Firstly a big shout out to my girls Tash and Sammi - HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you both. We bought cards but didnt send them, oops.

So we are in the Netherlands at the moment. We arrived with hangovers and heavy packs. We stayed with Karyn and Tom for the first few days in Amsterdam before hiring bikes and leaving the sleaze of the city behind us. The country side is beautiful and appart from the occasionally vicous winds, riding is easy. We've got these crumby bikes, single speed with hard seats and cute baskets. Sym managed to get three punctures and a busted wheel but no serious injuries and we havent killed each other yet. We rode to the Hague and tried to guess were Wendy hung out. Its a cool dity. We stayed in this lovely little hotel that used to be a brothel. SDtill had the red lights, mirrored walls and shower in the corner of the room. Very odd.

From there we rode to Rotterdam. Its ace here. Theres so many different styles of architecture. Some really rotten and some fantastic, but somehow it all manages to work really well.

There is sculpture and art everywhere and theres a really friendly, creative vibe. So we have a few more days here before heading but to Amsterdam. Wishing we packed more than two teeshirts each.

Cant wait to hang out with everyone again really soon!

Velkom shto ze Nederlands
Well we have made it to the Nederlands, home of cheese, dykes and tolerance

Amsterdam is a lot like Prague in terms of tourists humping it to death, but unlike prague who lies there and takes it, Amsterdam seems to scream for it. The drug tourists there look like bottom level english pot dealers, you know the kind, you go to their house and theres a black vinyl couch and tropical fish tank in a pitchblack room, coincidently a lot of the coffee shops in Amsterdam look like this as well; very seedy.

We packed some supplies and left Amsterdam to ride north to a place called Edam (yes the cheese) this felt much better then Amsterdam. Edam is a small town that i guess is in the countryside (only 30km out of Amsterdam), thereare lots of sailboats and ponys and that sort of thing, the place is a Tommy Hillfiger/Ralph Lauren wet dream, everybody and everything is beautiful, weird.

after that we went to a bunch of other odd caravan parks in odder towns. One park we stayed in had a little old man with a shitzu dog in a golf buggy driving around the park making sure noone was getting out of line.

As Anna would have told you i havent had much luck with my rental bike. i got tree punctures in one fucking hour and then later somehow stuck my foot through the front wheel while moving (dont ask) this busted the wheel quite severly and really fucking hurt my foot.

at the moment we are in Rotterdam which is really nice, far better than Amsterdam. Im not sure why everyone talks about Amsterdam so much when the rest of the country is so much more interesting with all the same handy facilities.

The architecture here is crazy. absolute porno for those who are into that kind of thing. Heaps of art too, everywhere the whole city is like a gallery. Rotterdam is the only country we have been too in Europe that i would actually really want to live.

will post photos soon

ps. Jonas you will recieve a package soon from Amsterdam, you may want to be lowkey when you pick it up though, you know what customs are like.

All Suummer Bin Laargin-it N Fuukink Prauge, Mun

A couple o weeks ago we left Zagreb for Prague, what a fucking hassle that was, bits of India were still stuck to me so getting out of Zagreb was prickly, Anna will tell you all about it.
Prague was once a Good looking, Dignified lady who was forced into whoredom by a bunch of out of town hicks. shes now a drunk, toothless old woman wholl tell anyone who listens how beautiful she once was. This is the best way to descibe Prague, a beautiful city being humped to into submission by fat topless English tourists and stupid American College students who are there on spring break.
The English are the worst though, they all roll into town on the weekends, get drunk, burn the locals, piss on the monuments and try to fuck their women all within an hour of arriving, its unfucking believable. The English also raise the prices of everything because they are on the most powerful currency in the world, because of this Prague is not cheap to anyone but the English, cunts . I got some primo photos of some dumb Englishman at a nightclub we were at these guys are Darwins nightmare.

Its funny the things that people think will make them look more sexy.

We saw a couple of very overweight girls today in skimpy two piece bikinis, fags hanging out their mouths, sun-baking their already leathery bodies, being careful not to miss the folds of skin between the rolls of fat.

