Dear All Greetings from London! I am not currently travelling, but have just returned from a short three-night visit to the nearby Channel Island of Jersey! I plan to write up my mini-adventure there in two blog entries, after having had a really lovely time there, despite (although actually often because of) pretty much the worst weather that the island could offer. It was refreshing, invigorating, and just wonderful to be out in the fresh, blustery air, refreshing the mind once more after the long autumn term stint at school. In this entry I plan to write up on my first two days there, exploring the west of the island. In my second entry, I plan to write up on my second two days there, exploring the east. To many people not from the UK, I ... read more

Dear All Greetings from Seoul! My final stop on my adventures this summer. I am glad to have arrived here, and feel quite proud of myself for having made it overland and independently from Tokyo to Seoul, having seen some amazing places and had some amazing experiences on the way. It is from Seoul, on Wednesday, that I fly back to my beloved England, and settle into my everyday life again once more, rejuvenated no doubt from having explored yet another corner of the world, and learnt just that bit more about this beautiful planet upon which we live. I am also feeling tired now, and am looking forward to some lovely days of rest in my lovely home, enjoying the post-trip contemplation stage of what has really been a memorable trip. I believe I last ... read more

Dear All Greetings from Andong, the second of my three quick stopovers in the depths of Korea, between Busan and Seoul. By quick, I mean two nights. I usually prefer to spend three nights in a place, unless it’s a place like Andong which only really seems to warrant two. Despite only spending two nights here, I have really enjoyed being here. It’s a lovely city, small and compact, friendly, and compared to Gyeongju, not really a touristy city at all, but seemingly a typical, everyday, working Korean city. This is the kind of place I like to be, to see a country as it really is. And Andong seems the perfect place for it. In addition to its comparative normality, there are also a fair few tourist attractions here, and mainly the amazing Hahoe Folk ... read more

Dear All Greetings! Greetings this time from South Korea, country number 78! I believe I last wrote just about to leave Japan, and was quite sad to do so. Indeed, it has been a bit of a culture shock arriving in South Korea, at once similar but also really very different to its neighbour across the Sea of Japan. I can say it took me a full day to get used to being here. I took the fast ferry from Fukuoka, and arriving in Busan, South Korea’s second largest city at 3.5 million people, the differences were immediately apparent. I think if I were to have come here directly from England, I would have noticed what other travellers I have spoken to have noticed – it is a clean, efficient and well-organised country. Coming from Japan, ... read more

Dear All Greetings from the volcanic island of Kyushu. Well, actually, I believe all islands of Japan are very much volcanic, but Kyushu, in the south-western corner of the country, and particularly Beppu, where I’m at now, seems more so than elsewhere. Japan’s most active volcano, Sakurajima, just opposite the city of Kagoshima, in the far south of Kyushu, has been spewing ash ever since 1955, whilst Beppu is most famous as a very popular Japanese hot spring town resort. Indeed, it is quite touristy, but most of the tourists are Japanese coming from other parts of the country. It feels very much like a holiday resort town, and the main reason why I decided to include it on my journey is that it is both off-the-beaten track in terms of foreign visitors to Japan, and ... read more