We knew travelling in Japan would be expensive but didn’t expect that the world finances would crash while we were here. Laurie has been feeling rather bleak; why didn't he buy US dollars when $1US=$0.90AUS?? Jasmine is more of the opinion that the global financial situation is very much out of her control; whereas things such as global poverty and world peace are much more in her portfolio. Meglamania comes in many forms. Before we left Australia the Aussie dollar was worth 103 yen so Laurie thought we could get away with a reasonable lifestyle and enjoy Japan. The trouble with the dollar started when we were in India but it held up well compared to the rupee. So we could afford an occasional luxury stay in good hotels and taxis to take us places. But ... read more

Laurie: In Hiroshima we are staying at an International Youth Hotel (cause we are still young at heart) which was great as it was on 8th floor with a great view over the city and it had a private bathroom and shower. I hadn’t realised how much I missed that. This is the first place since India that we had a private bathroom. What luxury. It also has broadband internet in the room for free. So we can catch up on blogging and life. Going to the Peace Park and Memorial was deeply disturbing as you might expect. There were thousands of people there everyday. Especially Japanese school students. Most of it I knew but what I wasn’t sure about was whether it was justified. I now believe that it was completely unjustified. 1) it was ... read more

The highlight of Hakodate was going up the mountain at night to look at the lights. (We had arrived at night and were leaving the next morning so it was limited as to what to do!) Hakodate is beautiful because it is a peninsula and you can see around the bay on both sides from the mountain. It was a Saturday night and it was packed. Thousands of people were there. Buses and buses loads. We were umming and arring about getting on a packed bus to get down or wait 30 minutes til the next. When we did squeeze on we met up with Sohyon again! We knew she might be around but had not made a plan to meet up. This was Sohyon's 2nd last day in Japan and she was wanting to see ... read more

When we got to Sapporo we met up with our first Servas family. Servas is an international organisation to build links around the world by hosting travellers from other countries. We found Shoko through the list. She has 2 boys, 12 and 14 and they sounded interesting. We asked if they would host us in Sapporo. I was a bit worried about meeting up with them. I didn't know if we would get on and if the boys would get on. I didn't know how much English they had as Weixiong, Shoko's husband who was away in China had previously done the talking in the arrangements. It worked out fantastically! Shoko's English was great -- and we were able to have good conversations. She is very involved in the organic food movement; through the school and ... read more

I had a bad flu and was not too well in Singapore so we postponed the flight to Tokyo for a couple of days. Then Jasmine was very sick the day after we got to Japan. We took her to a hospital and it turns out she had a gallstone attack. She's never had that before but she is better now but still feeling a bit vulnerable. She has to keep off the fatty food. Laurie looked up the web which said that gall stones are related to female, forty plus, fat and fertile! so kind. Bring on menopause! So we got to see how Japanese hospitals work. Good start to our adventure here, Lucky we have good travel Insurance (provided the company has not gone broke as the stock market melts down). The doctor did ... read more