Yamabikosou Daisen-cho

... Nagano, Akita, Kamakura, Kanazawa, did not use this blackened wood.
Imai-cho is a bit like Hagi, in that, it is a living, breathing town. It is not just a collection of touristy cafes and souvenier shops.

Not touristy at ...

Getting off the tourist trail means two things in Japan. 1) Its going to be expensive. 2) Its going to be worth it. With that in mind I headed up to Matsue, a place where no backpackers really go, or anyone else for that matter and as such, there are no hostels. I didn't see any other westerners for the three days I was there. As there were no hostels, I was forced to stay in the next step up, which in this case, was a business hotel ...

... Britain`s without being anywhere near as good.) The museum and gardens were quite good, my favorite was seeing all the different Japanese gardens. These are very different to Englsih gardens, as they are ornamental ie you do not actually walk on the gardens just look at them from the inside of the building. There is a lot of attention to detail spent on the arranging of all the different features of the garden e.g trees, rocks, plants and water ...

... drop in on the way north. When we arrived back at the station, we called the hotel so as they could come and pick us up from the station. Unfortunately, we had a few language problems and thought he was saying "Hard Street" when he was actually saying "Heart In", so we were waiting for about 20 minutes at the wrong place when we managed to actually find each other. The inn was very simple but the couple who ran it were ...

We climbed the extinct volcano of Daisen today. Nearly 3 hours up and a punishing 2 hours down. Sadly it was very misty and drizzley so we saw very little except a few pleasant locals that we passed on the way. I don't think they get very many foreigners in these parts. Legs hurt now.

... trying to win his love. It was a HILARIOUS skit, considering 4 of the 5 boys had to play females! The last 3 hours of school consisted of Jenna & I having the school lunch and walking around for her to show me the different classrooms. We found some random, useless doors that we joked about for a bit. I think we were delirious from the heat. We rode home and stopped at SATY again on the way. I picked up some authentic Japanese ...

... out songs. I have a love/hate relationship with karaoke. I have never sung before...until tonight! Romen was able to talk me into singing some songs & I barely got through Green Day's Basketcase, Aqua's Barbie Girl [so cliche!], Wham!'s Jitterbug, Outkast's Hey Ya!, Gwen Stefani's Hollerback Girl and sang along with a few others. I never know the verses to songs, so I stumbled through until I ...

... They were shy and quiet, but watched me intently as I spoke. Afterwards, Jenna's co-teacher, Mizuko sensei, talked to me a bit and we went back to the office. Some students came by to meet Jenna's American friend and they all stared at me like I was a movie star. I am not used to this kind of attention! I kind of like just blending in in America. Her class clown, Naoya, came by and he had a hilarious attitude. I also met one of the students aspiring for ...

Visit a Japanese city with an incredible history, cuisine, art, natural beauty, friendly people and a proud tradition ... and you'll be in Kyoto. A four-day stay in this wonderful city is not enough, but it's a start to getting a feel for Old Japan, of samurais and geisha, of castles, of temples and gardens around every corner, of food that is an art form, of narrow alleyways of which each has a story to tell in its cafes and shops and mom-and-pop restaruants.

... so? He watched countless hours of "Columbo" re-runs. The American drama, he reminded me, was almost purely dialogue and the storylines were relatively easy to follow, since they always involved murder mysteries. Thus, he was able to focus intently on the subtleties of the dialogue. *** Baseball aficionados out there may be interested in checking out ex-New York Mets manager Bobby Valentine's blog. He's now the Chiba Lotte Mariners skipper in his second stint as a Japanese ...