Hakata Green Hotel 2 Fukuoka

... presence by the locals was very evident everywhere that we went.<br><br>We will miss Okinawa and hope that perhaps someday we can return to visit again. It was well worth it to make the trip down to this place not only for the warm weather and the friendly people but also to learn that, where we come from in Canada, we haven't known (and hopefully will not know anytime soon) the horrors that the ancestors of the people we visited experienced and still feel the pain from today.<br><br>

... of the Japanese Navy's main command posts during World War 2. What an interesting and spooky place this turned out to be. Two things really struck us. First of all, these tunnels were dug from the rock by hand using pick axes -- there are thousands of metres of tunnels here. Secondly, many military officers committed suicide here after it became apparent that the battle with the U.S. was lost. The scars from exploding hand grenades can still be seen in some of ...

... the US invasion forces landed near the end of the war. Apparently this was one of the most difficult and bloody battles of the Pacific War. It is hard to believe that this beautiful place was once a WW2 killing ground. Thousands of Americans died here and hundreds of thousands of Japanese died. I'm sure that the war memorials here will be very sobering.<br><br>It will definitely be an interesting couple of days.<br>

On Sunday, we woke up early again to drive to Shuri Castle, down in Naha. Shuri Castle today is a recreation from memory of the 14th century castle that was destroyed during the battle of Okinawa. Chinese envoys used to come to the castle to crown the Ryukuan king, and there are many portraits and artifacts from these kings inside. You have to take off your shoes to walk around in the museum. We were happy to do so, since it ...

... it was a hot day made even worse by humidity.<br><br>The aquarium was very cool (especially since it had A/C, ha ha). There were lots of little exhibits to look at in addition to several big tanks that were chock full of fish. Since we were in Japan, everyone had a camera and crowded around to photograph every fish. Luckily, I was taller than almost everyone there, so I got some pictures too. The big tank with the whale sharks, rays ...

... that. But she still let us shop for a nice long time, during which I got to experience the Japanese toy section (full of bizarre toys such as Anpanman, the superhero with bread for a head, Mameshiba, the puppy-faced edamame bean, and various other sad-faced adorable animals). I also perused the candy section but was disappointed- isn't it supposed to be shiny and colorful? There wasn't even a good selection of Haribo- not even fizzy colas! There weren't a whole lot of exciting ...

... a new pair of shoes. Looking through the Nike Air running shoes, which were the kind I was looking at before I left Australia at $200+ a pair, I bought a pair for the grand total of AU$60. Absolute bargain. I could have bought any of the mens shoes, be they basketball, running etc, in any brand, for under AU$110 a pair. It just makes me wonder who is actually getting the profits ...

... gracias) y varias referencias, ya me pongo marcha al metro, y claro.. ¿en qué andén? De nuevo vuelta a preguntar y otros tantos arigatós. Ya le he dicho a Ismael, mi jefe, que tenemos que aprendernos alguna otra palabra, porque tenemos que parecer idiotas diciendo "arigató" todo el día a todas horas, y ya ni siquiera para dar las gracias, yo creo que ya lo usamos hasta para los "buenos días". Otro ejemplo de su cultura de educación son los revisores de los trenes ...

... heard her sing it, there may have been blood everywhere. After that, we went shopping. Oh it's great to shop. I ended up buying a cell phone. Yup, a cell phone. They cell used cell phones here, bought one of them. You'd expect a cell phone to be cheap here, yea, they really aren't. Then that night we went out again. Knowing that Sunday morning we had to wake up early... 8 a.m. again. I laid low Saturday night. It was an early evening. Probably for the best. And it snowed here. They ...

... to the street level, my theory of a magic wand that beams the buses from the roof to the street level is the only way that the buses manage to get to the street level!! Really! You are surprised, aren`t you. That`s how it works in Japan. Starship enterprise is no longer fiction. It`s become true. Here in Japan, without anyone in the outside world knowing about it, they simply beam their vehicles from street level to the top ...