Kujuu Nishitetsu Hotel Hanasansui Kokonoe-machi

... journey, partly to review my course in Japanese and extract the verbs and vocabulary needed for the tasks of travel, and mostly because I loved this ryokan with its old wooden buildings looking like samurai houses and stone lanterns and paths through plantings, and lit torches at night.

Kizantei Hotel is located just about a 15 minute walk from Hita Station. Accessible by JR train from Fukuoka or Oita. From Hita Station to the hotel you will walk through Kuma Town, which is a charming area that takes you back in time with the old shops and tile rooftops. The opposite side of the station also leads you to Mameda Town which is also a back-in-time town with other tourist attractions such as the Gion Matsuri Museum where you can see ...

... Ski Tournament is held here in the fall. But dont let the word "Aqua Park" fool you. Its basically just a floating raft on the water where local surfer types hang out. They all seemed pretty absorbed in getting their own turn at wakeboarding that it would be really hard for a someone just passing by to get a real chance without a reservation. Plus at 3000yen ($30 for 15minutes) its not exactly a once in a lifetime opportunity. Im ...

... razon, al crater se le llama el "bol de arroz". Esta totalmente cubierto de cesped y tiene una altura de 954 metros.
El autobus nos dejo en una explanada llena de tiendas de souvenirs, desde donde se podia coger un funicular, pagando 400 yens, hasta la cima de Nakadake. Mi guia decia que se podia subir andando, en unos 20 minutos, asi que optamos por esa opcion, para estirar las piernas y con un poco se suerte fortalecerlas.
En la subida las vistas eran ...

... Eso si, teniamos el hostal para nosotras solas, siendo las unicas huespedes.
Nos sentamos un ratillo en la terracita a disfrutar de la brisa -necesario despues de haber estado cargando con las peazo mochilas. Las tiendas cerraban pronto, asi que nos dirigimos a Lawson a comprar la cena. Por el camino nos fijamos mejor en el paisaje. Uno de los volcanes estaba humeando y las montanas, que ahora se veian claramente con el sol del atardecer, tenian un ...

... fluently but follows unwritten rules within a particular country, but what exactly is meant by this? Throughout the globe there are many national differences that crop up about how a resume should be written and presented, so if you want yours to be taken seriously you need to take on board these unwritten rules. For example in Germany, folding your resume to fit in an envelope is out of the question. Instead you need to use an ...

Beppu

After an exhausting few days at Fukuoka, I decided to head to a more relaxed sort of place. I headed to Beppu, which is basically a touristy sort of town/city built on hot springs. When I first go to Beppu, I wondered why I had came for. It seemed a place for couples. Not really a place to meet people. Not because the place was bad in anyway. It was more that, the thing to do in Beppu is go to Onsens (public baths) and to do that you have to get ...

... Having been in Japan for a week and being used to the communal bath facilities, the onsen experience was totally fine. I think if Americans every get over their conservativeness about their bodies, they'd enjoy the experience of soaking for long periods of time in hot water. The draw of this spa was the slightly alkaline water which was supposed to be good for arthritic and muscle aches, which was appropriate given the day I had.

After about 1-2 hours of ...

... quickly and made "like a fish" back to the main path. Unfortunately the town is that small that there is only 1 restaurant which remained closed all day. That night - despite staying in a relatively expensive Ryokan, recently refurbished with all mod cons - we ended up eating pot noodles from the garage down the road - talk about reining the budget in!! Great place to spend a couple of days though having the ability to cook would have helped.

Sun Ming Ming is the tallest human being I have ever seen. The Chinese center is 236 cm (7 foot, 9 inches) tall. He is shy and soft-spoken and doesn't seem particularly interested in doing interviews with sports writers. But I've been happy to have my chance to chat with him twice in English this season. Still haven't written the "big ...