ANA Hotel Ube

Oh, there are so many benefits to living in Korea (okay, sometimes not the food situation i.e. cheese, but everything else is sweeeeet)... my most recent benefit of Korea is its location near Japan. Why not a holiday in Japan when all Koreans are bonding with their families during Chuseok, or the Korean ...

... lot of japanese tourists. There was a pretty promenade from which you could see the other island of Kyushu, which we ventured to in a tunnel under the sea. Once we got there there was nothing to do, so we had some take out lunch from a little vendor. This comprised of different forms of compressed fat soaked in a black smelly liquid. Lets just say we found the nearest bin possible (which is surprisingly hard to find in ...

... egalement un joli petit temple avec grande pagode. Et non loin de la ville, un tres grand plateau calcaire avec une immense grotte a visiter. Par endroit elle atteint 100m de largeur !!! Les lumieres sont tres jolies dans la grotte mais les haut parleur criant des explications gache un peu le spectacle... les nuisances sonores sont definitivement un probleme au Japon !

... such as cream, cheese, cream cheese or sweet bean paste. Many shops also had charcoal or wood barbeques to cook fresh oysters. I tried a few and they were much bigger than the ones we have at home. Haruna and Mrs. Takamura said currently they were only serving the 'small' ones as the bigger ones are only available in winter. The shops also sold souvenirs unique to the area, such as rice paddles with inscriptions. At one sight they displayed the ...

... to get stamps and written verses at all the temples we visit in the future. Now we definitely must come back to Japan to fill up our passport. It has a beautiful setting in the mountains, beautiful with running waters and trees. Here we saw many statues, big and small, depicting various deities, (one very large mean looking one which scared Haruna as a child - and it was easy to see why) and a very high waterfall. Haruna and I rang a very large bell, using a very ...

... hosted my daughter Elizabeth for a one month home stay two years ago. We hope to see Mrs. Irie's oldest daughter Mizuki and middle daughter Honami tomorrow. Eve and I each tried some beadwork, I made some earrings and Eve made a bracelet. Mrs. Irie was most gracious and also made a matching necklace for Eve - very beautiful! When all was said and done, it was 10 p.m. and it was time to say goodnight after a busy day. Tomorrow, Labo Day! day.

... are it is still on a ship traveling across the Pacific (talk about your slow boat to Asia!) The people at Japan Post were most apologetic and helpful, but just noted that it should be arriving "soon". Murphy's Law will probably mean the package will arrive the day after we leave. We did notice a line of motor scooter behind the building, which we were told are used to deliver mail rather than mail trucks (package size permitting). After lunch, Yasutoshi, Mizue ...

... and potatoes, zucchini and one of Yasutoshi's favourites chicken spring rolls. Haruna says they don't eat like this all the time, just for special suppers :-) I was then convinced to try some fermented beans, or as Haruna calls them, stinky beans. Not bad, but I don't think I would eat them every day. Eve also tried them, but I don't think she is enthralled with them. After supper we talked some more and one of Mizue's friends Makiko and ...

After having a gourmet breakfast and saying goodbye to the staff at the Kadota house, we left luxury behind for the Shinkansen at Tokyo Station. Kato, our driver, was there at 9 like he said and drove us to the Tokyo Station We made our reservations for Tokoyama, which is the closest station to Tabuse. It tok us abou 6 hours to get to Tokoyama, where we were greeted by Fujio-san. Fujio is the grandson of our great grandfather's brother and is the big brother of ...

... could find about the JR Lines, including a pretty detailed packet of the stops different trains made. She was worried about catching trains, but we had little trouble getting on our first train. It was a short trip, where we got off at Shin-Yokohama Station, where we waited on the platform for a while, waiting for our train that would take us on the four-hour trip to Okayama. In Okayama, we had only five minutes to find our train, but ...