111-121 Nathan Rd, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

Days 15-17 Fukuoka Our hostel was shit. After the sketchiness with the check-in, we realised that that meant anyone who had the same experience as us couldn't leave reviews as they insisted we cancelled our booking on arrival so they could keep the money that had been taken out of Maddy's account already as a deposit. Upon further investigation we realised loads of the reviews were presumably fake. They were in Japanese reviews and rated the hostel as a 10 in every category. At best it was a 5 overall. The location was meh, the whole place was a bit grimy, and there were strange rules such as only being able to use the men's showers between 3pm and 11pm. This meant no morning showers for me and Ville. In addition there was a lights out policy for the communal areas at 11pm. Great. Mental note made to study reviews more thoroughly in future! We decided that after the intense couple of weeks we had had that we would have a chilled few days in Fukuoka. We headed down to the nearest beach - Momochi Seaside Park. It was right in the middle of the city. Surprisingly the beach wasn't that clean - strange for Japan! None-the-less, the location was stellar. It was fairly quiet as well, which surprised us as it was 29 degrees! We hypothesised that it was man-made and the sand was fake, but still had a great day. Activities included drinking, listening to music, and snacking. I bought a corn dog and was amazed at how the mustard/ketchup container worked - you just had to squeeze it in half and it poured two perfect lines of ketchup and mustard on your dog. Nice. I made friends with some Nepalese lads and played football with them - first time I've been able to since my injury. Knee was *mostly* fine, but couldn't really go full pelt. Still nice to be back out there! The next couple of days were spent in much the same fashion, except at a beach slightly further out of the centre - Ikinomatsubara. On the first day, we first headed to Maizuru Park to check out the castle ruins. It seemed there was some sort of children's sport event in the park. We chilled for a bit before heading up to the ruins. The ruins were ruin-ey and had a great view over the city. From there we moved over to Ohori Park to check out the beautiful lake 📷 . We didn't have beers to drink whilst chilling there so decided to move on to wander round a cute little Japanese garden 📷 nearby. After a short stay, we headed on to the beach. We had to navigate a forest apparently infested with vipers to get through to it, but it was so worth it. The sign warning of vipers was in Japanese, so we translated it with Google Translate's augmented reality - with hilarious results 📷 . It was a bank holiday, but despite this there were only a few Japanese people at the beach. I met some Bristol DnB heads who were doing the same journey as us in Japan, but in reverse. I told them about what we had been up to and gave them some tips. Good deed for the day done. The second day there was just us three. Amazing. Naoko said this was because after summer was over Japanese people no longer would go to the beach, regardless of the weather - they believe that the dead come back into the sea during 'Bon' in mid-August, so it's not good to swim during that period. After that the popularity of the beaches declines and the popularity of the mountains increases. I made a banging pop playlist which we smashed out, including the likes of Nelly, Justin Timberlake and R. Kelly, along with a load of commercial Garage. Awesome. At the beach we frolicked in the water some of the time, but several times each we stood on wriggly creatures underwater - it was scary! We hypothesised as to what they could've been but still are none the wiser. A minor inconvenience though, on what was a couple of perfect days at a perfect, beautiful, secluded beach 📷 . Later on we somehow realised that we had been mishearing the shop keepers in Japan for several days - we assumed they had been saying 'Moshi moshi!' when we walked in and had been replying in kind. Naoko told me that that translates to 'Hey! Can you hear me?'. Apparenlty they actually say the equivalent of 'Welcome to the shop'. They must've thought we were crazy! Facepalm. Japan had been absolutely amazing, and this was a nice relaxed end to two of the best weeks of my life. I'll definitely be back.

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Clear Sky, 26°C

2 Chome-4-8 Ōmiya, Chūō-ku, Fukuoka-shi, Fukuoka-ken 810-0013, Japan

Day 14 Miyajima Woke up. Packed up. Went downstairs. Torrential rain. Fuck. Sun had been forecast all day for Miyajima. We checked the again. Miyajima... Sunny all day! With some trepidation we ventured out in our taxi to the station. We hopped on a train. By the time we got off near the ferry port the rain had died down and the sun was starting to shine. By the time the ferry was drawing near to the island the sun was out and we had a great view of the island. Miyajima really was a sight to behold. We entered into a small built up area along the coast of the island, with various landmarks and quaint streets punctuated by a variety of street food stalls and host to (very tame) wild deer roaming free. We headed further into the (what I would describe as a) village and past an impressive five story pagoda up into Momijidani park. The park was very beautiful, there were several bridges and waterfalls 📷 along the way. We started to see signs for a cable car that headed up the mountain. We didn't plan on taking it. We then also saw signs for a trek up the mountain. I opted in. Maddy and Ville were too lazy and opted to explore the village some more. We said our goodbyes, arranged to meet at 4pm and I headed onto the route up the mountain. Bicep was my music of choice for the 2.5km trek to the peak. I would later find out that the trek was up an elevation of 500m. I took a reasonably fast pace up the initial slope, which then gave way to steps of ever increasing steepness. Initially the stream flowed next to the path, but later on ran down the steps that I had to follow. Spurred on by the music and the beautiful mountainous forest surroundings, I pushed on. I regretted leaving my Go Pro in my bag at the station. After a good 50 minutes of uplifting climbing I reached what I thought was the peak. What a feeling. I took a couple of selfies with some shrines 📷 before noticing there was still a further 0.7km to the peak! Oops! My euphoria was wasted on just being near the peak! I pressed on and eventually reached the peak - stopping for a few more pictures, but ultimately disappointed by the lack of visibility. I finally made it to the peak after around 60 minutes total walking - a lot less than the predicted 90 minutes. I came to the conclusion that Japanese liked to overestimate times because the theme park queue times also had been overestimated. I chilled at the top of the mountain for a bit on the observation deck, feeling accomplished, before I suddenly heard shouts of 'Sugoi!' (a Japanese exclamation) followed by several people suddenly jumping up to take pictures... The clouds at the top of the mountain were clearing and we could see the smaller islands and the mainland! It was a sight to behold 📷 and a just reward for my efforts. I took a few more pics and started to head back down, stopping a couple of times to take more on the way. Eventually after I passed the cable car stop the amount of people on the path had died down. With that in mind I decided to half-jog down the rest of the mountain whilst listening to DnB...This was a lot of fun and thankfully my knee held out! I arrived back near the park with an hour to kill before meeting the others. I noticed a sign denoting a Nature Walk up to a Nature Park... I wouldn't have time to go the whole way but I noticed a couple of other paths heading vaguely in the direction I needed to be. It would be a detour, but one I wanted to take as I didn't want my forest adventure to end just yet, and had some time to kill. With the Hospital Records Spotify Playlist on shuffle I headed up the path. Immediately I noticed that this path was definitely less beaten and often a lot narrower than the path I had become accustomed to on the mountain trek. No worries. Consulting my Maps app I was encouraged by the fact that all the paths I had seen on the 'real life' sign were present on my GPS and my position was tracking well. I pushed on and made it to the spot where I had to turn off. Turning off, I realised I had gained a fair bit of elevation again and could see across to the cable car heading up to the mountain 📷 . I decided to jog again. I could tell that no one had been this way for quite some time by the fact I was running through spider webs at a rate of one a couple of minutes! I'm not scared of spiders so just brushed them off and kept going. The combination of the music, the setting, the fact my knee was holding out and the weather made me feel absolutely free. It was incredible! ...Until the path stopped. I had time to retrace my steps and go back but being the stubborn bastard I am I decided to go 'off-piste' in the hope that I would join back onto the track shortly. It was around this time that my GPS stopped tracking quite so well. I pressed on, looking for less overgrown areas to pass through. The spiders webs were growing in size, as were the spiders inhabiting them. Eventually I realised that I wasn't going to rejoin the path, and that I wasn't going to have time (or necessarily be able) to rejoin the path I had left and make it to the meeting point in time. Drastic measures were in order. I decided to take the as the crow flies route back towards the village, hoping I would find another path to join onto. Mistake. Covered in sweat and spiders webs I headed deeper into the forest, down a small ravine, dodging spiders webs and slipping on treacherous ground along the way. At the bottom my feet got soaked in a huge puddle. I pressed on and began to climb up to the other side, every branch I grabbed or set foot on seemed to give way. Panic was starting to set in, but I managed to stay reasonably calm... If I could just make it up this slope I'd be able to see better. I made it to the top and thankfully there was a clearer area! Surely there would be a path here! Nope. All I could see was seemingly insurmountable obstacles in the direction I needed to go. At this point the only option was to press on though as in terms of distance I was so close to the village. I struggled through, again avoiding more huge spiders, and trying not to think too much about the snakes and other wildlife whose habitat I was invading. Eventually I found a toppled tree that had cut a path for me. I started to walk down it. Too slippery. I slid along it feet first with my butt resting on it. It was slimy. I made it about half way down it and slipped! Thankfully this time the branch I was holding onto above didn't give way and I managed to drop down to the ground below. Suddenly I could see a relatively clear way through the woods. I crossed a concrete block over a stream and came across a large group of deer who looked *very* confused to see a person coming from that direction. Not wanting to startle them I kept my distance and walked slowly past them - as I was still panicking it didn't cross my mind to take a picture of them - a shame, as it was a beautiful sight to see a pack away from the lone deer you get in the village sharking for food. It was at this point I saw it. A path! After following the path for a short while, and stalking down some very steep steps; a very weary, dirty, scratched up and spider web covered Dave emerged from forest and back into the village. What an adventure, but not one I'd want to be taking again any time soon! I headed to the meeting point along the coast and tried to get the worst of the filth off me before the others arrived - still managed to be 20 minutes early! We chilled for a bit there and took in the view before heading back on the ferry and train, picking up our bags and jumping on the bullet train to Fukuoka. I was very keen to arrive as soon as possible to our new digs and jump in the shower! In Fukuoka we managed to navigate the bus, eventually, and arrived at our new hostel. We were greeted by a guy who insisted that the only way they could keep the money they had taken from Maddy's account as a deposit (the full amount of money for our stay!) we would have to cancel our booking... Else we'd have to pay again and Maddy wouldn't get the money back for a month! Sketchy! I grabbed a shower, we grabbed some food in the local area and found the nearest 7-11 (essential in Japan for ATM and food!) before getting some rest with plans to have a much needed beach day the next day.