There was another lady, easily in her seventies, hunched back with everything sagging in all the wrong places. She was also wearing a very attractive two piece and had seen so much sun in her time that you could make a whole suitcase from her skin.

Now the men are not excluded from this phenomenon, with budgie smugglers the swimwear of choice for all body shapes and sizes, they are definitely competing for best on beach.

Sym and I look very out of place in our boardies and tops.

Cloudless blue skies and clear water, ahh Croatia. Well more precisly, Dubrovnik. We have been here almmost a week now and could easily stay a lot longer. Its like staying at a resort where everything you could ever need for a beach holiday is just there.

We got ourselves a (very) little tent and have set up camp. We are quite dwarfed amougst all the campervans with there satalite TV and wireless internet but we like it. We call it home.
There are lots of beautiful beaches along this coast line. The water is so clear you can see the bottom even when its 4 or 5 metres deep. We have pretty much just gone to a different beach every day.

Yesterday we went sea kayaking. I kept turning left whihc was annoying but other than that it was heaps of fun. We paddled to a little island called Lokrum, a small uninhabited island. Its amazing. Beautifull cliff faces, caves, wildlife - even wild peacocks which was pretty cool. We went cliff jumping. Started small and worked our way up. However as we were leaving we saw people jumping off an even higher cliff. Will have to go back for that one.

The old town of Dubrovnick is beautiful too. Its enclosed by a massive stone wall. All the buildings and streets are stone or marble, mostly from this area so it tones in perfectly with the surrounding cliffs. There are lots of cute alleyways to explore, if you can fight your way through the sea of greys that invade every couple of days when a cruise ship comes through. Well time for a swim so more later.

Out of the toilet and into the warm sink of the Adriatic.
Yes finally left India, as you can guess it wasn't my cup of tea, there were so many things about India that made me want to kill, so many times i just felt a bubble in my belly that told me to walk out onto the balcony and scream to the Indian people down below, ˝YOU'RE ALL CUUUNNNTTTSSS, GHANDI TOO *˝. If it wasn't for the kind hospitality of the people we stayed with in Delhi and the fine time we had swimming and rafting the Ganges in Rishikesh i would have done some CNN type shit, maybe like aim for 200 people and see where i went from there try for, but enough hostility Symon, you're out now, its all ok.

Croatia, mmm, lovely. Croatia is a Paradise, Jewell of the Adriatic. we got in on..umm i dont know, a couple of days ago, landed in Zagreb.
Zagreb is really cool, in fact its a lot like Melbourne, thats the only reason i wouldn't live there (don't worry keen defenders of Melbourne im not dissing) , why move overseas if the place you move to is almost the same as the place you came from y'all.
we took an overnight bus to Dubrovnik, this place is awesome, absolutely stunning the water is so clear and warm to swim in, the scenery looks like its out of Tintin or that movie Porco Rosso
the foods good and everybody is like 7 foot tall and topless, yes Jonas you would love it here. Weather is fine too.
Ahhh yes, Croatia, sweet Croatia who hath taken thee away from shit and death and chicken korma.

India, Fucking India

Hmmm, how do i convey the wonders of India? Well think of the most annoying person youve ever met and triple it, thats India

a cuntry where hippies come and find themselves, what a load of bullshit, the only thing i found was rubbish, beggars and shit. More later

Well there are plenty of good things about India but there are equally as many bad things. I am pretty sure Sym will let you know all about the bad things so I figure I should start by telling you all the good things.

