Today was a bit more of a chilled out day and with no guide to show us the way this time, we jumped on the train and headed for Electric Street. This is another vibrant, busy quarter of Tokyo where the people crowd the streets, touts invite you into the many, many pachinko parlours and you gaze in awe at the sheer number of neon signs that you can't understand. We mooched around various shops, trying not to buy anything as we don't have the budget for it and, more importantly, don't have any room in our packs! Once of the highlights of ambling around Electric Street was coming across a shop called Airs, a DVD shop speiclaising in concert recordings which apparently is famous enough to have been visited by countless rock stars such as ... read more

This is just a selection of pictures from our first day....... read more

Having spent the last 2 days travelling, we donned our best walking shoes and hit the streets of Tokyo. We started the day with a leisurely breakfast at Johnathan's cafe just up the road with our guide, Mako. They say that the Japanese are a reserved bunch but since meeting Mako, our extremely fun and friendly guide, it's fair to say that she is the exception to the rule! What a stroke of luck. We hit it off straight away and before long, she was whizzing us through Tokyo and showing us just what a wonderful city it is. She first introduced us to the Senso-ji Temple in the Asakusa region, guiding us through the rituals involved and giving uis a chance to experience what it is like to worship in Japan. First you have to ... read more

It's been a long time coming but we finally made it! our journey started at 7am Saturday in Birmingham and we arrived 3pm sunday (local time). how's that for an epic first leg? the flight was pretty good and the British Airways staff were superb. We got bumped up twice on our seat reservations and both ended up with extra legroom. there was a lady with a baby due to be sat next to us but as the flight wasn't full, the stewardess moved her back a few rows where she would have more room and we ended up with 3 seats all to ourselves! Aside from the poor selection of movies on board (I think they were aimed at people a lot posher than us), it was just about the most comfotable flight I've ever ... read more

Ok, testing testing, one two, one two. I guess this must be working but it's my first attempt at a blog entry - but so far, so good it seems. Right, where to begin? Well, after weeks of waiting for the sale of our house to go through, the big day finally came on Tuesday (23rd May). Despite the best efforts of the buyers to screw us at the last minute for every possible penny, we signed the deeds and headed off to Birmingham to Glynn's parents' house. We'll only be here for a few days as on Saturday, we're finally off! That's right - Japan, baby! First stop is Tokyo for 7 days, then we move on to Kyoto, Hiroshima and finish up in Osaka. We're all booked up as far as accommodation goes and ... read more