Well since I last updated...Friday evening...we went to a e2 kajen in kasukabe with some of Art's American friends. I ate some chicken cartilage, it tastes ok but the crunchy texture isn't so good. We were given some whale to eat too and I tried a bit. No I don't agree with whale hunting but there it was cooked on the table and me eating a bit already cooked isn't going to save the whales. It actually is really nice, very tender. We went to the kareoke bar til around 5am singing songs in your own little room, it's really good, they should have them in england! We had some cold sake, this rice wine stuff.

Saturday we went to a sushi bar with Art's Australian friend, it had conveyor belts and you just took what you wanted at an all you can eat place in north kasukabe. I really am liking the squid and the raw tuna. Delicious.

Sunday night we set off for Kyoto on the overnight bus from Omiya with Raph (the Ozzie bloke). Didn;t get much sleep on the bus but cried with laughter on several occasions. We arrived there at 5.30am Sunday and weren;t allowed to check in til 4.30 pm We went to some temples, higashi honganji and nishi hongangi and then up the Kyoto sky tower. Easily the funniest part of the trip occured when Brett decided to try to make me jump when I was looking through the telescope and wacked his head on the glass and his eye on the telescope. What a gimp! He has been sporting a cut and red eye lid ever since! We also went to Tojo Temple and Nijo Castle where they had squeeky floorboards to tell when the Samurai were coming. Brett pretended to be a tour guide but the less said about that the better. We had lunch again at Yoshinoya where its the beef stuff on rice. I was the only girl out of a packed resturant cos Art only told me usually only men go there half way through the meal! We got around everywhere by bus. The buses are like cattle trucks, not what you would expect at all, but there paying system is good, (when you know how to use it!) For Arthur's bday night we ate in some random Japanese person's living room, well that's what it looked like. The food was good. Then we went back to our Japanese style hotel and put on our traditional dressing gowns and played Ring of Fire! Arthur snored so loudly Brett resorted to sleeping in the waderobe.

Tuesday we had a European breakfast and fried an egg while sitting on the floor. Really wish they went in for chairs more over here! We went to the Ryoanji Temple and looked at 14 rocks and saw the Golden Pavillion. We went to Gion and saw a couple of gieshas. I had Udon (which didn't agree much with me but that's another story!). I had a shrimp dish for dinner, very nice too. Am really getting into the whole chopstick thing.

Weds we went to ginkakuji and saw some sand sculpture things and a temple that was meant to be silver but they ran out of money. It was raining and cold. We saw lots of cherry blossom again and I ate some pounded rice with strawberry stuff inside, and a cheese thing with fish paste on a stick. We then went to a temple called Keianjingu that was orange and then onto the 1000 Buddhas where you find one that looks most like yourself. It was here I realised I have totally got the hang of Japanese style toilets, in fact I am beginning to prefer them. We then went shopping and Brettney got a 'man bag' and I got a bag for a fiver! Arthur got his happy coat thing for festivals. Met some random Japanese bloke at the station who wanted to shake hands with us all and they all assume that because we talk English and are white we are American. I am really getting in to the bowing over here. We caught the night bus and arrive back in Art's town at 8.30ish this morning very tired. Have done some washing and it's got fluff all over it, the washing comes out dripping I think it's actually a worse machine than the Beckingham Terrace one.

Anyway that brings us to now...check out the photos!