Friendliness In Asia, Japan has a lasting legacy due to it at colonial history. Around the world Japanese history is famous for Samurai and the Atomic bomb. Both of these things do not reflect modern Japanese society. The people are extremely friendly, probably the most friendly in the whole of Asia. They are also extremely polite, going out of their way to make sure you have room to walk. One example is that when you go into a restaurant with an open kitchen all the staff will greet you. In shops as part of etiquette all the staff greet you, it is not always heartfelt though. Toilets High tech toilets are plentiful. This was the first country in Asia that allowed us to flush toilet paper. No more stinking piles of dirty waste paper right next to you. Cleanliness is clearly important to the Japanese and yet not all washrooms had soap. Bullet trains 50 years ago the first one was released and did speeds of 130mph. Today’s trains cruise at 180mph. They are very spacious with electrical points and a little hanger for your coat. You can get from Tokyo to Kyoto in just a couple of hours in comfort with the trains being relatively smooth. Scenery Japan has a spectacular range of scenery with the beaches of Okinawa to the ski slopes in the Japanese Alps. It has the cityscapes of Tokyo and Osaka. As it isn’t such a large country you can access these landscapes in a short amount of time due to the fantastic infrastructure. You can even go around the Alps using public transport only. Food Although we are not big fans of sushi we did try it. What we can say about Japanese restaurants is that the quality of doost and service is very high. Even the food from the convenience stores was pretty good. Japan has the highest number of Michelin starred restaurants in the world. However, the best food we ate was in a ryokan. Cooked to perfection! Japanese utensils We think Japanese chopsticks are the best in Asia. In most of Asia you get two sticks that are square. In Korea you have metal chopsticks that are flat making it hard to pick items up. Japan has very delicate chopsticks with a narrow end, meaning you can pick up tiny pieces of food. Lacquerware looks good! Teapots, sake jars and glasses. Earthenware is big in Japan and they are very nicly decorated. Vending machines A simple yet useful idea. These are everywhere from Tokyo to tiny villages. They offer beers, iced coffees, teas and soft drinks. Some are also stocked...

Top destination Kyoto, Japan. We really enjoyed Japan because it was extremely clean and an accessible country with an excellent public transport system. On top of that it has a fascinating history combined with top quality museums. Despite having a reputation from 50 years ago that is very negative, with many war crimes committed (then again all nations in WW2 undertook crimes against humanity, its just that half of these nations won the war and the other half lost) it was interesting to note that the Japanese are extremely polite, especially outside of Tokyo and very helpful. Kyoto was fantastic. A cultural paradise with thousands of shrines and temples all over this compact city. There are plenty of Michelin starred restaurants, which we didn’t go to as we thought we wouldn’t be allowed in due to our clothes. However, the other food we ate was of a very good quality and tasted delicious. For the traveller, the integrated public transport system is brilliant. Buses interlink with trains and the subway. At times it can be confusing when there is a private train running on the same line as the metro. We did get stuck a couple of time wondering what on earth was going on in central Kyoto station but in the whole it is an easy place to travel in. Top destination outside of Japan The Himalayas, Nepal For spectacular scenery then Annapurna Base Camp and Circuit are the places to be. Snow-capped granite peaks plus accommodation high up in the rocky mountains are what makes Nepal famous. Plus it is such a cheap country to visit. Many go on tours but you can organise it yourself very easily when you are there. There are indeed hundreds of trekking companies in both Pokhara and Kathmandu. Some of our trip highlights were experienced here including meeting Kitty and Marco who were just fantastic people. The scenery of Nepal is beautiful. The tour guides not so, some were fine whilst others told you about all these people that died or were injured because they did not have a Nepali Guide. The reason Nepal is not no.1 is because it wasn’t the complete package. For rustic travelling then you cannot beat Nepal unless you go to India. Where else in the world can you see goat pee dripping on someone’s head or a goat escaping from the roof of the bus? But it was the only country of our trip where I had constant diarrhoea including 9 days in a row. That certainly puts a shadow over somewhere! Nicest food Traditional Japanese food in a ryokan. The quality was first-class with...

