Hotel Sunroute Sasebo

... at hand as those buggers attack you especially in the night. I was going to add Top 3 of Dont's but all I can think of now is that Do not tip as it is not the custom here and may get you in awkward situation :). Tomorrow we are taking the plane to Sydney so new country with new adventures are ahead. As much as I love Japan it will be amazing to be able to read for example menus again and use actual words and not pointing all the time :) Japan, we will miss you!!!

... in Sasebo, and that we are due to check out of this hotel in 9 hours time (it is now 1:50am on Tuesday morning), and catch the train to Himeji, where we have another hotel booking. DAMMIT! It is going to be difficult to stay in 2 cities at the same time!!! So I gather up my receipts and my original booking for 3 nights and trekked downstairs to reception, to try to rectify this whole mess. The guy on the desk ...

... is that the air conditioning is bordering on non-existent. Veronica says that the old mantra from the Sisters was that "it builds character". I'm not sure about that, but all I know is that every room that we went into in that school was damn hot. And this wasn't one of the hotter days. After the tour we joined the senior Sister, Sister Hiro (standing in the group photo) for drinks and a chance for Veronica to catch up on all of the information about ...

... he was very friendly, and did his best with what little english he knew. We firstly headed through the town, accompanied by an audio track highlighting interesting buildings and sights, and throwing in tidbits of Sasebo information and history along the way. When we arrived at the Sasebo Naval museum we were were introduced to a museum curator/tour guide. He also knew a sparing amount of English, but enough for me to understand what he was talking ...

... dont care. After dinner we returned to the room to do skype calls to both sets of parents, before bathing the girls in the pool tub and putting them to bed. Unsure what is on the menu for tomorrow. Perhaps we will go to Huis Ten Bosche for the day if the weather looks good. Monday is booked already with the high school visit, and if possible, Tuesday may be a 99 islands cruise, although we have had reports of bad weather and wind which may put a dampener on those plans.

Hallo zusammen, hatte genug Zeit in Nagasaki um meinen Rail Pass noch einmal zu nutzen und bin nach Huis Ten Bosch gefahren. Dort haben die Japaner Holland nachgebaut, treu dem japanischen Motto, kopiere das Original, aber mache es besser. Holland ist dort hollaendischer als Holland ...

... car up to a peak that has a nice view of the city. There were some nice temples in the town. I particularly like the way they used the bamboo at this temple as a flower holder. There was also a river through the center of the town. There were lots of old stone bridges across it. This one is called Spectacle Bridge-get it?!

... at mainly temples, there's not much to tell, the pictures says it all. Yesterday I sent a mail to Mr Yasumasa, thanking him for a great night, and inviting him out tonight for a meal to repay his kindness. To my great surprise, he called me and told me he would be delighted to have dinner with me, so were meeting up in the same area we went out at two nights ago. Watch this space! VideoBlog

... thought I was very brave to come to such a place on my own. I was offered to drink a glass of Sake with them, and had the best Sake I have ever tasted. After that we moved on to drink Shochu, a Japanese spirit brewed on potatoes, it's poured in a tall glass over ice and mixed 50/50 with water. As the conversation developed, we got talking about what specialties you eat in Japan and Denmark. One of the things that Japan is often criticised for ...

... in the days after the bomb, and one of the strongest an most lasting memories of the relief workers, were the victims desperate pleas for water. Again it has been an emotional day. But it has been funny to see, that Japanese school children, who are in general very polite and well behaved, can still forget themselves and fool around in a place as serious as the Atomic-Bomb museum. Today's Video: VideoBlog