So hello again, sorry about the delay yet again. Japan is super gay with internet cafes who would of thought.Hopefully by the end all the photos will be up to date too.

Seen as there was so much to update we'll just do a brief overview so its not too boring for you all hahaha.

Hiroshima

It was a beautiful sunny day but it took us about 4 hours to get there. We saw the A-Bomb Dome, which was amazing. It was crazy to find out that it was directly above the dome where the a-bomb exploded. This is why some of the structure still stands. We then walked along the river and saw the childrens peace monument. There was hundreds of children standing around it. This monument is within the peace memorial park which was beautiful. We also saw the cenotaph for the a-bomb victims, which had fresh flowers infront of it. We carried on through the park and went to Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. This was extremely moving and intersting. We learnt so much it was really sad.

After the museum we went to the Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall For The Atomic Bomb Victims. In all honesty we found it pretty boring. It was really quiet compared to the other places. But it still made us feel quite sad.

After this we headed back to the train station. As we wanted to go to Miyajima. This is where he O-torii is. This took us another 30 mins from Hiroshima station and we still had to get a ferry....... but it was so worth it. This place was beautiful. The tide was quite far out and managed to get quite close to o-torii (which is a shrine in the water). We saw Itsukushima shrine, senjokaku and a five story Pagoda. It was a very traditional island. We loved it.

The next day.....

Kyoto

The best day EVER (in Sarah-Janes eyes) we saw real life Geisha wooooooooooo. They was just walking about casually in there beautiful Kimono. This was in the Gion district as we were going to see traditional Japanese performances. When we arrived in Gion we just hada mooch around the place as we were early. It was so traditional (nice to see this as it wasnt the usual japanese city).

We had front row seats at the theatre. The performances were really good. We saw:

• a tea ceremony while listening and watching people play koto music and flower arrange
• watched Gagaku - this is court music
• saw an ancient comic play which is called Kyogen (this was soooo funny even though it was all in japanese - the were trying to drink sake when they were tied up - we managed to get the jist of it haha)
• watched Kyomai which is a kyoto style dance - geishas performed this :)
• we also watched some Bunraku - this is a traditional puppet type show - proper crazy !!!! - three people dressed in black controlling one puppet - amazing :)

Nara

Again when we arrived, we found it to be another very traditional place - which is good as this is we wanted from japan. The main reason we decided to go was because of the giant budda - took us about 2 hours to get there!

we were given a map from tourist information and she mapped out our route - we realised then that we would be doing loads of walking - joys haha

first stop - kofukuji temple in this area there was also a three storied and five storied pagoda, this place was covered in deers as was the whole of nara, this took us about 20mins to get to.

second stop - todaiji temple, this took us another 20 mins - was soooo heaving we had never seen anything like it!!! so many people everywhere! when we entered the temple - first thing we saw was the giant budda - giant is an understatement - it is totally MASSSSIVE!!! much taller than a house. there were other giant statues too - all pretty cool.

third stop - another 30 mins....... up hill the whole way...... to kasuga taisha shrine and kasuga wakamiya shrine, after we had looked around these we had to walk the whole way back!!! took us ages but was a nice stroll as the area is really nice and scenic.

Journey to the Philippines

sooooo.... quite an effort to get here - had to stop of in kuala lumper overnight - took us about 6 hours to get there and another 4 to the philippines. the over night stop was so worth it tho - stayed in an amazing hotel, so so nice - was like a resort and it was boiling hot - woooop the warm weather begins as japan was exactly like englands weather. we lounged by the pool and got some food - and the cheapness was amazing - looking forward to getting back there haha

it was around 4 in the afternoon when we arrived in the philippines - morgans family picked us up from the airport - we also noticed the heat here - over 30 degrees - love it!!!!!! we were taken to the mall of asia first as it was still quite early and close to the airport - this is the biggest mall in asia, we then went for some food and were taken to a massive church - it was sooo busy! at the restraunt we had 'halo halo' first time for sj :) - traditional filipino drink/dessert, morgan had to finish sj's (the usual haha) the restraunt we were at is right opposite manila bay - we saw the sunset - this was amazing and was the first 'ticked off or list' of things to see hehe

the next day we went to the roman catholic cathedral of manila - the oldest catherdral in the philippines. after this we went to Fort Santiago - this was an old army fort and it was where jose rizal was imprisoned - he was a national hero, we got a horse and carrage ride around the grounds which was pretty cool!

we then went to Saint Jude Archdiocesan Shrine. nearby we drove past where the president of the philippines lives - we couldnt go in though as it is an out of bounds area and the museum within the ground needed an appointment. boo.

after dinner we were both realising just how cheap it is here!!! makes a change to japan - woooo!

the next day we went to Saint Joesephs Parish Church where the bamboo organ is - pretty cool, we found out a bit of info which was interesting about its history - the driving here is crazy - as we noticed driving around. haha. and the jeepneys look sooooooooooo awesome! jeepneys are like buses but smal and chromed out with funky fair ground type artwork all over - and they had no set stops - people get on and off when ever they please.

after we had seen the bamboo organ we headed to the american memorial cemetary, it was crazy how many headstones there were... hundreds and hundreds!!!

on the evening we when to a bar - where there was live bands playing - this was quite cool. drinks are so so so so dirt cheap here - we LOVE it :)

yesterday was soooo cool - we went to Avilon Zoo, it was so cool because sarah-jane held a snake and morgan held some parrots, we both got to hold a orangotang (not sure how to spel but we mean ape if anyone cant get it from that spelling) sarah-jane thought it was sooo heavy and it didnt want to let go of her haha morgan was worried he wouldnt get a turn haha he finally did though when the guy managed to get the monkey off sj! we saw loads of other cool animals and we had a tour guide which made it alot easier and more fun.

today we went to Antipolo Cathedral which had a shrine of our lady of peace and good voyage - pretty relevant to our journey hehe

and now we are writing this... sorry its so long again... hopefully we will keep you more up-to-date now we are not in japan.

hope you all enjoy the pics if we manage to upload them all

miss you all tons!!!!!!!!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx