Now I know what real cold feels like. For the entire Australian winter I didn't once wear a jacket, jumper or any form of long sleeves except for my work shirts, so I like to think that I have a decent tolerance for cold. Today was cold. Very, very cold. In fact, I can't ever remember feeling as cold as I did today. Up to now, in the last days of Autumn the weather has been fair. Some cold periods, but mostly ok. Today, we woke up in Shin-Yokohama to miserab...

We're exhausted. It was a busy one today. Not content with travelling halfway across Japan, we decided to also continue the day with an extensive wander around the largest captive audience tourist attraction in Tokyo, the man-made island of Odaiba (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odaiba).< br> The day started out with packing the last of our bags, folding up our futon mattresses, and getting the hell out of the Budget Inn in Kyoto. Don't get me wrong, it isn't the ...

Nothing super interesting in the blog entry today. No attacking monkeys. No overcrowded trains or even navigation dilemmas. We originally intended today to be a rest day after the crowded craziness of the preceding 2 days. Instead we started the day by walking almost clear across Kyoto. Started off the day with a walk with Angela and Charlotte, while Veronica grabbed some extra sleep. An hour later we returned to find out that Veronica had woken up 15 minutes a...

1. Don't look the monkeys in the eyes. 2. Don't go too close to the monkeys. 3. Monkeys may attack when threatened. I can confirm that number 3 is true. I sort of broke rules 1 and 2. I also discovered a new rule that they didn't mention: 4. If a monkey growls, hisses and screams at you, don't do it back to the monkey. Wild monkeys, I have discovered, have no sense of humour. More monkeys later. My day was started by writing last night's blog entry....

Firstly, let me apologise for the lateness of this blog entry. I'm writing this at 6:30am on Monday because we were all exhaused last night after a huge day, and with a really substantial headache a blog was the last thing on my mind. We were all in bed by 6:30pm last night (which doesn't seem so weird when it is completely dark at 5:30pm). Was a little bit hesitant about going down for breakfast this morning. Breakfast at today's Toyoko Inn was listed as "miso ...