We are ashamed to say that after arriving in Osaka mid afternoon, we spent most of our time there doing some much needed laundry. We had read the guide books and TripAdvisor and we weren't overly excited about doing any sightseeing so we decided this was a good use of our time. We managed to get out and stretch our legs for a rainy evening walk around the centre of Osaka. The coats we've carried around the rest of the world finally came in use, although we look...

We had decided to spend a couple of days out of the cities of Japan, so we headed for the town of Takayama in the Japanese Alps. It is a very relaxed town, with old dark wooden buildings lining narrow streets littered with sake breweries. We spent our first afternoon there on a self-guided sake brewery crawl, so we were a little wobbly by the time our 4pm check in came around. After a brief rest, we soon developed the munchies so headed out for some Hida beef, a...

Our first big train journey was upon us, our first journey on the Shinkansen (the bullet train). This experience far surpasses that of any Virgin pendolino, with oodles of leg room, huge comfy reclining seats and a delicious buffet car, our train journeys have been something we actually look forward to. The speed is incredible, a little nauseating at first but you get used to it, along with the ear popping. We were only on the train for two hours before arriving...

The much anticipated Japanese leg of our adventure was upon us. Although we were very much looking forward to exploring Japan, we were a little anxious about our lack of Japanese vocabulary and the need for us to navigate ourselves around the country on the famous bullet trains. We arrived quite late on Friday night after a fairly pleasant and uneventful flight. We had the address of the apartment we were due to stay in, it just looked like a load of squiggles to...

After successfully experiencing almost every area of Singapore on our last visit, we had booked our luxury pod accommodation in the only area we hadn't made it to, Arab area. The 'hostel' was amazing, it not only didn't smell bad, it actually smelt good, it was sparklingly clean and had a very relaxed environment. We had a double bed pod on the top bunk, with sockets, a light, hanging space and a little table. We made use of the free nespresso coffee and laundry ...