The first week in Japan

The start of the trip with our friends at BA was very uneventful although it was very strange flying for 12 hours and never seeing the sun set or rise and staying in dusk.

The plan when we arrived at the airport was to have a look at the best way to our hotel either via the train or Bus. Being a little jet lagged and very tired we decided to go on the Limo bus service which we thought would take us to the station nearest to our hotel. This plan would have worked if we had remembered the correct station, instead we got off totally the wrong side of Tokyo city, after realising our mistake we decided to bugger the expense and get a taxi to our hotel.

So 3 days in Tokyo, we have seen all the key sites and I have to say we love it. For us it rivals New York, Paris and London as one of the great sight seeing cities of the world, very expensive (London prices) but lots to see and do. I would recommend it to anyone and its definitely on the list of places to re-visit.

Food: The food has been great, we have found Italian, American, Chinese, even Australian restuarants to eat in, the food has been great but the prices high - I will come onto the Japanese food later!

The weather has been nice t-shirt weather with occasional jacket in the evenings until the last day in Tokyo which saw unseasonal 2 inches of snow in most areas of Tokyo, must be global warming or the volcano or something :)

The orginal plan was to visit Kyoto, Hiroshima and Osaka but once we got to Tokyo and read a bit more of the guide book we decided to dump Hiroshima and add in Hakone and Nara which are along the route to Kyoto, so off we trotted to our first adventure outside of Toyko, Hakone. After a long train journey we made a stop at Odawara to change trains, buy another ticket, grab a tea and get some money out of the machines before we went on. I left Emma with the bags while I trotted into town to find a cash machine, after trying 4 or 5 and finding none that had a visa sign let alone had english translation I began to panic. We were down to our last pocket change and needed cash in this very cash based society. After speaking to the tourist info office they directed us to the only machine in town that would give out money to a foriegn visa card, this did not work either. Bugger we are now in trouble, Hakone is a small village in the mountains with little hope of cash machines, also it was a Saturday and all the banks were closed so the only thing we can do is either go forward to Kyoto and hope we find a machine or go all the way back to Tokyo to a known working machine. With heavy hearts we dropped Hakone and the chance of seeing Mt Fuji (and we heard the cherry blossom was still there so Emma was even more bummed as it had passed in Tokyo) and moved straight to Kyoto on the Bullet train - thats the adventures of travelling.

Lesson number 1: Visa is not the same everywhere and is not accepted by most Visa ATM. They only accept Visa cards that are issued in Japan. Kyoto is a huge city with only 1 cash machine able give out money to foreign cards!

So I am writing this blog from a hostel in the cultural centre of Japan Kyoto, our first dorm sleeping accommodation which ironicly costs as much as our comfortable Toyko hotel the first 3 nights.  Yes Japan is very expensive. So are we missing home?  No, we are still loving it.  And have we had our first argument? Not even close.

Sorry for the lack of updates but getting access to machines has been very difficult with Wifi connection for the Iphone non existant.  Please bear with us and we will update when we can.

Oh nearly forgot we had a Japanese meal last night, bloody awful, neither of us liked it, but will try it again.  I am not hopeful, may have to stick to the big yellow arch.

To all the guys at easyJet, good luck with the volcano thing we are watching it unfold on CNN, must be really tough at the moment - joking apart are thoughts are with you.

Will try and update again with a end of Japan review before we hit the ferry and China next Sunday.

This week we have mostly been listening to John Mayer - very cool guy and especially because it was playing in a funky Californian bar overlooking a blustery sea whilst we were on a day trip to Kamkura!

Love to you all, Bill & Emma (aka Tracey Beaker - relates to new hair cut....more next time!!)