Hi　all! Here we are for the third day in Tokyo. We didn't get to see much of Osaka as we stayed in Shin-Osaka (north from Osaka station) and we were a bit sleepy after the nine hour flight and an hour spent in the passport check... On Sunday we went to Shinjuku to see the night life (as well as for a bite to eat) as now we're staying in Ueno or Akihabara, depending on which map you read... Yesterday we went to Akihabara's electronic city to get a camera for ...

We are now stuffing the last items to our backpacks and waiting for our ride to get here. Our plane will take off at 8.20 p.m. and then we'll be on our way to Osaka. Very exciting!!! The only problem we still have is with the Summer Sonic tickets as they haven't arrived yet. This means that Miika's dad will have to receive them for us and then send them to us... to somewhere in Japan, this will depend on where we are at that moment. Hopefully we'll get them by ...

I'm happy to announce that we finally have all hotels/hostels/ryokans reserved! Instead of Atami, we're now going bit more south down Izu Peninsula (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izu_Peninsula) to Shimoda (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimoda%2C_Shizuoka), which supposedly has some nice beaches and there it is possible for Miika to scuba dive. In Shimoda, we'll be staying in Kur Haus Ishibashi ryokan (http://www.japanhotel.net/data/hotel_information.asp?HotelID=...

I'm so glad! I just booked tickets to the Ghibli Museum in Mikata (Tokyo) (http://www.ghibli-museum.jp/en/) for the three of us. Fortunately we all like (or love) Studio Ghibli's animation, so I bet we'll all enjoy this museum. Tickets to Ghibli Museum need to be booked in advance as they do not sell them at the entrance. I used My Bus Ltd, located in England, as it is one of the European companies that sell the tickets. I read that in Japan it is possible to ...

Great! Now we have ryokans (->Japanese inns, basically) in Kyoto as well. We decided to splurge a bit and so we're going to Oohara no sato (http://www.oohara-no-sato.co.jp/english/index.htm) for one night. It's an hour away from Kyoto Station, which also means that it's basically in the middle of nowhere. Ok, it's not as pricey as they can get as the price includes breakfast and dinner and some of the baths. Then again, around those parts there are no restaura...