Hotel Sunlight Miyazaki

... wir noch etwas den Strand runter gegangen．Aber da nicht hohe wellen waren, waren kaum _Surfer dort. Alles in allem schaute es aus wie in Hawaii...war zwar noch nie dort aber so schaut das sicher aus. Der nette alte Herr von der Strandkoerbchen vermietung ist uns dann noch nachgerannt und hat uns jeden einen keks gegeben. Auf den nach hause weg im }Zug haben wir mit aelteren Frauen gequatscht und die haben uns auch so eine art Keks gegeben ...

I spent a great couple of nights last weekend at THE BAR. Its a bar in Miyazaki above the Pauls Smith Clothes shop not far from the main Miyazaki Station.�@The owner, Sean, from New Zealand has a great little establishment there. Its only been open for less than a year but its the night spot of choice for all the foreign community in town and most of the Japanese people too if the crowd on Friday and Saturday nights ...

So what do emergency brakes and a rental car have in common? It turns out you can't set the GPS on the rental car if the emergency brake isn't on. Try to figure out that one when all the instructions are in Japanese!! And then... try to find the emergency brake. When we first rented the little car we got the key turned... engine on.... controls figured out... and then ... whumph... you can't move when the brake is on so ...

... that so much of what we are able to do today is due to things that are our of our control. Of course as happy as I am to be home there are aspects of our trip that I will miss. We got to see new things and new people every day, you can't say that for cube life! We got to see how they grow crops from Tanzania to Japan. We got to see what school's look like from Malawi to Nepal. We got to see religious customs ...

... into the 1.5 of daylight a guy pulls up in his extra large van (quite unusual for this part of the world, they all drive tiny cars and trucks) and asks if we could use a lift. Yes, please! After loading our junk in the back of his van, he explains that earlier he saw us grinding up yet another hill and though, "Gee, they are quite far from any hotels and I hope they aren't planing on camping in this rain." so ...

... there to be a camping area, so confidence in having a destination increases. Across rolling hills, getting very dark, and of course, the question of whether the camp site is really open. 5.5km later we find the turn (we can read the Kanji for camping now at least), and apparently, judging by the very interesting signs, there is a bug zoo / farm between us and the camp site. lovely. Lots of really big pictures of really big bugs. Japan hasn't had many bugs so far ...

... were extremely proud to walk me around the factory. Several young Japanese girls were following us around the factory taking pictures and getting us tea and coffee. Needless to say, the male dominated society is different, but I`m enjoying myself! :) I`m exhausted and going out to dinner tonight which probably means more karaoke. Peace.

... the highest suspension bridge in the world and taken a museum tour. All of this while defiling myself every night trying to keep up with the Japanese tradition of filling your beer, sochu or sake glass before you finish your last. UNREAL. Every bar has a karoke machine that is well used. Tonight, I will perfect the phrase, E Eh Kedo des, which means no-thank you. They don`t take no easily and usually I give in first. More Later.

... at themselves, they point to their nose. After several tense moments of conversation I figured out that everyone was not telling me that I had a big nose, but they were trying to tell me about themselves! My humor is hard to translate here. One of the translators was a fashion designer. I asked her if she could design a shirt that could me lose 10 pounds. She didn't laugh and said she would bring me a shirt later. . . Maybe she can! Have to run!

... 20 hours. I noticed that during my trip through customs in Nigoya that the further I moved passed immigration the less English everyone knew. The ticketing ladies knew less than the custom officials, the baggage check-in people knew less than the ticketing people and so on. It finally ended with me nodding my head and forgetting all the Japanese I had learned over the last few months. I guess there is something to be said for stage fright!