Okay, you all know (especially Dad) what it's like to write something on the computer and then have it disappear before your eyes. That just happened and it's irritating! lol, anyway, here we go. From my journal today: Restaruant in Ko Tau "Lost and Found Item of the Week: this journal, at a clothing shop in Hat Rin. Retrieved two days later. Broken Item of the Week: my glasses. I stepped on them in the bathroom in Bottle Beach. "Let me start with an apology for the paucity of pictures. I was a bit too paranoid about theft when I got to Thailand and I kept the camera hidden away for too much of the early-going. "I'm now sitting in a restaurant in Ko Tau. I'm sitting maybe 5 or 6 meters from the water on ... read more

Or anyone grossed out by sexual "art" and toilet humour. Seriously, I'm not joking. There'll be another post for you to read, I promise. Last chance to turn back. Well first of all, I know I've been even worse than usual with the posting. But I've had a hell of a time lately, lost (and found!) passport, etc. Sigh. To answer my cousin's query, I'm in Seoul right now. Sunday I fly to Bangkok through Beijing. Gyeonju To return to the story, I arrived in Gyeonju (the pronunciation is actually closer to Kee-yong-ju despite the spelling) by bus from Busan. It's only a couple hours north. The Korean buses are in excellent condition, over air-conditioned, just because they can be. They're also cheap, at least compared to Japanese transportation. Gyeonju is known for being a "museum ... read more

Well, no I don't. It's actually pretty tasty. But I do hate what the never-ending parade of Korean food is doing to my stomach. I'll spare you the details. Sorry for the long delay in blog posts. I would say that I haven't had access to the computer, but the truth is nothing particuarly notable was going on, I was sick, and I didn't feel like writing (and uploading photos and videos - which is a painful process). But now I have a few stories. And access to a computer for an hour while I wait for a bus. Today, by the way, is August 13, not August 6. But since I'm writing about Japan, that's when I'm dating the entry to. Let me backtrack. Hiroshima is the last place I wrote about, which is ages ... read more

Sorry for the long delays in posting. While Japan may be completely developed and broadband wired up, they also know to charge you left, right, and centre for access. This is the first free internet hostel I've stayed at for about ten days. So I finally have the time to write. On the negative side, I'm squishing three cities into one blog post. Kyoto July 29-30 After climbing Fuji, I tried an onsen in Kawaguchiko Lake, nearby. It was REALLY nice. Although I was definitely worried about proper etiquette and well, being naked in front of a whole bunch of Japanese men while breaking that etiquette rule. An onsen, by the way, is a hot spring Japanese spa. You are supposed to wash in the tub before you go in for example. The "tub", I learned, ... read more

(1) Pictures: Harijuku and a park in southwest Tokyo. There's a video also. (2) An unrelated story: You meet people all the time on this sort of trip - many for just a conversation. This one black (yes, it's relevant to the story) girl I met while working on Yalla on one of the hostel computers, for example. She told me that she'd been working in northern Honshu (that's the big middle island) for the last year teaching English to kids. "How did you find it? How were the kids" I asked her. She smiled like she knew why I asked, "that's the thing, kids are kids, anywhere. They were so rowdy and I had trouble controlling them. None of the other teachers controlled them either." We talked about how hard it can be travelling and ... read more