Business Hotel Suisen Miyazaki

Heute sind wir nach _Aoshima gefahen. Surferparadis Japans und so. Lauter verfallene Hotels, indenen man super Horror Movies spielen koennte.
Japanische Baywatch Typen gabs aber dennoch am strand. Da ist uns gleich wieder mal was passiert. Besser gesagt mir. Jaja diesmal bin ich schuld. Wir haben unsere Wertsachen abgegeben, da kann man sich so einen Korb kaufen auf den dann ein Maedchen aufpasst. Die konnte leider nur japanisch. Im gegenzug ...

I spent a great couple of nights last weekend at THE BAR. Its a bar in Miyazaki above the Pauls Smith Clothes shop not far from the main Miyazaki Station.�@The owner, Sean, from New Zealand has a great little establishment there. Its only been open for less than a year but its the night spot of choice for all the foreign community in town and most of the Japanese people too if the crowd on Friday and Saturday nights ...

So what do emergency brakes and a rental car have in common? It turns out you can't set the GPS on the rental car if the emergency brake isn't on. Try to figure out that one when all the instructions are in Japanese!! And then... try to find the emergency brake. When we first rented the little car we got the key turned... engine on.... controls figured out... and then ... whumph... you can't move when the brake is on so ...

... Friends emailed me warning "Watch out for the culture shock coming back to the states." This is not the first time we have come home from a third world country so I had a pretty good idea of what to expect from the transition from people having too little to people having too much. I think because of my past experience it wasn't difficult to walk into my first Whole Foods, but also we had the consumerism of Japan to ...

... into the 1.5 of daylight a guy pulls up in his extra large van (quite unusual for this part of the world, they all drive tiny cars and trucks) and asks if we could use a lift. Yes, please! After loading our junk in the back of his van, he explains that earlier he saw us grinding up yet another hill and though, "Gee, they are quite far from any hotels and I hope they aren't planing on camping in this rain." so ...

... have been out of the question. On the way, he showed us the family business; a very elegant set of banquet halls, with a very traditional room, better decorated with Samurai armor and swords than most museums we've seen. And, one last thing to blow your minds, Gen is the sixteenth generation family manager of this business. Yes, really 16. So, thanks very much to Gen and Maya, we did get our hot tub soak in Beppu that night after all. After a cold beer and tofu steak ...

... were extremely proud to walk me around the factory. Several young Japanese girls were following us around the factory taking pictures and getting us tea and coffee. Needless to say, the male dominated society is different, but I`m enjoying myself! :) I`m exhausted and going out to dinner tonight which probably means more karaoke. Peace.

Unreal is only word I can use to describe the last 2 days. Just a hint: 3 days in Japan = 3 nights of Karaoke! We have been treated like rock stars since the day we arrived. 5-10 Japanese Rotarians are constantly shuffling us around to various sightseeing destinations. In 2 days I have learned how to perform Zen Buddhist Meditation Ceremony complete with punishment, visited ancient burial grounds, toured a Plasma TV factory, walked ...

Ok! I made it to Japan, however at the airport I was quite surprised to see 20 rotarians with a HUGE banner welcoming us to Japan. I was not in any shape to meet anyone, but I didn't have a choice. We were quickly shuffled off to our Hotel where the local Rotarians had dinner waiting on us. We met our host families that we will stay with starting Monday Night. However, only a few people could speak English and my host could not. When Japanese people ...

I completed the long flight to Japan. My plan to sleep during the flight worked well. I slept for nearly 8 hours during the flight. I am on the flight to Miyazaki from Nigoya. I am hungry, tired and I have travel grime. I can't wait to get to the hotel and settle in. It's 5:20 pm in Japan and 4:20 am in the Eastern time zone. I've been traveling since 7:30 am yesterday. By the time I arrive in Miyazaki, I will have been traveling for ...