Konichiwa, Craig here.

Right, I suppose I'd better start from the very beginning. On the plane from Tokyo all the way to Hokkaido I slept like a baby, even although according to Jean there was ridiculous turbulence most of the journey. Might have had something to do with a late 1 with some friends the night before... Anyway, wasn't feeling exactly on top of my game and when we arrived at the hotel I managed to leave my phone in the taxi. When I realised and couldn't catch the driver I almost cried like a baby! Heavily spat the dummy out the pram as there are far too many contacts on it to lose. But all ended well on that 1 as the next morning the reception got it back for me so our first full day here was set to be a good yin, and it was! We visited an Ainu village called Shiraoy where we witnessed some ancient dancing and tribal chants and saw a reconstruction of where the Ainu lived before they were persecuted by the new arrivals to the island - the Japanese. Plus we got some great photos like that big guy up at the top left. Wouldn't want to get in a fight with that monster!

We then went for lunch at the most brilliant wee restuarant where we were given raw beef, sausage, and veg and cooked it ourselves at the table on a charcoal grill which was sitting between us. What an experience.

After lunch our driver, Mr Kudo, took us to a Samurai village which was absolutely hillarious. We embarassed ourselves flailing and falling about in the ninja maze before watching an acrobatic samarui sword battle. The guys performing were pretty talented it has to be said although me and my aunt could not understand a word that was being said as the battle commenced. At that point we were certain we were the only Europeans on the entire island but today we saw another 3 and met 2 more in the hotel lift on the way in tonight!

Today my aunt's dream came true as we saw a traditional Japanese house in the condition it was in when it was built in the 1920's : Paper walls, family shrines and calligraphy. That was in Otaru where we also avoided the street of 100 sushi sellers but managed to watch thousands of Japanese people wasting there money on overpriced, rotten ornaments as we window shopped our way along the main street. Still though, good day all in! Better go get some scran now...