Another day, another country.. Nothing unusual here!! This time we have moved on to Japan where due to the travel time involved, we have only really settled into our hotel. The journey this time was sadly rather boring. The plane full of Japanese was well behaved and despite me mistaking some Wasabe for coloured mayonnaise (sorry, I should say WWAAAAHHHHsabe as that was the noise I made!) nothing to report on this front.

Arrival in Osaka also went smoothly and we cleared customs after the guy who tried to ask the questions gave up when we had no idea what he was saying! We jumped on a train to Kyoto and managed to find our hotel as it was cunningly attached to the top of the new station building there!

After downing our bags (and me taking 10 mins to get some feeling back in my spine after lugging all those shoes by rucksack which is now 4kg heavier than when we left!) we made our way down to the station and off to see the famous Fushimi Inari where a 2 mile trail of Torii gates was used as set for the film 'Memoires of a Geisha'. Good film, good attraction. The gates were pretty mysterious and given the fact it was dusk, this gave an added dimension to this forest setting..

After a spot of J-walking as no-one stops for you on the roads, we got a train back to Kyoto where we had a great Teppanyaki dinner overlooking the city at night. Full and packed for tomorrow, we're off for some Z's now as they are very rare at the moment. Hiroshima awaits.. So do more tales of the unexpected.

L & A