• Mohits family. We are staying with a great family in Delhi and using this as a bit of a base. They have been so good to us and have made us feel really welcome.
• Auto-Rickshaws. Once you get past the heckling over the price and trying to determine whether you are being totally ripped off or just a little bit, and laid ground rules about not detouring by any friend or relatives shop, they are ace! The traffic is crazy and theres no way I would want to be driving, but its fun ducking and weaving in these shitty little vehicles. When they break down they just push them over sideways on the side of the road and start banging them with a hammer.
• Food. The vegetarian section of the menu is bigger than the 'non-vegetarian' section. mmmm.
• Weddings. If you ever have a chance to go to an Indian wedding, snap it up. They are soooo much fun. We accidentally ended up in the parade with the grooms side and danced like whities until we were about to pass out from heat exhaustion.
• Taj Mahal. This is just as beautiful as it looks in all the pictures.
• Giant Sun Dials. There are two sun dial and other-astrology-based-dial parks in India. They are amazing, quite abstract looking, huge and a brilliant terracotta colour.
• Cows. Top of the ladder here. If a cow wants to cross the road, then the traffic stops. If a cow wants to stand in the middle of the road and just chill for a bit, then the traffic diverts around it. There is nothing a cow cant do as long as it doesn't cross the border....
• Monkeys. Found in abundance, these little guys are so cute (at least from a distance). I have never seen monkeys in the wild like this. They look healthier than half the people cause they can eat just about anything.
• White Water Rafting. What fun! Why haven't I ever done this before???
• Swimming in the Gange's. Thats right we swam in the Ganges river and survived. It was fun too. Swam in the rapids and jumped off a 8m high rock into the river.
• Rishikesh. A cool little river side town. Best place we went in India. Just chilled and more laid back than the bigger places but still has loads of character.
• Yoga. They actually have a yoga move here that simultaneously cures cancer, STD's, constipation, diabetes, labido problems, heart disease, and more. Amazing isn't it!
• Trucks. They have the prettiest trucks here that I have ever seen. Each one is a little piece of art in it's own right.
• McDonalds. Yes thats right. McD's is actually good here and with 40+degrees ever day, at least you know they have good refridgeration. Enough excusses.

Well there are plenty of good things about India but there are equally as many bad things. I am pretty sure Sym will let you know all about the bad things so I figure I should start by telling you all the good things.

• Mohits family. We are staying with a great family in Delhi and using this as a bit of a base. They have been so good to us and have made us feel really welcome.
• Auto-Rickshaws. Once you get past the heckling over the price and trying to determine whether you are being totally ripped off or just a little bit, and laid ground rules about not detouring by any friend or relatives shop, they are ace! The traffic is crazy and theres no way I would want to be driving, but its fun ducking and weaving in these shitty little vehicles. When they break down they just push them over sideways on the side of the road and start banging them with a hammer.
• Food. The vegetarian section of the menu is bigger than the 'non-vegetarian' section. mmmm.
• Weddings. If you ever have a chance to go to an Indian wedding, snap it up. They are soooo much fun. We accidentally ended up in the parade with the grooms side and danced like whities until we were about to pass out from heat exhaustion.
• Taj Mahal. This is just as beautiful as it looks in all the pictures.
• Giant Sun Dials. There are two sun dial and other-astrology-based-dial parks in India. They are amazing, quite abstract looking, huge and a brilliant terracotta colour.
• Cows. Top of the ladder here. If a cow wants to cross the road, then the traffic stops. If a cow wants to stand in the middle of the road and just chill for a bit, then the traffic diverts around it. There is nothing a cow cant do as long as it doesn't cross the border....
• Monkeys. Found in abundance, these little guys are so cute (at least from a distance). I have never seen monkeys in the wild like this. They look healthier than half the people cause they can eat just about anything.
• White Water Rafting. What fun! Why haven't I ever done this before???
• Swimming in the Gange's. Thats right we swam in the Ganges river and survived. It was fun too. Swam in the rapids and jumped off a 8m high rock into the river.
• Rishikesh. A cool little river side town. Best place we went in India. Just chilled and more laid back than the bigger places but still has loads of character.
• Yoga. They actually have a yoga move here that simultaneously cures cancer, STD's, constipation, diabetes, labido problems, heart disease, and more. Amazing isn't it!
• Trucks. They have the prettiest trucks here that I have ever seen. Each one is a little piece of art in it's own right.
• McDonalds. Yes thats right. McD's is actually good here and with 40+degrees ever day, at least you know they have good refridgeration. Enough excusses.

