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...