What a trip. Here's a little of how it went down for those interested.
Day 1 - arrive Toyko 12pm, check in to our hostel, go for Ramen, to Harajuku, to Shinjuku, then to the Studio Ghibli Museum. Korean BBQ for dinner. Crash and die.
Day 2 - Up at 6am to go to the Toyko fish market - one of the biggest in the world. A bit early but very cool. Eat eel on sticks. Nice.
Then head back for our suitcases and head to Shizuoka (Fuji) on the local train. Get to Shizuoka, drop our stuff with mate's in-laws and then go for all you can eat sushi.
Crash out and sleep.
Day 3 - Up at 6am for breakfast, leave our suitcases but pack our backpacks for a week of traveling. Get to Shizuoka station and activate JR passes. Fuji looks cool in the early morning light. Jump on the Shinkansen and begin the long travel north.
Snow starts building up around us and by 3pm it's a blizzard outside the window as we arrive in Hakodate, the location of the Anime Noein. Damn cold.
We jump on a tram to our Hotel and check in, then head back out into the blizzard to look around. Get on the cable car to go to Hakodate's peak and drink Sapporo while enjoying the night view. Hit an Izakaya for still kicking squid and Chu Hi alcoholic beverages.
Sleep time.
Day 4 - Up at 7am, out to check out Hakodate docks and the local market. Ramen for breakfast (nice). Back on the Shinkansen, heading further north beneath the ocean.
Arrive in Sapporo at around 1pm and head for the ice festival. Spend all day taking photos, trying out food (octopus) and keeping warm. Night falls, head to an arcade for a bit, then to a bar. Get wasted with the barman and head back to the station to catch the midnight sleeper train.
Pass out.
Day 5 - Wake up hungover at 5:30 am as the train rumbles in to the station and snap the above photo. Get off and catch another train.
Travel and sleep for hours until we arrive in Osaka. Check in to the hostel, then head out to Spa World to get naked in a multi themed Onsen.
Many Sauna's and hot pools later and it's time for more Korean BBQ, then bed.
Day 6 - Make a Journey to see the worlds largest wooden temple. Deer wondering all over the place. Some very cool statues.
Back to the train for a pointless rural journey south - its too late for us to reach our destination so we head back to Oji and check in to an amazing traditional Japanese guest house. Sushi for dinner then sleep.
Day 7 - Off to Kyoto for a two day stay. Arrive midday and check in to the Hostel. Go into the mountains to see the temples then to Gion and the bamboo forest.
Drinks and curry before bed. Mmm.
Day 8 - A lie in. Up at 8am. Off to see a Tori gate bonanza (about a million in one forest) and a fairly chilled day checking out Kyoto and eating Carbonara pasta.
One of us falls ill, myself and the other healthy chap head to 'World' for a bit of nightclub shenanigans. Roll in drunk at 5am the next morning after a helluva bash.
Day 9 - The ill guy gets up and goes to Hiroshima for a few hours. We meet up at 2pm and catch the Shinkansen back to Shizuoka to see the in-laws again (not mine.)
Day 10 - Up early to travel up the mountain by Mt Fuji (name escapes me) and check it out in the morning light.
Family lunch in a French restaurant that comes with the highest recommendation. Then shopping, grabbing as many games from one of the largest used games stores in the area.
Then, rush back to the house, grab our suitcases, and head back to Tokyo.
Arrive in Tokyo at 10pm, get to the Bus shelter and wade through hundreds of students to get to the ticket booth and get ticketed up.
Jump on the bus leaving at 11pm and get some sleep. We're the only Gaijin there - weird.
Day 11
Day 12
Day 13
Day 14 - Hakuba, Nagano: Four days of Snowboarding. Snobo hajimete for me: many seriously painful crashes, but by day four I'm a speed king. Learned a new skill and leveled up.
Plenty of Onsen business to soothe the pain.
Day 14.5 - Arrive back in Tokyo at 11pm. Ditch my travelling companions who head back to Shizuoka while I meet an old friend in Tokyo. Some bouts of SFIV in Shinjuku and a beer and then we're off to his place to crash out.
Day 15 - Shopping has cometh. We clean sweep the whole of Akihabara as my mate takes me on a tour of the best hidden secrets and we pretty much cover off a large chunk of my list.
Much dough is blown. Exchange rate is murder. Sensibly, no PCB's are bought.
Evening time we're in Mikado for some Ketsui, MegaBlackLabel and Daifukkatsu.
Then to Hey! for Otomedius and Futari 1.5
Miss the last train back to Asakusa Ryokan and have to take a cab instead
Day 16 - Final day. Off to Harajuku early for some girlfriend shopping, then meet up with my friend again to head to AOU 2009 in Chiba.
Deathsmiles 2 and KOF XII get blown up!
Amazing show.
By 5pm meet up with my old friend from Japan and we all head to Ikebukero for farewell drinks in the Hub. Sad.
Day 17 - Planes trains and automobiles.
Day 18: Today.
Some of the haul:
I still got about 50 though 
oh dear god! you can tell ive not had my morning can of coke/cup of coffee (but thats another thread)
