We woke to the smell of rain and the sound of unfamiliar birdsong. I watched a chipmunk running along the roof of the house opposite and finally came to terms with the fact that we were going to have to catch another 4 hour government bus in the very near future. Our TukTuk driver piloted us through rush hour to the bus depot and showed Bob where to wait whilst I headed out to find breakfast. I returned empty handed to find Bob guarding a pair of seats at the ba...

Courtesy of the time difference our body clocks were well awake by 630 and we re-packed our kit so as to take Gerry up on his kind offer of leaving some baggage with him. After an awesome garden breakfast of fresh fruit salad, scrambled egg on toast, followed by waffles and icecream, we loaded up our TukTuk and headed for the bus stop. Our driver waited with us on the side of the road, apparently the 'bus stop', and having seen half a dozen battlebuses crammed w...

Packing was easy, as we had barely unpacked during our time in Tokyo, so having caught the JR for the last time and posted the postcards we were soon arriving at the airport where, apart from getting the wrong terminal, things went smoothly. The highlight of departures was seeing a policeman on a Segway and the metre long dried and pressed squid which I could have bought in duty free... The flight was a glorious 9 hours of ad lib films, excellent food and lots o...

The early morning commute to Hamamatscho station was done through sleepy eyes and following a disappointing breakfast we joined the queue for our bus, wearing our top tourist badges, and analysed our fellow passengers. Of note was a friendly English chatterbox who was intent on telling an equally enthusiastic American all about his commute to work, followed by a group of young girls accompanied by a Japanese don, and then there was Mr and Mrs P. Obnoxious. The P ...

With everything crossed I booted my laptop, in the vain hope that it had had a little chat to itself overnight and got its act together. Unfortunately the flashing and beeping that issued from the grey screen suggested otherwise, so our first stop of the day was the Apple Store in Shibuya. With an appointment with a genius booked for later in the day we picked up breakfast at a cute 'French' Patisserie where the coffee and croissants were excellent. Feeling much ...