A week in Japan
Having found the deal of a lifetime - £150 return each from Singapore, we arrived in Tokyo, staying initially at the Clowne Praza. Tokyo was huge and sprawling and not how I imagined it. Definitely lots to see but more 1960s in places than a sprawling metropolis of modernity and skyscrapers.
We then whizzed down to Osaka on the bullet train, courtesy of another Japanese bargain - the railpass, around £200 to traverse the whole country in comfort and at speed for a week. Osaka was another huge city but what really stood out was the mile long street selling nothing but plastic food; all the restaurants buy it so we foreigners can point at what we'd like to eat! I'm guessing there must be other reasons.
We moved on and stayed in the Westin, Kyoto, which allegedly hosted Princess Diana and Prince Charles, and were there at the right time for the cherry blossom season. The blossom was lovely but brought with it thousands of Japanese tourists with thousands of Japanese cameras.
The Japanese people are some of the friendliest I have ever come across, so eager to help despite the language barrier.
One weird experience was meeting a friend from England unexpectedly at Tokyo's main train station, where approximately a million or so people transit every day!
All-in-all a wonderful experience; I'm desperate to learn Japanese so we can experience some more rural settings.