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Konnichiwa, We finally left the UK (after years of talk) at 1pm on the 1/11/06.... We touched down in Nippon (thats Japan to the englishman) at 9:30am on th 2/11/06.... It took us all of 10 mins in Heathrow to pick up our first tag-along, he was very obedient with long shaggy hair....we named him Olly. The three of us made our way to Tokyo and then stood in wonder looking at the underground map. Lucky Tanner has the sense of direction of a wielly fox, cos we were soon winging our way to the hostel. Anyone who decides to go travelling and live on a tight budget....take heed from this bit of advice. The one time the hostel will shell out the wonga is for a top shelf photographer to come and take snaps of the place for the brochure....In reality me and charlie and our pet Olly walked up expecting walls made of marble splashed with gold.....a fountain or two....friendly bell-boy.....you get the idea.....what we actually found after stumbling down some weird sidestreet in the bronks....was our little residence! needless to say it wasn't quite what we expected....but it did the job. We spent the next few days taking Olly for long windy walks around Tokyo. We saw the imperial palace, some shinto temples, the city skyline and had a lovely boat ride down the Sumidagawa River into Tokyo Bay. Tokyo is as you'd imaging it, a bit of a sprawling metropolis. But it does look outstanding at night. The people are really friendly although not many speak good english, but enough to try and help. Luckily as we are both cunning linguists we soon found ourselves mastering the native tongue! It didnt take long for us to spread our wings and head out of Tokyo to an awe-inspiring place called Nikko. If anyone ever comes to Japan this is a must-see place that will blow you away. Its a gorgeous little mountain town set in a forest with temples that are hundreds of years old. They are massive and immensly detailed in decoration. Unfortunately it was a national holiday so it was a bit busy, but hey who cares in such surroundings. We had let Olly off the lead one day an sadly he never returned. Word is he found his way onto a plane bound for Australia and is going to be a lifeguard out there....we are so proud! Anyhoo.....we picked up a new friend going by the name of Anna who accompanied us around Nikko. We ended that day having a great meal, off of Nikko High street. It was a tiny little place which served the best Yakatori Chicken and Noodles you'll ever eat. The interior of the restaurant was clad in little notes and momento's people had pinned to the walls...and ceiling. One guy had wanted to leave something so bad he had left his driving licence. Me and Charlie left a little note there so if anyone ever makes it there......good luck finding it...theres thousands......(a clue we were sat in the corner by the window). We then went onto Osaka where we spent 2 days doing day trips to Kyoto and Himeji Castle. Our first impression of Osaka was that we'd walked into the land of the living dead.....again this corresponds to hunting down the cheapest accomodation in the City.....in this case we wound up 20 yards away from the local hobo feeding ground. They did not attack if you threw them a chicken leg or two! We eventually found our way to the nicer side of Osaka where we went out with some cool people we'd met on our daytrips. It was the usual Neon spectacle which we'd become accustomed to. Unfortunately as it was mid week it was very quite, but we still had a laugh with a couple of crazy japanese guys. Kyoto and Himeji Castle are stunning places but has one massive difference between them. When we went to Himeji Castle we were running late as usual and our planning had been non-existent (surprise surprise). We got out of the station and jumped into the nearest cab waving the wonga so he would rush us to our destination. He said something in Japanese that me and Charlie didnt quite get, but then drove off anyway. 30 seconds later we arrived after driving down the main street that cuts a path (like moasis through the red sea) from where we had been standing to the biggest castle you have ever seen......idiots. Needless to say we then had plenty of time to explore this amazing place. We will upload the latest photos shortly but we are having trouble doing it! Kyoto has a temple or shrine every ten minutes, but one that was particulary great was the golden temple at Kinkujuki! The rock garden at Ryo-anji is also something you wont see anywhere else. I finally took the famous T-Shirt back to its homeland for all the people who mocked the KYOTO SUPER TEAM!! We left Himeji bound for an appointment with Mt.Fuji and a long anticipated bath in a traditional Japanese hot spring. Again me and Charlie wear hoping to be surrounded by naked japanese beauties that would caress our bodies and satisfy all our desires. Instead I had to settle for Charlie's naked body, not quite what I'd hoped but a pleasure none the less. In the morning we went to a place called Hakone on Lake Asashi at the foot of Mt.Fuji! It was a glorious day which we spent taking in the scenery. We decided to climb one of the smaller mountains called Mt.Byobu to get a good view of Mt.Fuji. When we finally got to the summet (charlie set up base camp every 20 steps) there were no view points cut through the trees and foliage so the views were dissapointing after all that effort. The lake was resally cool though. We then headed back to Tokyo were we intent on seeing a few final sights, and going out on the piss this evening! In our next journal entry dont be surprised if we are still in Japan as we never woke up for our flight! Next stop CHINA!!!
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