Mum - I am due to arrive at heathrow at 5:10pm so will probably be back in Milton Keynes by about 7pm. Visited Kyoto for one last time yesterday. I got up early like planned and was in Kyoto by 11. The main area I was visiting was the Arashiyama area which is in the Kyoto hills. It is a really beautiful rural place, lots of hills, rivers and woods. It is the prettiest place I have been in Japan. The main attraction which I headed to first is the Tenryuji zen tem...

Interesting couple of days and everything has gone to plan. Be warned, this will be a long blog entry. I headed to Shirahama on a whim yesterday and it turned out to be a good idea. The only downside was it took 2 and a hlaf hours to get there so I didn`t have a whole lot of time before it was dark. My trustee Lonely Planet book only had one page of information and no map for Shirahama but the description was enough to get me motivated. It could have turned out ...

Still in Osaka but spent the day in Kobe whihc is only 30 minutes away on the train. Didn`t really see a lot but there isn`t a whole load to see in Kobe. Just had a bit of a wander and took in the city. Went out last night. Got talking to an American who was also 22 and also a english with creative writing ba graduate. He is in Japan teaching. We went to a couple of different bars and found ut how inaccesible some of the Japanese bars are. We went into one and or...

Like a bloody cat am I, landed on my feet once again. As mentioned in my last blog I could not get a room in kyoto so headed for osaka with the plan of taking a day trip to himeji. Within two hours of leaving I had checked into my room in Osaka, hopped back on the train, and arrived in himeji. Once again the weather is gorgeous. On my approach to himeji-jo(the castle) and old japanese man approached me and asked if he could practice his english with me, i obliged...

Quick update. After all that bravado about booking places at the last minute I found myself in a bit of a pickle of a jam, Slick Rick style. Tried to book another night where I am staying as I had only booked two but they had no vacancies for saturday. Tried about 3 other places but they were all booked up as well. So here is the new plan. Heading to Osaka and booking a night there but using the actual day to visit Himeji which is best done as a day trip anyway. ...