Sayonara Japan!

Yesterday started as any day on Monkey island must - onsen before breakfast, breakfast banquet of every imaginable brekfast delicacy you could imagine and a walk through the ancient streets and cherry blossoms. On to the ferry we went and back to Hiroshima for a spot of shopping. Jazzy the man child managed to score himself a grand pocket watch with a manga design on it from a place called `Alice` Alice is an arcade full of skill testers staffed by tiny japanese maids. Of course he was going to win!

We then took our last Shinkensen ride to Shimonoseki Port, using our Japan Rail past for the final time - It died a glorious honourable death - we would have been lost without it. The Shinkensen had a big sign up telling us how fast we were traveling. 285km/h was the highest we saw. At that speed you cannot focus on objects that are less than 5 metres away from the train, and things up to 20 metres away are passing too quickly to really notice. It was warp speed!! Truly felt like we were moving into the future.

We weren`t expecting to find much in Shimonoseki except our boat to China - that leaves Wednesdays and Fridays IN PRINCIPLE according to one brochure. To say we were on edge about catching it is a gross understatement. But we have our tickets and are traveling in one of only two suites on the ferry. Classy.

It appears this town is completely supported by fugu. There are Fugu welcome signs, fugu statues, fugu telephones, fugu man hole covers. Fugu everything!! So we couldn`t help but check out the aquarium and see some real life fugus. It turned in to a game of spot what we`ve eaten on this trip. Which we found amusing until you get to the gift shop and can buy cooking books, sushi etc. Nice.

For dinner we decided to brave a Japanese supermarket and take things back to the hotel. We love that despite being half way round the world we still have to platter up.

Of course we had to head up the observation tower here. It`s kind of become a habit. We`re so glad we did it this time. As our trip to Japan came to a close we were greeting with a stunning view of a bright red sun slowing setting over the ocean. The perfect ending to a perfect trip in a perfect country.

Arigato Japan xxxx