1. Use as you would jam on bread and in yogurt.

2. As a cold beverage: Mix Yuzumitsu honey and cold water.

3. As a hot beverage: Mix Yuzumitsu honey and hot water.

4. Yuzumitsu honey and vinegar drink: Mix Yuzumitsu honey, vinegar and ice water. (not sure about this one)

5. Yuzumitsu honey miso paste: Combine honey, miso, soysauce and sesame seeds. Mix well and add to boiled spinach, broccoli or cauliflower.

6. Yuzumitsu chicken: Rub chicken lightly with honey, salt and pepper. Bake, roast or fry – We tried this recipe tonight with two lovely little cornish hens. Delicious.

7. Yuzumitsu apple: Cut an apple into four pieces and bake in the oven for about 5 minutes or until lightly browned. Dip into honey.

8. Yuzumitsu sweet potatoes: Boil sliced sweet potato in water and honey.

9. vodka and yuzumitsu honey: Mix vodka with yuzumitsu honey and soda water. Apparently good with other types of alcohol as well.

Hotel Brighton City – Osaka
We both love to walk and if you stay here you’ll also have to enjoy traveling by foot. This business hotel is stylish and new, the staff was very helpful and even though there was some construction around the corner we didn’t hear anything. The entertainment district is about 20 minutes away on foot, and if you feel like taking the metro a main line is about 5 minutes away. Overall for the price, it’s a great place to stay.

Hotel Active! – Hiroshima
Boutique, includes breakfast and really tiny rooms (even by japanese standards). All major sights are easily walkable and it’s near to the major entertainment districts. It’s refreshing to find a hotel that doesn’t charge a fortune for great service and a stylish atmosphere. I especially liked people watching around the communal breakfast table in the morning. The website is all in Japanese – but send them an email and they’ll get back to you pretty quickly.

Matsubaya Inn – Kyoto
We stayed in this ryokan 4 years ago and it was starting to show its age. They’ve just re-opened after extensive rennovations and what a difference. If you love the smell of tatami in the morning you’ll like this place. The family that runs the ryokan is very welcoming and it’s a great place to meet other travellers.

Enjoy!  Now back to food…promise.

After few days we made the trip back to Tokyo for more shopping, a trip to the wonderful Ghibli museum and a very early morning trip to the fish market (and some of the most amazing sushi on the planet). Overall our second trip to Japan was just as enjoyable as the first and once again left us wanting more. Hopefully it won’t take another 4 years to return, although our bank account might disagree!

We’ve already posted most of our photos online you can find them on flickr.

We spent the rest of the afternoon touring the Peace Memorial Park and the Peace Memorial Museum which sit at the epicentre of where the A-Bomb hit Hiroshima (at 8:15 on the 6th of August 1945).   As we approached the museum there were lots of school kids asking us questions and getting us to fill out small cards with peace messages.  As a thank you for our time we received small gifts, including paper cranes and turtles.  A sobering afternoon, but well worth a visit as the exhibition is outstanding and emotional.

On Saturday we made our way out of the city to Miyajima to visit Itsukushima Shrine  (the floating Torii), certainly one of the most photographed sights in Japan.  The island is beautiful and a great place to spend a few hours just walking around the various temples and picturesque small streets.   The best bit of this place is the food!  The first bit of deliciousness was the freshly grilled oysters, almost as big as my hand.  Five per plate (I had two plates) and perfectly done with only a sour orange for flavour.  I could have easily stayed at my table all day.  Fact.   The second treat was the raisin filled moulded cakes, which are shaped like Japanese maple leaves.  You can get them filled with anything from macha to peach jam…but the raisin ones were my fav.  The best bit was each time we tried them we got to watch them being made in the mini-factories in each shop.  Divine.  

Sunday we took another day trip to the small fishing village of Tomonoura about 50 minutes away.  The village grew up as a safe harbour for fishing boats awating the arrival of the next tide.  There still seems to be a significant fishing presence including a factory where we had the pleasure of making pressed fish dough balls.   At first glance the dough looks like a very sticky bread dough, which you wrap around a bamboo rod and cook over a fire using a roatating spit like machine.  When it’s done it looks like a well cooked dinner roll…until you taste it.  Blech.  I won’t be making one of those again, the texture is like the worst cooked squid you’ve ever had.  Rubbery and fishy and moist, not nice.  We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the village and made our way back to Hiroshima for an evening of shopping.  Tomorrow, we’re off to Kyoto for wood block prints and Muji (Jen is excited).

We arrived in Sydney late afternoon on Wednesday and realised that we weren’t really dressed for the occasion – having traveled in SE Asia for 2 months we didn’t anticipate how cold it would be. Funny though, if we were coming from Canada, we would have been happy in shorts.