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Clear Sky, 19°C

Japan, 〒810-0013 Fukuoka-ken, Fukuoka-shi, Chūō-ku, Ōmiya, 2 Chome−4−8, ＲＯＤＥＭｈｏｕｓｅ

Day 13 Hiroshima We left early for Hiroshima, sad to leave amazing Osaka, but happy to be moving on. Due to it being a bank holiday we were unable to stay in Hiroshima for more than one night so had to fit everything into two days - including travel to Hiroshima from Osaka and from Hiroshima to Miyajima island and on from there to Fukuoka. With that in mind, upon arrival into Hiroshima on the bullet train, we quickly dropped our bags off at our hotel and headed out in the rain (again...)📷 to find some food before visiting the peace park. We settled on Okonomiyaki close to our hotel - this is a type of traditional Japanese savoury pancake which is a speciality in Hiroshima. The literal translation is 'grilled as you like it' and the base of the recipe is a thin pancake grilled with shredded cabbage and egg and topped with some sort of meat. The particular place we ate at topped this with noodles and pork. I opted for grilled squid on mine, and topped it off with some of Ville's extra spring onions... Thanks Ville! The food was delicious and very filling, and whilst we were eating we were joined by a gang of school kids📷 who were presumably on a school trip to Hiroshima. We commented on how well behaved they were and how if it was us at school there would've been all sorts of mischief a'gwan. Guess what they say about the Japanese having good discipline is true - the teachers were sat at another Okonomiyaki restaurant (there were loads in the same building) and left the kids on their own in the one we were at but not one of them pushed the boundaries at all. In some ways impressive but in others a little bit sad - if you cant act like a kid when you are a kid, then when can you? An interesting difference in culture, certainly. We moved on to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial museum in the Peace Park. This place was educational, moving and emotionally difficult in equal measures. First up was a lecture given in English by a Japanese woman whose teacher and mother had both been in the outskirts of the city when the bomb hit. Her teacher's story was particularly hard-hitting. He had been at school when the bomb hit. First he described a blinding light and a blast. Many of his school friends were killed immediately. He went outside and found a school friend with a large cut on his head and managed to get him to safety despite him being unable to walk due to the soles of his feet being burnt. He described the city as 'hell on earth' and that all you could see was red everywhere due to the flames. He went back to the school and tried to save more people from the wreckage but the flames were coming and the beams were too heavy. He had to apologise and leave them to die. He said this haunted him to his grave - I was almost in tears at this point. Her mother had described how her mother (the lecturer's grandmother) and sibling had been lost in the bombing as their house had been near the centre of the blast. Their bodies were never found. Then I watched more video testimonials by survivors. It was truly moving. We went on to learn about how the bomb came to be dropped. My abridged understanding of this is as follows: The war was coming to an end and the US were looking at invading Japan with ground troops to force a surrender; however the Soviets would have been involved in this. America didn't want the Soviets to be involved as they feared they would have more political influence following the end of the war if they were. UK scientists had already convinced the US to research nuclear bombs. The US spent $1 billion doing so which had caused unrest in the US - the powers that be thought it was more justifiable if the technology was actually deployed. Japan were also refusing to surrender on terms that included the dissolution of the Japanese Empire and introduction of (our idea of) democracy. Due to all of the above reasons it was decided that a nuclear bomb would be dropped on Japan to end the war. Air raids were already being conducted across Japan with several potential sites for a nuclear bomb to be dropped left untouched as the Americans wanted to measure how much damage a nuclear bomb would do - a sort of grim science experiment. Japan were offered a deal to end the war which the Alliance knew they would not accept as it included the dissolution of the Empire - something which Japan had already declined to accept. Japan were not warned of the consequences of not accepting this deal would be. They weren't even informed that America had nuclear weapons ready for deployment. The deal was declined and the date was decided and the bomb was dropped at 08:16 on the 6th of August 1945. Around 70'000 were killed instantly, with the total deaths rising before the end of the year to 140'000. A terrible act, and one that was repeated mere days later in Nagasake. I pray that it's one that is never repeated again. A lot was said about how the people of Hiroshima have since dedicated themselves to ending nuclear armament and it frankly disgusts me that since we have since created nuclear weapons which are 645 times more powerful than the bomb that was dropped that day. We visited the rest of the Peace Park, including one of the only buildings left standing - The Atomic Bomb Dome 📷. It had been directly below where the bomb was dropped. We also visited a burial mound where 70'000 unidentifiable remains were buried as ashes, and the cenotaph commemorating those who lost their lives that day. I rang a peace bell 📷 which whilst a nice gesture felt a bit hollow given the current conflicts across the globe. It had been a moving day, indeed. We headed back to the hotel reasonably early. Ville grabbed us some food from McDonald's before Maddy and Ville headed out for some drinks in the evening. I stayed in and blogged, looking forward to Miyajima Island - supposedly an island so beautiful that you had to set foot on it to really appreciate it.

