The end of an affair

Photo mural

Few places along our route have warranted such glowing praise as Japan. It's the kind of country you can travel around for weeks and find infuriatingly few things to complain about.

Just as we feared, a few more days in Tokyo has simply resulted in us falling a little deeper in love with it. And it's not for a lack of trying; we really did our best to find some dirt. But even under the harshest, most nit-picking, critical eyes, this place just seems to churn up yet more lovable qualities.

Of course, like any city of 15 million people, it has issues. But they are negligible, and never quite reach the point of being a problem. Like a cute Beagle puppy who, for a brief moment, considers shitting on your favourite carpet, but never actually does.

Other than the very high cost of living (last year Tokyo was only beaten by Moscow, London and Seoul, as the world's most expensive city) we have been stunned at the wealth, health and general pleasantness of its inhabitants.


Stunning

The most outrageous municipal atrocity we've experienced, has been the strange lack of public bins and a quite confusing underground system.

Then again, we've had it good. Our hospitable performance artist friend Emily lent us her flat and for a few days we commuted daily into the centre of Tokyo, amongst polite and well-dressed office workers. We've done some sites, eaten conveyor belt sushi, sung Karaoke, bicycled through the parks, seen the 5am fish market, and crossed the world's busiest intersection, at Shibuya station.

Shibuya is also the setting of a very cute little story. It's where the famous statue of Hachikō stands - a dog who achieved national fame and adoration for his remarkable loyalty to his master, a professor at the University of Tokyo.

Every day Hachikō would see his master off at his home, and then greet him on the train platform at Shibuya, at the end of the day. Same time, every day.

When the professor died, in 1925, Hachikō would still come back to wait for his dead owner, at the precise same time. Hachikō did this for eleven years straight, every single day, until his own death (and imagined spiritual reunion with his master). This amazing story spread and a statue was erected.

Apparently a film is being made of this, featuring Richard Gere as the professor.

So pardon the gushing, but Japan, like Hachikō, has been pretty fantastic.


Hiroshima

Sadly, this is it. Today we move on. So, domo arigato gozaimasu, Nippon. Hajime mashite.

Our next destination is Melbourne. Which, for the first time on our journey, takes us over the equator and into the Southern Hemisphere.

We'll let you know how it goes.