14th of November - took rapid train to Osaka then subway to skanksville to our budget hotel! 9pounds sterling per night. Went to Tennoji park via Pachinko hall (full of Japanese men playing pinball machines and smoking themselves to death) - very loud and busy. Saw Japo gardens and s***enoji Temple full of monks and turtles. Met another friendly Jap that showed us the way and practised his English skills en route. Only thing he knew about Scotland was Nakamura! Nowhere to eat as this place is the Japo equivalent of the Gorbals - sorry Lisa!! Picked up noodles then back to hotel for dinner and free internet service - still cant upload photos!!

Thursday 15th November - Up early at 08.30 and took our first dose of malaria tablets. These did not agree with poor Laney who nearly passed out on the subway to Umeda station! Quickly got Laney some food and juice and she felt much better - though passing lots of wind! Changes some money in preparation for China and then went to Osaka Castle. Lots of school children out on trips to the castle were laughing and trying to talk to us! Susan took a beamer too many stares!! Cant take photos of the children in case we get banged up with Gary Glitter!!! Very cute and friendly though. Osaka Castle was lovely, huge moat surrounding it so we did a fair bit of walking again. Lots of female monks kicking about. When we left the castle we met a guide who spoke fluent English and we wished we had met this guy on the way in. He told us loads about the castle and things to do and see in Osaka. Very helpful and friendly yet again - cant get over how nice the Japanese people are. We took his advice and went to Namba for Starbucks for creme brulee latte then on to an amusment mall. We spent some cash getting some funny photos taken only we couldnt quite work out how the bloody machines worked so it took a few attempts! After tiring ourselves out trecking through malls of stuff we couldnt afford, we decided to splash out on the best meal we have had yet - Kua-aina Burger - it was delicious and we want more already! This should last us the ferry trip to China.

Friday the 16th November - 06.30hrs headed for 48hr ferry trip. Forgot to get munchies and booze and there were no shops at the ferry terminal. Most people came loaded with bags of food and drink so we spent a little time praying that there would be a cafe on board or that the gypo would be able to thieve some goodies! Nice cabin all to oursleves, free breakfast and lots of whiteys on board. Feck all to do on this ferry which is smaller than the ferry to Arran so we had to amuse ourslelves somewhow - time to hit the vending machines for booze and fags and start the party!!! Duty free shop opened at 16.00 hrs so we thought we would test our Chinese money and purchase 2litres of sake and 200 fags. We think some peering eyes may have spotted us or the biggest bottle of sake on the boat as we were shortly invited to join a group of Whiteys who had already made friends. One thing led to another and before we could say "Konichiwa" the ipod was roaring and the party was in full swing, drinking games galore, dancing and even a little karaoke!!

Saturday 17th November - The vessel was very quiet, dont think anybody made it for the free breakfast. A few people surfaced around 5pm looking a little worse for wear and explaining the close relationship they had made with the toilet pan. We were up at 12 pm proudly wearing our Scottish football tops which some old man thought was our school uniform - how sweet! He then proceeded to make us origami(?) butterfly and birds and shared his 70 years of travelling tips! Strange japanese boy on board - wont go into details but just to remind ourselves DIGIT!!