Kyoto

Kyoto is very nice. There are over 2000 temples and shrine, a huge castle, loads of day trips - I`d recommend it on any trip to Japan. I ended up staying there 5 days as there was a nice, cheap hostel (the Tour club), and tons of day trips - to Nara (the ancient-ancient capital, Kyoto was the capital after about 1100), and to Himeji (the huge castle where they filmed "You only live twice").
I`m now in Hiroshima, at the hypocenter of the blast (don`t ask "what blast?"). There`s a park, a library, a museum, a cultural center, and the one surviving building - quite how it survived a direct nuclear bomb, I don`t know. Its sobering.

I`ve started the rail pass - I have 7 days of free trains (well, 140 pounds for the 7 days). I`ve already used up 160 pounds worth of travel in 2 days, so its worth it! Next stop Beppu, for some relaly tacky hot springs, then Aso for the volcano, then Koya-San for the mountainous temple retreats, then Kanazawa then Tokyo. I`m putting it down now just so I can see how badly I veer from this plan!