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Clear Sky, 24°C

2 Chome-4-8 Ōmiya, Chūō-ku, Fukuoka-shi, Fukuoka-ken 810-0013, Japan

Day 12 Universal Studios Japan - Osaka Maddy and Ville had decided to head to Kobe for the day, however Vicki had been most insistent that I visited USJ as their Halloween celebration was on and they have a zombie takeover of the whole park when night falls. With that in mind I had decided to head there on my own - however Naoko luckily managed to get the day off work so I had a friend with me, which made the day even better. Strangely, in Japan, at all convenience stores, you are able to buy tickets for the local attractions, so to avoid queues we managed to do this in the morning before catching a couple of trains over to USJ. Even before you make it into the park-proper the surrounding areas are all set up like an American-style city, surrounding you with Hollywood style restaurants and shops including Hard Rock Cafe. We headed into the park and I was not expecting it to be so immersive - the closest experience I can compare it to in the UK is Boomtown - with all the different areas built up perfectly to match their themes. A true 'theme' park. First up we headed to Jurassic Park for the Flying Dinosaur. This is a rollercoaster that is similar to 'Air' in Alton Towers in that you're lifted up so you are facing the floor, 'flying' round the track head first. It's also the only roller coaster I've ever been on with a full forward loop. Really good fun, and an amazing view of the park and surrounding areas. Onward to the Jurassic Park ride - I didn't realise that this was a water ride until we were nearly on the ride. It's a boat tour of Jurassic Park, complete with theme music and giant animatronic dinosaurs. Starts off pretty tame going past herbivores and such, before a fork in the road where a 'malfunction' occurs, taking you into an unauthorised area filled with carnivores jumping out at you from the dark recesses of the generator area, culminating with a giant T-Rex jumping out at you from above before a steep drop into the water below. How could we have made the same mistake as at Fuji-Q and gotten soaked feet (and everything else!) once again at the start of the day? Thankfully at this point the sun came out, and we dried off pretty quickly! Space Fantasy was an inside ride where you queued in a space port before being whisked round a track on a spinning space ship with amazing space visuals throughout. Next up was Hollywood Dream - a long rollercoaster with a personal soundsystem in every seat that you can choose the track on, with favourites such as Justin Timberlake and Pitbull... I stuck with the J-Pop they select for you! No loops, but a fun ride none-the-less, that covers half of the park - again with great views. We chilled in the park area for a bit and took in the views over the lake in the middle of the park - once again beautiful!📷 The Chucky horror maze was pretty scary, with Chucky staring at you menacingly and jumping out at every corner. Creepy and shocking in equal measures. Spiderman was another inside rollercoaster, however this one was in '4D'. You queue through the offices of the Daily Bugle, with J Jonah Jameson greeting you at every turn through smart quips on posters all throughout - most of them threatening you with being fired. The ride itself had you put on 3D glasses and travel through New York whilst Spiderman fought villains from the sewers to the rooftops, often with you being attacked with flames (shot with heat cannons), sprayed with water (self explanatory), or electrocuted (vibrating chairs). It ended with a huge drop off a building before inevitably being caught by Spiderman whilst he simultaneously tied up all the villains. A really novel experience being part 4D movie, part rollercoaster and part flight sim. We checked out the parade next, which included dancing Minions and Persian Dancers, amongst other things. We entered the Cyberdyne Systems offices next where we were taken on a tour by a presumably insane and fairly demanding Japanese woman who I'm sure from the reaction of the crowd (and my own intuition) was making loads of hilarious jokes - unfortunately I couldn't understand a thing and it was too fast paced for Naoko to translate for me. We were led into a demo of the new Terminator models. This was hacked by John and Sarah Connor (I presume) who then intruded on the demo. The T2000 then attacked and killed the Japanese lady and before long a Japanese Arnie had somehow appeared on a motorbike to save the day! This was also in 4D and I must admit I did struggle a bit with this as it was quite a long show and fully in Japanese. Still good fun, but frustrating as I think it would've been a real highlight as the acting throughout seemed stellar - I just couldn't understand it. Next we entered The Maze 3 - A Nightmare On Elm Street branded horror maze. This one we were split into groups and all forced to march through the Freddie themed maze slowly all holding onto a short rope. Whilst being fully immersive and a great representation of the series I didn't find this one quite as scary as the first, although there was one jump scare which got me - badly! Finally 6PM was nearing, so we chilled until the main event of the day... Zombies! As darkness fell the whole park was invaded by multiple kinds of zombies running round in packs. From chainsaw zombies, to mental patients, to twisted kids, big fatties 📷 and zombie midgets we were harassed and harangued by hordes of the undead and (badly) protected by SWAT teams whose idea of saving us seemed to be putting us into more precarious positions than before. There were multiple mobs of zombies throughout the park with set pieces such as: -A human being attacked on the bonnet of a car by a group of zombies led by a midget (all the while being attacked by zombies from behind as we crowded around to watch). -SWAT team leading park guests onto a bus before the bus was raided by zombies. -SWAT team leading guests (including us!) into a cage for 'protection' only for zombies to break down the door and chase us all out. -A zombie flash dance led by a hench tribally tattooed zombie. -A zombie woman locked in a cage with other zombies joining her before they started feasting on something out of sight at the front of the cage... When we approached we were sprayed with blood (water!). -A little girl zombie stood on a podium maniacally laughing with a teddy bear. All in all there must've been around 20 types of different zombies, each with their own personalities, looks and sounds. Amazing immersion and acting. What an experience! Thanks Vicki for convincing me that I had to go. Taking respite from the Zombies we headed to The Wizarding World Of Harry Potter. After a short walk through the grounds of Hogwarts, including a quick pass by of the Weasley's abandoned car, we were into a real-life Hogsmeade. It was absolutely incredible, with all the shops represented well, such as Zonko's Joke Shop, Honeydukes, The Hog's Head, .Wiseacre's Wizarding Equipment, Dervish and Bangs and so on. Again the immersion and style was spot on with Hogwarts Castle illuminated in the background. I was shocked to realise that we could walk all the way up to Hogwarts 📷 and inside it. Truly a sight to behold at night! Inside the castle we passed through all the sights including a classroom (unsure which), Dumbledore's office (complete with Dumbledore hologram), The Great Hall and up the staircase - complete with unsettling pictures where some would occaisionally subtly move, some would speak to you and even the ones that didn't had eyes that seemed trained on you at all times - I can't stress how cool this was as they appeared to be real paintings but were animated in a such a convincing way that you still thought them to be paintings despite the animation. Next up was The Forbidden Journey - another 4D rollercoaster in the same vein as Spiderman, however this one was half animation, half real models and took us all around the grounds of Hogwarts including The Chamber of Secrets, The Triwizard Tournament and a game of Quidditch. No sign of He Who Must Not Be Named, but plenty of Dementors causing all sorts of mischief before being Expecto Patronum'd away by Harry, just before he caught the Golden Snitch. I'm really running out of superlatives to describe how awesome this was! As we came out of Hogwarts suddenly the castle was illuminated by a blueish light. Harry, Ron and Hermione appeared as did another student - unsure which due to the half English, half Japanese dialogue. Suddenly there were Dementors flying all over the castle, before one attacked the nameless student on the roof with the Dementor's kiss. Many Patronuses were cast before they all joined as one to finally get rid of the Dementors for good. The nameless student was somehow alright as well - not sure how they got away with that one! A quick trip to look over Hogwarts Lake (again, amazing view of the castle), before we headed through the zombie horde once again to ride the Flying Dinosaur one last time before leaving the park We ended up grabbing Takoyaki for dinner📷 , this time with many different toppings - I somehow managed to eat 16 this time, quite a feat! Naoko also showed me the correct way to use chopsticks (post included picture) finally! We hopped on the train back and said our goodbyes - hopefully we'll meet again one day!

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Day 11 Osaka After the karaoke adventure the night before, I had a well deserved lie-in. With Ville feeling unwell, Maddy and I headed into Osaka to meet up with a friend-of-a-friend of hers and left him to rest/recover. Maddy's friend was called Yoko - a friendly, well travelled Japanese woman who was friends with her friend Chris. We wandered around the area local to us for a while, before stopping for Takoyaki. Takoyaki is an amazing ball shaped shallow fried Japanese snack made from wheat-flour batter and octopus scraps with other ingredients such as ginger, spring onions and various different Japanese sauces. An Osaka speciality. Can't recommend it enough - delicious! 📷 My hangover started to catch up with me so I headed back to the flat to chill and (not) write my blog, whilst Maddy checked out Osaka castle. In the evening we went to see the local football derby in the semi-final of the Levain cup - Cerezo Osaka vs Gamba Osaka, both top flight teams. We picked the Gamba Osaka end as we figured the atmosphere would be better in the away end. We weren't prepared for just how good the atmosphere was though! From start to finish the away fans sang the entire time, with most of the chants having set movements as well - the highlight being a funny chant where everyone marched back and forth whilst singing it. Interestingly, despite being in the away end, one of the fans had a megaphone which was connected to a PA at the back of the stands and led all of the chants. It worked so well, and makes me wonder which more grounds don't employ a similar system in the UK - the away ends don't normally need it, but having a section in the home stands for supporters who want to sing would work wonders for atmosphere in grounds which are often dominated by rich supporters who go for a family day out and tourists. Thanks to Ville for the pre-match video and selfie📷 : https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10156934758876164&id=542691163&ref=content_filter As for the game... Wow! What a match! It started out slow and scrappy, but eventually Gamba took the lead with a speculative shot from distance that the keeper should've done better with. Gamba then took control of the game and kept possession, however they were moving the ball slowly from side to side in their 442. There were warning signs when Cerezo won the ball back and attacked much more directly, eventually culminating with an excellent turn-and-shoot from the edge of the box by the big brazilian up top Ricardo Santos. A side footed curling lob into the top corner... Not sure why the keeper was off his line, but it was an amazing finish - a joy to see live (aside from the fact it was against the team we were supporting!). One thing that was amazing to see though was the attitude of the supporters - a few seconds of silence after the goal, then back to chanting to gee the team up again to get them back into it. In the second half the game really came to life, with chance after chance falling to Gamba... They just could not finish though. It was a familiar sight for me as an Arsenal fan when close to time Cerezo took the lead with a header from a needlessly given away free kick which was the result of a counterattack which had already been stemmed before the foul was committed. A nervy few minutes followed, but after a slick back heel by the winger, the Gamba wingback (it may have been the other way round - unsure!) made it to the by line and delivered a low cross finished with aplomb by Haruya Ide. The match ended 2-2, however Gamba had netted two away goals - so not the worse result. It'll definitely remain in my memory as one of the best games and best atmospheres I've been in at a football match. Not bad for a game where we didn't know what to expect! Headed back home for a couple of beers and had a long ordeal trying to sort out our accommodation for the rest of our Japan trip. Eventually got it sorted and headed to bed - excited for the day that lay ahead - Universal Studios Japan!

