Ryokan Sueyoshi Beppu

... 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.

... left out on a table for the taking.
There were huge barrels of shochu that smelled of sweet liquor, some almost as old as I am.

The walking tour then took us to the Inaba family villa, which was the former estate of the Usuki Clan heads during the Edo period. The garden was magnificient and it was a rare chance to walk through a traditional Japanese house of luxury. Luxury in the Japanese sense being total simplicity. Bare of any furnishings the house was ...

... center are places to enjoy water activites. You can probably get to the the Yabakei "Aqua Park" (097-954-2655) by bicycle. It is open year round for water-skiing and wakeboarding but as it is one of the few spots in Japan to do this the reservations were booked for the weekend. We stopped by anyway and they let us ride on the boat so we got to see locals doing wakeboarding up close. They were pretty goood. The West Japan Open ...

... envelope as well as include supporting material. It is aspects such as this that makes hiring a professional translation service so advisable. Not only will they make an accurate translation of your CV and cover letter but they can provide additional information in regards formats and conventions of the specific country you are trying to get a job in. Use A Professional Translation Service To Translate Your CV - Make the right ...

... by mountains). I rode for 2 hours and then realised I was lost, and so I kept on going up. After 3 hours in the hot muggy heat I was dry heaving! Too many nights of drinking. I eventually called quits and took the down hill slope all the way back
to the center of the city.

I got Naked and Buried in Sand

After my long bike ride, I decided to bite the bullet and try out one of these Onsen thingies. Deep down I was terrified of getting ...

... to fly by the seat of your pants if you're traveling with friends, but not when you're leading a group of high school students in a foreign country...

So that group, got up the top, complained bitterly about the cold (ah, teenage angst) and left back down the cablecar like 15 minutes later. I had met a Frenchman on the bus up by the name of Matthieu and we both agreed instead of going back down immediately, we should hike around the area hoping for some better ...

... on the big fellow yet. It's on my to-do list, really. He plays for the Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix (say that 3 times real fast!) of the Basketball Japan League. Teammates often call him Ming Ming or Sun. When he dunks the ball, it feels as if the entire floor is shaking. He mostly lumbers down the floor, but has a soft shooting touch.

... left the country before decided to up-root and live in Asia until further notice. He has worked here at the hostel for most of February and next month moves on to Korea to take up a teaching post. Between baths I was huffing and puffing, tired of the small collection of tracks on my iPod - 6 months and only 500 songs! Seth has iTunes on his laptop and offered to add some more tunes to my iPod. That was at 5pm... I haven't seen him, his laptop or my iPod since...

... called sopurando (soapland) which means soap bath in Japanese, the varying prices and times, are for different kinds of baths and the sexual services they include. I had almost guessed as much, but since prostitution is illegal in Japan I wasn't sure. That doesn't bother anyone though, and as long as there is no trouble, the police look the other way. That it for today, no video, there just wasn't anything interesting enough. I'm sure that will change tomorrow when I head towards Himeji.