konnichiwa

well hello there and greetings from tokyo - please forgive any spelling mistakes, i am typing this on a japanese keyboard and its rather strange. we cant get wifi here at the hotel so i am using the pc in the hotel lobby.

its been a mad few days, i am still not on actual japanese time yet, its supposed to be 5.10 here but i think its a lot later as i have been awake for hours. we arrived here safely after a really good flight-terminal 5 is ace by the way, far too much temptation to spend the holiday pennies even before you leave the country. we managed to get to the hotel really easy after getting the direct train from Narita Airport to Nippori station which is just a five minute walk away. we then used directions i had got from trip advisor to decipher our way through crowded wee market streets with very heavy bags and arrived at the hotel maybe about 2 hours after landing which i thought was pretty good, considering it was 1hr to get in from the airport. The hotel itself is lovely, so spotless and in a beautiful quiet location. the owner speaks english which has made it a lot easier.

we have done our best so far to look like the local village idiots by not understanding anything but its been great fun and the japanese are so friendly and trying to help us in any way possible-we are still not sure whether they are laughing with us or at us-but hey we are having fun. we ate at the most hilarious bar last night-there were only 4 seats and the other 2 were occupied by locals-we just pointed at things and they sent them our way - we have no idea what we were eating however it tasted delicious. i think they used us as guinea pigs as the owner kept sending more stuff out for us to try but we were so stuffedand couldnt eat any more. they also tried to get us drunk -and succeeded- by plying us with sake. it was such a good night made all the better for being able to interact with some locals who laughed at ricky's attempts to seperate his chopsticks and pulling open the door even though you had to slide it-a minor faux pax i am sure.

tokyo is a land of opposites, there are the most amazing ancient sites sitting next to skyscrapers and super modern technology. yesterday was absolutely pouring so we did what sensible people often do in torrential rain and went for a walk. we got absolutely soaked but we had been sitting down for so long on the flight we needed to stretch our legs. we went to Ueno park which was lovely although i didnt get to the zoo to see the pandas. today we went into central tokyo and to the gardens at the imperial palace which were absolutely stunning and then we went to the electronics district. i have never seen anything so mad in all my life, just block upon block of shops selling various electronics, cabling, phones and games.

the toilets here also deserve special mention-rather confusing at first but they have obviously been set up with the sensitive consumer in mind, they play music, heat up, have different flush sounds, have different water scooshes for your various needs and also light up if its dark-what more could a person want. this is a serious piece of technology which could keep men entertained for hours-books no longer required.

tonight we will take it easy and tomorrow hopefully go and see some ancient temples as well as some karaoke bars-ricky better have his singing voice ready. we fly to sydney on sat night so hopefully will update you again before then-if i can get wifi then i will upload some photies.

loving this place though will be very sad to leave although my feet i am sure will enjoy the rest, blisters ahoy already

sayonara for now chaps xxxx

spaced

well i am feeling pretty out of it at the moment - today has been a blur trying to get everything ready, i still have loads more to do and i am knackered. Aside from trying to actually pack there are so many fiddly things to do such as sort out banking stuff, check flight details, make sure we have everything printed out and of course tidy the flat which at the moment looks as though a bomb has hit it (a mighty big bomb at that)

i have no idea how i managed to fit everything in my case- well thats a lie - i fitted everything in and then i had to take stuff back out as it was too heavy -ooops, so i just transferred stuff into ricky's bag -

"whats that mr murray, you said you packed this bag yourself?" the customs officer booms as he pulls out a set of straighteners.

now it looks as though ricky's case is the heavier of the two but that is due to him having all of my toiletries (as you can imagine there are a few as i dont think you can buy shampoo in australia can you????) and i used to think of myself as a light packer - still at least i think we have everything we need. maybe i should try and sneak in a few more books!!

we said goodbye to little ron yesterday and he was dropped off at his new adopted parents - we had a fairly traumatic morning getting him through to glasgow - he doesnt like the car or getting his toenails clipped - but rikke assures me he is doing great- i have a feeling he wont want to come back home.