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Clear Sky, 26°C

Japan, 〒730-0037 Hiroshima-ken, Hiroshima-shi, Naka-ku, Nakamachi, 9−12, 中町三井ビル

Day 10 Osaka After checking out, we made our way across Osaka to our new Airbnb apartment - it was located in Ebisucho. On the way there Vicki informed us that this was a pretty sketchy area of Osaka as it had links to Yakuza, and that Japanese people often did not want to live there. However, we were in the Northern most part of it, and by Japanese standards when something is sketchy it really isn't sketchy... It's just like... Normal in the UK. In pretty much any city in Japan you can leave your belongs unattended and no one will even think about stealing them. According to Vicki, Hyde Park (Leeds, not London) was much more dangerous than Ebisucho. With that in mind we weren't really concerned at all as we went to drop our bags at the apartment before checking in. The apartment was located on the 9th floor of a high rise. We picked up the keys from the post box downstairs and made our way up. To her surprise, Maddy was greeted by a half naked Japanese man when she opened the door. He quickly slammed it back shut. We were very confused by this and assumed that we had made a mistake somehow, however it turned out that it was just the cleaner changing out of his work clothes... Poor guy! We dropped our bags off in what was a modest but pleasant apartment. The only minor issue being that the the wall between the bedroom and living room where I was sleeping was a retractable, three-part, translucent glass door. No big deal though - for the price, the location was excellent - very central! We headed out to check in at the office for the Airbnb, approx. a 15 min walk away. On the way we noted that Osaka was a lot more spacious than Tokyo, with wider roads and larger pavements. It looked like there were some cool shops around too, and in general it had a much more pleasant atmosphere - we all agreed that we thought we would enjoy Osaka a lot. We got to the address and couldn't see it anywhere, however on further inspection we noticed a small entrance leading to some offices in a high rise. On further inspection we noted the address did indeed state 6F, but the offices there had a strange name which escapes me - something to do with Lifestyle Services, perhaps. After confirming with the host that this was indeed the place we headed up to meet two girls in a disheveled office which was half office, half covered in old toys strewn across the floor. The girls were very friendly, but seemed to find everything amusing, giggling at every response. They then proceeded to speak some Spanish to Maddy and Ville because their home address was in Barca - not the first time that has happened in Japan! Another 'only in Japan' moment! We headed out of the offices and further into Osaka. Together, we checked out the 'Tekken Museum' in an arcade. It turned out to be a small collection of memorabilia from throughout the years, some hand drawings, and a couple of Tekken statues in opposition, along with a load of Tekken 7 machines. I grabbed a picture of me being punched by the Kazuya statue and we moved on. Maddy and Ville headed to a market and I made my way to get a haircut. Approx an hour later I emerged with a fresh fade, overly choppy fringe and overly thinned out top - the barber really didn't like how thick my hair was and ended up chopping into it for a long time! To be fair, it was a good cut overall, and I shouldn't complain too much. Despite the complaints above I'd still give it an 8/10. I was treated really well there as well - if you're even in Osaka and need a trim defo check out John Wayne barbers! Throughout my travels I've been using Tinder to try to meet fellow travellers or friendly locals as I'd heard it was good for making friends when travelling, however despite chatting to a few people we didn't meet up with anyone...Until today! I'd made friends with a girl on Tinder called Naoko from Osaka. She was into DJing, anime, gaming, eating out and going to bars... Perfect! She seemed like her English was close to perfect and we asked her to recommend us a place to eat where we could all hang out - she recommended Tachizushi a 10 min walk away from us. We agreed to meet and she warned me that her English wasn't great - this surprised me given how easily we'd been chatting through messages. We arrived at the restaurant pretty much on time and a cute Japanese girl with half black, half green hair approached us outside, it was Naoko! 📷 I was a little shocked as despite seeing her pics on Tinder/Insta I didn't realise she was only about 5ft tall - it's easy to forget that people are generally a lot shorter over here. To give you some context, I feel pretty tall in general here! She was very sweet and her English was definitely good enough to get by in England or make small talk but with some subjects a definite language barrier was present... Nothing that wasn't easily overcome by the Google Translate App, however - thank god! The Sushi was delicious and we all decided to carry on the night - asking Naoko to take us to some local bars. We ended up in this cool building which has a square corridor with loads of small, unique bars in it - including a Super Famicom (SNES) bar... Unfortunately that one was full, so we ended up in another bar called 'Individual'. This bar had a 2 player arcade table game, where you would take it in turns at playing a classic style space shoot'em up. In teams of two we once again competed against each other - Me and Nao defo had the upper hand overall, but Ville manage to set the highest score overall, much to my chagrin. Onwards to karaoke, but first into Dotonbori. This is a crazy area of Osaka, covered in neon and above a canal - we had briefly been there earlier, but it was nice to come back at night time. Naoko showed us a strange neon running man, which apparently is very popular and then explained to us that when the baseball team won people were jumping into the canal from the bridges. The whole top half of the area is covered in neon lights and huge anamorphic crabs and other animals on the side of the buildings. The bottom half is filled with bars, restaurants, arcades and street food. An amazing area, well worth visiting.📷📷 We headed to 'The Drunken Clam' - an English Karaoke bar - and had a great night, we met people from all over the world and sung and drank all night. It started out with a very dodgy rendition of My Name Is by Enimen (the less said, the better) and Maddy nervously singing Amy Winehouse (with a little bit of help from me!) but from then on we gained confidence and drunkenly decided to live stream a couple of our perfomances of Oasis and Linkin Park to Facebook - Cringe! Definitely a highlight of our trip so far - I would recommend karaoke to anyone - so much fun! We hit up one more bar - Zerro - with some Canadians we had met, including a dope tattoo artist, Scott (Insta: ShaolinMonkTattoos), who promised me a freebie if I ever came to visit him in Toronto, so, shout out to you Scott! I'm holding you to that! A little bit worse for wear we headed back to the apartment, with Naoko surprising us en route with some Japanese snacks for us to enjoy over the next couple of days - so lovely of her.

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Clear Sky, 19°C

Japan, 〒730-0037 Hiroshima-ken, Hiroshima-shi, Naka-ku, Nakamachi, 9−12, 中町三井ビル

Day 9 Kyoto > Arashiyama > Osaka Woke at 10 for an 11 checkout to the sounds of heavy rain. Snoozed 'til 10:30. Mistake. In a sleepy haze I roamed around the apartment packing my stuff. I was just putting the final touches to my packing when I heard the cleaners arrived. 'That's fine' I thought to myself. Wrong. It was raining outside and the cleaners were refusing to come in until we had left the flat. Maddy informed me of this predicament so I hurriedly grabbed all of my stuff and made my way downstairs. My shoes were facing odd directions, which is a faux pas in Japan (they must face the door) and just as I was about to put them on, one of the cleaners grabbed them and turned them round to face the door. I didn't react to this, as I knew why they did it, having read about it in an article a couple of days prior, but it did seem fairly pointless as I was about to leave! Finally managed to get my shoes on and trudged out into the rain to finish putting my bag together and putting my rain cover on. Did I mention it was raining a lot? We made our way to Kyoto station to drop off our bags at the lockers and then headed out to Arashiyama to visit the Bamboo forest. We jumped off the train in Arashiyama and back out into the wet. Did I mention it was raining? Hopeful that under the bamboo we'd be sheltered from the torrid precipitation, we hastily made our way towards the forest. Upon our arrival we discovered that although the drops were fewer in number there, they seemed to have joined on the shoots above us to form larger drops seemingly just to cause us more discomfort. Did I mention how wet it was? Despite the weather, the forest was like nowhere I've ever been. 6-7m shoots of green bamboo extended upwards in every direction. Ville hypothesised that this forest was used as one of the stock background images for Windows back in the day. A theory that is as of yet still unconfirmed. By dumb luck we bumped into Mara (babe), Gerard and Miriam📷 . Small world. We got a couple pics with them then headed back out of the forest to search for food. We ended up at a strange 'pension' (guesthouse) called Mind Games. We were greeted by lovely elderly Japanese woman and treated to some strange western pasta which had tomato sauce, mushrooms and frankfurters. Maddy tried Japanese pasta which was, and I quote, 'fishy and too sweet, but ok, just too sweet'. Interesting. We had decided to head to Arashiyama Monkeypark and on the way were accosted by Japanese schoolchildren who were tasked with interviewing us. We answered their questions and every answer was greeted with 'oohhhhhh's of amazement. They took a photo with us and unfortunately we didn't remember to get a picture with them. A lovely moment, despite the rain. We headed up to the Monkeypark. A 20 minute trek up into the mountainous forest, punctuated by multiple choice monkey questions such as 'What do Japanese Macaques eat? Snakes, Spiders or Cicadas'. The answer was Cicadas, but left us wondering if snakes and spiders also inhabited this forest we were trekking ever deeper into. We finally made it to the top, sweating, but also wet from the perpetual downfall we had become so accustomed to. There were macaques everywhere! So kawaiiiii! A whole colony, all completely used to humans being around them just chilling out around a 'rest house' at the top of a massive hill📷📷 . Defo worth the rainy trek and the admission price. The view over Arishiyama was amazing too. Japan is a seriously beautiful place, with most cities we've visited placed between mountainous hills/forests. Awesome. We headed into the rest house for a bit, where you could buy food to feed the monkeys through the wire windows. The monkeys would be climbing all around the edges waiting to be fed. Notably there were several really, really cute baby monkeys roaming about. I love monkeys, they are the best! We observed the monkeys for a bit - everything between mothers with babies, to slightly older monkeys all the way up through the adults and elder monkeys, all with their own distinct personalities. The monkeys were all tracked through their maternal line also, which was a nice touch that showed the keepers really did keep a close eye on them and look after them well. The rain finally subsided a bit and we headed back down to catch our train back to Kyoto and then on to Osaka📷 . On the train back I *finally* finished the book Megan had given to me well over a year ago - Foundation by Asimov. A fantastic read for anyone who likes sci-fi, politics and social manipulation. The general plot revolves around the downfall of a futuristic civilisation and the steps taken to ensure that downfall lasts for the minimal time possible. Asimov was so far ahead of his time it's incredible. Our first room in the hostel in Osaka was a bit of a nightmare - it had two roll out beds on the bottom floor which took up most of the room, and my bed was above them up a small set of stairs. We spent the eve doing washing and finding our digs for the next few days - thankfully we manage to get an apartment in a fairly central place in Osaka for reasonably cheap... We were looking forward to moving on to there a lot. Maddy and Ville headed to bed and I spent a few hours blogging before sneaking back into the room to get some rest.

