Grand Hyatt 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 ...

... with Hello Kitty ROBO. Pretty cute. But for the $1000 price tag I could buy a lot of 'cute' in the red light district!<br><br>Next, the AIBO collection caught my eye. Several generations of the lovable little robot dog by SONY were obediently seated on a matrix of shelves. If you've seen an AIBO it's probably been one of the futuristic looking shiny silver, black, or white ones. I was surprised to see a more "natural" looking beige pup from 2003, the AIBO ERS-311, but I ...

... will have to wait for my next trip! <br><br>What better way to finish off my retro day than to stay at the Comfort Hotel in Hakata. The carpet in the rooms has a pattern that could be Polynesian art, a Rohrshoch ((?)) test, or an artifact from a well-preserved 1950's American living room. It's located across the street from the Hakata railroad station. Compared to the other hotels where I've stayed in Japan, this ...

... It's not my style, but I'm glad I got to see it. <br><br>The train trip between Saga and Karatsu was about a hour. There were a lot of students, in school uniforms, on the train, as well as an unusually high number of very elderly passengers. My guess is that this is a sign that this is a declining rural area--with an aging population and not enough school children to justify a school in every town. <br><br>A number of passengers were ...

We stayed in Fukuoka for one night as we were getting the Beetle at 9am in the morning from the port here. We knew it was a bit of a party town and had many street stalls so went out in the evening for a wander. We walked for miles but ended up back at the first street stall we saw as it had a good view and seemed busy enough that it was ok to eat in!! Sat down and got noodles as we couldn't decide ...

... the bar first and get a drink, and on my way to the bar is when I never saw the Russian guys again haha. This place was like non of the other places I had been to earlier that night. I was treated like a famous star by everyone in the place. I could not take a step without a Japanese girl trying to dance with me or a Japanese guy tapping on my shoulder trying to talk to me. This went on for hours and I wasnt ...

... stopping for vehicles that were crossing in front of us. If you don't do this in Korea, you won't last long....pedestrian beware! In Japan cars were actually stopping and allowing us to walk past......something I haven't seen since I lived in Montana. It certainly surprised both of us! I'd heard that Japan would be expensive and it could be at that.....although not much more than other big cities in other countries. It's just that 'nothing' is cheap.....the little ...

... hostel instead. I stayed one more day in Fukuoka with another night out the following night. This time we did manage to track down the bars thanks to the lonely planet. We also had a few more people in tow, Kuba from Poland, Jill from California and a Jeremy from Canada. This turned into quite a late night and it was a bit of a struggle to checkout for eleven the next day but managed to do so successfully. I was going towards Kobe and planned to stop off at Hiroshima along the way.

... we ordered as shots instead of sipping it as Josh said we were supposed to. Our conversation wandered. Josh asked me if I found a girlfriend, would I want to stay in Korea. I said yes, that would be one of the things that would keep me in the country. Later I would think about this a lot. I would wonder whether loneliness was the only thing keeping me from sticking it out in the program and everything else was something of an excuse. I would also wonder if that wasn't more than ...

... The bathtub is farely deep in comparison to European standards, probably around 50 cm, but you can`t stretch out in it. So in essence its almost used like a swimming pool. Every house and apartment in Japan uses this bathroom system. After taking a bath, the hairs are removed with a net or with the hands. Guests have priority over family members. But in this house, they do not invite guests to take a bath in their bath water. Nor ...