Business Kaneko Hotel Sasebo

... before with all the rituals and the uniqueness of it all. Great fun. For a recap... Top 3 of things : Top 3 places to visit: Kyoto, Miyajima and Tokyo. Top 3 things to do in Japan: See sumo wrestling, Karaoke and taste anything and everything, food and drinkwise :) Top 3 Do's: Learn some Japanese (e.g. thank you, directions and asking if they understand english), buy JR rail pass before entering the country as cannot be purchased here and have some mosquito ...

... of disarray since we were assuming that we still had another full day in Sasebo to get things in order. So things are now sorted. The upside of all of this is that we now know what we are doing today, but it would have been nice to spend another lazy day in Sasebo (and in this fantastic hotel room). But oh well, things cannot last forever, so it is time to move onto another shoebox hotel room, this time in Himeji.

... yesterday. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me, but I will get pictures from the roof before I leave. Actually, it is quite weird for me to not be carrying the camera. I think it is the first time on this trip that I have broken the Holy Trinity as we have come to refer to my day trip kit: Money Belt + Casio Protrek Compass Watch + Camera = Holy Trinity. At midday we headed out to visit the all girls High School which Veronica attended when ...

... and more than enough for himself and Veronica to have full conversations in a hybrid language of English and Japanese with no problems at all (or so it appeared). We started on the 7th floor, and instantly it became very apparently that this guy was very very passionate about naval history. The way he discussed many of the points on the tour, I wouldn't mind betting that he was ex Japanese Navy himself. Most items on the tour were as you would ...

... This is the hotel at which the Hotel Manager is best friends with Veronica's old Teacher from the high school she attended while here as an exchange student. The manager gave us a superb rate on the room (AU$200 per night for a $440 per night luxury suite), and promised to look after us. She has a soft spot for Australian's because her daughter was an exchange student in Western Australia, and when she found out that Veronica was taught by her friend, that ...

... ohne Hollaender (manch einer mag das als Vorteil sehen:-) Die Japaner haben den hoechsten Turm Hollands nachgebaut, ein Schloss nachgebaut und sehr schoene Tulpen. Gouda gibt es natuerlich auch, merkwuerdigerweise aber auch Baumkuchen als ostdeutsche Spezialitaet... Gruss Ralf

... the sight of a prison at the time of the bomb. Everyone in the prison was killed and you can see what little is left on the walls on the park grounds. There is a peace statue and millions more paper cranes. There is a memorial where the actuall epicenter was and another museum as well. On the edge of town you can take a ...

... the masseuse arrived she was a little old lady, but man did she a fingers like steel. I had asked for a half hour massage, but when she got started, she was clucking at all the knots in my back and should, and I ended up getting an hour massage for the same price. My back was a bit sore today as well, but nothing like yesterday, so I guess it did help. Today I went around Nagasaki ...

... machine was put on the table, and the singing could begin. We all had a turn, I sang 'My Way' with went down really well, and I had a dance with Misaki while one of the other guys was singing. We stayed for about an hour being taken good care of by our hostesses, I got my second glass of Hennessey in a whiskey glass without ice or water, which impressed my Japanese friend a lot. Unfortunately I had my curfew; otherwise I would have stayed longer ...

... and I got some great footage of some of them placing cranes on the monuments, you can see that in today's video. For the first time since the airport, I was told not to take photos in the museum, so I had to sneak some photos in by using my camcorder, these photos are also part of the video. You might have noticed that a lot of the monuments incorporate water in some way. That is because there were severe water ...