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Clear Sky, 21°C

Japan, 〒530-0037 Ōsaka-fu, Ōsaka-shi, Kita-ku, Matsugaechō, 6−1, グロウビル

Day 8 Nara/Kyoto After falling asleep at 4am after failing at writing my journal I woke at 5:30am feeling like someone was stabbing me in the stomach. Great. What's the saying? 'Better out than in'? And so it was. Note to self: don't eat *all* the junk food on a hangover. Back to bed. Woke in time to hear Maddy and Ville getting ready to go to Nara. Wasn't going to be ready in time. Fell back asleep. Woke again. Didn't want to waste another day so quickly got ready and headed out to Nara. Nara 📷 is a City just outside of Kyoto with a huge park at the foot of a mountain. The park is essentially woodlands with concrete paths through it, with various gardens, shrines and temples dotted around it. It's also home to some of the most tame deer you will ever see 📷 . I made it to the edge of the park and delivered the keys to Maddy and Ville as they were on their way back and ventured into the park alone. I wandered for a while before it started to turn dark and I headed back towards Nara's centre. I navigated past several shrines, but unfortunately didn't have time to make it to the foot of the mountains before it got dark, and the botanical gardens were shut by the time I arrived. I did however managed to pet a mother deer whose baby was in close proximity. A heartwarming experience, indeed. Back through Nara and onto the train in anticipation of watching the Arsenal game at an Irish pub in Kyoto. I had some success with my (very) limited Japanese when I managed to alert a guy that he had left his headphones on his seat by using 'sumimasen' (thanks Vicki!). However, failure to check/confirm my route properly ended up with missing the first 20 mins of the game, followed by the bar staff kindly switching to a different game at 70 mins, means throughout the season I've still only seen a total of approx 90 mins of Arsenal live on TV - the least I've ever watched since I started properly following football about 12 years ago. Oh well. At least we won 2-0! Maddy and Ville's friends had arrived earlier in the day and they had all just met for some food nearby to the Irish pub, so I headed over to say hello and get some food. They were in an Izayaka restaurant, which is similar to Tapas. Their friends were Gerard, Miriam and Mara, whom they had met at a previous job. I was so impressed with Gerard and Miriam's Japanese. It transpired they had lived here for some time before. Mara really reminded me of my friend Lara, despite being Italian, not Palestinian. 📷 The Izayaki was... Interesting! Many dishes of many different varieties were consumed... The most interesting probably being 'Cod Innards in Spicy Sauce' and 'Liver in Teriyaki Sauce'. Both of these were ordered without knowing what they actually were before they arrived. To be fair, I enjoyed both, but couldn't have eaten a lot of either! The Teriyaki sauce was some of the best I've ever tried, however. The most boring dish award definitely goes to Mara - she attempted to liven up her plain cabbage first with butter and then with ketchup... Top marks for effort Mara! Ville disappeared back home but the rest of us wanted to grab another drink. After the meal we went out to see Miriam and Gerard's old boss in the bar they used to work in. They managed to convince him that they were married and that this was their honeymoon and that she was pregnant. They achieved this despite Gerard being fairly obviously gay, and the fact that they were with three friends... Who takes friends on a honeymoon!? Onwards to another rock bar. ING. Friendly atmosphere, but a bit more formal and tame than Crunch. I defo preferred Crunch. I'm sure there were a few amusing conversations but the one that sticks out was a further discussion around 'butt spray', with the discovery that a little stick comes out and sprays it; so we now know where the spray comes from, but not how it knows how to aim! I still will never use it again... As there were 5 of us we decided to walk home. On the way back we bumped into a couple of Japanese lads who had a car, cueing Nara and Gerard to debate who could offer them the best 'payment' for the ride home..! We said our goodbyes, as we didn't expect to see the others again as we were leaving for Osaka the next morning. Arrived back at our Airbnb. Noodles, reading and bed awaited.

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Clear Sky, 22°C

Japan, 〒616-8381 Kyōto-fu, Kyōto-shi, Ukyō-ku, Sagatenryūji Ryūmonchō, 18−5, ヤマザキデイリーストア

Day 7 I was too hungover to do anything today. I spent the day facebooking, meme-ing, catching up with friends, playing n64 and reading books. I only left the flat to go to 7-11 for food. I tried to write the day prior's blog, but gave up half way. Ugh. Never again two cans of Strong on pre's.

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Clear Sky, 27°C

2-30 Ebisunobanbachō, Shimogyō-ku, Kyōto-shi, Kyōto-fu 600-8837, Japan

Day 6 Fuji > Kyoto For once we managed to get up on time! This was partially attributed to the fact that we had to check out at 11am before heading on to catch a bus as the first leg of our meticulously planned 5 hour journey to Kyoto. The journey went smoothly - as it should've given the approx. 45 minute Messenger chat/research session Maddy and I had conducted the night prior. We took a bus from Fujikyu Higlands Bus Station to Mishima, grabbed some (cold!) noodles at the station, before catching the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) to Kyoto and then finally grabbing a JR train one stop to Tambaguchi. A short walk was all that separated us from the Airbnb. The only thing really worth mentioning from the journey was that we finally managed to catch a glimpse of the summit of Fujisan! A short time after we boarded the bus Maddy noticed that the seemingly perpetual clouds at the peak of Mt. Fuji had finally cleared; however, it was a fleeting sighting as the clouds were moving back across the front of Fuji, in an opposing direction to our direction of travel. When we realised this we rushed to take photos of the peak, but alas were unable to capture any pictures of note before it was too late. The Airbnb was a fairly simple Japanese terraced house with two twin rooms at the top and a large kitchen/dining/living room on the ground floor. The best feature was definitely the N64 with a wicked collection of games and controllers which were miraculously still in near mint condition. We walked back towards the station to hit up the 7-11 for some alcohol and food, with plans to pre-drink and eat before heading into Kyoto for the night. At Vicki's recommendation I grabbed a couple of cans of 'Strong' 📷 . This is a 9% strength pre-mixed Vodka drink that comes in a 500ml can. I also grabbed a Chicken Katsu ready meal and some noodles to eat when we got back from our night out. We arrived back at the flat, and immediately started playing Mario Kart and drinking. Two things became clear: The competitive natures of Ville and I became quickly apparent and also the ability of Strong to get you drunk very quickly - it's 9% but you drink it pretty much as fast as you would drink a beer! I'm ashamed to say but after a strong start using Kinopio (Toad, in Western Mario games), I switched up to Donkey Kong and Ville started to win - often (to my great irritation) on the very last lap when I'd been first the whole race. We ate some dinner (Chicken Katsu Curry - yum!) and debated whether English or Japanese Ready Meals were better - I said the latter, Maddy and Ville the former. There was some disagreement over what constituted a Ready Meal/which type of Ready Meal we were discussing - I argued that it was just microwave meals that we were discussing, Maddy said that Tesco Finest Eat for 2 for £10 should be included as well... However those are heated in the oven so I disagreed! We researched where we should go out and found a couple of rock bars on a strip of bars in Kyoto and agreed to check those out - we couldn't find anything we fancied in terms of clubbing, and one club said 'no visible tattoos' on the information on the website, which ruled is out and concerned us going forward! Headed into town - lamenting the fact that we didn't have any road beers - and arrived at a rock bar called 'Crunch'. It was completely empty when we walked in, but was covered in (playable) guitars📷 , metal looking trinkets 📷 and the far end was wall to wall in metal DVDs, so we decided to stay for one. The barman was called Mo-chan and was very friendly - he had good English and let us choose which DVD we wanted to listen to - we chose a wide variety including Metallica, Bullet For My Valentine, Slipknot, Sepultura, Mr. Big and some Japanese bands recommended by Mo-chan and some Finnish bands recommended by Ville. Strangely enough, the Bullet DVD was from Brixton at a gig that Maddy had been supposed to go to, but was banned by her parents as she was ill, however we did manage to catch a glimpse of what we assumed to be our friend Adriana in the intro, and after a quick Facebook message to her we confirmed it was her. Small world! We carried on drinking, I had two Sapporo beers and two LARGE glasses of sake. I attempted to play along to For Whom The Bell Tolls by Metallica and completely failed. Two students in Kyoto - a Brazilian named Phil and an Indonesian named Audi came into the bar and we got some recommendations from them and Mo-chan as to where to check out here and in Osaka. We left, a little bit worse for wear 📷 and started the long walk home - so much for bar hopping, we had spent hours in Crunch! During the walk I tried to skateboard on some Japanese dude's deck (and failed - I could barely balance), realised Maddy had crossed the road whilst I was skating, ran to catch up with her, nearly getting run over in the process! Oops! We got home after what felt like forever (45 mins...) and I thanked past-Dave for having the foresight to buy noodles, chowed them down and headed to bed in a drunken stupor...

