My site is finally back up after a server crash so I can thankfully post again. London is been and gone and it was a great time. I only had a few days but as usual for me they were jam packed full of things to see and do.

After arriving off my flight from Berlin the train from Heathrow to Paddington was such a breeze and the short walk from Waterloo Station to my hotel was something I did about a million times on the trip. The hotel was amazing. I stayed at the Park Plaza Westminster bridge, and if i leaned a certain way I could just see Big Ben out the window of my room even though I officially had an atrium view and for £65 a night a total bargain for what I got. Was worth probably 4 or 5 times that amount.

I did all the usual touristy sites, changing of the guards, big ben, london eye but I also did a few less advertised ones like the RAF Museum along with the Guards and Household Cavalry Museums. There was a few big highlights for me though on this trip that stood out.

1. Ceremony of the Keys at Tower of London on my first night. This ceremony dates back almost 700 years so was a great honour to be able to see it.
2. Randomly finding a Jamie Oliver restaurant and being able to walk in, get a table and have a meal at a reasonable price (2 courses with sparkling water for £27) all before the theatre.
3. Catching up with Ross & Cat a couple of old Contiki friends and going to the world’s first Gay Ice Cream Bar which is also the same place that made the famous/infamous Breast Milk Ice Cream
4. Enjoying the sunshine while eating lunch in a deck chair in Green Park near Buckingham Palace even if only for a few minutes before being chased away for not paying.

But London is now gone and I am over East, the Far East as it was reffered to quite a while ago. I flew into Japan on Sunday and have so far had a great time. It is totally surreal. I am in a very foreign land where I do not speak any of the language at all and to be honest I feel slightly out of my depth, but that has not stopped me using the resources at my disposal namely the internet and the hotel concierge.

But yesterday i had the morning in Akihabra exploring what is really tech geek heaven with plenty of toys and gadgets to drool over. Then after getting onto the Tokyo Metro for the first time (had been using JR lines till that point) i hopped on over to Tokyo Tower to meet up with my old friend Rumi. We had a good day and she showed me many things and let me experience some more Japense food including cold Soba noodles with Yam (which was pretty yum) and some Little Red Bean cakes.

Rumi took me to my first buddhist temple at Asakusa and I did pretty much most of my souvenir shopping here (the street leading up to the temple is full of souvenir stores and thats a traditional thing to help serve the pilgrams journeying to the temple) and she also took me to my first ever Aquarium Art Event.

This is a little bit different and definately not something I ever would of thought of going to. It is essentially gold fish aquariums put together as art installations so lots of different coloured fish or lights and shapes of bowls/tanks to make it artistic. Sound also played a big part with light effects changing for the different sounds or beats. It was fascinating and beautiful. This is also where another one of my random events happened. I got interviewed for NHK which is an internationally broadcast Japanese TV channel. Im a tv star again!

It has been an amazing journey so far with more to come. More tails of Japan to come including a sushi breakfast.

Current Location: Hyatt Regency Tokyo, Shinjuku
Countries: 7