Tokyo - Monday 10th - Wednesday 12th NovemberWe catch the speedy Shinkansen to Okayama, and walk quickly down the road to have a look at the black castle and its gardens, before jogging back to the station to meet a friend from home - we've arranged to meet Gaz, who has been living up in the hills near Okayama for the last few months.Gaz looks a lot thinner than the last time I saw him back in Wolverhampton, and now has long, wild hair and a beard, but seems happ...

Hiroshima 7/11/08 - 9/11/08 We covered the 350km to Hiroshima in about 2 hours including 4 stops along the way. The bullet trains were not only lovely to look at (if you like looking at trains that is), but very fast, efficient and had the, what we now know as typical, Japanese customer service. This even went as far as the ticket inspector bowing every time he left the carriage. These trains had 20 carriages on but he never missed a bow every time he left even ...

Osaka 4/11/08 - 7/11/08 The 3.30am wake up call was hard work but we were both excited about the Japan trip so we didn't mind too much and the train ride into Sydney airport was uneventful. There could have been a whole host of interesting things happening but due to our 'lack of sleep' induced coma we can't remember anything other than it getting gradually lighter and us getting gradually more awake.It was 6am by the time we got to the airport and first encount...

... just popping in - we fly in and out within 24 hours...

Perth (and then Sydney again, briefly) - 28th October After getting a lift to the train station with Rick at 3.30am, a train at 4am, a second train at 5am, and arriving at the airport just after half past five, we are hungry enough to eat a Harry's Cafe De Wheels tiger pie while we wait for our Virgin Blue flight.Luckily, there's a concession in the airport, so we eat just that... Arriving in Perth, we are lucky enough to catch a cab with the grumpiest taxi dr...