Central Hotel Fukuoka

... all the stuff we didn't carry in backpacks for the last 8 months so here we are, unpacking and repacking boxes, and shifting our necessary items to suitcases to bring with us to Oman... which is, tomorrow! Yep, our flights have been booked and tomorrow we leave Japan to fly all the way to Muscat, where we're staying for a couple days until we do the short jump to Salalah our new home. <br><br>What is ...

... telephone. Ten years ago this was hi-tech, state of the art stuff.<br><br>Built one year later, TMSUK-04 is a humanoid super-remote-controlled robot with a head, arms, and tracks. She sorta reminded me of Dot Matrix from the movie Spaceballs, but without legs.<br><br>I checked out some other display robots, including BANRYU, and Wall-E, then finally actually went inside the "square"...<br><br>-----<br>ROBOSQUARE FACILITY:<br><br>A group of young Japanese women were excitedly ...

... the islands separated and the strait was formed. Think Red Sea. Mojiko had strategic military importance, so it was the focus of several wars and fights over whether this part of Japan would be open to foreign trade (a theme that also affected Nagasaki and Kagoshima). Mojiko had an important role in the banana import market, which anyone who has seen melons selling for $10 to $50 in Japan's supermarkets will ...

... factory store was 30% off the usual price. Amazingly, there were sidewalks for the entire route, which included some very rural areas. In Arita, street furniture included exhibit cases with pottery inside. Then it was over the river, through the hills, and under the Nishi-Kyushu Expresway. I passed some rice fields that were being harvested. <br><br><br>IMARI<br><br>Imari is the third major pottery town in Kyushu. By the way, Kyushu ...

... and experience was worth it!<br><br>The next day we boarded the Beetle - a high speed Jet Foil Boat which lifts out of the water and skims on ski-like foils. It took less than 3 hours to do 120 miles across the sea to South Korea which is pretty quick. It felt like you were on a place or a train but was even smoother, so no sea sickness, even after having an early morning beer - well, it was free!!

... Pilzen cremig und mit Fleisch das einen Fettrand hatte, aber sehr dünn geschnitten war - ich tippe mal auf Schwein oder Rind - aber nachdem es andi probiert hat und meinte man schmeckt das Fett nicht hab ichs auch probiert und es war echt sehr sehr gut und man konnte kein fett schmecken...) echt lecker sowas. Der Hauptgang war auch sehr lecker aber der maguru bleibt unvergesslich ^_° <br>

... In Kagoshima it was raining and I waited that out. After that I took the ferry to Sakurajima Island, basically one big volcano in the bay of Kagoshima; it is the most active volcano in Japan, with many (small) eruptions every year. Here I met the French girls again, and we cycled a bit around the island, meanwhile enjoying the coastal and volcanic scenery. About one-third around the island there was a lookout and from here I returned to the ferry - the French girls ...

... Ja niihin squatti vessoihinkin ehin jo tottua kun niita oli aina asemilla, nahtavyyspaikoilla yms. Tavarataloista ja ravintoloista useimmiten loytaa "normivessan". Niin ja kaikilla on oma kasipyyhe aina laukussa.. mullakin nyt ;) Ja yks hassu juttu taal on naisten jalat.. ei millaan pahalla mut niillahan osuu polvet yhteen, toisinsanoen X-jalat...yritettiin miettia mista kyseinen johtus...ideoita?? heh.. tai ehka ma naytin jotenkin miehelta kun kavelen suurin jaloin ja se ...

... like a good time for an aside that I need to add. Josh has had three years of college level Japanese language instruction in the states as well as a year in a half of studying and working in Japan. He can speak with relative fluency after over four years of study, more than a third of it abroad, but he can barely read Japanese at all for the difficulty of Japan's use of hundreds of Chinese characters in its written language. I point this out because seeing him has made me very weary of ...

... poured over ground up horse radish. The tempura vegetables that I tried were pumpkin and sweet potato. Next came a potato salad. This was most amazing as it tasted very similar to the traditional German potato salad. I commented to Atsuko-san about that, and she said, she had been equally surprised when she had gone to Germany, that the German potato salad dish was an almost exact copy of the traditional Japanese salad. Oh, I can`t ...