We got up at 6:30am which is not our favorite time of day I have to say, walked to the station and jumped on the airport express train to Incheon airport. Plane was delayed two hours so we mooched about and had some toasted ham and tomato sandwiches for lunch which turned out to be…

It’s an interesting place Seoul. Quite a contrast of old and new. Parts of it reminded me of Singapore back in the ’80s, little shops in ramshackle buildings, rumpety motorcycles and scooters carrying improbable loads. It’s a very wealthy country but there’s clearly a way to go yet for some of them. Great place though,…

We had a very full on day yesterday getting the boat to Busan which took six hours, then the fast train to Seoul. We left about 10 in the morning and got to our hotel about 10:45 in the pm.

It’s great to have some clean clothes. We had a relaxed morning then in the afternoon since the weather was so nice, thirteen degrees, we got an uber to Ōhori park which is a big park in the middle of the city, nice place for a walk and admire the ducks and etc.

(From wikipedia:) “Fukuoka (Japanese: 福岡市, Fukuoka-shi, [ɸɯ̥kɯokaꜜɕi] ⓘ) is the sixth-largest city in Japan and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancient times. The area has long been considered the gateway to the country, as it is the nearest point among Japan’s main islands to the…

The most famous cat island in Japan is Aoshima but we were unlikely to be heading that way so I searched for one near Okayama and found Manabe island, and it sounded like a good excuse to do a spot of boating so we decided to visit on the way to Fukuoka, making it quite…

Mihoko was a PhD student in the Pharmacy School when I was working there and also when Pauline was there, we both got on well with her. We thought it would be great to catch up since she’d been back in Japan about twelve years or so now. So we took the fast train to…

Pauline was keen to get our northern hemisphere flu vaccinations so we took an uber to an English speaking clinic where we’d made an appointment and got jabbed. We got an uber back to the railway station and headed off on a local train to Arashiyama for the bamboo forest and hopefully the monkey park…

After a couple of pleasant days in Tokyo we jumped on the Shinkansen to Kyoto. The highlight of this trip was the little boy in the seat next to us, he was about two, had a Thomas The Tank Engine top on and a backpack, and in his hand was what we thought was a…

For William