I stayed at 3 different capsule hotels in Tokyo, the first of which had been about for decades and made no attempt to keep with the times - the reason I chose it. I reached Tokyo at 11pm ish so dropped my bags off at the capsule and roamed about. I discovered a little bar and had some whiskey with a few locals. A laptop was cracking out some reggae via youtube, so I whipped out the ace of spades and threw down some Martin Campbell - went down a storm! I played DJ...

I had a pretty basic plan for my day in Nara - get a bike and ride around the park, chilling with the deer. When I first got there and went searching for my guesthouse, I went into this old guys house thinking I'd arrived. He was so sound it took me ages to realise I was in the wrong place and he actually wanted me to leave! Nara's quite surreal and really peaceful. I spent the majority of the day cruising about, feeding deer and catching some temples on the way...

I'd pulled into Kyoto quite late, and my Taiwanese couchsurf host was out and about with a couple other couchsurfers, two solo French travellers. I didn't spill that I found it funny the Taiwanese guy showing the French lads around was called Frog. Went over to Fushimi Inari Taishi the next day and climbed Mount Inari. Got some quality street food on the way down called Takoyaki. Got chatting to a local and went for a couple pints with him. He was keen to find ou...

I'd gotten into Kobe far earlier than the meeting time with my first couchsurf host. Couldn't have my first reference being tainted by dodgy punctuality... I was pretty surprised that without any references, the first person happy to host me was a young local girl, Chisato. She'd given me some pretty decent tips on things to do in Kobe, so the next morning I went and climbed Mount Rokko. I was told by my host and a few locals that once I reached the top, to ask w...

After the madness of China, arriving in a place that plays bird tweets out their speakers on train platforms and where cab drivers wear white gloves was pretty dreamy. My first hostel in Japan had a traditional set-up with a thin mattress on a layer of tatami. To match the rest of the country I had a pretty peaceful one for my first night in Japan. The next day I headed over to the museum of Osaka's history and walked around their castle which everyone advises n...