Kyoto Brighton Hotel

How does Jade feel? "Like we're going on holiday for a year", "This tea is really nice" "Hoping to see a naked man running through the airport with a banana"<br><br>How does Alice feel? "Gotta make the most of everything whilst we are away", "Can't wait for the sweating", "I ...

Two days left - still can't really believe we're going. Excited and also a bit nervous - how will we get from place to place especially around Cambodia and China?<br><br>Working our way through our final to-do list and just hoping not to have any last minute panics!!<br><br>Suppose it won't sink in until we're on the plane:)<br><br>Viv xx

Camping in Barnes Green was good fun. We set out for the night to test the new tent, awning and cooking gear. It was very cold and we eneded up caught in a thunder storm, but I'm glad to report the tent was suberb. It was dry inside and our sleeping bags also did the job. We were nice and snug inside and we had a big fry up for breakfast, so all in all a success! <br><br>We got our carnet yesterday, so we're pretty much ready to go! Roll on December 24th!

Well, what can we say! What a send off from the villagefolk at Lindfield. It was coincidentally Guy Fawkes night which is also a pretty big deal in England.<br>A grand parade of burning torches and witches led up to a bonfire and fireworks extrordinaire.<br>To top it off, a display of Morris dancing by the local chaps outside the White Lion. Wow, the locals really love us. Tomorrow we depart for Queensland.

... reading &#8216;No Popery&#8217; are displayed with pride. Later on in the evening, at one of the seven bonfire sites, a giant effigy of the Pope will be obliterated with explosives to the sound of cheers and laughs. The anti-Catholicism is entwined tightly with a sense of national pride and identity. At the war memorial the societies took it in turns to hold a remembrance service for those who fell in the World Wars. Giant placards of poppies, studded with fizzing fireworks, were held ...

... friendly, and with information gathered over web 'japanican' and loney planet of course, getting to all the sights had been a breeze even when you don't speak Japanese. We took a bus next to Gion subway Keiko Sanji station, just 5minutes away from our Ryokan to Kinkakuji, the famed golden pavilion. Entrance to most shrines and temples in Kyoto will involve a fee. In ...

... i bought one. these rice dumplings weren`t any better unfortunately. i gave up searching for hot food; bought an apple and a tangerine. as i was typing up my entry at the ryokan, the 70+year-old owner saw my moleskine. he was really impressed that i could write in the Latin alphabet. the old man was so surprised that he invited his daughter over to take a peak. only then, i realized that the Latin script looks as bizarre to them as the Japanese one does to us.

... más del país y su pasado. En Miami había comprado el Japan Rail Pass por 7 días consecutivos y que podría utilizar cualquier tren de grupo JR a cualquier rincón del archipiélago y que solo se puede adquirir fuera de Japón y se vende solo a turistas. Comprar este pase fue una decisión muy acertada ya que puedes disfrutar de todo Japón a precio de lo que costaría un destino en avión. Para abordar el tren hasta Kyoto debía llegar hasta la estación Tokyo y ...

... lly but th*nkfully timed our visit to N*r* with. If the very ide* of drums pounding *nd Shintoist's ch*nting in the dist*nce *s you work your w*y up * n*rrow, wooded tr*il - deers frolicking by your side - illumin*ted only by th*t of three thous*nd gi*nt, moss encrusted, stone l*nterns doesn't conjure up * most mystic*l im*ge in your mind, then I don't know wh*t does.<br><br>As for the l*st few d*ys, we spent them in the surrounding *re*s of Kyoto, which is * truly be*utiful city *nd ...

... I couldn't see any NDS shop in these 4 days, I could only help her to buy everything I could in that shop!! In front of the shop there was a small bridge. Before leaving home I read some papers about the story of that bridge. Under the bridge there are hundreds of spirits living underneath!! Hee hee. For curiosity and for fun I stepped on the bridge and tried to "sense" that thing!! Ha ha!! But it seemed like ...