So today I bought shinkansen tickets to Hiroshima for tomorrow. I know I’ve only
been in Kyoto a few days, but frankly I’ve seen everything I wanted to see and it’s Time to Move On. After Hiroshima, I was thinking about taking the ferry to Shikoku island for a day or so. We will see.
Anyway, today [...]

[Read more →]

So I went to Osaka, which it has to be said is not the prettiest of cities, with the intention of visiting their aquarium and/or bridge.

[Read more →]

(And now, to confuse you, the Prologue!
I’ve written this over the past two nights so tense is going to be a tad confusing.
This, I believe, I wrote on the train on Tuesday.)

[Read more →]

Ah, we do have internets. Hurrah.
Today, as previously mentioned, I left the capsule hotel and headed to K’s House Kyoto, a cosy little hostel near the station. They had bikes to rent, so I gained a snazzy blue mountain bike and off I went, the Pokemon bike music playing in my head. Ah, bikes. The [...]

[Read more →]

I don’t know if there’s any wi-fi here so I’m on a public computer. At a charming hostel in Kyoto. The last two nights I’ve been staying in a capsule hotel seeing as I foolishly didn’t reserve any accommodation.
Took a 300 Series Shinkansen from Tokyo station. The shinkansen is pretty cool indeed. Very quite and [...]

[Read more →]

Well, in approximately half an hour I will be out of here and on my way to Kyoto.
I just noticed this morning that my washing powder says “STAR POWER!” in katakana.
Also, last night’s earthquake was magnitude 6.2 at a depth of 26.2 … somethings off the coast of Honshu. Fascinating! (There’s even links to seismological [...]

[Read more →]

EARTHQUAKE
…although a very small one. I probably wouldn’t have noticed it if I wasn’t lying down. I think I’ve been through a few earthquakes here, though I could have just been imagining them.

[Read more →]

Three completely unrelated things in the world of entertainment today:
The best video on YouTube I’ve seen this year, or, indeed, ever. Such surreal splendor.

The Mother (EarthBound) soundtrack which I discovered in a shop in Tokyo and which has both the best back cover artwork ever and also an infectiously catchy opening track, “Pollyanna”.
Also, Futurama is [...]

[Read more →]

Well, I’m off to Kyoto tomorrow. Have no idea what I’ll do, but I guess visiting some temples is a good start. I should rent a bike too.
I’m going on the Shinkansen, either the 300 or 700 Series trains, which go at something like 180 mph. To put that into perspective: Norwich and London are [...]

[Read more →]

So today I decided to pack and clean in preparation for moving out tomorrow. This took longer than anticipated. My rucksack just isn’t quite big enough, and it was increasingly difficult to cram everything in. Eventually I finished, before realising I’d forgotten something, so I cram that in too. I get everything in - just [...]

[Read more →]