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Clear Sky, 20°C

691-14 Gokashōyamamotochō, Higashiōmi-shi, Shiga-ken 529-1431, Japan

Day 5 Fuji-Q Theme Park! We woke late again. Surprise, surprise! Managed to get to the park at about 10:30am. On the way I ate this strange japanese melon roll that I had been saving. It was a green bread roll which was filled with melon flavoured goo. Almost like a doughnut. The green colouring turned out to only cover the top layer. Somewhat tasty, but not something I'd buy again. Upon arriving we were informed that the ride with the fastest acceleration in the world was closed. I was irritated by this as Stealth is one of my favourite rides of all time - the adrenaline rush is amazing! However I soon forgot about this once we ventured forth into the park. First up was Eejinaika 📷 . This was the huge rollercoaster we had seen the day before upon arrival into Fujikyu Highlands. We could see it looming ominously above as we made our way towards it and established that initially it started backwards before somehow flipping forwards. We assumed that when you went over the initial drop you were upside down and backwards and were understandably somewhat apprehensive whilst filing through the hour long queue, complete with warnings against the elderly, disabled, diabetic, epileptic and unsure and accompanied by an irritating soundtrack of 'Eejanaika! Eejanaika!' chants. We potentially fell into the unsure category, but for adrenalines sake pretended that we didn't. Eventually we boarded the ride, after removing our shoes and locking up our belongings. Before long we were climbing a large incline, backwards. Before the main drop, there was a small dip - a taster, if you will. It was at this point that I noticed Maddy screaming 'Oh my god! Oh my god!'; I chuckled to myself before sharply being brought back into focus by the impending carnage that proceeded me. I don't think anything could have prepared me for Eejanaika. The only word I can describe it with is 'intense'. Fortunately you didn't go down the first drop upside-down and backwards (it inverted to forwards as you went over the edge), however it was a ride where you had no idea what direction you would be taken next. If you imagine the arms of Samurai at Thorpe Park, and imagine those arms were attached to the rollercoaster with the world record for most twists... You might get somewhat close to the intensity that is Eejinaika. It was the first rollercoaster that I've ever been on where I've gotten off the ride, legs shaking from adrenaline, and said 'I'm not sure if I can go on that again'. Perhaps I'm getting old, or perhaps that ride is the craziest ride I've ever been on. I'm still unsure. Once we had recovered we moved round the park to a more chilled 'coaster - somewhere between a Sky ride and a rollercoaster, where two people could sit, one in the other's lap and go round at a leisurely pace. In the queue a crazy, happy, old Japanese man arrived on his own, muttering and shouting things in his own language. Ville and Maddy got on the first car that arrived. I was left to get the second on my own. My worst fears were confirmed when the old man tried to get into the car with me! Thankfully I was saved by the park attendant and enjoyed a nice, chilled out ride on my ones (hashtag forever alone). A lucky escape from sharing a ride which Maddy described as 'intimate'! The sun was blazing, so we took a chance (despite knowing the forecast was rain!) and went 'no poncho' when we rode the rubber dinghy rapids, mate. The sun shortly went in thereafter, and our wet feet would haunt us throughout the rest of the day. From there we hit up the free fall tower - complete with Ville shouting 'I regret! I regret!' at the top before we dropped. This became my catch phrase for the rest of the scary rides the park had to offer. The views from the top of it were amazing (even if Fujisan was hidden by the clouds). The suspense when you are held at the top... Not so much! Next, to the Evangelion exhibition. Not an anime I'm particularly into, but along with some awesome models of the cast and mechs of Evangelion, I did find my new bae in there 📷 . Onwards to Fujiyama 📷 . This was a massive 'coaster. Probably the longest in the park. No loops and no twists, but a maximum speed of 80mph awaited us. This was wicked fun; would recommended - you could really feel the Gs with this one! We decided to slow things down a bit due to what lay ahead and went on a mount Fuji flight simulator, which was made amusing by the attendants impression of an air hostess. This decision was also fueled by the fact that for the whole time we had been near mount Fuji we were unable to see it due to the clouds! The simulator was a '4D' kind of deal with motion, smell, breezy wind and mist coupled with a massive screen, and was surprisingly fun. Next up was the coaster with the steepest drop in the world - even steeper than Thorpe Park's Saw ride. Rather than dropping 90 degrees a la Oblivion, you go over-vert. Takabisha 📷. This was a fun, if not a little bit short coaster. Not as intense as Eejanaika, but very smooth, and when you get winched up for the over-vert drop, you're lying totally horizontal. Many cries of 'I regret' rang out whilst we climbed this one, but the actual over-vert drop was reasonably slow/tame. The rest of the coaster was awesome though - just expected more from the drop. Ville and I hit up Eejanaika once more (we made it!) whilst Maddy couldn't hack it again. Once again, it was VERY intense. But glad I went on it again as there's no other coaster like it, and I had the feeling I wouldn't be back here soon. It was near the end of the day and the skies started to open. We headed back to the hotel. I used the toilet and plucked up the courage to use the 'butt spray' and was surprised... As Maddy had informed me previously, it seemed to 'know' *exactly* where to spray. Whilst it was accurate and not cold as I had expected... This defo wasn't something for me - too weird and gross feeling. Won't be using that again! We headed out for food. Once again we set out towards Miyaki and once again we were disappointed that it was closed. At this point it was raining hard, so we stopped at the next restaurant we saw - 55Meat - I popped my head in and looked at the menu to find out it was fairly expensive, so we went on the hunt for some cheap eats, with Trip Advisor our guide. We were lead down a dead end by Trip Advisor and after a discussion including me joking that this would make my blog more interesting describing this detour we ended up heading back to 55Meat with our tails between our legs. In hindsight, it really didn't' make it any more interesting! 55Meat was an amazing little Yakiniku restaurant, where we were brought the finest cuts of Wagyu beef and cooked it over a charcoal grill. I ordered 55 day aged tongue. It was delicious! So glad to have eaten at an authentic Yakiniku restaurant, and once again I was amazed by how helpful the staff were - despite the (large) language barrier they went all out to show us how to cook the meat and make us as informed as possible over what we were ordering and make us feel as at home as possible. Maximum respect, Japan! Very satisfied, we headed back to our hotel and got some rest; with the long journey to Kyoto ahead of us in mind.

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Day 4 Tokyo > Fuji Packed in a hurry to check out for 10am and left for Shinjuku Station to exchange our rail passes. After some confusion managed to work out where to exchange our passes and where our train would go from. Headed to Starbucks to kill some time and get some food (Starbucks wraps are REALLY small here - about 1/2 the size of a wrap in the UK) before jumping on a train to Otsuki where we would change and head on a different train to Fujiyoshida - home of the Fuji-Q theme park, which I had no idea about, but heard was absolutely amazing. There was some beautiful scenery en route - mostly mountainous forests, however much of my time was taken up by blogging and showing off my new noise cancelling headphones to Maddy - they are the bomb! Maddy concurred with my evaluation of them saying they were 'probably the best headphones she's ever heard'. Winning. Anyway, enough bragging... Although I suppose that's what this whole thing is in a way? I'd like to think people find it interesting and not *too* boastful. After a couple of hours of travel, we arrived at Fujikyu Highland station, where we immediately got a view of one of the biggest attractions of the theme park. We took a short walk to our hotel (mystays fuji) where we were greeted with some of the most polite hotel staff I have ever encountered who were completely fluent in English. They explained all the normal bits and pieces to us, before Maddy asked about the baths in the spa on the top floor and we were told that if we wished to use them we had to a) be completely naked and b) cover our tatts with medical tape! What a bummer! After a short rest in our rooms we made our way out for some food - we had planned to go to the highest rated restaurant on Trip Advisor (which has basically become our bible for good, cheap eats) - Miyaki and began walking down towards it. We were just over half way, having turned down a small side street where a local woman pulled up next to us and wound down the window to ask us where we were going and if we needed any help. At first I was sceptical, because I had Google Maps on lock and knew exactly where I was going, however she was insistent that she helped us. We ended up discussing whether it would still be open as it was nearing 3:30 and it shuts at 4:00 for a break between lunch and dinner. She (very kindly!) ended up ringing the restaurant for us, and it transpired they had closed for the day as they had run out of Udon! That interaction really summed up Japanese people so far, very polite and always wanting to help, even if there is a language barrier. We headed back to the main road and popped into a cafe for lunch, where I mistakenly ordered cutlets instead of croquettes, before heading on to the supermarket. In the supermarket we pretty much immediately headed to the alcohol section 📷 as we had decided the plan for the evening was to get drunk... But not so drunk that we couldn't enjoy the theme park the next day! The alcohol aisle was full of unrecognisable crazy drinks, from pre-mixed cocktails (very popular in Japan) to beers, to strange bottles of different fruit flavoured wines or liquors (we couldn't tell which!). There were also Japanese spirits and bottles of wine. I bought a small bottle of 50% strength mango liquor and a couple of bottles of lemonade to mix it with, Ville got red wine and Maddy bought an assortment of pre-mixed cocktails. We then headed over to get snacks for breakfast and the theme park the next day and grabbed a wide assortment, including crackers, pizza flavoured crisps, sweetcorn and butter flavoured crisps, toffee and cheese popcorn (in the same bag!) and some pastries. We came back to the hotel, I had a little nap, then put on the indoor wear provided by the hotel and headed up to see Maddy and Ville to start drinking! We started drinking and initially Ville gave me a glass of red. We were all wearing our indoor wear (japanese pyjamas, basically!) so we took the obligatory selfie 📷 . We thought we looked like jungle adventurers - but with no hat, however I believe Boj commented that we looked like convicts! After finishing my wine I decided to pour some of my 50% mango spirit out. It certainly did not smell like 50% alcohol! I had a sip and it didn't taste like it either! I made a guess that it was 50% juice... At this point Ville decided to break out the Google Translate App's augmented reality translator... The app works by using the camera to view foreign text and translate it live to the language of your choice on screen, as if the text was actually written in your own language. In theory this is a great use of technology... For Japanese? Not so much! We did manage to establish that the drink was in fact 50% juice. However there were more than a few 'questionable' translations on the juice bottle and packet of crackers that we also scanned, including... On the drink bottle: juice plenty of use journey engineering and rims On the cracker box: spread taste, brain crackers. secretion crackers, the texture, more taste, more fun. (To be fair, this one could have been accurate, but still quite amusing!) As Maddy stated... This is why we need human translators! At this point we realised we had totally forgotten to either buy or organise going out for dinner. We decided to just pig out on junk food, leaving just enough for breakfast the next morning. We tried out all the weird crisps flavours, and in order of worst to best: 📷 Pizza Crisps - I can't remember if these were normal crisps or tortilla chips. They did taste like pizzas, but they tasted like those really shit little pizzas you used to be able to get for about 20p each. Weirdly sweet. 3/10. Would've been 2, but added an extra point on as they did taste like pizza. Cheese and Toffee Popcorn - These were a mixture of toffee coated popcorn, and cheese flavoured popcorn. Neither taste was too overbearing, and in practice they pretty much just tasted like sweet and salted popcorn, with a slight hint of cheese on the salted ones, and a slight toffee crunch on the sweet ones. 7/10. Better than expected, but didn't set the world on fire. Sweetcorn and Butter Tortilla Chips - Wow! These were a revelation. Strong and accurate taste of both sweetcorn and butter. Good crunch. 9/10. Would buy again. Near enough crisp perfection. We decided to call it a night and I headed down towards my room. On my way I decided I would try out the baths in the spa. Unfortunately this meant a trip to reception to get medical tape to cover up all 9 of my tattoos! What an effort that was. After about 20 minutes of precision cutting and sticking the tape I managed to cover all of them 📷 and head up to the baths. Nudity was a non-issue, really, so I relaxed there for about 20 minutes before coming down to bed. Whilst I respect Japanese culture and tradition and wouldn't go against it, it was somewhat frustrating to spend as long getting ready to go in the baths as I did in them! Bed awaited, and the next day, Fuji-Q theme park also awaited.

