Apa Hotel Tottori Ekimae

We arrived in Osaka at 7am after two 7 hour flights and a 3 hour stopover in KL... what is sleep again?
The excitement of being in Japan kept us going all day though, and we managed to fit in a visit to Osaka castle, surrounded by deciduous trees in all beautiful shades of yellow and red (even Bevan thought it was pretty). We also visited Amerika Mura, the square to sit in and ...

... the age of 33 months at the latest, and then they become well-known beef brands such as Kobe beef and Matusaka beef. The newborn calves I saw were beautiful with fine and shiny black hair, and they already had an air of dignity about them fitting of Tajima cattle.

Incidentally, Kobe beef has never been exported from Japan, but apparently this may change in the future. I hope those who live outside Japan will get to taste delicious Kobe beef for themselves sometime soon.

... up a few snacks from a local minimart. Tottoris main attraction for visitors is its sand dunes, which are situated on the coast about 5km out of town. These dunes cover a large area, and they are massive , more like giant hills. It had just rained so they were easy to work up (quite easy but still steep). After creating some artworks in the sand, it started to drizzle again so we ...

... that would be very expensive if we had to get taxis to them). There was 1 lady who could speak English so she guided us around the establishment on our arrival. It is worth mentioning that this Ryokan, Yozyokan is situated right on a lake that is close to a volcano, and has minerally rich spring water pumping underneath it. For this reason, it has many onsen, or baths, some are public which are segregated by sex and others are private meaning ...

Sorry for not putting up any new entry but I have been busy packing up all my things to ship back to Oregon. It is interesting to realize how much stuff I have collected over the last six and half years. Lots of CDs, books, videos, clothing and lots of paper and pictures. I also realize that the 3 plus years in Tottori is the longest period of time I have spent in the same place (apartment, house, or room) since I ...

... I The trip plan: 1st Leg - Kyushu December 17 - Tottori to Fukuoka by Super Oki and Kodama shinkansen. - Stay in Fukuoka December 18 - Fukuoka to Yufuin - stay in Ryokan December 19 - Yufuin to Kagoshima - stay in Kagoshima December 20 - Kagoshima to Nagasaki - take the Kyushu shinkansen December 21 - Nagasaki to Tokyo - take the Nozomi shinkansen from Hakata to Tokyo 5 hours straight 2nd ...

Greetings to the first entry of my big trip. It is ten days before I start the first leg of my trip to Kyushu. It will be my second visit to Kyushu as the first one was in 1995. I am planning to go to Fukuoka and then head to Yufuin in Oita prefecture and then contrinue down to Kagoshima and onto Nagasaki. The trip is part of the plan to visit all the prefectures in Japan which will be down to 1 after the trip leaving only Fukui..

... the flight to China. Being in a country like Japan, it`s easy to feel isolated, and this was especially the case in the proceeding few days when all I wanted was to be at home. It was a case of grinding it out, keeping busy, and the three weeks would soon pass... It was a relief to leave Kyoto behind on Sunday as I headed for Amanohashidate on the west coast, voted one of Japan`s top three scenic attractions. The view of the 3.5km sand spit ...

... found it funny the JETs from England and New Zealand have been told they're not really speaking English. "Can you say that with an American accent?" their teachers will ask. Haha! Some try and some just say no. "I would need some lessons before I could do that," one guy said. Tonight Zach and I have our first English club meeting with a group of random older women from our town (it's being passed on from our predeccesors). I ...

... The original intent for our trip was to withdraw some money from Zach's account back in Michigan, and Kyoto had the cloest international bank. We ended up roaming around the streets looking at stuff, and it was really neat! We began to play this game of Where's Waldo with the other foreigners (gaijin). :) It was so exciting to see them, escpecially since there aren't many where Zach and I are living. The two most common places people seemed to be from were Germany and France.