travelling allrite

In the course of my travels I've taken many thousands of photos. Some are good, some not so great. One day I hope to pick out the best ones. In the meantime I've been playing with Instagram, which is quite a lot of fun. You can take a look at my Instagram album , or see most of the others at Picasa . More travel fun can be had at Geoguessr , where you have to pick the location based upon the Google Street View picture in the background. Highly addictive!

Lonely train through a quiet place Take your time, no need to race! Wind whispering through the reeds Bending to its silent needs Along the fields made of dust Past the towns becoming rust Platforms devoid of people now Nobody around to tell you how The trains came to take them away Children left to elsewhere play To cities tall and full of light Never knowing the stars at night Nor hearing peace amongst the noise So busy playing with their toys Yet here I am in their wake The slow path I choose to take Wandering this decaying land I hear myself and understand.

Japan is a fantastic destination for a family with young kids. It's safe, clean, easy to get around and full of interesting activities for all ages. Let me say first up that I am not an expert on travelling with kids. All I can do is to relate what we've learned from trips to our son, currently four and a half years old. That said, he's already been to thirteen countries and five times to Japan, six if you count in the womb. Here are some things we learned along the way. Getting there For many of us, reaching Japan means a long flight. Overnight flights probably work best, except for restless babies, as the kids will probably sleep. But that isn't always an option. We usually bring a collection of new books - the thinner and lighter the better. In Australia we found that places like K-Mart and BigW often have some suitable options. Drawing materials are good, as are snacks. What works best of all tends to be a media player (eg a tablet) filled with the child...