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Day 3 Tokyo We alllllll overslept. Oops. Not ideal when you only have a short time in a city, so we quickly went to grab lunch. This time we went to a really nice ramen bar. As in some other places we had been to, you make your order and pay at a vending machine. Luckily most of these have English translations and pictures, so it's fairly straightforward to use. I ordered ramen with pork and egg, and upon misunderstanding the girl serving me accidentally got medium thickness noodles, when I thought I was ordering a medium size portion. The pork was so succulent I was able to break it apart with my chopsticks! I spied on the Japanese guy next to me to try to see what techniques the japanese used with their chopsticks and then discussed them with Maddy and Ville. I'm sure the guy who I spied on was laughing at how I was using mine, but I felt fairly successful, to be honest. That is, until I left the restaurant and realised my white shirt was covered in noodle soup! From here we headed to Yoyogi Park, not too far a walk from Shinjuku station. This was a large woody park with big paths through and lots of rules (no eating, no smoking, no sitting for long periods, no littering are the ones which I can remember off the top of my head). It also contained a Buddhist Shrine. We walked towards the shrine and could hear a very loud sound of what we presumed were crickets. Unfortunately half of the shrine was undergoing renovations, however we read some votive tablets that had been hung at the shrine and watched as people wrote new ones. From the ones written in English we established that these were essentially wishes that people wrote and left hanging. We then exited the shrine where we noticed a covered area with people using ladles to wash their hands and drink from a type of well. Maddy and I were curious, which a guy noticed. He then showed us how to use the station. You were to fill the ladle with water, then wash your left hand, then your right hand, then rinse your mouth with the water (don't swallow!). We had no idea what this was for, yet pretty much had to do so as we had been shown how. It was only afterwards that we realised it was supposed to be done before praying, and that we should've done so before entering the shrine! We then walked out of the shrine and further into the park. We entered the Meiji-Jingu Inner Garden (Gyoen). This was an ancient garden that had existed since the Edo Period (1603-1867) as the garden of Lord Kato of Kummamoto, it passed through the ownership of a couple of other dudes before the Meiji Restoration (1868) at which point the area became property of the Imperial Family and was named Yoyogi Gyoen. Emperor Meiji really liked it, so she wrote a Waka poem about it: 'Deep in the woodland of Yoyogi, the quietude creates an illusion of seclusion from the city.' Which is an apt description as it was easy to forget that we were deep in the middle of Tokyo as you could not hear any of the hustle and bustle of the city. We saw a tea house, a pond full of carp 📷 (and a fleeting turtle!) which Ville took great pleasure in feeding with an acorn - this sent them into a frenzy; and an iris garden which was out of season - it essentially looked like a patch of mud with so-me shoots growing out of it. At this point an angry old Japanese man came to tell everyone it was time to leave the garden and followed and watched us intently to make sure we made our way to the exit. As we were leaving the park we saw racks of barrells of Wine and Sake, they looked pretty cool so I took some pics 📷. We left Yoyogi Park and made our way to Harajuku, where we found a crazy street called Takeshita street. This was a very busy street that filled the description of what you would think a stereotypical street in Tokyo would be like - filled with neon lights, loud music and tourists of various nationalities. I filmed our journey down it with my Go Pro. On the way we stopped for crepes - I got one with gelato and cinnamon apple, it was tasty af! Once we exited this area we found a pet shop with the cutest puppies and kittens ever! I managed to film some through the window from outside, however photography was banned :(. Headed back to the hotel where I intended to update my journal but fell asleep for a couple hours. Already behind at this point! We headed out to Roppongi 📷which seemed like a much more upmarket area, but Maddy had been recommended a particular bar for cocktails there. We got off the tube and then Trip Advisor'd for a cheap sushi restaurant in the area (now there's an oxymoron!). We managed to find one tucked away down a side street where we had some amazing sushi - despite me mistaking Goya for Gzoya when I ordered, and being surprised at what arrived (it was still tasty!). We stayed for a few hours and had a few beers - Maddy ordered another cocktail which was supposed to be 'Fresh Plum Hi' cocktail, with a traditional Japanese spirit as the base. It tasted of fizzy water. I wouldn't really advise getting cocktails in Japan, so far! At this point it was too late to go to the bar and get the Metro back, so we jumped on the train to Shinjuku and then Shin-Okubo and stopped at a Family Mart to get some snacks for the journey the next day. I bought loads of junk food, including what I thought was a strawberry ice lolly. Unfortunately this turned out to be a red kidney bean lolly (!?!??) - I attempted to eat it, but frankly it was disgusting! We arrived back at the hotel and jet lag struck. I was unable to sleep 'til 530am. This was made more tolerable by chats with Boj and Katie. The former was annoyed at me writing a journal as he thought it would impact my usual Messenger updates to him. We also discussed whether Trump was an idiot or Machiavellian - we guessed somewhere between the two. I expressed my hope that war wouldn't break out between the US and Korea as we were travelling there soon! Another benefit of this was being able to catch up on the day before's journal. Finally managed to get some sleep; we were leaving Tokyo the next day. Our visit had been fleeting, but it was definitely a place I am glad I visited. I'll definitely come back one day.

