Richmond Hotel Miyazaki Station-Side

... 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 ...

... anything to go by. DJ events, Live bands, Ladies Nights, Quiz Events and even Fish & Chips on the menu, its just like stepping back into a bar at home for a few hours, except that there are a great diverse crew of people there from all over the world who can give you the rundown on almost anything and everything thats happening around town. I was only in there for two nights but i really felt like a local with ...

... to turn it off. We just couldn't figure that one out so I went to the rental guy with my electronic translator in hand. I can only translate one word at a time so when I came in and announced emergency he got all excited. Good thing I type fast. When he figured out what I meant we all had a good laugh! Spent a couple of days touring around Kirishima Japan and enjoying a wonderful onsen. Hot spas every day and good food in ...

... it does feel to be back. I though there might be an overwhelming wave of emotion on being back in Boulder or going back to my parents house in Madison for Thanksgiving. But actually, it feels quite nice to be back in familiar places with familiar customs. Unlike our whole trip, I know where the grocery store is and I'm pretty sure I'm not offending anyone by wearing shoes in my parents church. It's good to be home ...

... 42 weeks and 15 countries we have reached the end of our little bicycle adventure. We are flying back to Boulder CO where my aunt and uncle have stored our "not in the storage unit" stuff (thank you!). We will be celebrating Thanksgiving with my family in Wisconsin then packing up the car and driving from Boulder to Seattle where we look forward to getting jobs so we can start saving money to go on another adventure!

... whom we shall call Gen, because that is his name, had passed us a half hour earlier and thought "gee, tourists never use these back roads, they look miserable, and are probably in big trouble even if they don't know it yet". He then went home, got the van from his work, and came back up to find us. He spoke some English, and his lovely wife Maya spoke a bit more. They gave us a ride the entire 30km to Beppu, and it was quite dark by the time we got there by car - bicycle ...

Mushi Mushi (How the Japanese answer the phone), I`m very open to experiencing new things, but I would LOVE a meal without some sort of fish product. My stomach is rebelling from my new Japanese diet and my appetite is almost completely gone. I`m eating about as much as Meghan or Oliver in a given day. Today was my first vocational ...

... 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!