We've finally come to the end of our too short trip to Japan. The last leg of the journey was a real race; we had to go from Hiroshima all the way to Tokyo in one day, so we could pick up our passports with our Indian visas. Just to make it even more of a challenge Elaine's back went so I had to carry both our rucksacks, so now my legs are like tree-trunks! We got two bullet-trains to Tokyo and after dropping our stuff into our hostel in Tokyo – with the smallest room ever – we made a mad dash to the visa center before it closed and made it with a whole 2 minutes to spare.

We stuck around in Tokyo for a couple of days, staying in a traditional Japanese ryokan. Elaine's back got a little better so we had a gander around some of the parts we'd missed the first time. Harajuku is a bit mad and hectic, it's where all the cool kids in Tokyo go to hang out and shop. It's pretty hectic even on a Wednesday afternoon, so we headed to the peace and quite of the nearby Mejii Shrine. It's a lovely wooded area with temple complex in the middle, filled with monks and maidens, which was a nice break from the rampant consumerism just a few hundred metres away.

Our next stop is Singapore, but to get there we had to go via Bangkok, which meant a night in Bangkok airport. Leaving Japan is a bit tough, especially with 24 hours of traveling to do. Hopefully I'll get to come back some day and see more of one of the most amazing countries i've been lucky enough to visit. As ever photos on Flickr, so check em out!

Finally arrived in Japan, sorry about the wait for a post, I've been too busy doing stuff :) Our first stop was Tokyo, which is the coolest city ever. Elaine and myself had a bit of bother getting our Indian Visas sorted out; first we went to one place, which was closed, then to the Embassy proper, which doesn't actually take visa applications, then we had to go to the third and final, actual 100% real visa office the next day. We thought we might have to stay in Tokyo for the whole time as it takes gaijin visas 8 working days to process, but it was sorted eventually…

Our first day we spent wandering around the Imperial Palace where the Emperor lives with Darth Vader. The park around the Palace is really odd, there's a cool fountain area and over the road from it is a beautiful park where a lot of homeless guys live. On the English language map it translates as from Japanese as "Park and Area for People Who Cannot Go Home". The next day I dragged Elaine to a Max Huber (graphic designer) exhibition in Ginza, which was deadly. There was actually two separate exhibitions on, so obviously we had to go to both! After that we hit Akihabara with all it's electronic stores and Manga shops and from there we tried to spot a few Harajuku girls, but it was raining so they didn't want to come out to play.

I'll try do a few more posts in the next while, I've only got a short while in Japan so trying to squeeze as much in as possible. Check out the Flickr shots and leave some comments if you like.

Thanks to Elaine and her swish, new camera for the blog photo!