Friday 18th September Up at 7am, bags sorted and out the door as quickly as we could. Bought some lunch boxes and snacks in the local shop - nice and cheap and we were on our way. Stumbled across a coffee shop called Canterbury Tea - how ironic. Only a couple of trains before arriving at the Ferry terminal area. Could not for the life of us find the free shuttle bus, so we went for the exercise option of walking with our back packs - never my favourite choice,...

Thursday 17th September Just about got up in time but had to wizz down to do us breakfast (egg on toast) before our lift was ready to drop us at the train station. Eggs were a runny but hey ho, they did us no harm, I know my cooking is not the best, but this time it was fine. PHEWWW! The couple running the hostel were so sweet, I think they were enjoying the peace in the hostel, was very quiet, after us four, only one person was due to arrive today, CRAZY!! So...

Tuesday 15th September Got up about 8ish, packed up, few people still asleep so we went as quietly as we could. Quick stop at the post office to send those discs, keeping our fingers crossed. It only takes about a week to send them, was surprised at how fast they could be delivered.Hakuba was a lot further away then we expected, I mean it is in the Japanese Alps, so about as high up as we would go, but didn't expect it to take so long. Four trains later (lots of...

Sunday 13th September Was not up and out as early as we'd hoped, but we are getting pretty used to that now, who needs to get up early te he (I know you probably all hate me right now right?) Cheese on toast again, just using up our food, but damm good start to the day. Off we went for our first train journey from Nara to Osaka, then moved from platform to platform trying to find the right train for Takayama, got there in the end, would help if the train staff a...

Thursday 10th September We both had great sleep and got up the same time, which was a bonus. Quick email home before leaving hostel and mum was teasing me about mash potatoe that she was having for dinner, cos I really fancy it NOT FUNNY MUM te he. Lots of trains - first to Kokura, where we changed to get one to Shin-Osaka, to Osaka, then final train to Nara. Watched the rest of The Last Samuria, wrote in diaries and had some naps, wasn't too bad. Was quite hun...