Hello Japan, Goodbye Budget

We'd been in Japan for just two minutes before we found our first motorised toilet, and the fun didn't stop there. Japan/Tokyo had always been a place we wanted to go to, but we just weren't sure the budget could stretch for it. In the end, we decided to throw out the budget, and go, and we're glad we did - it really is a country like no other.

erm... yeh...

There are few places as exciting for shopping as Tokyo. Harajuku is home to the kids English hipsters try to imitate. The difference being that the Japanese can actually pull it off. You can buy some truly bizarre items of clothing, oddly for pretty decent prices. The whole area is filled to the brim of youngsters with incredible taste in fashion - something common throughout the whole of Tokyo - even the ugly kids. The whole thing is topped off by cosplayers dressed to the nines, for no other reason than it being a Sunday.

Here's a screenshot from the upcoming Final Fantasy game

The other great shopping area in Tokyo is Akihabara - which we're guessing is the translation for 'nerdtown'. Packed to the brim with computer games, gadgets, and cartoon porn, it was difficult to know when to stop buying things. How many shops in England have 200+ original GameBoy games in stock? Even when you don't need them, and know you won't play them more than once, it's bizarrely tempting to empty your wallet on them. The area was topped off with arcades. You know when you think you're good at computer games? Go to Japan and you won't still think that. We were watching stuff like this.

This is a chair made of NES games - you want?

We did manage to take in some traditional Japanese experiences along the way such as seeing the Imperial Palace, and eating sushi. But the highlight was a visit to a Japanese onsen (hot springs). Never having been to a hot springs before, you don't expect 40°C to be that hot, but after fifteen minutes, you're hopping towards the 20°C pool, this time much colder than you expect. And then you're soon hopping between the two. Despite sitting in a bath with a load of old and naked Japanese men, the whole experience was fantastic.

The billboards are a little different to in England

It's difficult to put our experience in Tokyo into words. It was a shame we didn't get to see more of the country, but at the same time, to spend 8 days in Tokyo was incredible. It really is a country like no other, and definitely one everyone needs to experience for themselves. Following Japan, we had a couple of brief days in Kuala Lumpur (where we hooked up with Jessica Meola), and Singapore, which although expensive, was a pretty cool city. We tried to meander our way up to the top of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, though were sadly stopped at the 55th floor. Lovely building though.

£300 per night was sadly just too much for us

And that, is sadly that for Asia. We've had over seven months of awesomeness here, but we've just left for Australia. Let's hope it's as fantastic as Asia was.