Caught the Shinkansen from Osaka to Kyoto station. Stupid amounts of people at both stations, but the train ride was insanely short, so that made up for it. It was easily 30 degrees which was a bit of a shock to the system coming from the Australian winter, and in amongst the thousands of people was not fun, but we eventually made it. Train staff have been very helpful so far, even when they are up to their eyeballs in people. Once we caught the subway we found ...

Uneventful landing, which is always welcome. Everyone piled off the plane, and just as quickly piled onto a monorail style train to the customs check-in gates. After lining up for no less than an hour with 3 girls that were hot, tired and didn't want to be waiting in line, we eventually snaked our way to the front. The difference in check-in between the Japanese citizens and foreign passport holders was laughable. the Japanese passport holders virtually had to wa...

Awoke to a decent downpour. Luckily a shuttlebus service was operating but unluckily it had the worst driver ever to obtain temporary citizenship (or enter the country illegally. Either seems feasible). Nice guy though. He gave me a $5 discount for some reason, so that made up for the mortal fear for my family's life. We decided to forgo the $13 continental breakfast at the F1 motel, and get gouged at the airport instead. All went smoothly through check in. We ma...

Day 1 of the trip. We are staying at the F1 Hotel tonight, and getting on the plane in the morning. Travelled down to Darling Harbour. looked around for some last minute souveneirs, and continued on to the hotel. Dad's Navman took us to the wrong end of Sydney airport, but eventually we found the hotel and checked in. Hotel Formula 1 at Mascot, which is right under the flight path of the domestic aircraft, and about 2km from the International terminal. At $115 pe...