First impresions on India

• Heaps of fucking people.
• I mean like HEAPS of fucking people, everywhere. doing either not much or everything.
• It stinks like piss in some areas, and death in others. You could almost distinguish area boundries with your nose.
• Stray dogs everywhere, but not like Melbourne lost looking dogs that are just wandering about looking at shit and sniffing, India Dogs walk with a purpose and nod at you when they walk past. They also roam in gangs with other dogs looking for rival dog gangs to beat up or dance off with. NOTE: dont play street craps with these dogs, they took me for 500 Rupees and a hot dog.
• everyone is trying to sell you something, and if they are not, then they are trying to take you to their cousin who is.
• Its Hot, really fucking hot
• there is no way im eating the street food, not in this heat with no refridgeration, call me unadventurous but im just not that big on shitting my pants.
• I think i like India, though im still not sure.
• Jonas would hate it.

Next was Hiroshama. If you are ever feeling to damn happy and want a really depressing holiday, go to Hiroshima. I cried of course but hey I cry watching the news so it's no big surprise.

On to Nagoya. Well actually Nisshin, about half an hour out of Nagoya by train. Shannon and Ryan are living there at the moment so we went and spent a week with them. Nisshin is a sleepy little town, nothing special, kinda like the outer suburbs of Melbourne. It was really good to see where they have been living and working for the last 9 months though and it was great to have a base again for a week. We experienced our first ever earth quakes. The whole place shook. It was kinda cool. We did go to a great little restaurant there. It is set up with 5 booths, each with it's own chef specialising in different foods. Went went to the one Shannon and Ryan call 'the iron chef'. He cooks everything in front of you, even tailors things for vego's.

Nagoya has a nice feel to it. More understated than Tokyo. Much more liveable. A lot like Melbourne actually! It also has Syms favourite place from the whold trip - the Robot museum. We got to ride segways. I was waaaayyyy better at it than Sym. They are really fun, if only they weren't so expensive...

Our last stop on our Japan trip was Hida Furukawa to visit Bec and Angus. It's a really pretty, traditional town in the (cold) mountains. Lucky for us, they had the week off work so were able to show us around and introduce us to lots of their friends.

The first night we had a sushi party at their calligraphy teachers house. The place was amazing. Exposed dark timber beams, thatched roof, and just really nice and open. She is also a potter and has some of the most beautiful pottery I have ever seen. We went to their zen archery class which was... strange. I can't say if I like or dislike it because I really didn't get it, but it certainly was relaxing and a really interesting thing to have been to. We also went to the wood museum. Dont think Sym was to into it because I kept breaking things....

Next, Osaka, quick overnight stop, to the airport, stop over in Bangkok, on to Dehli.

So we have actually been in India for about 5 days now. It is already getting hard to remember details about Japan. Now where were we up to????

Kokura. Sym went to RMIT with this really cool girl, Tomoko, who is Japanese and lives in Fukoaka. Her parents live about an hour away in Kokura. T0moko's brother was having a cherry blossom party so we had a bit of a reunion. Bec and Angus who were teachng english further north had come down too. It was great. Her parents where lovely. Bec and I asked if we could do anything to help prepare the evening meal but as we don't speak Japanese and she doesnt speak English, we weren't actually sure what the reply was. We decided to wash the cars instead.

The party was fun. Its amazing how a little alcohol goes a long to breaking down language barriers!

Big shout out to the BEPPU CREW, you know who you are.

