Kappa Romancekan Amakusa

... was pretty incredible, even crowded as it was. We then crossed a huge bridge to an island where you can view the rest of the bay and all the other islands in it.
We stumbled back to the hotel, dead tired and ready to be home. So very very very very ready. Now we are killing time in the hotel lobby waiting for our flight. Impatiently.

Hi Everyone, Man has it been crazy week. I attended the Rotary Kyushu District Conference in Nobeoka, Japan. The schedule hasn't been to hectic even though we leave at 8:00 am and return to our host families between 6 pm and midnight. Mostly its been been a good mix of sightseeing and vocational tours. Today we are visiting the local Coke bottling plant. Yesterday, we finally hit our first Onzen (Hot Springs). Don't have much time. More Later

... you about the toxic gases. Actually, they closed the mountain for a while in the morning due to the gases, so we walked up another one (a dormant one) to kill some time, but when we went up the active one later we were still coughing from the gases. Nasty. Not much else to say really..... we just left Hiroshima yesterday and came here.... oh, we checked out the Kumamoto castle, which was pretty nice. I liked it a it better ...

Well, came down to Yatsushiro for a day to visit an old friend. Also explored the trendy castle ruins (Not nearly as big as kumamoto) There is no actual castle anymore, just the walls, moat and a shrine where the castle used to be. Also went to the awesome Japanese gardens there and chatted with the caretaker. Got mobbed ...

... high on the list in Japanese town planning. However, once it gets dark and the neon comes on, its a different story! I thought it was just Tokyo that was going to have Piccadilly circus style lighting but it pretty much comes as standard here. No pedometer stats today folks, due to it being in Heather's bag in Ian's apartment in Hakata.

... lessons go. I basically received a free Japanese lesson which I eagerly jotted down into my small notepad I carry with me 24-7, while the girls received a quick English as lesson at the same time. (and No. I didnt hook up with anyone Cris, or anyone from work)in case you were wondering. Turning out to be quite an educational night (albeit a drunken educational night), we decided to call it a night since the fellas and I have to work in about 5.5 hours on one ...

Well as some of you have probably noticed, I have finally gotten my internet setup. It took quite a bit of running around and a few expensive phone calls to Tech support since every single piece of paper I received was in Japanese. I hope everyone can see the pics, if you want videos, you will have to ask for them because it would take too long for me to ...

Today is my first of 2 days off so I signed up for a free Japanese lesson at the Intl center. The lesson went really well mainly because I met a Mexican woman who basically translated everythign that my Japanese teacher couldnt say to me in English. I learned basic introductions, but spent most of the time learning how to write/read the Hiragana and Katakana phonetic alphabets. I must say..its friggin hard. For me, its comparable to Arabic in the fact ...

Just a quick update for those of you wondering how my English teaching is going. Today I received my first evaluation and I passed with flying colours. So you can assume that I will not be fired anytime soon (at least not with regards to my teaching skills ;). Just some bookkeeping stuff now. Carly - The prices for pizzas vary anywhere from $12 for a small--$36 large ...

... closing time, and here there is a foreigner, dripping in sweat, standing in their office). I ended up receiving my package, and the man then drove me back to my bike as we discussed Japans chances against Australia in the World Cup. I thanked him a billion times for all of his help, as he parked the car and returned to work. Now I had my package....and a nice 55 min bike ride home (assuming I could remember where to go). On route I stopped off at the Police station, i picked up my ...