I could write a book about finding my way through strange cities in the Friday evening rush hour using meaningless maps.Anyway, I'm here now, staying will Will Penrice's father-in-law Peter. As luck would have it there's a BMW dealer 200m up the road and this afternoon they did my oil change and checked the bike over, which has saved me a lot of getting mucky.

Now sorting shipping to Thailand (said BMW dealer can provide a crate), and when that's done will go walkabout through other bits of Japan.

Sat out the typhoon in Hiroshima for a couple of days (it was a bad one), then went to Himeji (magnificent castle) on Thursday. Next week I'll be camping at Mt.Fuji and visiting Sapporo and Osaka.