Goin' home. Woke up at 7am on the 22nd. I'll start this entry with a little disclaimer. I found something out about myself at the conclusion of this trip. I cannot sleep on planes. I'm writing this blog at 4pm on the 23rd, and I've had 15 minutes sleep since 7am yesterday. After we check out of the Gimmond Hotel, we are officially homeless, until we arrive back in Australia. We packed all of the bags in the configuration which they are going to be checked in at t...

Our last "full"day in Japan. We fly out tomorrow night at 9:50pm. This will probably also be the last blog entry I write for this trip while on Japanese soil. I'm guessing that my next entry will be written on the plane tomorrow night. We started out the day early by heading to the Toji Temple markets (http://www.japanvisitor.com/index.php? cID=374&pID=792). All of the reviews of the market say to get there early, so we decided to get there a little after 7am...

Lazy day in Kyoto today. Nothing on the agenda today. We took our time getting ready to leave the hotel in the morning, and headed out at about 10am. I think Kyoto is my favorite Japanese city. The pace of the city is slower, the people are friendlier and the city seems alltogether easier to get around. If any city feels like "home" in Japan, it would be Kyoto. We set out towards the main shopping area in Kyoto today, and started our walk through one of the 2 par...

The alarm went off at 5:30am, about 4.5 hours after I went to bed. Sleep is overrated anyway. Since this was my last morning in Takayama, I had to check out the morning markets on the riverbank, just to say that I had done it. I attempted to wake Charlotte, as she said she would come up to the markets with me, but no amount of prodding would wake her up. As I began to walk towards the river, it felt like I was the only one awake in the entire city. Even the traff...

Started the day by heading to the Banquet Hall for the traditional Japanese breakfast. The food looked exquisit, and was obviously very carefully prepared, but I learn't something about myself this morning. I don't like traditional Japanese breakfasts. The breakfast table was a square, with the centre section of the table containing a sand filled pit, on which a cauldron of miso soup sat atop a gas burner. When we were seated the gas burner was lit, and the miso...