Hotel Alpha 1 Tottori

... listata maailman hienoimpien junareittien listalle...

Takaisin Osakassa oltiin viimein kello 20.30 aikoihin ja käytiin vielä nopeasti pyörähtämässä Osakan-aseman lähellä olevissa valtavissa kaupoissa, etsimässä hiukan kaikenlaista tavaraa jatkoa varten. Nyt on pakko alkaa latautua jo tulevaan...

Jaahas ja tästä alkaa nyt todellinen humuviikonloppu! Tiedossa on kolme päivää silkkaa juhlaa, joten päivityksissä saattaa esiintyä pieniä viivästyksiä... :-)

... niin täytyy koittaa pitää laukut tiukasti selässä, ettei käy kuten viimeksi! Ei kuitenkaan ollut tänään samaa henkilöä ja hotellin esitetelineet ja miespolon selkä säilyi täten ehjänä. :-) Viimeksi saatiin tosi pieni huone, mutta nyt napsahti oikein kunnon jättipotti ja Japanin mittaluokassa tosi komean kokoinen on tämä huone. Aamiaiset kuuluu hintaan ja kivasti ikkunasta näkyy vielä ohi kiitävät luotijunat, ei voi valittaa!

Koska tälle illalle ei ...

... back to the bus stop (where we had an 1 hour wait to get back into town). At the bus stop , there was a shop selling all types of local foodstuffs (which you can try if you are hungry), these are very common in Japan. We were hungry so to fill our stomachs we pretended we were interested in each product, but bought none! In the evening , we found the only restaurant in town that ...

... really enjoy. Unfortunately this continued for breakfast where we got the same smelly fish as in the first ryokan. I think that will probably be our last ryokan even though overall we really enjoyed it, the food is just not easy for a non-Japanese. Though it must be mentioned that it is beautfiully presented, as you will see from the photos that we took. Overall, we give this ryokan a thumbs up, mostly because of its wonderful onsen. Next stop - Tottori!

... but end of the end, I decided to return to Oregon so I can watch the Beaver games in person. I will catch the night bus to Osaka and then fly to Thailand on Thursday morning. Maybe it hasn't sunk in yet as I still have a lot of things to do before I go but I will soon be in the land of smiles with the temperature in the 90's (30's C), a big differnce of freezing weather and snow of Tottori. Let the journey begin!

It is the night before I begin the first leg of my trip and I am not packed yet. I am waiting my clothes to dry before I pack them away. The other day I bought all the train tickets from Tottori to Kyushu, around Kyushu, Nagasaki to Tokyo and finally Tokyo to Osaka before arriving back in Tottori on January 2nd. It cost a bit but I think I saved some money by buying everything ahead of time ...

Greetings to the first entry of my big trip. It is ten days before I start the first leg of my trip to Kyushu. It will be my second visit to Kyushu as the first one was in 1995. I am planning to go to Fukuoka and then head to Yufuin in Oita prefecture and then contrinue down to Kagoshima and onto Nagasaki. The trip is part of the plan to visit all the prefectures in Japan which will be down to 1 after the trip leaving only Fukui..

... into a beautiful ryokan for a couple of nights. I`ve stayed in some lovely traditional places of late, and as this one had normal pillows as opposed to the beanbag ones, it was a winner in my book... Still in geisha mode after my encounter in Kyoto, I went for a stroll to the old Higashi district of the city in the evening. The narrow streets here date back to the 19th century, a time when the geishas would entertain their wealthy clients ...

... can you help it when your whole life is surrounded by music!? It's great! :) Living in Japan has been interesting lately. Yesterday and today we had our last bit of job orientation at the government building. It was nice to get away from our everyday school routine (seeing as how we're not yet teaching) and as always, it was great to hang out with other JETs and listen to 2nd and 3rd year JETs' stories about life. Seeing as ...

8-17-2006 Thursday Ahhh...it's nice to be back in my apartment again. :) Today after school, Zach and I took a train to Kyoto (the pictures actually correspond this time!). My favorite moment on that ride was when I looked away from the window as another train was passing by. "Ah! I get really car sick." I told Zach. "Oh, you do?" he asked, seemingly concerned. And then he started bobbing his head and body around in attempts of worsening my motion sickness. Hahaha! THAT DORK ...