Leaving on a jet plane...

It's bank Holiday weekend in London. Our first truly British public holiday (as opposed to all of those popular Christian holidays at Christmas and Easter). Sadly, I'll be working. I fly to New York on Sunday for another executive team meeting, returning on Thursday morning. The following week I'll be in Munich for two days, then in Paris for two days the week after that. South Africa is also on the agenda, possibly at the end of May. As always, Garry will be holding the fort while I'm off destroying miles of ozone.

Garry and I also have some personal travel scheduled. We've booked flights back to Australia in early-August, thereby completing last year's RTW ticket. This will be our first trip back Down Under since departuring early-October. Our homeward journey will take place immediately after a long weekend in Prague celebrating a friend's 40th birthday. We literally fly back to Heathrow in time to catch our flights to Australia.

To break up the long flight we've scheduled three and a half days in Japan as a brief stopover. It's a whirlwind tour, but enough time for me to share some of my favourite highlights with Garry. We'll fly into Osaka (via Hong Kong) and catch the bullet train (Shinkensan) straight to Hiroshima (about two hours from the airport).

We'll then spend a full day in Hiroshima visiting:

• Peace Park and the epicentre of the WWII atom bomb explosion,
• the famous Shinto shrines of Miyajima, complete with scarlet torii gate and
• the classical Japanese arch bridge at Iwakuni, before returning to Hiroshima for a tasty Okonominyaki dinner.

Our second full day will take us via bullet train to:

• the white hilltop Shogun castle at Himeji,
• the buddist temples, Zen shrines and Shinto shrines of Kyoto. Then, after dinner at a local teppanyaki restuarant, we'll catch the evening bullet train to Tokyo, passing Fuji, the iconic mountain symbol of Japan.

Our final day in Japan will be spent in Tokyo:

• catching stunning city views from the Metropolitan Government Centre in Shinjuku (hoem to the world's busiest rail station),
• traversing the city's mind blogging department stores,
• exploring the wonders of Tsukiji fish market and,
• the people watching mecca of Shibuya before catching the train to Narita airport for our mid-evening flight home.

I think we'll be ready for some home comforts and pampering by the time we reach Australia. I'll head over to New Zealand for a few days before catching a flight to London via Sydney and Johannesburg. The stop in South Africa enables me to work, while breaking up the journey home. With luck we've have done enough travel for me to retain Gold status with Qantas Frequent Flyer, but sadly not enough travel to retain my Platinum level. I'll miss the First Class lounge!