Tokyo Prince Hotel Minato

... with our children so we decided to head straight on over to the Redwood Forests area of Route 101. We decided to head back north on I-5 and then west to catch 101 again, but having done that my recommendation would be to head South on I-5 out of Ashland until you can cut across at the southern end of the Redwood Forest park(s). This will give you a chance to see the redwoods and even take the $5 drive through the hole in the giant redwood in Leggit, California ...

Po niekolkych dnoch chodenia prislo vhod, ze sa vylet uz koncil. Nevedel som sa dockat, kedy sa rozvalim, sklopim sedadlo a zaspim. Celkom dobry plan, ale... Bol som taky unaveny, uboleny a dehydrovany, ze kazda poloha v sedacke bola utrpenim a zdalo ...

... walk ways right along the concourses. The JR (Japan Rail) lines in Tokyo were confusing until I eventually realised (just a few hours ago!) that every station shows the whole JR Tokyo network on the map. However, as a tourist you are likely to only use the Yamanote line (remember that one, it will save you the task of working that out). Of course, the Yamanote line was only a few stops away from the station nearest to my hostel, so this saved money on ...

... the Ginza district, despite the torrential rain. The hotel manager was kind enough to lend us a couple of brollies so we huddled under these and managed to subway it over there. First order of business was to buy me a new jumper as I had lost my fleece somewhere along the line, so we dived into GAP and picked me up a cheapy. Now I was ready to face the cold we decided that food was the next thing on the list. We found a Shabbu-shabbu ...

... is incredibly cute - her obi is yellow and she looks like she is 7 years old or so, and her hair is short and straight and always pulled back a little on top - ADORABLE! Once the lessons began, I worked with my own sensei. He spoke only a few words of English, but I understood a surprising amount of what he said to me. I think it helped that many of the words were aikido vocabulary too, so they are new to most people when they learn aikido. I ...

... exploring down some crowded side streets, attracted by a riot of neon. Drunken Businessmen were everywhere, hanging off sketchy looking girls. A woman standing at a street corner offered us something we didn't catch, but could guess at. We decided to turn back before venturing very far into the glowing maze of debauchery. I have since discovered that we were on the edge of Kabukicho, the largest and most untamed red light district in Japan. Rejoining ...

... fully decked out in the most "stylish" clothes which look just rediculous to us. We walk around a few blocks looking for a cheap dinner and settle on diner of sorts. There is a vending machine on the right and left as your enter with pictures and prices on it. You pay the machine (about 5$ each), choose you dinner and take the ticket it spits out. Find a few stools at the bar counter and place the ticket in front of you. One of the servers comes by and calls your order into ...