When Sven went back home a week ago, my sister Ulrika came to replace him. Well, replace isn't the right word, but anyway she became my new travelling companion. We stayed in a small ryokan in Nara, a little old town that was the capital of Japan before Kyoto and Tokyo. It's 1200 years since it was the capital, but there are lot of impressive buildings and monuments left from those days. I can't help but think what we were doing in Sweden 1200 years ago (Viking...

This week I've been hiking the old pilgrimage roads of Kumano Kodo in the Kansai region, south of Kyoto. Because of my weakness (a cold that refused to give in) we had two rest days in Tanabe, a little seaside town, before the start of the hike. My friend and colleague Sven is here with me. Sven had a dip in the Pacific and got away without a cold - the water was 24 degrees. Finally, on Sunday we took an early bus to the start of Kumano Kodo. I wasn't sure if...

After a week in and around Sapporo I'm writing this from a hot spring village in the Hokkaido mountains. I am staying here for three days before heading south to Osaka to meet up with my friend and colleague Sven. This afternoon there were busloads of tourists but now in the evening all the restaurants are shut, the few streets are empty and there is not a soul to be seen. The only sound is the wind rustling the fallen leaves, oh and the steady hum of drinks di...

Hi everyone, this is the first entry in my travel diary from Japan. I was supposed to arrive here on Thursday evening but the Japanese airlines plane broke so spent a day in Helsinki while waiting for a new plane to fly in. The pilot came to the gate to announc the cancellation of the flight and then the entire staff at the gate made a synchronous bow to us passengers. It looked so coordinated we started thinking maybe they had practiced behind the gate. They eve...