She was the one in white

We were on the bus to the stadium to see Yokohama FC vs Vegalta Sendai in J-League Division 2 on a Saturday afternoon. I was sitting down towards the back, on the right side. Unlike the buses in Kyoto, the Yokohama buses give passengers entry from the front much like the ones back home. I kind of liked the backwards Kyoto buses though.

Eugene offered his aisle seat to an older lady and got up, clutching onto the bus handles as more passengers got on as I stared out from the window side. Having been in Tokyo for three days prior, Yokohama was a nice change of pace. Less busy and less… Read More

Dear All

Right this moment I am sitting in the foyer of the World Friendship Centre in Hiroshima, a lovely, homely place run by two American volunteers, Sarah and Kent Sweitzer, and open to travellers from all over. There is an Englishman, a Scottish girl,and I can even hear the male half of a Spanish couple snoring loudly upstairs from here. This is probably as youth hostel-ish as it will get though, given that such a place complete with communal TV rooms/bed bugs is not on our agenda, however we are surely bound to run into some characters at the Capsule Inn in Tokyo later in the week, so fingers crossed for that.

I am sad to report that, unfortunately, I do NOT have wooden slippers on, nor… Read More

Dear Friends

I am writing to you now in the comfort of a kimono in `Kikokuso Ryokan`, Kyoto, having just exited a `family bath` with my travel mate, Eugene, and sitting in the lounge/smoking/internet area trying to comprehend and recall all that has happened so far. I would like to attach photos to this email, however my feet and lower back are slightly sore and the call of my bed is slowly getting ever louder, hence I will provide a summary of our activities and observations in bullet points. Our days have been absolutely packed with walking, climbing, snapping, phrasebook~ing, JR training, avoiding the lure of yellow~coated men ushering us into presumably reputable (surely!) establishments in the red light district areas (and, it needs to be mentioned, evading older… Read More