ANA Hotel Clement Takamatsu

JOINED THE CLUB

Well, I've taken the plunge and joined the Toyoko Inn Club. Toyoko Inns are already a great deal--cheap room with free breakfast and often a free gift when you check in. On a past trip, that's how I got that bright green and yellow washcloth and those monogramed TYK socks. This time, it was a plastic foam slab in a wrapper marked "Body Sponge." This particular Toyoko Inn also serves a free dinner every night at 7 p ...

Slept well until I realized that without the heat, the temperature drops to zero. My back was frozen stiff this morning. But got to Zentsuji early nonetheless. Navigating local trains here has been really challenging--the times are correct but you never know if your small stop is on the way or a passed station. Zentsuji is famous for 2 things: birthplace of Kubo Daisha (Kukai who brought Buddhism to Japan), and the square ...

... from Hiroshima. They were exceedingly nice and I found it hard to refuse them when they offered me food from their table. I'm not sure if my Japanese is really improving (it's not) or if being tired made me think it was easier, but I managed not to screw up having a conversation with the couple and the owner of the inn. Basically I could figure out what they were getting at, and vice versa, though they had no clue what TB is...must find out the Japanese word for ...

... famous Itsukushima shrine behind it, I found those sights somewhat overrated, especially as the shrine was a bit empty of iconography or statuary etc, but packed with tons of tourists. And the surrounding town is basically a bonanza of souvenir shops overpriced snack stands. Fun to browse around, but since I can't really buy anything as I have to lug it around with me for the next month, a few minutes per shop was all I needed.

Aside from Itsukushima shrine, there ...

... Japan country side. However when we arrived there,I noticed there were so many people and couldnt find the car park. All the parkings were full, and one guy took us to a parking inside one small road. So lucky! There is 785 stone steps to the Main Sanctuary, and another 1,368 stone steps climb up to the Inner Shrine. If you couldnt climb the steps, there are ...

... in the area. It took the whole day and it was a lot of fun. The next day a big group of us went to Tokushima City to visit the largest orphanage in the area. There were 72 kids there and we had a lot of fun playing games and opening gifts. I was basically a human jungle gym for the most part as kids wanted to climb on our backs and be picked up into the air. Overall it was a really fun experience and I was happy to be there. That ...

... really glad that I was able to go to Korea.   This past weekend was a little more relaxed. There was a concert in Tokushima City on Friday night and I went to see "Tropic Thunder" with some of my friends on Saturday night. Sunday was a strange experience though. We had a Christmas orphanage visit planned for Sunday afternoon, so when I was loading gifts into the back seat of my car it locked. I didn't think anything of it because my car does weird things ...

... quite funny pictures.... We did manage to eventually reach Shikoku and were pleasantly surprised by the nice Japanese style accommodation that had been arranged for us. We were even more surprised when we heard that there was a lovely hot open air onsen (bath) on the top of the building. However, we were absolutely blown away by the dinner the inn had prepared for us. During dinner we had nice Japanese style dance which ...

... gotta do what you gotta do. That works as a good segway into telling you about my plans to leave the country. I have booked my winter break trip and I'm really excited about it. Henry, Laura, Josh, and I are going to Southeast Asia for two weeks. We're flying into Bangkok and taking the overland route through Cambodia (top of my list to see in Asia) to Saigon, Vietnam. We'll then fly back to Bangkok for New Year's and spend 5 days on the beaches of Thailand before heading back ...

... good for sport all year round. It plays host to a multitude of important domestic and international sporting events, with 2006 being no exception. The sporting calendar starts in January with the Australian Open Tennis, which along with the U.S. Open, French Open and Wimbledon, make up the four "Grand Slams" of world tennis. In 2006 the tournament was won by Rodger Federer. In March, Melbourne was host to the XVIII Commonwealth Games, a ...