More pictures (but still more on the way soon!) 

One of the three pirate ships on the huge lake in Hakone. This ship was to take us across the lake on the next leg of out voyage. 

Our second day in Hakone was disappointingly couldy, meaning no Fuji today. 

Aboard the pirate ship 2 ahhar! 

Aboard the pirate ship 1 ahhar! 

Cable cars up the mountain. (sorry the next pic is in the wrong order) 

One of the pirate ship figureheads. 

We took a cable car up the mountain and as we reached the top and overlooked an enormous crater the car shook violently and became engulfed in volcanic gas and steam (as Katie is kindly pointing out ;~) 

Over the crater. 

Richard strugling valiantly against the immense cloudy gusts at the top of the crater. 

One of my personal hightlights! A group of samurai run throught an epic sword fighting choreography on this stage in Shakuji Koen park. Quite why we were not sure but it may have been for an upcoming movie or TV drama! 

Inside the Imperial Palace grounds 1 

Finally inside the Imperial Palace grounds. The gardens were beautiful but not quite as spectacular as we might have imagined. 

Brother and sister inspecting the imperial gardens. 

Hello! Here in Tokyo I am coming to the end of a long break called Golden Week and my sister Amy and cousins Richard and Katie have been here to visit me for ten days! It has been a lot of fun seeing them all again and we have been up to a lot of things, infact we have collectively taken over 700 pictures! That means over 700 images for me to sort through, select and adjust for all you fine people out there who have been kind enought to keep on checking my humble web log. The following batch is from the first few days of the holiday and I hope to have some more up very soon.  

Arrival! 

The cherry blossoms had just passed but there was still a few other blossoms around. 

Amy and Katie spread out and relax on the luxurious 5 star accomadation that was... erm my living room floor. 

Is it a bird, is it a plane? No it is five flying carp, up eary to celebrate Boy's Day on May the 5th. I think they are verycool! 

Beer anyone? Amy took this pic during our first night of drinking/eating. Mmm 

Outside the imperial palace. We would eventually make it inside the palace but on this occasion, as with my first visit, the main entrance was closed, leaving us to pose outside and pretend for the camera. 

Walk don't run! Katie risks being thrown out of the imperial palace grounds. 

Fast food - Japanese style at restuarant Yoshinoya. 

You wouldn't know it but this tiger was about to get very soggy as soon after this picture was taken the heavens opened on this poor water hating feline! Aww. 

A 17th century pagoda, slap bang in the middle of the zoo for some reason! 

One of the many unusual animals at Ueno zoo, and two elephants..