Well, as you may have noticed from the gallery uploads, I'm back from Japan.

It was hot and humid, which was a bit of a rude shock to the old body, after leaving an Adelaide winter.

I've always been very curious about Japan. So much culture, tradition, beautiful scenery, and yet high technology and metropoli. The Japanese people I met were INCREDIBLY polite. Right through from the maid in the hotel, to the professors I met at my meeting. And efficiency. I caught one train in 10days that wasn't to schedule, the rest, you could set your watch to! Everything so clean.

The language barrier was occasionally difficult, but everyone tried to be helpful. My partner D. ended up joining a random party, after a guy in the subway saw he was lost, and invited him along. D lost his mobile phone that night, but he had plenty of great sake, and even performed his first (and probably last) karaoke!

Sapporo in the north is well known for its snow and skiing, but in the summer it is a bit cooler, and in fact rained for most days I was there for my medical meeting. Such a lovely city.

Kyoto was hot, and gearing up for the Gion Matsuri. I'm sorry we missed the main parade, but we did manage to see the displayed floats downtown, which were hugely awesome. Kyoto has more temples than you can throw an incense stick at, and I'd love to visit again to see more. We did a zooming 2 hour walking tour through the Gion district, which was really interesting and a tiny peek into the Kyoto of old.

Nara, 45 minutes train ride out of Kyoto was incredibly hot the day we visited, but the Nara Park, with its tame deer, and amazingly giant Todaiji Temple was worth it. A deer bit D. on the tummy, but hey, you get that!

We then caught the shinkansen (bullet train) back up to Tokyo. After a few days we figured out the subway and trains, and did a bit of exploring. Unfortunately it was a bit too hot and humid for me, so we did a little less than I would have liked. Because it got bright so early however, it was really easy to get up at 5am to go to the Tokyo fish market (Tsukiji) which was fascinating. I love sashimi, and D. is a keen fisherman, so we really wanted to go here. The tuna auctions were exciting, and the wholesalers markets outside were an incredible array of all types of fish - tuna, prawns, crabs, eels, turtles, you name it! And because it was all so fresh, it didn't even smell fishy! I definitely recommend it.

Finally, on our last night, Mike (=rubberman542) and his lovely wife took us out for dinner. Some of the best food we had in Japan, and wonderful company! Mike and I have chatted here on dA for some 5 yrs, and it was great to finally meet!
This is one of the best things about deviantART...discussing art and life with people all over the world. I love Mike's photos. Some of my favourites are below.


Gotta love it.

Now excuse me, whilst I catch up on some sleep zzzzzzzzzzzzz