Beppu was nice and steamy, in the hills down Kyushu way, steam spews from the ground its pretty wild, awesome hot springs, but one downfall; It fucking stinks of rotten eggs from all the sulphur that comes out with the steam. It can be hard to relax when it smeels like somebodies bowels have exploded. Getting over this we decided to try out a communal mud bath. On paper this seemed ok, sure we had to be naked in front of a bunch of strangers but its all about the experience and it would be nice in the mud right? Wrong, the place was pretty dingy and Anna decided to walk through the male section where a couple of naked Yakuza guys (you cant miss them when theyre naked, crazy tattoos) who gave Anna the evil eye, i thought they were gonna cut me for being with her. the actual mud bath was kinda not what we expected, it stunk real bad and the mud was more just murky water (Read: Yarra).
As we were leaving the bathhouse the bus was just leaving so we decided to walk back to the hostel. We could see the beach because we were so high up ain the hills and we knew that our hostel was near the beach, i estimated half hour walk max, we would pprobably beat the next bus back i thought. Two hours later we finally reach our hostel really fucking exhausted, shit looked real close when we were up on that hill. The next night we were just chilling at the hostel when this viet australian dude stumbles in looking real tired, after talking to him we find that he did the exact same thing as us, beat the bus home.

So I don't know if anyone actually reads this thing but at least we cant get in trouble for not emailing anyone. It's no worse than group emails right??

After Kyoto we headed down to the south island to a little place called Beppu, having emailed a hostel at 11pm the night before about accomodation. With no phone number, and no email access to check for confirmation, we figured we'd just take a stab in the dark and rock up. When we got there, there were plenty of rooms available, we were possibly the only guests there. It was very eerie. A japanese hippy woman showed us in. The place was huge and really open. We filled out the forms and found the room was only half the price we had expected. Our rooms were massive, bigger than anywhere else we stayed in Japan. It all felt to good to be true. Sym was sure it was like one of those 'it happened to a friend of a friend' stories and that there was no way we getting out of there alive. Turns out it was a converted hospital so we were probably just picking up on all those ghost vibes.

Beppu is famous for its hot springs. Its really strange to be walking around and suddenly just see bursts of steam coming out of the ground. Our first hot spring was amazing. It was a private onsen in the mountains, with a waterfall just behind and greenery as far us the eye can see. Very relaxing after a chaotic few weeks.

In contrast, we went to a communal unisex mud bath. Even though it is unisex, there are seperate pathways for the guys and the girls and the bath is divided by a bamboo pole. I didnt realise this however and walked done the guys path, getting an eyeful of naked yakusa and quite a few dirty looks. We didn't stay there long.

Buddy Holly hanging out with the Sex Pistols in Harajuku

Symon hanging out with The Arctic Monkeys

Salarymen on their lunchbreak

Japanese bike courier

Japanese people taking photos of a westerner in Tokyo

Fun with guns in Japan

So a quick recap on Japan. Overall we have had a very Jaanese experience. I know, I know, we have been in Japan der. What I mean is that if its Japanese, we tried it (alomost). We stayed in a capsule hotel, a Love hotel, in a raikan sytle rooms, highrise apartments, traditional housing. We stayed with a Japanese family and ate traditional meals, went to a blossom party and spoke engrish all night. Went to onsen, private and communal. Seen Geisah, riden bikes, visited temples. We've sang Kareoke, seen the big lights, riden the fast trains (even the Nozomi - opps). Gone to a zen archery class, had a sushi party with a calligraphy teacher, and of course, in true Japanese style, drank way to much shoju and beer.

Ok, so for those of you who cant be arsed reading on, you can probably wait and skip straight to India now. Otherwise, I am fairly sure Sym filled you in on Tokyo (hi to Joe and Gary if you're reading), so I'll pick it up from there. I had the great idea of getting an overnight sleeper bus to Kyoto so we could have a few more days before activating out JR passes. We had to get sleeper trains in China and surely it couldn't be worse than that.... What I didnt realise is that 'sleeper' doesn't always equal 'bed'. Poor Sym was so cramped, he couldn't even fit his legs in. In the end i sat near the isle and he sat near the window with his legs on my lap. Needless to say, neither of us really sleep more than an hour or two max. So we arrived in Kyoto grumpy and tired at 6am in the morning. Nothing was open and we had nowhere to go. My folks were there at the time but were leaving that day so we were meant to meet them for breakfast at the Starbucks opposite the station. We figured we'd just head there and hang out until 7 when it opened. That day was pretty much a write off as we just couldnt be arsed doing much. The most exciting thing we did was ride 10 stories of elscalators in a shopping centre near the station. This was actually cooler than it sounds.

