Adelaide to Kuala Lumpur
5 September 2025, Australia ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C
Greetings from beautiful Kuala Lumpur! But let's first welcome you to our Japan & Kuala Lumpur FindPenguins blog! We hope you enjoy journeying with us over the next 4.5 weeks, even if it is every nowBaca lagi
Kuala Lumpur Private Tour
7 September 2025, Malaysia ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C
We have been totally surprised by Kuala Lumpur. To be honest, we thought it would be similar to Vietnam - basically a poorer country - nothing could be further from the truth! Malaysia is a wealthy &Baca lagi
Bird & butterfly sanctuary & food tour!
8 September 2025, Malaysia ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C
A bit of an organizational blunder this morning. Our scheduled 3 hour tour today was going to be a repeat of yesterday's tour (which was more extensive than we expected)! Fortunately our guide forBaca lagi
Rest day then to the Airport
9 September 2025, Malaysia ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C
We have been allowed a very late check out of our apartment here at Ascott Star Hotel - 5 pm (cost free).
We had a sleep in and late breakfast and packed ready for our flight tonight to Osaka.
WeBaca lagi
Kuala Lumpur to Osaka
10 September 2025, Jepun ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C
Well, here we are in Osaka, Japan! The 7 hour plane journey was OK. we both managed maybe 2 hours of sleep, which is a miracle! We arrived at Kansai Airport on time at 0545 and enacted our wellBaca lagi
Osaka day 2
11 September 2025, Jepun ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C
We had a fascinating Japanese breakfast at our Hotel. Will take a photo later. Today we had booked a 5 hour bike tour of the Osaka region meeting at a Family Mart near the Tenmabashi station - 3 stopsBaca lagi
Osaka Day 3
12 September 2025, Jepun ⋅ 🌧 27 °C
No time for breakfast this morning - we had to leave the hotel soon after 0700 so that we could be at our meeting place for our bus trip by 0750. We successfully caught the train from our nearestBaca lagi
Osaka Day 4
13 September 2025, Jepun ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C
Breakfast at the Hotel this morning. We then did another train reconnaissance in preparation for our big day tomorrow. We tried to find entrances into stations where there are escalators or lifts -Baca lagi
Osaka to Omonichi
14 September 2025, Jepun ⋅ 🌧 28 °C
We were up early and decided to take a much earlier train to Shin Osaka, where we would swap to the Shinkansen (bullet train). Our rehearsal yesterday paid dividends because we had a smooth andBaca lagi
Omonichi to Ikuchi Island
15 September 2025, Jepun ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C
Our new Guide, Ryu (pronounced Leyu), met us this morning at 10 am.
Ryu came to Japan in May, 2024. He was born in England to an English father and Japanese mother. Although he attended JapaneseBaca lagi
Ryokan Suminoe - Ikuchi Island
15 September 2025, Jepun ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C
We booked dinner for 6.30 pm. We were surprised to find that we were the only dinner guests in the dining room. Apparently there was another couple dining also, but they were in a separate room.
WeBaca lagi
Island of Ikuchi to island of Omishima
16 September 2025, Jepun ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C
Our Japanese breakfast was waiting for us at 8 am this morning. Some Hihiki (seaweed), fish, an egg roll, soup, rice and a variety of pickles, etc.
Ryu (our Guide) arrived at 0900 and off we rode inBaca lagi
Omishima to Imabari
17 September 2025, Jepun ⋅ 🌙 28 °C
The itinerary for today was pretty chaotic and unclesr. In fact, we had no idea what we were going to be doing. Up until now we were singing the praises of Claudio (WAKKA tour organiser). We decidedBaca lagi
Imibari back to Omishima (end of bike to
18 September 2025, Jepun ⋅ 🌧 25 °C
It rained overnight and this morning we had perfect conditions for riding. Ryu met us at 0900 and we said goodbye to Imibari (island of Shikoku).
Imibari is one end of the Shimanami Kaido bike trackBaca lagi
Omishima to Hiroshima
19 September 2025, Jepun ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C
We were up early to enable us to get the bus from Omishima at 0810 to Fukuyama. We had breakfast at WAKKA and the staff drove us to the bus station. We had coffee at the Railway Station beforeBaca lagi
Hiroshima - a day of artistic surprises!
20 September 2025, Jepun ⋅ 🌧 25 °C
What started out to be an ordinary sort of day turned out to be the best day and night we could have hoped for.
We decided to use the Hop on Hop Off Bus to take us to art venues. The first stop wasBaca lagi
Island of Miyajima
21 September 2025, Jepun ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C
A slower start to our day again! We decided to go to Miyajima - a World Heritage Island just off the coast of Hiroshima. To get there we took a local train from Hiroshima Station with the idea ofBaca lagi
Hiroshima to Kyoto
22 September 2025, Jepun ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C
Today was a travelling day - from Hiroshima to Kyoto.
We had a very enjoyable Shinkansen ride for almost 2 hours arriving at Kyoto at 1143 (exactly the scheduled time). The Japanese rail system isBaca lagi
Cycle Kyoto Bike Tour
23 September 2025, Jepun ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C
An early start today to get into the centre of Kyoto for our full day Cycle Tour with 'Cycle Kyoto'. Juan was our 66 year old Guide. He is an American who has lived in Japan for 26 years. He marriedBaca lagi
Kyoto's Gion Geisha Community
23 September 2025, Jepun ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C
We visited the Gion District again today on our Cycle Tour and learnt more about this fascinating 'Geisha' community. We thought it was worth devoting a whole Footprint to the topic! There areBaca lagi
Arasuyama & Welcome Dinner for OKU Hike
24 September 2025, Jepun ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C
This morning we found a laundromat and visited, briefly, Kyoto's Imperial gardens (while the washing was being done). A huge area 1300 x 700 metres but we only saw a small section.
We then got theBaca lagi
Mount Kurama
25 September 2025, Jepun ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C
This morning the OKU hiking group took the train to the end of the Kurama line in the mountains. We were told that this would be a gentle 4 km walk. Well, yes, it was gentle, up hill for 2 km!Baca lagi
Yamanobe no Michi Hiking Course
26 September 2025, Jepun ⋅ 🌙 22 °C
Today we met Nat, our Guide @ 0815. We are having our luggage forwarded on and for the next 2 days & nights we have to carry whatever we need.
Our goal for today was to visit the ancient city of NaraBaca lagi
Magome-Juku to Otsumago Pass
27 September 2025, Jepun ⋅ 🌙 18 °C
We left our hotel in Kyoto with our back packs with everything we require for the next 2 days and nights. Maybe 8 kgms on our backs. We took 2 subways trains, a Shinkansen train and an overcrowded busBaca lagi
Tsumango to Kiso Fukushima
28 September 2025, Jepun ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C
Today was going to be the big 18 km hike, however only 4 chose to accept the challenge. The remaining 8 did a relatively short walk from Tsumago to the village over the hill to Nagisio where we caughtBaca lagi





































































































































































































































































































































































































































PengembaraLooking forward to reading all about it
PengembaraWe've enjoyed your blog too - however, Roger is ahead of me reading about your trip. I'll catch up though!
Pengembara
Nice digs 🙂
PengembaraIt's all downhill from here! We are enjoying it while we can! I think we got an upgrade?