Hotel Sakyu Center Tottori

We arrived in Osaka at 7am after two 7 hour flights and a 3 hour stopover in KL... what is sleep again?
The excitement of being in Japan kept us going all day though, and we managed to fit in a visit to Osaka castle, surrounded by deciduous trees in all beautiful shades of yellow and red (even Bevan thought it was pretty). We also visited Amerika Mura, the square to sit in and ...

... which is a well-journeyed train as you can see from the picture below. I wouldn't say that it is a particularly comfortable train, but its retro-flavor will make you feel like you have slipped back into the good old days.

So, what is it exactly that makes Tajima beef so good?

According to Mr. Okamoto, one of the workers at the ranch, its superb and distinctive regional bloodlines passed down for many years are the primary reason for the excellence of Tajima beef ...

... an English menu, and ate there. It was a nice dinner, a few bits of sashimi, some edamame beans, some yakitori etc. We headed back to our hotel through the constant rain to our hotel. Tottori is a fairly nondescript town and we were there on Sunday which meant that many shops were closed, which made it even more boring and provincial. It kind of reminded me of Slough in its pure drabness.

... Our food however was not the easiest meal we have both ever eaten. We are quite adventurous eaters, even Daniella as she is a bit new to eating fish, there were just some really weird foodstuffs put in front of us here. Some we could not decipher what on earth they are, just that they came from the sea and dont taste that good. We enjoyed our old favourites such as sashimi, tempura , beef and crab, but there were just too many things we did ...

Sorry for not putting up any new entry but I have been busy packing up all my things to ship back to Oregon. It is interesting to realize how much stuff I have collected over the last six and half years. Lots of CDs, books, videos, clothing and lots of paper and pictures. I also realize that the 3 plus years in Tottori is the longest period of time I have spent in the same place (apartment, house, or room) since I ...

... I The trip plan: 1st Leg - Kyushu December 17 - Tottori to Fukuoka by Super Oki and Kodama shinkansen. - Stay in Fukuoka December 18 - Fukuoka to Yufuin - stay in Ryokan December 19 - Yufuin to Kagoshima - stay in Kagoshima December 20 - Kagoshima to Nagasaki - take the Kyushu shinkansen December 21 - Nagasaki to Tokyo - take the Nozomi shinkansen from Hakata to Tokyo 5 hours straight 2nd ...

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..

... it was eerie walking around in the dark as the whole area was completely deserted. It was already apparent that Kanazawa was a more condensed, less touristy version of Kyoto, and I had a good feeling about the place... It was another scorcher the next day, perfect weather for a leisurely stroll around what many believe is the most impressive garden in Japan, namely Kenroku-en. Like Ritsurin-koen in Takamatsu, this one had many picturesque ...

... we're all from different countries, someone always manages to say something that makes the rest of us laugh. Today it was a girl from Ireland. She was talking about a sports weekend we'll be having in a few weeks. "It'll be great," she said. "We'll have karaoke and water sports and a bit of crack." A bit of crack!? Hahaha! Of course, she meant a bit of FUN, but we didn't know! I guess that's how they say it in her country. :) I ...

... The original intent for our trip was to withdraw some money from Zach's account back in Michigan, and Kyoto had the cloest international bank. We ended up roaming around the streets looking at stuff, and it was really neat! We began to play this game of Where's Waldo with the other foreigners (gaijin). :) It was so exciting to see them, escpecially since there aren't many where Zach and I are living. The two most common places people seemed to be from were Germany and France.