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Day 2 Tokyo Managed to get some sleep overnight on the plane. Watched half of John Wick 2 and some of Ghost in the Shell. Had an odd breakfast with a horrible tasteless overcooked vegetable biryani. Was eager to get off the plane as it took over 9 hours from Moscow. Touched down. Yes. Finally made it! Made it through Tokyo Narita Airport with little to no trouble... Then my brain stopped working. Having seen many cigs smoked in the films I had watched on the plane I was eager to have one myself, to say the least. I went to the smoking area (which, incidentally was grim - the AC didn't seem to be working so it was SO smokey!), dropped my bag off outside as it was crowded and sparked up. I was eager to not keep Maddy and Ville waiting any longer than necessary so I rushed down the underpass to the station and bought a ticket to get the Skyliner into Nippori. Just about to pass the barriers... Shit! Where's my bag!? Rushed back under the underpass and thankfully it's still there! Phew! Back under the underpass... Second time around... Through the barriers and then... FFS! I've forgotten to pick up my Japanese SIM card. Back through the underpass. Up to the fourth floor of the terminal to grab my SIM. Nice. Sorted. Make it back to the platform (after attempting to go to the wrong one - d'oh!) with 10 mins to spare. The journey wasn't very eventful, however one thing that amused me did happen - the guard just looked at me and completely ignored me when checking tickets! Guess he couldn't be bothered faffing with a ' tourist. After a bit of a palava with the Japanese equiv of an Oyster card (needed to put my train ticket into the barrier and then touch my Oyster card... In that order... At the same barrier... Odd) I made it to Shin-Okubo station. Walking out of there was... Intense! I was greeted by a small (by UK standards) street filled with hustle and bustle. Notably a family were stood right next to the station shouting at each loudly in a foreign language, which weirdly I don't think was Japanese. I could not stop smiling. It finally hit me that I was actually in Tokyo! Just down the road was my hotel. Said hi to Maddy and Ville, who i'd be travelling with for the next month or so. The rooms were in traditional Japanese style, which was a nice touch. Mine consisted of a hallway, where you were to leave your shoes, a simple living room with a TV, small table and cushions to sit on (no chairs!), that lead onto another hallway with a shower room, electronic toilet (complete with as yet untested butt spray) and a small bedroom with no bed - just a matress you put onto the floor. We were discussing lunch whilst I was en route to the hotel and I made the decision to eat meat whilst I was in Japan for a couple of reasons: a) It's really hard to be veggie here, as vicki had stated - they just don't understand it! b) I wanted to take in Japanese culture. So with that in mind we set off to a fish restaurant 📷 where I had raw tuna with rice and soup - was a bit strange eating fish again, but was very tasty! Defo don't see this trend continuing as I go on in Asia though, and certainly not when I return home. After this we took a trip to Electric Town. Lots of big high rises with neon lights 📷. This is an area filled with anime shops, trading card shops, toy shops, gambling arcades (think slot machines but with some sort of game which has ball bearings falling down into different areas and a video game element as well - very strange!) and gaming arcades. We checked out a few gaming arcades of these and learnt one thing - the japanese take their rhythm games VERY seriously. There's one called Chunithm, which has a touch screen piano with notes approaching it, somewhat like Guitar Hero, which seemed to the be the most popular. There were lines of Chunithm machines with Japanese teenagers frantically tapping and swishing the controllers frantically to rapid music, all wearing what I presume were specialised gaming gloves so their fingers didn't get blisters. All hitting 500+ combos on what seemed like very difficult stages. One guy was so into it sweat was literally dripping from his chin! Given the level of play on display I decided to give that one a miss and played a game called Taiko: Drum Master. In this game you watch a bar with different symbols appear and drum on an actual drum, hitting different areas with different strengths depending on the symbol that appears on a moving bar. Managed to get an S rating on my second try, which whilst was a proud moment for me, wasn't my crowning glory in the Japanese arcades. After a short stop (and much needed nap!) back at the hotel where I started this entry, we checked out an Udon noodle place in Shinjuku where I had some Tempura prawns with Udon noodles with egg and some other unknown stuff in them. I watched a Japanese guy add various seasonings to them by the place where you got your drinks so I did the same - unsure what they were except for the crispy onions, but it tasted good! I feel like it's going to become a theme that you're never quite sure what you are ordering here, so even if I had tried to stay veggie whilst here, I don't think it would've been possible! We noted that often Japanese people will come to eat on your own - this seems more common than people eating in groups in a lot of more 'fast food' type places. We then headed up to a 200m viewing point 📷 in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government No.1 building. The views were amazing, especially as night had fallen.... What a skyline. It was difficult to take a decent picture of this as I didn't have a tripod, so please excuse the blurry one I have attached! After spotting another arcade with a fighting game 'Battle Arena', we found a bar near to the restaurant where we had some 'interesting' cocktails, including the worst mojito I have ever had in my life. It was like... soda water, rum, and a tiny sprig of mint! Ville stuck to Cupa Libre. A sensible choice. We headed back to the arcade, where I got destroyed at a mech battle arena game, but then left undefeated at Virtua Fighter, which needless to say I was more than happy with! Maddy had to drag me away from the machine as the place was closing! We headed on to another bar called Ren - this was linked with the 'Robot Restaurant' which we decided to save for another trip as it costs £40 to go in and see the robot show. This was hidden away in a back alley. We headed up in the lift and were greeted with a massive, empty bar, with a really good pianist playing covers of famous pop songs. We didn't really know how to react to this place, but decided to stay for a drink! The decor was ornate, but also quite tacky. We decided to take a seat in what I can only describe as 'thrones' 📷 and chilled for a couple of hours, whilst observing some businessmen come in, followed by some very brash Japanese girls who sharply left after shouting 'Ous!' back and forth with the businessmen. Maddy and Ville suspected they were escorts. It was all very strange! On the way back we stopped at a supermarket where I bought some snacks, including a hot roll filled with some sort of strange bolognese sauce. It was kind of soggy but alright. 6/10 wouldn't eat again. Headed to bed with plans to update my journal, but shortly fell asleep, as we had plans to rise at 10 the next day.

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Clear Sky, 7°C

Mezhdunarodnoye sh., вл1, Moskva, Russia, 141425

Day 1 London > Japan Woke up hungover as fuck. Don’t think I slept properly, really. The previous day’s exploits at Hospitality in the Park had taken their toll, but certainly were worthwhile. Such a nice send off with Toby, Kris and Emma, and in smaller doses Coops and Lucy. Dragged my arse out of bed at 6:30am, having gone to bed a little bit worse for wear at around 12:45. Thankfully mum had cooked me dinner before I slept so after a nice hot shower and some ibu + codeine I started to feel better. I quickly gathered my gadgets which had been left charging and slipped them into the bottom of my bag. Some concern around having them close to the edge - I hope they don’t get broken by a cackhanded, angry bag handler like the crazy guy in Croatia who literally launched mine and Katie’s (and everyone else’s!) bags into the luggage storage space for our bus from Pula to Zagreb. Decided to leave my 3DS, in favour of spending my time more productively – reading, journalling, and hopefully finding an app to edit my Go Pro footage on are on the agenda. Got to the airport with plenty of time to spare despite mum faffing for about 10 minutes whilst I waited at the door. In truth we had left ample time, anyway, and there was no need to worry at all. So thankful to have had mum look after me the last few days, it’s been really nice. And obviously very appreciative of the lift to the airport! No queue for check-in. Minor hiccup at oversized baggage as the belt wasn’t working (I was sent there because my backpack had straps?!), but that was resolved within 2-3 mins. Security was rapid… Unsure why but my shoulder flagged up on the body scanner. He also swabbed my shoes. Bizzarre. Why do they make you get to an airport two hours before your flight if you can pass all of the above within 10 minutes? Still feeling a bit worse for wear I head to the pub (duhhh). This time I’m feeling well enough to have my usual pint 📷 before take off, along with some smashed avocado on a muffin. Tasty. I kill some time talking to Boj about (amongst other things) how aeroplane toilets work. Tho asks me if I remembered my booster seat for the plane. Hilarious. Vicki sends me some Japan tips: -Good luck being veggie outside of Tokyo, but try to use ‘niku wa tabemasen’ (I don’t eat meat). -'Sumimasen’ is 'excuse me’ and can be used when asking for directions in conjunction with a map. -Hyperdia is the best app for trains She also tells me she has friends in Kyoto who we can link up with, and that I should defo go to The Phillipines - specifically El Nido on Palawan. After a quick look on the observation deck 📷 and I’m finally boarding the plane. It’s the most empty plane I’ve ever been on! Almost everyone (with exception of families who are seated together) has 3 seats to themselves 📷 . I get through a fair chunk of my book and listen to some music; I notably listened to The 68’s first album which is decent - raw rock 'n’ roll/indie vibes. Ended up sitting in the middle seat of my three with the seatbelt super loose and lying down across them, with three blankets stacked under my head as a makeshift pillow. Living the dream! Unfortunately the dream did not extend to my vegetarian meal, which was rice, boiled veg and what i presume to be pumpkin? Not. Great. Still, manage to get two glasses of wine, so it’s not all bad. Arrive in Moscow and have quite a few messages to get through… Realise I am being charged £1.50 per mb for data and quickly switch to WiFi. Astrid had messaged me to wish me well for my travels, which I thought was really kind of her, given the conversations we have had recently. Pass the time by having some chats with Iona and Katie as well, with Iona telling me about some sort of Scottish swingers island? Odd, but amusing. I order nachos at the TGI Friday bar, and a pint and get charged the equivalent of £13📷! Board the next plane, thinking it’s gonna be a 5 hour flight but it’s actually more like 9 or so? Not 100% sure. Unfortunately it’s also fully booked, by the looks of things. Sleep a bit, watch Trainspotting 2 -disappointing, frankly. Not much happens, and it has one of those lame endings where it turns out one of the characters wrote the book. Food again. Same meal again. Blegh. Another glass of wine though. Presumably my last of the journey, but hopefully not! The guy next to me says 'cheers!’ and we have a bit of a chat about the purposes of our journeys, and the advantages of eBooks over real books - he says he uses a Netflix style service which costs the price of two books per month, but that he and his wife get through 100 (!!!) books per year. Seems a really nice guy but we both go back to our films. It’s at this point I’m writing this first entry of my journal, which I intend to update every day. It strikes me that Ive written a lot about a relatively boring day. Waffling on, as usual! Hopefully I’ll have more interesting things to add tomorrow, as I’ll be in Toyko! I’m a little bit excited, but it still seems surreal to me. I am a bit nervous about getting public transport to the hotel, but Maddy has sent me instructions of how to do so, and I’ll be picking up my data sim and have airport WiFi to help me navigate, also. Hope I can sleep some more on this flight, but I feel wide awake, and John Wick 2 awaits.

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