Marine Hotel Shinkan Fukuoka

... all the stuff we didn't carry in backpacks for the last 8 months so here we are, unpacking and repacking boxes, and shifting our necessary items to suitcases to bring with us to Oman... which is, tomorrow! Yep, our flights have been booked and tomorrow we leave Japan to fly all the way to Muscat, where we're staying for a couple days until we do the short jump to Salalah our new home. <br><br>What is ...

... the little ad said at the bottom of the 'NOW Fukuoka' guide map I picked up in Hiroshima. I inquired at the Information Center upon arriving at the train station in Fukuoka... my LAST stop in Japan; my LAST DAY in Japan!<br><br>"It's open till 6 pm tonight," the assistant informed me.<br><br>I checked the time. It was not even 2 pm yet.<br><br>"I can make it to the hostel, catch a bus, and get there with several hours to spare," I thought to myself excitedly. "I might actually get ...

... it's suffered from decline from its glory days as a cruise ship port, and there has been a major investment in public improvements. It probably needs a few factory outlet stores to fill up some of the remaining vacant old buildings. But even as-is, this is a community that deserves a visit! <br><br>I did not have time to visit Cha Cha Town, a shopping center in Kokura, another community that's part of Kitakyushu ...

... I saw some Hakusan bowls at the Nagasaki Prefecure's store. A year ago, I saw more at the Ceramic Wholesalers' Plaza in Aria. This year, I was determined to go to the Hakkusan Factory Store in Hasami, which has no railroad station. Wih the help of www.diddlefinger.com, I was able to make a map of the route to Hakusan from the nearest train station, which is in Arita. The walk took 2 hours in each direction, but everything on display at ...

... to try, but even after eating we knew it was fish but that was as far as it went!! One of the Japanese eating at the stall offered us some of his gyoza (little parcels of chicken) and we enjoyed it so much that we ordered some of our own - we weren't expecting about 10!!! Absolutely stuffed and it ended up being the most expensive meal in Japan, ironic as it was a street stall, but the ...

... I remember being more mature in my younger years. Maybe I am making up for many Saturday nights of not drinking, Anyway..... I think I have made up enough now, Going to take it easy for the rest of Japan. Going to stay away from the very beautiful yet crazy Japanese women (will have to walk around with my eyes closed), the weird guys who like to High five me and tell me I'm handsome......... and just relax for the next week....<br><br><br><br><br><br>

... in Italia (almeno quelli della mia eta') hanno trascorso mezza infazia guardando cartoni animati giapponesi. Ogni volta che ne citavo qualcuno (tipo Mazinga, Holly &amp; Benji, Mila &amp; Shiro, etc. - anche se alcuni di questi hanno titoli diversi in Giappone) la reazione era la solita esclamazione di stupore giapponese: "Eeeeeehhhh??!!!". In stanza con me c'e' un tizio spagnolo, Victor, ed e' decisamente divertente parlare in una sorta di intruglio di inglese, spagnolo e ...

... it`s aimlessly wandering around the big cities here, surrounded by neon lights and usually listening to the Arctic Monkeys at full blast on my minidisc player...what a buzz! I must have spent a few hours in the Tenjin area alone, just browsing around the huge department stores and wandering the streets, barely seeing another gaijin (which was nice). It was noticeably warmer than it had been on Honshu, so I was able to stroll around in a t ...

... ferry terminal instead. We took a taxi over to the Korean consulate to pick up Josh's visa. He said that now at least I could travel a lot, and that if I did so cheaply enough I could probably see Japan and China as well as Korea on the refunded money. I said yeah, but in my mind and heart I wasn't so sure. It sounded good, and I'd hate to waste the opportunity. Still, my heart just isn't in it, hasn't been in this trip from the start, and I can't seem to will it to be. We picked up ...

... 14 days. The system of using the card is similar to that in Paris. At each subway stop, their are toll gates, through which one could only enter by feeding the coupon into the system and retrieving it once the toll gate was passed. Similarly, upon leaving the station, one had to feed it into the system and the system determined the charge upon exit. There was no such thing as jumping the toll gate as is common in America and Europe ...