We had a bit of a boat theme running with our Japanese trip so far so when we stumbled across a beautiful river on the outskirts of a bamboo forest, we figured we should hire a little row boat and head up stream. .We could see quite a few other boats around but figured if you just headed straight upstream and didn't get ditracted then we would get way further than them and be in a nice secluded part of the river. The river was flowing pretty fast. No more need be said.

Kyoto was nice but after the buzz of Tokyo we either needed something equally as exciting or really chilled, and Kyoto feel somewhere in the middle, so even though its a must see, we didn't think it really meet expectations. It was really fucking busy being cherry blossom season and all. There were heaps of tourists, including half of Japan who flock to Kyoto on the weekends during cherry blossom season, but there was just not that much going on.

Being the disorganised travelers that we are though, we did find ourself without accomodation for the last night in Kyoto. Having tried a capsule hotel, we figured it was time to check out a love hotel. Now I know some of you will be disappionted to hear as we were, but no guyjin are allowed to even walk through the doors of a themed love hotel. So we found another one and after a few beers from the vending machine out the front to work at the courage, we went in. There is a massive digital display screen with lit up pictures of all the available rooms. You select which one you want on a touch screen and then the elevator opens up and automatically takes you to the right floor. There are then lit up arrows that guide you to your room. Once inside, you pay a machine in the wall and the the doors shut. Really shut. You can't leave the room until you are ready to leave for good. Inside there are two bar fridges, one for cold beverages, and the other for sex toys. Anything you take gets automatically calculated and the doors wont open again until you pay, again at the hole in the wall. The TV has maybe 5 or 6 free porn channels, a playstation, but best of all the biggest kareoke song list you have ever seen! So with a nice bouncy bed as our stage, we sang our little lungs out until we could sing no longer.

Well I guess I owe two appologies. One for China and one for Japan. So heres a really quite summary for ya`ll cause if I try and play catch up for the whole trip Ill be back in Australia and still writing about India!

China was the most bizarre place I have ever been. There was a lot of good stuff but also a lot of not so good stuff. I met my parents and sister Shan at the Shanghai airport around 11.30 thenight we all flew in. It didnt take us long to work out that not many people spoke english and we were in way over our heads. We arrived at the hotel only to discover that they had over booked. The staff started trying to shove Shan and I into a taxi but we had no idea what was going on at this stage, we were tired and quite apprehensive. They ended up ringing our tour guide to interpret, this stage closer to 1 in the morning. We ended up staying at another hotel for the night, leaving mum and dad behind, not sure if we would ever find them again! The place was real dingy. We got in the elevator and it reeked so bad of smoke that I was sure Id have cancer by the time we reached our floor. The walls were paper thin. Shan could hear the couple next door having sex all night (I fortunately slept through the whole thing). When we woke up in the morning and looked out the window we saw we were right in the heart of the slums. Houses that are just not fit for people to live in. I had never seen anything like it and by this stage was starting to wonder what the fuck I had got myself in for.

I am pleased to say that after that things improved considerably. We spent a lot of time in Shanghai just wondering the streets and taking everything in. Its so different to back home that I cant even begin to describ it. The food is varied, from things I would never go near with a ten foot pole, eg eggs boiled just before the chick is about to hatch so when you crack it open there is a boiled baby chook inside, to some of the most delicious things I have ever tried, much better than China town in Melbourne! The eggplant and tofu where out of this world.

We did all the major tourist attractions. The Great Wall was incredible. You see all the pictures but its just not the same until you are actually there yourself. Standing up at the peak of snow capped mountains, with s stone wall stretching as far as the eye can see, winding precariously along the jaggered mountains edges, well you can really understand why there is so much hype.

The Terracotta warriors were equally impressive. The undertakings of an absolute lunatic, but none the less, beautiful. And again impressive just for the sheer volume.

Other than those two, my favourite thing was hiring bikes and just zigzagging through the streets. Only the side streets though, I am sure I would be dead if I had ventured near the main roads. The first hire place the guy came with us so he could repair the bikes along the way. Don`t laugh. We needed him more than once or twice.

