http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/grantcorp/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from grantcorp en-us Thu, 31 Dec 2009 12:29:49 +0000 Thu, 31 Dec 2009 12:29:49 +0000 Kay and I both had some days off work for the new year's holiday and we decided to go visit Joanne in Beijing. Not mainly because we wanted to go to Beijing but because that's where Joanne happened to be located. Of course I won't back down from a chance to set foot on the Great Wall but it is proving hard to convince the ladies. Anyway I padded my itinerary with one extra day on each side of http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-361844.html In one of those deals that only make sense to airline marketing staff I grabbed a heavily discounted ticket from Stockholm to Bangkok. I paid SEK 5.400 for a ticket that would take me from Stockholm to Copenhagen and then onwards to Krung Thep. The poor sods wanting to board the plane in Copenhagen would have to pay SEK 19.000. Go figure. This modus operandi kind of set the parameters for the trip http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-343986.html Banzai More shots from the Fukuoka Basho After grabbing a quick night bite at one of them mushrooming streetside soba places I spent the chilly evening walking around the northern waterfront. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Fukuoka/Fukuoka/blog-325848.html I had planned for Sunday to be the day I took Nagoya castle and aquarium off the todo list maybe even the shrine or a braizen dash towards Matsumoto to suck in the view of its famed moated castle alas neither of this did happen. Instead I had given in to jetlag of the highest order. Not managing to fall asleep until three in the morning I instead chose to waste the day away sleeping in late and http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Aichi/Nagoya/blog-299641.html As the Moominpainted A340 descended towards Centrair the major regional airport on an artifical island south of Nagoya the sky seemed somewhat blueish in colour but as we came closer and closer to the ground the sickly grey haze got more and more prominent and started to consume objects at the horizon and then creeping steadily closer and closer. For some reason I have developed an idea that http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Aichi/Nagoya/blog-298823.html Every time I seek to travel eastwards the net seems to be cast tighter and tighter the loopholes farther and farther between. Unless you care little for money you really need to have a good strategy as you make a play for those coveted tickets for the central hubs of Hong Kong and Bangkok. Kay and I decided to meet up in HK on the coming Thai holiday and even though we for once were quite early http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Finland/blog-298787.html My fifth and last consecutive Kyushu basho visit you should know the ropes by now so let's take a look around the arena to see if there is something else to catch your eye. Being a friday afternoon the Kokusai Center really started to fill up with people coming straight from work as the last bouts went the mood was quite high. For me it was a bit of each tomorrow morning I'll be off to Nagasa http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Fukuoka/Fukuoka/blog-296043.html The entry into Japan had been arduous and the exit proved to be a likewise unnerving ordeal. I had prepared most of my packing the night before and knowing the airport was just some fifteen minutes away by subway I caught some much needed sleep and only got up at five before heading out to catch the plane at 7 am. At five thirty the streets were quite dead and I had to walk an extra bit with my b http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Tokyo/blog-227363.html Drawing so close to the end that I can almost feel the stench of the horrible airlineomelet already. Still I have one more string to play before the bungycord inevitably swings me back across the frozen tundras of Siberia all the way back home to a dreary miserable and cold November. Still the good thing about an elastic cord is that it really doesn't manage to keep you in place for long. Any http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Fukuoka/Fukuoka/blog-222569.html The hotel had a fairly early checkout time at 10 am but it suited me fine anyway as it would put me on the road to Kumamoto without delay. Through the last days I had seen more and more people walk around town with face masks and unlike a common belief that this is due to protect themselves from heavy pollution there is another important reason as well they are not wearing it to protect thems http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Kumamoto/Kumamoto/blog-222549.html Waking up to another beautiful sunny day in Kagoshima I pondered on doing a trip to Mt. Sakurajima for some hiking. However save for the fact of going there there wasn't really anything to focus my interest on. There is a viewpoint where you can supposedly get a better look at the crater which spews out smoke pretty much daily but due to security zones it didn't really sound that promising. Ins http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Kagoshima/Kagoshima/blog-221996.html Well well... what do you know As my imminent departure drew near someone figured it was time to ease up on the clouds. Frustratingly so the blue sky began to peak out again. I guess someone wanted to make sure the weather wouldn't keep my plane grounded as if to really make sure I got off the island pronto. Naha's immediate proximity to the airport meant that I could just casually check out an http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Kagoshima/Kagoshima/blog-221783.html It is amazing how quick a week can pass when you are out enjoying yourself. It was with mixed emotions that I checked out from the room which had been my base for the past week knowing that from this day on the trip would shift into high gear as I would stay in no less than five cities the coming week. I was also a bit torn about leaving Fukuoka in the middle of the Kyushu Basho but on the othe http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Nagasaki/Nagasaki/blog-221534.html I had the left the curtains open wide to allow myself to be woken up by the shining light of a new sunny day. Not so. Instead I woke to the sound of noise in the corridor and the hum from the air conditioner. Looking out the window those dreary miserable grey clouds were stll hanging there in the sky like a carpet of moisture. There was a fine layer of water spreadout on the streets and roofs of http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Okinawa/Okinawa-Honto/blog-221165.html Treated to another fine day in Nagasaki with scattered clouds across the blue sky I considered how to spend my last day in town. Cramming four locations into one week's worth of travel isn't exactly ideal in terms of enjoying a place to its full potential but I have always been a fan of scouting around multiple locations and I'd rather return for a longer stay once I know the place would appeal http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Nagasaki/Nagasaki/blog-220975.html Gniiii.... gniii... kataKLONK Hmm... that was the landing gear going down But I don't see anything In fact I can't see anything at all. There is grey all around us. Greyish and white shadows dance around the fuselage. At first I thought I had spotted land there over at the horizon. A huge dark landmass appearing out of nowhere still partially hidden in the clouds. But something was not rig http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Okinawa/Okinawa-Honto/blog-220856.html For those of you who don't like sumo tough luck we're turning up the temperature a couple of degrees today so you might as well stop reading and hit the next journal link a few times... I started out a little bit earlier this morning which translates to approximately 1 pm... with the intent of having a chance encounter with some rikishi on the way to the arena. I had noticed a few lower ra http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Fukuoka/Fukuoka/blog-220377.html Not much to report today. I keep having problems adjusting to GMT8 so I tend to sleep away until noon and stay up much too late in the night to compensate. I noticed an email in my inbox informing me that my hotel booking in Kumamoto had been cancelled so I figured I might as well seek out a travel agent before heading out to the Kokusai venue. Having walked past a number of establishments the da http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Fukuoka/Fukuoka/blog-219893.html I've been wondering how to approach this segment of the blog. How can I possibly succeed in keeping the interest up among the hapless population making up all those blog readers indifferent to the grand tradition of sumo I considered step by step introductions a combined entry with highlights of the five days or presentations of the various rules and the most famous wrestlers right now. In the e http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Fukuoka/Fukuoka/blog-219546.html The opportunity to stretch out my legs in a bed did not pass me by and to the maid's frustration I didn't get out on town until in the afternoon. I didn't really plan much of a schedule today anyway. I resisted the urge to watch the opening of the Kyushu Basho on TV and instead opted to head out and have a walk around town figuring there would be more than plenty of sumo to see later in the week http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Fukuoka/Fukuoka/blog-219273.html