Sayonara Japan. Our few days in Hagi which was a luxury retreat were fantastic, and I pretended they were Catherine's birthday present....no I haven't got any better! Hiroshima was more sombre as we soaked up the history and aftermath of the A-bomb. The monuments and museum were very well presented and they are very open about the causes and their responsibility in the war...a big difference from Russia. The castle was great and Catherine as you will see, enjoye...

Giants, gardens and geisha. When we added the last entry we were just leaving Takayama, from there we went to Kanazawa for 2 nights before 3 nights in Kyoto then headed South into the valleys and coast to Hagi. If this gets boring just look at the pictures. Although out of the main cities English is not so well spoken there is never a problem as they really are so keen to help. If you stop and look at a map people will appear from inside shops or stop on their...

Two Giants in Japan. After the rigours of Russia what would Japan be like? Tokyo a city of neon, advertising on every building, huge tv screens in the street and very busy as we arrived Friday night. And the toilets...after some fairly basic facilities in Russia the fully automated toilets were a revelation. Mind you it took a while to understand all the buttons and a few surprises as heated water at various pressures jets up from below.... and the heated seat...

FIRST LEG - IPSWICH to VLADIVOSTOK Please accept our apologies for the delay...but we are well and pleased to say we've completed the first leg of our journey - just having a few problems with technology. WiFi (amongst other things) not always available as we travelled across Russia on the Trans-Siberian, and when it was, we were busy on tours, eating or sleeping! Then on Friday in Vladivostok, Paul spent hours writing a lovely piece only to lose it as we tried...