Dochu Dondon Awa

... walk south from my hotel in Takamatsu to You Me Town, a shopping center at a major intersection. When I got there, I saw banners everywhere announcing the opening of a new Uniqlo store two days ago. None of the banners pointed the way to Uniqlo, so it took some hunting to find it. A while after I got there, I noticed that one of the Uniqlo employees was leading the chant you hear in stores all the time in Japan. I don't know the ...

... the only visitor there, and hopefully this is because it's a weekday, because it was surprisingly interesting. I though they were the fold out fans, but these require splitting a single bamboo stalk into dozens of spines that then get fanned out and tied with thread. Then papered over with decorative rice paper or fabric. After Marugame, got to Takamatsu in the late afternoon, intending to spend the time until dark in ...

... from Hiroshima. They were exceedingly nice and I found it hard to refuse them when they offered me food from their table. I'm not sure if my Japanese is really improving (it's not) or if being tired made me think it was easier, but I managed not to screw up having a conversation with the couple and the owner of the inn. Basically I could figure out what they were getting at, and vice versa, though they had no clue what TB is...must find out the Japanese word for ...

... bearers for them to hire.They will carry you up the steps to the Dai-mon Gate. One funny thing was I saw many people even took their little dogs with them to Shrine. Watching the dogs jump up the steps, I guess the dogs must want to cry for coming to this kind of place. Btw, Kotohira produces the best Udon in Japan. Outside one famous Udon school, you ...

... We will fly into Bangkok, Thailand and then travel over land through Cambodia to Vietnam. On new year's eve we will fly back to Bangkok and then go to an island to relax on the beach for a few days. I'm sure I'll have plenty of stories to post after that. (Most will undoubtedly have to be censored a little bit, e-mail me for the whole picture haha). Until then, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Eric Gardneregardner1 (at) gmail (dot) com

... that when I use the back doors. Next thing I knew I was the idiot who had locked his keys in the car. Now, this isn't necessarily a big problem if you speak the language of the country that you're in, but my Japanese is pretty rudimentary. After struggling to explain my situation a man eventually came and picked the lock for me. I made it to the orphanage about a half hour late, but we still had a good afternoon and it was fun to spend time with the kids ...

... ball into plastic bag. Stomp on it with your feet several times over (really). Roll the dough to make a long strip. Fold the strip and cut it into thin noodles. Unfortunately, it is getting late and I (and my computer grrrr) am getting tired. So, to prevent my pieces from becoming illegible due to sleep induced spelling errors I will leave the accounts off my trips to Ise and Hiroshima for another day in the (very) near future.

... was pretty intense because I was just a little bit older than these kids are now when 9/11 went down. I basically explained to the kids how even though the attacks happened in New York, DC, and Pennsylvania, it was really an attack on the free world including Japan (and that 24 Japanese people died in the attacks). My message was for them to continue to learn and never take their freedom for granted. Pretty intense, but it was a good day overall. We finally had our school ...

... out seeing light, you could easily stay down there for a whole week 24/7 and not ever see the same place twice. Most of the restaurants down there are small family owned deals with amazing food. Definitely a main theme of my time there was the food. Even though I had no idea what I was eating most of the time, actually probably all of the time, I luuuuved it! There was food that looked alive when you ate it, endless amounts of rice, crazy new spices and sauces, Kobe Beef ...

... who was travelling all by herself all over Japan. It was a good group of people and we all sat around in the dining area and ate dinner and chatted late into the evening. The next morning was when we began to explore the valley. The main points of interest to us were two sets of vine bridges. They were replicas of the ones the Heike clan themselves built over the river for defense. If any enemies tried crossing the bridge they could cut the bridges down with ease ...