Sleep Inn Kurashiki

... singer and two or more backup singers who would contribute those crucial syllables. (If you notice on the recent PBS Motown revival shows, they typically increase the number of backup singers to cover up the loss of volume in the aging lead singer's voice, but that's another story.) Anyway, I suddenly felt the connection between the shop employees' chanting and the Supremes!

Checking out, ten minutes before closing time, with a ...

... the only visitor there, and hopefully this is because it's a weekday, because it was surprisingly interesting. I though they were the fold out fans, but these require splitting a single bamboo stalk into dozens of spines that then get fanned out and tied with thread. Then papered over with decorative rice paper or fabric. After Marugame, got to Takamatsu in the late afternoon, intending to spend the time until dark in ...

... to climb to the top of Kompira-san in about 1 hour. Way easier than Misen mountain. The shrine is dedicated to seafarers and actually has a hall of pictures of boats blessed there, including a donated sailboat. I'm staying at a ryokan, which was quite nice on the river in the midst of all the action. Dinner was maybe less impressive than in Tsuwano, but good nonetheless (tempura, sashimi, hot pot, grilled salmon). The best part maybe was meeting a middle aged ...

... famous Itsukushima shrine behind it, I found those sights somewhat overrated, especially as the shrine was a bit empty of iconography or statuary etc, but packed with tons of tourists. And the surrounding town is basically a bonanza of souvenir shops overpriced snack stands. Fun to browse around, but since I can't really buy anything as I have to lug it around with me for the next month, a few minutes per shop was all I needed.

Aside from Itsukushima shrine, there ...

Kotohira-gu Shrine In Kagawa is one of the largest shrines in Japan, also known as Konpira-san. My Japanese friends told me Japanese should visit it at least one in their life time. My husband and me went there on the New Year day and drove from Okayama-Ken.We also pass the world's longest two-tiered bridge system -Seto-Ohashi Bridge. It was nice to drive aound ...

... the 24th of November all of us 'KUINEP Kids' settled into our special tour bus. The sympathetic staff from the FSD held a quick introduction speech and really it was not much different from the school trips we used to have when we where......11. Nostalgic memories aside the trip was very, very nice (kudo's to FSD!) . Our first stop was Himeji-jo (attentive readers might realize that I already visited this castle however ...

... veramente da buttare via , non ho idea al momento di quanti km sono ma so molto bene che ho solo guidato nel traffico di quelli da esodo tutte queste citta` e o paesi che ho nominato sono coesi fra loro non c`e` un pezzo di terra libero che ti fa capire che stai lasciando un posto per un`altro.

... which are segregated for men and women as usual. It was not a particularly elaborate onsen, but it was quite nice. The dinner there was however nothing but brilliant. It consisted of a series of courses all brought to us in our room. The lady who served us was really sweet and friendly, and we kept saying to ourselves after each dish - that has to be the last course! We started with a selection of vegetables and various fish ...

... Ohara Keisaburo, 1880-1943, Japan war ja schon um 1900 industrialisiert) der einiges an Kunst in Europa aufgekauft hat und der eines der ersten Kunstmuseen Japans mit seiner Sammlung (El Greco, Gauguin, Monet, ***************o, Kadinsky, Rodin, Cezanne, Toulouse-Lautrec, El Greco, ausserdem auch einige sehr alte (2000 Jahre) chinesische Porzellan- und Bronzestuecke) gruendete. Gruss Ralf

... the next day (reading Japanese is NOT easy) to find out. It ended up with the Lions winning, gaining one run in the last inning. We jumped on the subway and went home, with a stop at the ATM before getting on the portliner. Day 4: Thursday, April 14th. Today I slept in again, although I did get up for breakfast, then came back to bed for awhile. I got on the portliner in the opposite direction to get to Port Island. There I went to the Coffee Museum, which was all in ...