We took our time getting to breakfast this morning. We arrived down in the foyer at around 8:40am, when the breakfast finishes at 9am. This actually worked out well because most of the businessmen had eaten and already run off to join whatever rat race they're competing in for the day. We got straight to a table with no waiting, and the breakfast buffet was virtually all ours. It just so happened that it was the best Toyoko Inn breakfast of the trip. While watch...

On today's agenda was a bus trip to the mountains to visit the Jigokudani monkey park. With Isabelle starting to come down with a horrible cough, and Veronica not feeling the best either, we decided to keep today simpler. So over a Toyoko Inn breakfast we devised a plan to head back on the Shinkansen towards Tokyo for a 25 minute journey, which would bring us to an area called Karuizawa, which is a picturesque area in the Nagano prefecture where a lot of cashed-...

After the magnificent crapulence of the Kawasaki Toyoko Inn breakfast yesterday, Charlotte and I didn't even bother going down this morning. Instead Veronica came to our room and did the majority of packing, and then took Angela and Isabelle down, while Charlotte and I stayed upstairs to pack the remainder of the electronics, and carry the bags downstairs. When we left, I skillfully managed to lock the key in the room, which made it a fun conversation at the fro...