Sutton Place Hotel Hakata Fukuoka

... The next morning I wandered the side streets and lanes, and found myself at Yusida Shrine, welcomed by a Nandi on the left (later learned there is also a sacred cow/patron god in Shinto)

Then to the blast of the main streets, and ticket on to Yufuin. (I fly out of FUK, so will explore more of the city when I return).

... 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.

What is ...

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As I reached the top of the escalator, the place came into view. Robots ahead!...

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ROBOSQUARE ENTRANCE:

Ceiling-length glass displays housed vintage robots. I went right for TMSUK-03 and TMSUK-04 (pronounced, "TIM-SUCK" - insert childish joke here:)

Built in 1998, TMSUK-03 is a short little guy with a big head, two arms with grippers, and two tractor treads for locomotion. It was the world’s first experiment robot controlled remotely by ...

... s support--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!

I did not have time to visit Cha Cha Town, a shopping center in Kokura, another community that's part of ...

... me a bit of that long-neglected hit by Reparata and the Delrons, "Saturday Night Didn't Happen."

Tomorrow is my big hike--I am taking the train to Arita and walking to Hasami, which should be about an hour's walk, maybe longer. Thanks to computer mapping, I have a good map of the route, including the locations of convenience stores along the way. Hasami is a town where there's a company, Hakusan, that makes pottery in modern designs ...

We stayed in Fukuoka for one night as we were getting the Beetle at 9am in the morning from the port here. We knew it was a bit of a party town and had many street stalls so went out in the evening for a wander. We walked for miles but ended up back at the first street stall we saw as it had a good view and seemed busy enough that it was ok to eat in!! Sat down and got noodles as we couldn't decide ...

... our first night in Japan was pure luxury, so maybe it's fitting that we end it a bit more down to earth, but this place was cheap - we had bunk beds !! and our room obviously used to be twice the size and had been split in half with some chip-board. The internet connection was weak - but we still managed to sing Happy Birthday to my Mum on Skype - Happy Birthday Mum !! Tomorrow ... Taiwan !

... see the entire length of the Japan sea coast. It would have been faster if I took a train over the mountains and catch the Shinkansen at Okayama which would probably would cut the travel time in half. The mountain that run down the backbone of western Japan were covered in snow. Daisen,k the tallest mountain in Western Japan had its peak in the clouds. For lunch, I had an Ekiben which means a station box lunch. Sold at train stations and on trains ...

... The next two and a half hours consisted of trying to sort out train tickets for Karashima and to activate our rail passes. We looked at an option that allowed you to travel any where in one day, but only local trains. After booking the tickets, which came in blocks of 5, we found out the trip would take 12 hours, the Shinkansen would take 2 hours. Biting the bullet, we got a refund and bought the Shinkansen ticket. I wish we had got the 3 week JR pass now. That now ...

... And each city is divided into wards "-ku". More about that later. Saga prefecture is famous, as it contains the town of Imari, which is famous for porcelaine the world over. All along we had frequently come very close to the coast, but were driving on cliffs high above the sea. The sea was rough, the waves high. A few miles out, the main island was protected by numerous smaller, rather hilly islands. There was a sand ...