Arigato Japan

More Japanese facts:
1. It isn't really called Japan. It's called Nippon. Japan is what we call it for some reason, it does sound better though.
2. Japan is made up of 4 main islands. It also consists of many smaller ones too, 3,000 in fact!

Although the place can be hectic and in your face it doesn't take long to get away from it all, as we found at Mount Fuji. The people on the whole are really friendly and try and help, unlike in China when sometimes you walk into a place the staff literally run off into a back room rather than deal with you!
There's no-one trying to sell you stuff, no-one staring at you and you're definitely not a target for con-men in such a strong economy. The food is great, unless you don't like fish as it seems most dishes are based around anything that lives in the sea. There are loads of good looking women everywhere, which always helps, and everything is generally very clean and well organised. These guys know what they're doing and the transport around the places are an example of that. It's streets ahead of England. But there are many similarities with good ole blighty that also make the place really cool. I'd love to go back to Japan and miss it immensely. The best in Asia so far!

Japanese fast food. Cheap and great!
Japanese beer. Fair cheap and great!

Hello Kyoto

Another day another city. But this city is the old capital of Japan. It's got history coming out of it's ears and world heritage sites everywhere. There's so many temples dotted everywhere that you've no chance in seeing them all. We saw a couple and they are beautiful but after China and then seeing a couple here you kind of get a bit templed out.
A strange coincedance happened here. A guy from England we'd met in Kawaguchi-ko was stopping in the same place as us. It's odd because it's like seeing someone in Manchester then travelling to London 3 days later to stop in the same place as that person!
There are some really amazing looking streets here that have kept to the original old Japanese style, wooden build with sliding doors and just a really great look. Kyoto is so photogenic and even though we only spent a day here we took loads of pictures.
Getting to Kyoto was cool in itself as it was the first time we got to use a proper bullet train, Shinkansen. These things are weird. They used to be the fastest in the world, now overtaken by the French TGV, but they still remain quick as hell! When you stand on a platform waiting sometimes trains pass through the station that you had no idea were approaching. They are soo fast and yet quiet it's surreal. They mainly look like aeroplanes on rails and have the interior to match, but with a huge amount of leg room and seriously comfy chairs. All the Japanese travel with beers in tow, and they have a few great beers to choose from, as drinking seems to be a national pass time.
The most famous thing around Kyoto is that it's really the home of the Samurai and Geisha. Around Japan it's quite a regular occurrence to be on the train next to someone wearing traditional Japanese dress, gowns and wooden shoes, both male and female. This is even more common in Kyoto where you see lots of women going out on the town dressed like Geishas even though a lot of the men just wear suits.
It's a great place though and I'd go back, it's kind of a shame that we only had a limited time in Japan as I'd really have liked to spend more like a month there at least.Above, one of the classic streets of Kyoto. Below, one of the many ornate temples.