We arrived sweaty and tired after a long day of travelling at our hotel in BEIJING, where we were immediately asked to drop our bags off and come downstairs for the orientation meeting. Nicole, our guide who is from Chengdu, warned us about all sorts of things in China, like thieves and beggars, scams and counterfiet money. Looks like our taxi driver, not only overcharged us (we were too tired and confused to argue) and got lost a number of times (actually gettin...

We ate last night in a divey little bar with videos of old R'n'B artists projected onto one unpainted wall, and a staircase that hung from the ceiling, called "Zoba". Craving something other than damned Inari Sushi, I sought out (of all things whilst in Japan) PIZZA. Zoba was brilliant. Grimy and dark, yes, but with such a cool vibe, and its got to be a good sign when Al Green's "Let's Stay Together", our song, starts to play as we sit down. W...

What a funny city Hiroshima is! Although most of it is just like anyother city: bustling, busy and big, I have never encountered a place so enveloped in the concept of peace. The slippers awaiting us by the shoe lockers of our hostel ("J-Hoppers btw, as in Japan-Hoppers. I like this - Johnny and I are now officially E-Hoppers) have the words Peace & Travel printed on them, we walk along the Promenade of Peace, to reach the Peace Memorial Park, where the ...

It's been a long, sweaty day and I feel like all the peace of Koyasan has been washed away through my pores! We've been travelling for 10 hours today, which meant that we didnt arrive at our isolated little hostel (located at the very top of hill, right by another graveyard! The views of the twinkling city below us were lovely, but the climb with my great fat backpack was excrutiating) until late at night. I think we are the only people staying here, but it is qu...

So after dinner, our faces smug with full bellies, we venture into the darkness of Okunoin, which is an enormous buddhist graveyard right by our temple. We found ourselves gripping eachothers hand tightly as we walked along the lamp-lit path deeper into the forest of enormous cedar trees, statues with eyes that followed us and crumbling gravstones hundreds of years old. We kept jumping nervously (those pesky foxes) each time this particular type of bird released ...