I cant believe it's been a week since we arrived already where does the time go?? Anyway, as usual we have a full day of sightseeing planned and this time we are heading to South Kyoto. First on the itinerary is the Tofuku-ji temple, which is meant to be renowned for it's stunning temple and landscaped gardens, especially in Spring and Autumn. After a quick pit stop at the 7-11 for our usual breakfast of steamed pork buns and rice balls (the obvious breakfast choice for the discerning western traveller), we decide to walk back to the Gion district so we can get some pictures of the area in daylight. It's a good 25 minute walk and the sun has came out, so we are absolutely roasting hot. I've decided to wear my big boots again ... read more

Its another early start this morning as we've got to get the bus from Mount Fuji to Mishima and then the bullet train from Mishima down to Kyoto. Plus we both wanted to get up early to see Mount Fuji in all her glory, as its a beautiful clear morning. We wake up at 7am, but somehow find we are still running about at the last minute to make sure we get the 8.30am transfer back to Kawaguchiko station. Greg has gone out in search of the perfect picture but realises halfway along that he has forgotten to put new batteries in doh so has to run all the way back again. I'm in charge of packing everything away which takes longer than anticipated. But we make the transfer and have thankfully pre-purchased our bus tickets ... read more

I wake up feeling good this morning after another cosy night's sleep. I am honestly in love with this hotel room – the bed is super comfy (a rival to any premier inn), it has great climate control to adjust the room temperature and the heated toilet seat is something I could definitely get used to. And the sound proofing is impeccable – you would literally think you were the only guest staying here and there's no cleaners shouting at the top of their lungs and scraping chairs around at 8 in the morning (we've since noticed from staying in other hotels that they all seem to do their cleaning between 10am and 3pm – what a sensible idea!). Unfortunately even though I am definitely sleeping better, I still wake up at 3am then 5am and ... read more

I manage to get quite a good sleep considering my history, and the only disappointment is I wake up 2 minutes before my alarm goes off. But I feel refreshed after a well needed 10 and a half hour sleep lol. It helps the bed is super comfy too. After a morning coffee from our coffee machine in the room (a nice little touch), we are raring to go and armed with our itinerary, head out on our first proper adventure of Tokyo. Yesterday Greg spotted a little pancake place just along the road from our hotel, and as much as we love trying and eating food from other countries, the thought of noodles and dumplings for breakfast is something we cant quite get our head around, so pancakes sound quite ... read more

So its finally the night before our epic holiday to Japan and my original plan is to do an all-nighter before our mega 13 and a half hour flight, but in the end I succumb to tiredness and manage to achieve a full three hour sleep – almost a normal night's amount of sleep for me so i'm pretty happy (even though i'm somewhat bleary eyed when the 4 alarms we have set all start beeping at us at 6am). Checking in for the first leg of our flight is pretty straightforward enough and we are surprised to find one of our former colleagues is on the same flight to Madrid as us so we get to have a little catch up. When we actually board the plane, we realise we are also sitting in the ... read more