Blogs from Fukuoka, Japan, Asia - page 5

Well I’d just started the last epistle when I was interrupted, thought I was saving the file & off it went to everyone. Will try not to bore you too much with the daily details of cycling but there are a few incidents you may like to hear about. The driver who had been flown out from Lithuania found his driver’slicence was not valid here so Bill from Waiheke ( a fellow cyclist) the only person carrying an international licence agreed to take on the job for over 3 weeks. The first day the vehicle was not ready when we left Fukioka so we left laden with 4 panniers each & tent tied to the back of the bike. The cycle was meant to be about 110km but the campsite had not been confirmed so we ... read more

This trip is my second visit to Japan. A really big reason for me to do this trip is because I want to experience a typical Japanese onsen holiday - the kind that local Japanese people do when they take a break from work, usually once or twice every year. Japan is famous for its high work pressure. So I figured the kind of holiday the highly stressed Japanese workers look forward to must be truly relaxing. A typical onsen holiday involves the following elements - an onsen village far away from big cities, a traditional style ryokan (same as hotel except you sleep on tatami instead of bed) with outdoor onsen surrounded by green plants, traditional yukata provided by the ryokan and a BIG banquet dinner prepared by your ryokan which always uses some kind ... read more

Héhé... We zijn er. De tweede vlucht was een stuk beter te doen dan de eerste. Niet zo vreemd natuurlijk, aangezien deze 'maar' drie uur was. Inchecken in Japan ging vebazingwekkend snel - alles ging heel efficient. We werden wel een paar keer besnuffeld door speciale speurhonden (drugs waarschijnlijk). We waren nog maar net uit het vliegtuig of we stonden al buiten met onze reisleider, Patrick. Natuurlijk hebben we nog veel meer te vertellen en ook foto's om te laten zien, maar het was een drukke dag, dus we laten het hier even bij. Co.... read more

I was anxious to spend 5-days with my in-laws in Fukuoka for the New Year holiday. Not that I don't like them, I do actually adore them. But if one experienced New Year in Japan, its the most important holiday for them, but unlike most countries, the celebration is way too quiet compared to the usual big bang New Year festivities most people have grown accustomed to. If a city as big as Osaka can become so quiet during the New Year, I dreaded having to spend it in a countryside where my wife's family home is located right in the middle of a sprawling rice field. But after 4 years of living in the country, the time has come for us to take the trip to my wife's hometown for the holidays. So we booked ... read more

Fukuoka With nowhere booked on the evening, we decided that a big town would be best to find a room for the evening. Everywhere was booked in Kyushu. The only placed we could book was about 16 hours away by train, which we managed to book for the next night. So Fukuoka was out place of choice to break the 16hr journey up. On the journey up I had visions of us sleeping on a bench or spending the night with the trendy youngsters in McDonalds, in Osaka that would be the norm and perfectly acceptable for the young, however a faux pas amongst the older generation. So much that we could not even get anyone over the age of 40 to even talk about it. After getting into town, we went straight to the tourist ... read more