The last night in Japan!!

Well Japan has been amazing and the 18 odd days has flown by. Tomorrow we board a ferry to Beijing, which leaves at 8pm Tuesday to arrive 9am Friday. Word on the street is that we will be forced to sing Karaoke which apparently is a tradition for any westerner on the ferry!

No doubt the next few days will be full of blogs as we try to kill time. We have loaded up the kindle with free books, downloaded all the Ricky gervais Freecasts and everything that has been on 5 live for the past 2 weeks. After that it will be chess goodness until we both become chess grand masters!

What I have learnt in Japan:

The good.....
The people are amazing! Friendliest people ever, everyone trying to help you even if lost in translation.

The food. We were told how Japan was expensive, but we have eaten like kings for 10 quid a day. Food where you pay for a ticket, hand it over, and have it ready by the time you sit down is the future! All food should also come on a stick.

Transport and trains. The rail pass was worth every penny, especially in the big cities where we could avoid the metro in favour of overground. I will probably end up doing the Maths on the ferry but it has saved us £1500 easy. Also the jingles on the train are a nice touch.

Toilets! Public toilets everywhere, no charge, heated seats and built in bidets. My bum has never been happier!

The bad....
You cannot pay on card anywhere, bar a few hotels. For a country so modern this surprised us a bit. Luckily 7/11s are everywhere, and the only places that accept our cards.

FREE WIFI
What this actually means is we will give you a LAN cable in your room, which without a laptop is useless.

Natwest. Stopping my card and having to spend £15 listening to their automated service.

Train stations with underground shopping malls. Just a labyrinth to make you spend money when all you want to do is get out!

The ugly....
The curse of places being shut/scaffolded over continues! The a bomb dome, the expo 70 museum, the treetop walk way, the railway museum are all new additions.

£5 for 1/2 a pint is not happy hour!

The way certain museums have been a bit controversial in making our that Japan was an innocent victim in the war.

All in all amazing though, although I have felt let down by the lack of robot servants and other things from the future I had imagined. I have not seen a single hover board in Japan!