Very heavy raining is chasing us out of the mountains to the coast to Kanazawa. Will hopefully be better there.

Konichiwa! So we never made it to Australia because the Vancouver flights were so full that we would never have a chance to get there. Unfortunate because the flights to Oz out of Vancouver were wide open. We looked at the board to see if we could hop a plane somewhere interesting but most required visas. We returned on the 20th to get on a plane at 1pm to fly to Tokyo. We arrived on 21st at 3:30pm 15 hours later (Japan is ahead 13 hours, so basically flip the day to night. We spent until the 24th in Tokyo and then took a bus to Takayama in the mountains.
Impressions and thoughts of Japan - amazing culture. No litter or grafitti anywhere. Spotless streets. They make everything look pretty, even overpasses, garbages, etc. Dont allow smoking while walking, but can smoke in restaurants and bars - so less about health and more about cleanliness. People all wear masks to keep away from germs. Super friendly, very helpful, willing to work at miming and picture drawing if that is what it takes to understand each other. Run everywhere to serve you faster. Despite waves of people on the street and in subways, nobody ever gets upset, no horns honking, drivers let people in, nobody jostles you. It is so orderly. Obsessed with anime, cartoons, gaming and technology - picture 5 and 7 storey buildings filled with stores selling these items. Despite the technology - almost impossible to find an internet cafe, all must have at home. Everybody has a cell phone, but you never hear them ring, almost everybody is texting and never talk on the phone. Not allowed to read newspapers on the subway because it takes up too much space. Rude to blow your nose, but OK to sniff continuously. Lots of thanks yous and bowing, rituals and politeness - money is never handed to people, it is put in a tray to carry out a transaction. Beautiful buildings and architecture. Bright lights everywhere. Huge relaxing parks filled with cherry blossoms (we are here right in season). Museums, galleries, temples, shrines, theatres - filled with culture and history. Trains and subways are exactly on schedule. Everybody takes their jobs very seriously and shows a lot pride regardless of what they do. The quietest place filled with millions of people! The one place with noise is the gaming and slot machine centres - which operate at an ear-splitting level - so contradictory to the rest of life here. Fascinating! If it wasnt so expensive I would tell everybody to jump on a plane and travel here.
We picked up 2-day passes for the metro, it was a great system for getting around - plenty of English signs to get around. We covered so many different neighbourhoods - will share them through photos when I return.
Was challenging to arrange a bus to Takayama - the train is definately the method of travel preferred here, unlike in Argentina where the bus ruled. But we caught a bus this morning at 9AM (we are still getting up at 3AM) and took a 5.5hour trip into the mountains to a village filled with ancient Edo buildings - a completely different pace here, it is like the world has slowed and alomost stopped. We will be here for another day and then plan to take a bus to the coast and then perhaps on to Kyoto before retruning to Tokyo. More when I get the chance...