I have skipped so much here but as I said, gotta play catch up so thats all on China for now. Japan coming soon....

Holy shit, trying to use blogger on a Japanese PC has nearly given me a stroke.
Yeah yeah yeah we havent posted anything and weve been gone a whole month, i know, pretty slack, but anyway we are leaving for India on saturday which will be strange, well be going from heated toilets (even in public facilities) to shitting in the street which i may try (when in Rome..., that kind of thing.)
Japan has to be the best country in the world. There is very little crime, but when there is, its some kind of bizarre fucked shit like killing an english girl, cutting her up and then putting the pieces in to a bathtub full of sand. that particular incident happend when we arrived,and i ask you, what the fuck is that about?
Anyway, on our first night we were walking about the streets checking out all theweird shit and there are unlocked bikes everywhere, you want a bike, you pluck it from the tree sort of thing. Everyone seems to trust each other in some weird quasi socialist sort of way and as a visitor you dont want to rock the boat. so unlike Italy, we havent stolen anything, shit we havent even really JWalked. The people are really friendly, too friendly in fact by the end of Japan we are kind of over it, if some dude asks us f we need help i just kind of walk away and leave Anna to deal with them.

TOKYO
By the way hipsters, Bape is totally played out here its sort of like wearing WuWear and thinking your hot shit, and all those crazy Dunks and AirForce1s that people pay morgages on in AUS are dirt cheap here, half price in fact. saying that, the whole Tokyo fashion is kind of bullsht, Most of the girls dress like cheap StKilda Whores, or fucked up Ravers,(same with the Guys) we were pretty dissapointed about that but its still a laugh.
We stayed in a capsule hotel in TOkyo, it was a funny sort of place, you walk in and go to a vending machine and and putyour money in , then you take the ticket that spits out of the machine and hand to the midget smoking behind the desk, he then gives you a key that opens a locker that contains pyjamas a towel and a really shit toohbrush. all the people walking around are about 50 or 60 and are wearing the PJs so the place kind of psychiatric home feel to it. then you go up to your floor, and enter a long room with beige plastic holes in the wall. The capsules them selves are quite roomy, about a metre high and 198cm long (i know this particular detail because i just fit lengthways lying down. you get a little TV and if you put 500 Yen in the slot you get porno, unfortunatly i was 10 yen short so i just kind of sat there staring at people on the free to air channel spit gibberish at me.
The bars here are awesome, we were hanging out a lot in Asakusa nort east of Tokyo
and there are all these bars that only sit around six or seven people, the One we went to quite a bit was called JDs, it was tiny the first nightwe where there we rolled down with a couple of english kids and an Italian guy that worked for google, anyway the bartender loved our asses and started shouting us Jack Daniels shotsand every beer we bought there was a shot on the house, at around 1am he locked the front door and got completly smashed, he could barely walk by the time we left at bout 5am. and to top the night off, the Italian Google guy paid for all of our beers for the night so Anna and i had a free night out.
Japan is NOT as expensive as everyone says it is, it is on par with Australia or cheaper. food is cheaper, beer is the same as Aus (and you can get it from vending machines on every corner.) even clothing is around the same price as australia, Those toys thats nerds wet themselves in Aus for are dirt cheap, all that shit Nicky sells at Hudson you can pretty much get at the airport giftshop or 100 Yen stores (japanese 2dollar shops). i Fucking love it here i could live here in a second if i knew the language.
Thats enough from me for now
more on saturday (i got a lot of catching up to do)

Jees i gotta go pee but ive found that i type faster if i hold it in.
Ok first post, An introduction i guess. This is Symon, and Anna's travel blog we are far too lazy to send group emails so we figured this would be easier. At the moment we cant post photos which is really fucking annoying, the reason for this predicament is that we have a Mac formatted iPod which containhas PCs which wont let us take our photos off without out formatting our iPod first, so Jonas help us out man, what do we do?
crap first post huh?