We spent most of Thursday shopping for shoes and a sweater for me (and keeping out of the morning rain!) and met up with some friends for a drink in the evening. Friday we walked around the harbour to see the Opera House and the Botanical Gardens with its hundreds of flying foxes (bats). In the afternoon we took in a movie, Ratatouille, which we both very much enjoyed – I think it’s a very close second to The Incredibles as far as Pixar animation goes. It was also a great relief to our sore feet – never break in new shoes whilst visiting a new city!

Saturday we walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge as I had to get a picture of the creepy entrance to Luna Park. It’s like a set for a horror movie. On the way back we were almost fined $500 for walking on the wrong side of the bridge – thank god for our accents, the security guard just turned us around. More shopping in the afternoon as I had to find a shirt that I’d seen on a guy at breakfast the day before; I asked him where he got it and it turns out he’s promoting the brand in Australia and left a message for me later that day with details on where to buy them. We had dinner at Zia Pina (great pizza!) on George Street in The Rocks for the second time (did I mention it has great pizza!).

A great end to our Australian visit – next stop is San Francisco for 3 days and then home for a rest.

Port Douglas is a very sleepy little town on the northern coast of Queensland. There is plenty to do here including diving, snorkeling, beaching, wandering around the oldest rainforest in the world and visiting with family. Our main reason for visiting is to see Jen’s Grandmother (fastest moving 92 year old when used as a landing pad by a flying cockroach) and her Aunt. It’s been a great visit so far. Meals out, lots of ice cream (Nana’s fave!) and good company.

On Friday we took a day snorkeling trip aboard the Calypso out to the Great Barrier Reef. We stopped at 3 separate sites along the reef where we saw thousands of tropical fish including a very friendly grouper (groper if you’re a Kiwi or Aussie) who would eat from your hands. Whilst at the first site Jen and I managed to pick up a traveling companion. A small fish about 4 inches long decided to piggy back a ride, thinking that we were a large fish. No matter what I did I couldn’t shake it and even when i was sitting on the end of the boat it was hovering around my legs as I was getting out of the water. It’s the type of fish that hovers under large ones hoping to catch some of its lunch.

Yesterday we’ve visited the Daintree rainforest with Jen’s cousin and one of her daughters. We made several stops at the beaches along the coast and had a beautiful cream tea at the Silky Oaks Lodge, which would be an amazing place for a special occasion. After our tea we took a quick walk down to the river where we befriended a little turtle which was named Isabella Angel by Jen’s cousin’s daughter.

Today we’ve visited the local market and tonight we’re in for a feast of Barramundi and kangaroo steaks. I can’t wait!

Next stop is Port Douglas, Australia. It’s a bit sad as this ends the Asian leg of our travels. I can’t believe 2 months have gone by so quickly, I start work again in 2 weeks (Yikes!!). It seems like just yesterday we were deciding whether or not to fly or take the train into Vietnam from China.

1. Coconuts (obviously) – Luckily it didn’t fall on us, just beside us. THUMP!
2. Spiders – One as big as my palm fell on Jen and bounced up the beach back into the tree.
3. Snake – The same snake fell out of the palm 3 times. The first time it slithered up the beach, over my arm and back into the tree. The second, it fell with a thump and caught a gecko on the beach which it proceeded to devour. The best bit was watching the gecko’s tail twiching in its mouth! The third time it slithered up beside Jen’s leg.

Our 12 days on the beach were glorious!

Dao, 27, female – long trunk, quiet, likes long walks and fresh pomelo.

Yesterday we spent the morning on an elephant trek through the jungle (Chang Chutiman Tour Tel. 089-939-6676, 087-135-7424). On the way back Jen got the prime position on the head of the elephant (just behind the ears), and I got to sit like a maharaja (yeah, I know wrong country) on the seat behind her whilst our mahout walked in front calling out commands so that Dao didn’t get any bright ideas. She was very well trained and only started to deviate once we reached the pomelo grove, then the temptation to disobey orders was just too great. We spent the better part of 20 minutes picking fresh pomelo and feeding them to our large friend (still sitting on top, she’d just reach her trunk up to grab the fruit) each whole pomelo exploding with a large “POP” followed by a splash of juice on my legs and the wonderful smell of fresh citrus (beats elephant flatulence I tell ya!). I think I could have easily spent the rest of the day eating pomelo with Dao, but unfortunately the trip was only scheduled for 2 hours.

Unfortunately, we’ve been rained out today so apart from watching dodgy copies of the Simpsons (movie), Borat and Die Hard 4 we haven’t done much.

A few more days at the beach and then we’re off to Bangkok for our last bit of Asia. This trip is going too fast!