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Not content with staying in one place for very long off we popped to Nara, the old capital of Japan from 710 to 784AD, 45 mins on the train from Kyoto. They are revamping the train station so it took us 30 mins to find the bicycle hire place which turned out to be right out of the station instead of left. We intended to hire normal bikes but of course they had electric ones so who could resist? A lot of nodding of heads and pointing followed by not giving any deposit whatsover and agreeing to something written in kanji and we were off for max 2hour hire. Plenty of time to see everything. ...

It is very very hot today. brought back memories of India & SE Asia, carrying our backpacks through searing sunshine. After our 3rd visit in as many days to Bakery Roti around the corner from J Hoppers, our favourite supplier of random bakery items, we struggled onto a packed tram with all the shoppers. Stares were a plenty as we blocked the narrow alleyways with our ugly luggage. It was a relief to get onto the cool air-conditioned Shinkansen to Kyoto. ...

After such a sobering morning we needed a lighter afternoon. A tram, train & ferry trip later and we were on Miyajima island, home of the Itsukushima Shrine, its famous floating torii gate and countless tame wild deer always looking for food. It’s a pretty little place with a coastal promenade and one street of cute little shops that even the deer fancied popping into for some retail therapy. ...

Spent the morning at the Peace Memorial Museum, a very modern building containing some of the most horrific sights I have ever seen. You are shown information about the lead-up to the day the A-bomb was dropped. Who made the bomb, who made the decisions on where and when to drop it and why. I am still shocked at how that was decision was made. It was an experiment. An unknown. How would it affect human life? It was a lottery. It had to be dropped. It cost too much money to just not bother. It was chosen based on the fact there were no prisoner of war camps in the area. It was a clear day so that the results could be recorded easily. ...

Guess what? It’s our penultimate Thursday. We took the Shinkansen to Hiroshima. Otherwise known as the bullet train, it lives up to its reputation. It was on time and it was zippy. If you try to walk whilst it’s moving you feel like you’re floating and have no control over your core balance. It has a similar feel to a plane. Except with miles more legroom and much better food. We happened to miss the snack lady as she passed so I went up to purchase something from her and she waved me back to my seat. She promptly returned to us and gave us our order of coffee & neatly packaged, uniform sized finger sandwiches with the crusts cut-off together with those wet hand towels for freshening up. Maybe this is what first class is like on British Airways. ...

It’s our penultimate Wednesday of the trip and we’re in Japan. We thought it would be difficult to work out anything as Matt knows zero Japanese and my night class at uni has all but disintegrated from my memory leaving hello, goodbye, my name is Karen and the numbers 1 to 4. We needn’t have worried (when I say we I mean I as Matt never worries about anything). Most things at the airport were in English as well as Japanese. Then once we were on the first train into Tokyo we were adopted by two lovely ladies who didn’t know each other but who worked out between them where we needed to go and then continued to give us tips on what to see where. Matt wrote down his website address on a bit of paper for one of them and the other took a photo of it with her phone so they could both have it. They told us when it was our stop and waved and smiled through the window as the train pulled away. So sweet. ...

Hopped on the 9:20 train back to Sydney and at Central Station were planning on walking to the Harbour Bridge but made a rash decision to get another train leaving in 3 mins to Milson’s Point, the train station the other side of the Harbour bridge, or so we hoped. The train travelled underground to Town Hall, then to Wyndham and when the voice over the tannoy said “next stop Milson’s Point” and we started slowing down we were still in darkness. We looked at each other and thought where the hell are we going? Suddenly there was light at the end of the tunnel and we popped out at the Harbour Bridge itself. We sat there, the typical tourists, cameras pointing out of both sides of the train to try to get shots of the Opera House at speed. ...

We are on a roll. We caught the rush hour bus to town, managed to get the one that didn’t go near the station which led to us leaping from the bus at Hyde Park at 9am, legging it to Central Station, buying tickets in a flash (there was absolutely zero queue – what is that all about in the main station of a huge city?), skipping through the barriers and onto the top floor of the double-decker parked on platform 6 with 1 min to spare for the 9:09 to Katoomba. ...

We saw the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge today. So excited! It didn’t seem real that we were actually in Sydney until we saw them. And it still doesn’t seem real now. Stood looking the the Opera House for ages. The base of it is pretty ugly which consists of beige concrete and it is difficult to see the famous iconic shape of it from the bottom. But it doesn’t matter as you can get up close to the Swedish (? or Swiss?) tiles and see interesting shapes from all different angles. And you get a perfect full-on view of the Harbour Bridge from the end. And see the harbour waters from 3 sides. This was our first angle of SOH. ...

Another nice early start and we were at Cairns domestic airport at 5:30 queuing Easyjet-stylie at the Virgin Blue check-in desks. We had checked in online to “save time”. We stood in the “Bag Drop Off” line for 25mins whilst people arriving late for the Brisbane flight were called forward followed by whoever felt like it from any of the lines. I wasn’t the only one mumbling under my breath I can tell you. ...