Last Day in Japan Our final day in Japan began with checking out of our central Tokyo hotel and making our way to a hotel closer to Narita Airport ahead of an early flight the next morning. As we hadn’t booked breakfast at the hotel, we headed out in search of food and ended up with a generous spread of sandwiches, pastries and coffee. Not particularly Japanese, perhaps — but it was busy and didn’t feel overly touristy, so who knows? We visited another park or two, where I ad

Today was a little more relaxed. On our to-do list was tracking down a very specific, limited-edition Japanese guitar strap — which conveniently required a few trains to another part of Tokyo. A perfect excuse to explore yet another corner of the city. While we were out, we took the opportunity to visit a miniature model world. The airport display was particularly impressive, with planes landing, taxiing, and taking off again in an endless, perfectly choreographed loop. Then

Moving day, so we were up early. I decided to try the katsu curry for breakfast - well it wasn’t there by accident, so must be a valid breakfast meal. Before heading off to the airport we went for a walk around Shuri Castle. It is a significant tourist attraction in Okinawa, within walking distance from hotel. But to be brutally honest. fell well short of the equivalents in Osaka or Nara. We refilled the hire car after all of the driving - maybe 350km - which at an average of

I felt ok when I got up - which was surprising. We started at 07.00 today. Needed to have a quick breakfast before leaving the hotel at 08:00 for a 09.00 fishing trip about an hour away. The speed limits on the way were typically 50 or 60 - still in km/h, but difficult to maintain due to the already heavy weekend traffic on what we decided was a weekend/tourist route. In general, driving anywhere in Okinawa was frustrating slow and, add to that, every second car is a hire car

Another excellent breakfast at the Hilton Osaka Castle. They pretty much have everything on offer there - Continental, American and of course Japanese. We had another good feed. From our room on the 19th floor, I watched a school of the ant-like children doing their morning exercises on the pitch below. The kids were surprising in time with each other and despite their young age were very focussed on the task at hand. We then took a walk around the castle itself. It was prett