Hello all! We had a comfy nights sleep, so comfy in fact that we didn't wake up until 9.30 and were supposed to check out at 10! We left our bags at the hotel and caught the train up to Harajuku, stopping at the bakery on the way. Before going into the super-trendy boutique area we walked to the Meiji Shrine which commemorates the Emperor who brought Japan into modern world culture at the start of the last Century. It was wonderfully cool walking up to it throug...

We set the alarm for 7.30 this morning so we could get up in time for our Japanese breakfast. I woke up feeling good, I'd slept well, but Dad was a little worse for wear! We headed down to the dining room where our breakfast was already on the table. We were brought the hot things then too. We couldn't recognise all of it, but we knew or worked out some things: miso soup, rice, grilled salmon, gherkins, tofu, seaweed, a vegetable similar to courgette, soft poache...

Hello everybody! We arrived in Kyoto this morning after a train journey from Hiroshima. We ate a delightfully Japanese breakfast in the form of Nestle white chocolate for me and a Hersheys bar and japanese tea for Dad. Once again the journey was brilliant - air conditioned train and quick travelling makes us a fan of the trains here. When we got to Kyoto we got off the train to incredible heat and 5 thousand people trying to get in one lift (many with a tiny s...

First of all - some of you will be surprised that you can actually understand what we have written, since we are in Japan! Actually the computer keyboard has both English and Japanese letters / symbols on it so it works either way but looks a little strange. Anyway... From Singapore it took 6 hours overnight to get to Fukuoka at the bottom of Japan. It was interesting having a boarding card that redirected our luggage "from SIN to FUK" which made us bo...