I hope this works...

Given that I am currently in Kyoto, it's no real surprise that parts of my internet are now speaking Japanese at me.  Problem is, I don't understand - so I'm clicking a lot of buttons and hoping.  If you can read this, then my method's clearly worked.  (Pictures may be one step too far; we'll see how it goes).

I started with a couple of days in Tokyo.  Love the city, totally confused by the metro system.  Stations which are marked as interchanges can have walks between them of several hundred metres.  My friend (and tent buddy) C and I went to the Tokyo Museum, where we saw, amongst other things, a whole load of the most beautiful gowns:

Just look at the detail:

Then travelled to the World Scout Jamboree in Yamaguchi, where we started the experience by avoiding a typhoon tropical storm.  The weather was possibly the hottest I've ever experienced, and it's certainly the most I have ever sweat in my life when taking the tent down.  Seriously, sweat in your eyes stings like billy-o.

Husband then flew out to meet me and we met up in Hiroshima.  Although there is lots we saw in Hiroshima, it would be ignorant to ignore the one thing for which it's famous:

The A-Bomb dome, as it's known.  This is the closest building to the hypocentre of the atomic bomb which was dropped in 1945.  The decision was made to keep it exactly as it was.  Personally, I found it far more creepy and evocative at night.

Now, if London lives off coffee, Hiroshima seems to live off cranes.  (Its residents probably drink a lot of coffee too, given the number of drinks machines we saw out and about).  Cranes are a symbol of peace and you will see them everywhere in Hiroshima.

So, in the name of being creative, I learned to make my own, using this tutorial on Youtube. 

Which I then hung up at The Children's Peace Monument with the assistance of our Brownie's mascot - Brownie Bear.

Knitting has also happened - mostly whilst waiting for planes or trains, or on said trains and planes.  I've got five baby hats and a layette which I want to get done by the end of this trip.  I'm two and a half hats in, minus the sewing up.  We've got a long journey tomorrow, so three hats is possible.  I'm saving the layette for the plane journey home.  I can't help thinking that the Japanese class knitting in public as 'something strange that foreigners do'.

Here, have some photos of Buddhas in beanies: