Day 9 - Home.

The returners....

James, Andy, Nick (from Ireland) and I were up and out of the hotel at 07:00, we travelled to Nippori and changed onto the Keisei Skyliner train and arrived at the Airport at about 09:00. 

Nick was flying BA at 13:00, so we said goodbye, and then we checked in. We had 30 minutes to get breakfast etc, I had managed to blag a ticket to the executive lounge. Nice. 

The flight was long and un-eventful. There was loads of space on the plane. 

At Heathrow all three of us felt that England was dirty, rude and pretty nasty in comparison to Japan. Interesting thoughts.....

Andy and James had a lift back but there wasn't enough space for me, so I took the coach then a Taxi. I was home by about 17:30 (BST). Not bad.

What a trip...! 

The Kyoto Kendo watchers....

They travelled back to Kyoto, staying at the Za Zen guest house, with the most amazingly named website www.friendship-funhouse.com/index_e.html (no - not a brothel!)

Day 8 - Tokyo again

We were up and waiting at 0600, and travelled to Noma. We met Paul and proceeded up to the dojo itself. Awsome. Total immersion training..! Very hot and sweaty (remember this is May, not July so we can only imagine what the place must be like then!).

The people were all really great. 

After training we showered (japanese showers are sit down, and then you get in a HOT bath (42 degrees C), Alex looked like he had sunburned himself when he got out.

We then split up. Most people went to the graves of the 47 Ronin at Sengaku-ji, I went into Shinjuku for some people watching and shopping. 

The Ronin guys had a great time, and returned at about 18:00, I was back about 17:00. We were all due to go out for a meal and then the main group would return to Kyoto for the Kendo matches, and the rest of us would return home. It didn't work out like that, we ended splitting up. Davie, Phillipe and I went to Harajuku in the hopes of seeing some of the people there, but the rain which had been on/off most of the day finally came down solidly, so we returned. 

The other group returned at about 02:00