Hotel Arther Beppu

... journey, partly to review my course in Japanese and extract the verbs and vocabulary needed for the tasks of travel, and mostly because I loved this ryokan with its old wooden buildings looking like samurai houses and stone lanterns and paths through plantings, and lit torches at night.

... Temple grounds open from 8:30am to 5pm)

The walking path then takes you to the Three Story Pagoda. I especially enjoyed the road from historical stone path, which is well maintained with the beautiful buildings all left in tact, to the pagoda, where the effects of time are felt on all of the buildings, roads, signs, and vehicles. It was almost if we had descended from the heydey of ancient feudal Japan to post-war Japan. Either way the feeling of nostalgia as we ...

... station, buses leave every 40minutes or so from 730 am to 630pm (get a time table from the Nakatsu station information desk). Take the bus to Kakisaka 柿坂 , it takes about 40minutes. I would suggest getting there before sundown since the cycling center is a short walk from the bus stop (probably about 10mintues) but the country roads could be confusing. Calling the cycling terminal and asking someone to pick you up might ...

... called for an interview. Remember this is your personal marketing document we are taking about; it needs to stand out from the crowd for all the right reasons. So if you are applying for a job outside of a country with your native tongue, it is important that you seek professional help for the translation of your CV. Even if you have a relatively good grasp of a language it still comes highly advisable that you hire a professional ...

... I wouldn't want to get naked with anyone I know in the slightest....

I watched Rocky

Now in Fukuoka I happened to watch the most recent Rocky “Rocky Balboa” made with a couple of die hard fans. I thought that would be the end of watching Rocky in Japan. Little did I know was that the guy who worked at the hostel in Beppu was a big fan of Rocky. We stayed up late watching the first Rocky and then on the next night I watched ...

... of Aso, so we took off to scale the tallest of the peaks in the region, Naka-dake. After about 1.5 hours we reached what was essentially the top, no mean feat given the gusty winds and the loose rocks underfoot. However, we made it up and the view was utterly amazing--this is probably what keeps those crazy climbers excited about hiking up ridiculously challenging mountains. The views were great and you felt like you were on top of the world. In reality the climb wasn't too ...

Sun Ming Ming is the tallest human being I have ever seen. The Chinese center is 236 cm (7 foot, 9 inches) tall. He is shy and soft-spoken and doesn't seem particularly interested in doing interviews with sports writers. But I've been happy to have my chance to chat with him twice in English this season. Still haven't written the "big ...

... one I think, mats and low tables aside from the lone-eater counter. There was a tank of half-dead fugu fish floating upside down (maybe they are supposed to do that?) and at the end of the bar was a beautiful lady is traditional get-up: kimono with the scoop neck at the back, those lacquered flip-flops with white socks and puffy hair with sticks in it. She was sitting with an older man with a bad dye job and no teeth. I guessed she must have been ...

... Onsen after trudging around town for about 1.5 hours trying to find one that was open (they had an Onsen festival the weekend before and it seems many had closed the time we were there!) Anyway we eventually went to one of the most popular ones in town that had separate male and female rooms. We chose a dual pool Onsen that means they have 2 pools of different temperatures in the onsen room. A quick run down for those that don't know is that onsens are a communal ...

... main tourist zone at the top sits on the edge of a gorgeous meadow. Mayu and I stayed on the bus until the cable car station at the foot of Naka-dake, but opted to hike the relatively short walk to the top rather than shell out ¥800 round-trip. Until we had gotten close to the crater proper, the weather had been clear and beautiful. As we edged closer though, the sky grew much cloudier and the fumes belching forth from Naka-dake only seemed to contribute to ...