Photos - Kyoto

Deer selfies

Deer kisses

Bowing! ... Although it looks like he's just looking at the floor

Buddha in the world's largest wooden structure

Jack's new pals

5 storey pagoda

Beautiful bamboo forest

The golden pavilion

Bowing deer

Kyoto, Japan

Kyoto is Japan’s ex-capital. Unlike Tokyo, the city isn’t a modern, technological extravaganza. It’s has more of a traditional feel and has retained or resorted many of its iconic temples and shrines. The most impressive of these was the Golden Pavilion temple, set among an immaculate garden and lake, the gleaming temple was one of – if not the most – impressive temple we’ve seen on our travels… and we’ve seen a lot of temples.

We also took a trip to the bamboo forest which looked like a scene from “crouching tiger, hidden dragon.”

One of our favourite days took place just outside Kyoto in a place called Nara – the ex-ex-capital of Japan. This place was amazing. Filled with incredible shrines and home to the worlds largest wooden structure – containing a 14 meter tall Bronze Buddha – we were immediately impressed. On top of this, the experience was made even better by the fact that 1500 deer live in this city. The deer – all wild – wonder freely around, sleeping by shrines, playing in parks and slumping on pavements like cute tramps. We – Kerry - was desperate to feed the deer and quickly purchased food for them. The deer here have been trained, or learned, to bow to tourists before receiving food. It’s an interesting experience to have a deer walk up to you, take a bow, and wait for its reward. Of course, if you don’t immediately comply then they resort to gently ramming you with their antlers, biting your clothes and searching your pockets – or, in Kerry’s case, up her skirt.  

Photos - Kawaguchiko & Mt Fuji

Gorgeous views of Fuji over Lake Kawaguchiko

The hike begins!

Above the clouds!

Then out of nowhere a mini blizzard appears

Freezing and soaked with the sunset approaching, we decide to make our way back

Mount Fuji

Kawaguchiko, Japan

Kawaguchiko is a gorgeous little town a few miles away from Mount Fuji. The scenery is beautiful and there are nature protection areas everywhere. We cycled for a good 10 miles around a peaceful lake, taking in stunning views of the picturesque countryside. We decided that the following day we would take a bus half way up Mount Fuji and climb the rest of the way up to the peak … well … we kind of underestimated just how challenging it would be. We did our research beforehand, learning that the temperature can change the further up the mountain you go and that the climb can take anywhere between 3 and 7 hours depending on how fit you are. We spoke to a guy in our hostel who had recently done the climb himself. It took him 2 and a half hours and he only wore shorts and a t-shirt until he reached the peak where he put on a little jacket. With this in mind, we packed our jumpers and gloves. We started the day in 40 degree heat but after a 4 hour climb, with at least another 3km to go, the temperature dropped to a little above freezing and we almost froze to death in a mini blizzard and had to head back. It was an experience though and we managed to climb high enough to see the clouds below. 

Photos - Tokyo

Plenty of Anime

The sex shop with everythinggg

The 'scramble crossing' before ...

... and after

Apparently this is an issue!

Tokyo streets at night

Welcome to Wonderland

Tokyo, Japan

From the instant we stepped off the plane we loved Japan. After 4 months of travelling through south east Asia we can admit that a few home sicknesses had begun to take their toll. But somehow, Japan wiped them all away. And now, at the time of writing, just a few days from getting on the plane home, it turns out that we aren’t ready to leave at all.

Tokyo was instantly welcoming; our first experience was the toilet. The heated seat, gentle music and ridiculous number of buttons made us feel like we’d stepped into the future. Even the most public of toilets are spotless, and come with a set of controls.

Our next experience with Japanwas with its people. The jumbled messy crowds of China had disappeared and instead we were met with orderly queues and people who went out of their way to make sure we were going the right way. Everyone we have met so far in Japan has been incredibly welcoming, friendly and helpful. Even if they can’t speak a word of English!

The streets here are infallible. Everywhere you look, someone is cleaning, sweeping or polishing. They are spotless, even cleaner than Singapore! I couldn’t find a single cigarette butt on the floor.

As a city, Tokyowas as modern and dazzling as we pictured. There are districts that teem with flashing lights, arcades, casinos and anime shops. It’s fascinating to look at a buildings floor guide and see just how much it contains.

There’s some weird sh*t here too… Really weird. We found French maid cafes where the girls – obviously dressed as French maids – call you master and ask you to clap and perform mini dances with them when they bring you a drink. It’s a slightly disturbing mix of erotic and childish. The popularity of anime is also incredible, characters (often highly sexualised) fill the streets, you find it everywhere; billboards, video games, cereal packaging, childs toys.. You name it.

After seeing this, we passed a sex shop and decided that we just had to go in. The first three floors were host to a mind (and other things) blowing array of toys and devices. Or, how about some used female underwear to sniff? The top floors were for men only. I found myself among the most detailed sex dolls that I’ve seen – errrm.. imagined!

Even the generic supermarkets often sell fascinating extras. Fancy a samurai sword? No problem, just head into the nearest equivalent of Tesco. Whilst you’re in there you could grab some kinky fancy dress outfits, a few throwing stars or maybe some anime porn?

The food here is also amazing; the supermarkets are giant and contain bakeries, delicatessens and other sections. Everything is so fresh and tasty. You can grab a coffee or tea off the shelf and it’s inexplicably constantly hot, no need to heat it up. Japanis insane and awesome. We love it! Now, time to buy some more used underwear.  

Photos - Beijing

Our fancy bullet train

Sharing BBQ street food with a friend we met in Xian

 The Summer Palace

A perfect trip to the Great Wall

The entrance to the Forbidden City

The Great Wall of China

Beijing, China

After being told there were no beds available on the 20 hour train journey, we opted to pay a little extra and travel via bullet train to Beijing. The 5 hour journey was smooth and we were soon at our horrible hostel in Beijing. The location was brilliant, however, everything else was not. The toilets were gross, we had rock solid beds, the internet was awful and the staff were miserable. To top it off, the activities listed on their website - games room, bar, pool table, etc – didn’t actually exist. BUT there is a positive, connected to the hostel was a little tour desk. We were keen to see the Great Wall but had heard horrible stories about the wall being so busy you could barely move and would have to walk one way with the flow of the crowd, following a tour guide. This tour desk offered a trip to the ‘non-touristy’ section of the wall where you were free to explore the wall yourself … the trip was amazing!! The sky was perfect, the views were breathtaking, and we weren’t expecting it to be as empty as it was! Sometimes we had whole sections of the wall to ourselves. We did a 3 hour trek up Mutianyu section of the wall and saw some of the most incredible scenery. 

Photos - Shanghai

"No stepping"  hehehe

The beautiful Yuyuan Gardens

The modern part of the city

Prepared for the cyclone!