Hotel Kowakuen Matsuyama

I found a decent ticket back to Hiroshima, with layovers in Tokyo so I flew back for a week. I didn't have much time in Tokyo but saw two good friends going in and out of Japan. Hiroshima was nice and relaxing. My mom failed to tell me it was my Gramps 87th birthday but I flew in just in time...I suppose I should be keeping track of birthdays myself. For his birthday, I got to see most of my Japanese family so ...

... weren't quite as impressed, being used to the vibrant fall colours of the east coast, but generally the consensus was "wow!"<br><br>From the top of the rope-way there was a probably 15-20 minute leisurely hike to Joju a beautiful and quaint settlement nestled in the mountains around Ishizuchi. We decided this would be a good time to stop for ice cream, so we all took a few minutes to enjoy some very delicious soft-serve from a local vendor.<br><br>After riding to ...

This weekend saw quite an impressive ( though sometimes annoying ) Autumn Festival here in Hojo.<br><br>The festival basically consists of many many Hojo residence, getting together and building these strange portable shrines and carrying them around town banging on bells and drums as loud as they can all day and all night, dressed in traditional Japanese clothing and getting really really drunk. All culminating in a spectacular event of throwing ...

... mais avec les toits recourbés. Je me suis basé sur 2 jours par ville sur cette île, je vais devenir pointu en temple. Je vous préviens, à mon retour, j'organise un séminaire et vous êtes cordialement voir fortement convié à participer pendant les 500 photos des temples. Rien que dans cette ville, j'ai bien du faire 10 temples. Un truc à savoir dans les temples, c'est qu'il faut se purifier. Il ...

... 24th. The whole gaining back a day thing weirds me out when I fly East. I met up with some of Ashleigh's co-workers and we went out for pasta and karaoke. We sang bad xmas songs for a while, and then headed home. I hadn't done karaoke since I was in Tokyo! I was stoked to finally be able to bust out a few songs!! One thing that I did notice was that I do miss everyone back home. I am feeling a little homesick ...

... ve always felt that the American mentality focuses mostly on "if you lie to me, make sure I'll never find out." This isn't the case - if someone is caught lying, they're just considered being polite. I won't say that the Japanese are horrible people, they're really try to be nice people, it's just something I don't want to have to deal with the rest of my life. I'm also basically saying that I don't want to have to change myself in order to conform to this society.

Richard For the trip to Hiroshima I thought that we should try the bento boxes which are as much a part of travelling in Japan as the bullet trains. According to our guidebook each station in Japan has different boxes and takes great pride in them. There are even enthusiasts who travel around trying them all and writing about them. Fiona and I didn't go that far but bought ourselves a box each from the selection at Kôbe station to have on the train. Once on the train we ...

... and pour more hot water over the teapot. This part confused me, but I'm guessing that they did this to heat up the teapot and to seal the teapot's top. She then set the timer. They poured out the water from the cup, waited the prescribed 2 minutes, and then poured the tea into it. I'd never thought of tea taking so long to make, or being such an involved process. but it was definitely a neat look into the tea-o-phile's(like you, Dave) world.

... can actually walk up to the crater. Again the hostel was staggeringly quiet, just a few people there. It was actually closed when we arrived, but the owner said we could leave our bags there. All we really wanted to do was crash out for a while but instead we found ourselves catching the bus up to the information point where there is a 15 minute walk to the top. In the end, it was just as well we went then because the following day it was ...

... tides. The high tide when I arrived had surrounded the main shrine and the torii with water, a situation I deemed normal. But coming down the mountain I found that the tide had gone out, leaving the shrine and torii with water-pocketed soft surface in which people are able to walk out upon! This was great as it allowed me to walk out to the gate and gage its true size. It's massive and the cool thing was all of the local kids came out to go crab and clamshell hunting in the shallow sea bed!