I`m writing this siting in an internet cafe at Narita airport and about to fly to Sydney. We have such an amazing time in Japan and I`m sad to leave but very excitd about going to Australia. We`ve fitted in rather a lot in the last four days and are now feelng rather sleepy! On our second day in Kyoto I took us on a fairly fast paced sightseeing tour of an old palace/ temple complex (I`ve forgottn the name!) with a beautiful pagoda-see picture above- the first we...

Wow - we are now in Osaka and it`s the third city we’ve been to since the last blog! We`ve just had an amazing Balinese meal with the most tender chicken satay I’ve ever had and an amazing spicy chicken soup with glass noodles. The waiters were extremely bouncy and it was great to find such a lovely restaurant just down the street from our hostel - a relief as we’ve had a full-on day`s sightseeing in Nara and are feeling rather weary. I`ve got a lot to c...

We arrived in Hiroshima two dfays ago and stayed in an amazing little place called the World Friendship Centre. It is the base of a peace organisation set up in the 1960s to highlight the plight of the survivors of the atimic bomb and to foster cultural understanding between Easst and West. They offer conversation classes to local residents, volunteer tours of the peace park, the chance to meet survivors (most of whom are in their 70s) and they also run a small g...

Yufuin was amazing! We felt well and truly relaxed and very pampered. We took the famous (well in Japan) Yufuin no mori sightseeing train to Yufuin-it`s a vintage style train with wooden floors and people are so excited about it that the train stewardesses go around taking everyone`s picture and making them wear silly train hats for the photo! As soon as we arrived I took Darren for his first onsen (hot spring). Onsen are one of the things I miss most about Japan...

Our hostel was very close to one of the most famous temples in Tokyo so in the morning before we left for Tokyo we ambled around Akusaka temple. The way up to the temple is an alleyway of shops of allsorts selling traditional Japanese wares including sandals, fans, wigs and knives as well as lots Japanese snacks. Darren sampled black sesame Mr Whippy icecream and I munched on melon pan-a sweet sugared bread roll which was fresh from the oven. Akusaka is a very ...