Hotel Hokke Club Fukuoka

... The next morning I wandered the side streets and lanes, and found myself at Yusida Shrine, welcomed by a Nandi on the left (later learned there is also a sacred cow/patron god in Shinto)

Then to the blast of the main streets, and ticket on to Yufuin. (I fly out of FUK, so will explore more of the city when I return).

... like? I have no friggin' idea. I've been trying to research it on the internet but have come up with very little as to what kind of life we'll be living there. Which is one of the reasons I've decided to revive the travel blog and maybe somewhere down the line, someone else is moving to Salalah and will actually have some idea of what it's like before they get there. Here's hoping it's good!

-M

... for museums or exhibition halls in Tokyo the first week I arrived. Didn't find anything! I'm sure I must have just missed them somehow. Then in Osaka I heard about a robot place in Nagoya, but I'd already passed that town by and was nearing the end of my trip, so backtracking didn't fit the circumstances. Somewhat reluctantly, I resigned myself to not getting to see any of the famous Japanese robots... at least not on THIS trip, I consoled myself.

Then I saw it ...

... it's suffered from decline from its glory days as a cruise ship port, and there has been a major investment in public improvements. It probably needs a few factory outlet stores to fill up some of the remaining vacant old buildings. But even as-is, this is a community that deserves a visit!

I did not have time to visit Cha Cha Town, a shopping center in Kokura, another community that's part of Kitakyushu ...

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 ...

Fukuoka-

Fukuoka can be and is a very fun place for Gaijin like myself. When I first got off the bus in Fukuoka, at about 1pm, I decided to walk around and look through some of the stores. I found an arcade with two floors of arcade games and two floors of casino type games. It was pretty neat in the casino part of the building, where they had computerized horse racing, which was the big hit with the older ...

... and coffee), but in Japan there are vending machines e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e! According to the Lonely Planet there are more than 6 million vending machines in Tokyo alone! But because it was very hot and humid most of the time in Japan (apart from the last few days), this came in very handy as well (and it was not too expensive). Talking about prices, Japan was less expensive than I expected or than people told me it would be. My most expensive lodging was 20 euro (I ...

Landed in Fukuoka on the southern island of Kyushu at the beginning of their Yamakasa festival--where a lot of men bear huge floats on their shoulders wearing sumo-like loin clothes. Many bare bums to be seen. The floats are very colourful and depict local legends. After two days, I boarded a Shinkansen(bullet train)and sped my way to Hiroshima.

... who seemed down on their luck. Overall the castle was a lonely and forlorn place. After not seeing a single raven up to that point we spotted a few dozen in the castle grounds, and they sent up foreboding caws in the otherwise silent courtyard. We only passed three people, all of them alone, silent and brooding. One of them was a student sitting at the castle's highest point. He didn't even react when Josh and I came up to have a look around. I guess that the ruins are a good place ...

... beans. After I tried some, I decided I would like to buy it, but quite like Suzanna would have done, my friend pulled me away and told me we could come back later, after we did a round. Actually, we never returned, and even in the days following I found many much more delicious things that were not sweets, that I have lost much of my interest in the sweets. I am thankful to my friend for preventing me ...