Annemarie’s List 1. Thorung-La Pass, Nepal 2. Annapurna Base Camp, Nepal 3. Tibet. How could I have forgotten this beautiful place. 4. Huangshan, China 5. Japanese Alps 6. Angkor, Cambodia These are the most memorable places on the trip. Despite disliking many things about Nepal, namely being constantly ill and the fear of death on the roads/lack of roads, the scenery was spectacular and we met some great people. Angkor was also a real highlight, it was somewhere that I had always wanted to go to. I have learnt a lot from this experience namely that I do like going places and seeing the world. Also, I like having something to do and I don’t like relaxing, which I already knew. I have learnt about what I want from a trip and that is to see the natural world for the most part. I have preferred the mountains over the cities. I have enjoyed walking through the differing landscapes over the temples and other types of architecture. I have enjoyed learning about the history of the places. Travelling and seeing the world means different things to differing people. For me, as someone who is interested in anthropology this was a good way to explore this interest. I found people are basically the same and have a similar history despite the distances. Trading built the world we live in today. I have also come away with a greater understanding of how significant WW2 was in creating the world we live in. For those on the victors side many turned to Communism and the effects are still present today. For those who were destroyed by war, namely Japan, an alliance with America meant they prospered.  I also found out that I wasn’t quite ready to move away from the UK as yet. The Europeancentric bias that I have probably made the journey less enjoyable in some places than it could have been. Then again maybe some places are just overrated but you don’t know until you have been. Will I travel again? Yes, as I want to see many other places with Europe being he next focus. I then want to go to Australia to work at some point and then buy a nice house with a vegetable patch in New Zealand. When will this happen? I don’t know but so far in my life I have always accomplished what I set out to do. Maybe I’ll also get a pet sheep as New Zealand has lots of them too. I completely forgot about our journey to Tibet. It is a magical place, full of great beauty. The traditional buildings AIT...

After our first experience we were not too impressed with staying in a traditional Japanese room. You paid the same as a decent hotel to then sleep on the floor and you even had to make your own bed! It was like camping but inside! For the price you’d expect a bit more. The room itself had been rather small, so you couldn’t relax with green tea and have your bedding out at the same time; you either sat around the table or had the bed out. However, the next place we were staying at was in Magome in order to walk to next post town of Tsumago. Magome to Tsumago is a popular walking route and is raved about in the Lonely Planet and by people who have already undertaken it. It was part of a route from Kyoto to Tokyo though the Japanese Alps. Around this built up post towns. Japan recognised the importance of keeping these towns as heritage sites when they were busily developing. The towns are now designated national treasures and have become tourist honeypots with locally made products available to buy from the beautifully crafted dark wood houses. We had to be at the Ryokan before 6pm. This is because there was a meal package included in our room rate. Along with a room for the night you also have a traditional Japanese dinner and breakfast included. It was not much more than the first ryokan, ¥3000 or £18 extra. To eat what we had for dinner in a restaurant would have cost us ¥5-10,000 per person depending on the quality and reputation of the place. The ryokan was empty when we arrived. We were warmly greeted and shown around. Our room was a family room, it was huge. We had a separate lounge area with a small table as the focal point. Then through the Shoji doors was the bedroom and also a private toilet. It was the only room that has a private toilet, complete with toilet slippers. The bed was already laid out and made. There was also a traditional robe for us. All very civil and polite. We had time to have a quick bath before dinner. The bathing area was quite cosy. There were two showers at the side of the bath, which was covered by a mat to keep in the heat. The bath was in essence a really big version of a British bath, more akin to a hot tub. At 6pm on the dot we sat down to our meal. Neither of us really like raw fish or miso soup but we both wanted to...