of my list for Chiba was to climb Mount Nokogiri, so I headed that way the following morning via a couple bullet trains. The beginning of the trail forks off into three different directions. I went for the most direct route thinking it'...