Siince the last message

Well, since in the last few days we've been busy. Visited Kyoto and then went to Mt Fuji!!! -And yes we did make it to the top- even though i hadn't trained properly and was worried i was going to get altitude sickness. We set off at 5.30pm and walked until about 9pm, then stayed in a really expensive mountain hut and had beef curry (whuch was yuck- but we were glad of some thing to eat). At this point we were at 3200m and the effects of altitude had already started to kick in- Joe in particular found it difficult to breath, your chest felt like it was being squashed. We stayed in the hut, like sardines in a tin with other climbers, and were supposed to sleep, although this didn't happen. At 2am we got up to complete the assent. Unfortunatley however the curry and lying down didn't seem to agree with Joe as he got a funny tummy and this was made worse by the onset of altitude sickness. However a slow steady climb, the help of a can of compress oxygen and pleanty of cuddles encouraged him to the top. We got there with many other climbers, it looked fantastics watching all these torches assending the mountain side(like pilgrims) and were there in pleanty of time to watch the sun rise at 4.34am! We visited the crater and then it was time for the desent - which we tried to do as quickly as possible cos it was freezing and Joe felt sick and had a massive headache. The way down wasn't as good as the way up though as there was nothing to see - a mist hung over the mountain and you could conly see 50yrds in front at times. When we were about half way down we were sick of not being able to see anything and wanted the bottom to come asap. We made it down by 7.30am and sat having a drink whilst waiting for the bus back to the station (3hrs later). From there we travelled to Tokyo, where we had fun trying to find accomodation- but eventully found a buisness hotel near the centre for 8,000 yen a night (booked using tourism office). Today we have visited the sumo stadium and Joe has seen lots of transformers (but has resisted buying them as they would be hard to transport!) Tonight we visited a Sushi restaurant for the first time - a little intimidating as we were the only British there and weren't sure exactly what to do. Anyway food was great and was onlyv 6 pounds for 11 plats of sushi- bargin!!!
Gottta go as que for computer. Off up to Hokkido (island in North) tomorrow on a sleeper train and staying at Sapporo. will up date soon.

P.s you can see some photo's by colicking on 'photograph' link and searching under 'alikatd'