ANA Hotel Osaka

... very busy Shanghai on Monday morning...( anyone from London or Amsterdam??) So okay, but we had plenty of time. And yes it all looked okay but he stopped at a Ferry terminal for cruise ships to Australia!! "" Hele it is!! Hele it is"" no way Jose! Look at the map...Look!! and I started to look at my watch....!?! It was getting close to 9.30 and we were on the wrong side of the river!! The guy at the Aussie terminal knwe were we had to go! Under the river ...

... strong thighs!... well actually, with the amount of walking these people do, they probably do.. ha! All in all, I had an amazing time. There are things I didn't get to do, but that's bound to happen with such a limited amount of time (when a lot of our time was scheduled with our school meetings). I will be forever grateful for the experience and I know I will return home appreciating what I learned and observed in Japan, as well as what we have in comparison in the US.

... a while. We wound up having McDonalds, it tasted different but not better or worse... Same old ****. We also got ourselves a neat pass which let us use the subways and a bus for 2 days with 25 attractions throwen in free(it was 27 but two were closed). We pretty much made our way back to the hotel. I went to the store and bought some junk food. Then I came back here, surfed the net for abit, sent some emails, wrote some blog, and then jet lag had me snoring like a baby.

... sidelines. Kenji came for a visit. It was great to see him and to meet his adorable (bilingual) son. It is wonderful to see these young people become caring parents. Had a great visit with Kenji. Next time we're in Japan we will make a point of visiting for longer. On Sunday we enjoyed Manito's school sports day... picnic lunch and all. The kids played tug of war, raced & passed huge rubber balls overhead all in hopes their team would win. Red hats against white hats ...

... there isn't much to say except for that is is definitely the place to be. We've seen some traditional Zen Gardens, which really are quite tranquil, and its all to easy to just sit there with your green tea and get lost in your thoughts. Today we saw Kinkaku-ji or the Golden Pavilion; another one of Japan's most iconic destinations. We also went to a temple, whose gardens feature in the movie Lost in Translation; the bit where Scarlett Johanson's character goes to Kyoto. I ...

... nd oldest wooden structure; which is, impressively, due to fires *nd gener*l *ging, only one third of its origin*l size. Needless to s*y the visit w*s nothing short of bre*tht*king, *nd the surviving structure * true test*ment to J*p*nese *rchitecture. The Buddh*'s st*tue itself is just so liter*lly overwhelming in its sheer immensity th*t words c*nnot do it justice. It must be seen to be believed. An experience, I liken to the loc*ls *nnu*l L*ntern Festiv*l, 'Setsubun', which we h*d ...

... for two d*ys *nd spent the first d*y exploring Fukuok*: Which *ctu*lly only re*lly involved going to C*n*l City, * huge complex th*t h*s been n*med * 'city within * city'. It h*d ret*il stores from Gucci to Hello Kitty, Pokemon Centers, Hundreds of b*rs, * The*tre (Which w*s showing the Lion King music*l) *nd even Hotels. We ended up wondering *round *nd getting lost *nd eventu*lly found * Movie The*tre, *nd decided to go see Sweeney Todd. Lets just s*y, I ...

... amongst tourists for feeding time and general lazing about. Being one with all the baby monkeys and their parents, who are entirely not bothered by human contact, is an awesome experience; particularly at feeding time when a literal frenzy occurs to see who can cram the most food into their mouths. Picture hoards of monkeys. A sea of monkeys. A sea so thick of fur and screeching, that other monkeys can physically run across the backs of their brethren to get to even more ...

... dinners. Whoa, Japanese are quite particular about order and time. No problem with that, I could live with it. We were each assigned one room with its own bathroom and piped in music. My first dinner: juice, a cupcake and a smooth banana. I had no idea what time a slept, all I know was that it was really late and I was so tired to check. I woke up from the ...

... she was in pain. Why does Japanese porn look like the girl is really not enjoying it? Anyways, decided it was really too late to be watching porn (besides, they put those fuzzy "Cops" blur-blocks on the private parts to avoid really showing anything) and went to sleep. I had to try to lie diagonally to stretch out my arms and feet on my stomach. I dont' think that people much taller than me would be comfortable. I think there are women's floors in this place too.