Kyoto - temple-tastic Another bullet train to Kyoto: the only city to be spared from bombing during WW2 due to its historical and religious buildings.This city is quite a tourist trap and we only gave ourselves one afternoon and evening here so had to select a couple of sights to see.We walked up to the Silver (Ginkakuji) temple and ambled back down the 'path of philosophy' along the canal and stopped to visit the Nanzenji temple at the bottom.Most temples and s...

From Biggest Smiles to Dogs in Dinner Jackets! So, we left Osaka and got on another bullet train, damn these are impressive, so fast and bang on time, every time. This time we managed to get a non smoking carriage so it was a much more pleasent journey. The hospitality of the Japanese continued as we were trying to find an ATM to get the last of our money for Japan out. We went into a 7 Ereven again and whilst I was at the cash point pressing random buttons ...

Osaka - Grimey & Neon-tastic with great grub! So we set off to Osaka on a bullet train, our first experience of this which was amazing (despite being stuck in the smoking carriage) - over 200 miles in 2 hours isn't bad! (You can note the speed by the picture Sam tried to take where the train had already passed him as he pressed the button) Mountains and snow flying past out of the window but Sam wouldn't have noticed as he spent most of the journey obsessing...

Once we figured out the train and the bus we arrived at MotoHakone (Liz was far more organised than me and had the route down to a T) and wandered down the road to our lodgings for the next couple of nights - we were greeted by an absolute double of Mr Myagi from Karate Kid who spoke very little engrish but who was great and very helpful. The town of Hakone is quite seasonal so there was very little open other than the 7 Ereven. We stocked up on some suppries f...

Day 2 in Tokyo and having had a better nights sleep we woke up and felt refreshed so checked out of our hotel and headed to the Imperial Palace gardens. Such a beautiful day and the gardens were really peaceful and relaxing. We then headed to an area called the Ginzu district which is like what you see on TV of Tokyo - a lot more hustle and bustle and electrical shops. Walking around we started to get pretty hungry so we walked around and ended up in a tiny litt...