so we are off tomorrow - getting picked up by the taxi at 5.45 before our flight to heathrow at 7.30 - must admit am looking forward to seeing terminal 5 and doing a bit of shopping. Our flight to Tokyo is at midday and we land on wed morning at 9am (midnight our time) so we will be knacked but its so mad to think that this time tomorrow we will have only 5 hours until we touch down in japan - i am still finding it hard to believe but i am certainly getting more and more excited - no idea if i will sleep tonight - i hope so as i am shattered.

but anyway just wanted to write a last post before we set off - the next time will be from some far off land, am hoping it wont be too long before i can let you know what we have been up to

be good children, speak soon xx

holy cow batman

• i am hungover
• i am on holiday nanananana

well its official, we are on holiday and it feels mad. well actually i feel sick - a bit too much celebratory wine with miss kane last night but it was a grand night and worth it. It been a busy week trying to catch up with more people before we go, managed to see jen and khal on tuesday and just for you jen i promise i will now summarise and bullet point at the start of the blog so you dont need to read the whole thing. Also saw claire and sara on wed for a visit to the pics and had a lovely night out with work on thurs. they took me to a stip bar for my send off - actually it was just our local The Guilty Lily but it was their official opening night and there were a few burlesque acts going on - i think the boys were enjoying the view. I was too busy looking at the lush wee pink ipod they got me - thanks so much guys i am so so excited about using it and will miss you loads.

today i was supposed to get up and be productive but havent really done much yet. ricky is off to dundee to drop the polo off and catch up with mark so i am treating myself to an afternoon pamper session at the spa in ocean terminal to get some pre holiday preening done.

tomorrow we are off to glasgow in the morning to drop off ronnie at my friend rikke's - his suit case is packed and he is looking forward to being spoiled for 3 months. on monday i am going for a haircut and at some point i suppose i had better think of packing - its a bit too much of a scary thought so will prob leave it to the last minute which is not that wise - but what else would you expect from me.

the cards are still coming in so thanks to all who have sent them, Les B thanks also for the travel grooming kits - going to come in very handy.

right i am going to get off my arse and do some washing - will try and blog before i go with our itinerary --have a cracking weekend and dont work too hard on monday :)

(Un)popular

Hi Folks - I'm definitely getting more used to blogging as it only took me 10 minutes this time to work out how to post a message! As Emma previously mentioned, many thanks for all of you who were able to make the party last Saturday. We had a great time catching up with you all and are very grateful for all the cards & presents we received. Special thanks to Ross and Zoe who travelled up from Nottingham for the party. I must admit, i struggled to even drive to the supermarket on Sunday never mind the 7 hour drive down south.

One common theme which started to emerge as we were getting slightly drunker was that folk started to mention that they thought we were lucky swines for sneaking off for 3 months. Well don't worry, we'll try and keep our blog up to date so that you don't miss out on any of our adventures - it will almost feel like you're with us!! Even folk at work have started to get their own back on us by piling up the work just so that we kept busy before we head off. Honestly, i think we deserve a wee holiday....

Been busy this week with our final preparations for the off. Having realised that New Zealand is a fairly big place and that the wee stretch of water between the two islands is in fact a 3 hour ferry, we've decided to add to our carbon footprint by taking an internal flight rather than the 20 hour drive. I wonder how many other times our geography skills will let us down?

Finally, there was quite a bit of interest in my reference to the global economic downturn in my last post - well OK only one person (hi Dad) - who was particularly interested in why the pound had fallen so much recently. Well it's due to a combination of factors such as the difference in interest rates and the financial market's perception of the strength (or rather lack) of the UK economy, which is influenced by the state of the public finances. In addition, certain currencies such as the US dollar are seen as "safe havens" during periods of turbulence, which partly explains why the pound has depreciated against the dollar in recent months. There you see, those 5 years at uni weren't wasted after all!

Anyway, catch up with you all later. Ricky