Well if I was not hot enough from the onsen of Dogo, it certainly paid off in the next few days! I spent yesterday morning seeing Matsuyama castle, and the tranquil park of Dogo kooen, where I was amongst the like minded taking photos of lillies and beautifully tamed bonsai. The local folk come here for relaxing, reading sleeping, contemplating, and a bit of romance, or so it seems! The odd vagrant also appeared beneath a newspaper and dishevelled clothing, but then again that could be me compared to the TORENDI japanese....I digress... The streetcars of　Matsuyama make getting arou [View Full Entry]

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Now to turn the slant back from shirtless japanese samurais photographed at the shimane art museum, fighting over who found pauline's memory cards, to the delights of Matsue and Shikoku! Matsue is a wonderful town worth at least a days visit or two. I've met so many lovely people; one from the USA who teaches in Matsue and has done for 4 yrs (!), several japanese who are happy to help a foreigner takes thoughtful photos at the top of the Matsue castle, you get the idea. I never remembered having so many positive experiences in dealing with humans in one [View Full Entry]

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I have decided that this is too important a topic to miss, that of the TORENDI Japanese. They have the best hair cuts, and I have noticed so many beauty salons and barbers I figure there is a bit of vanity or image consciousness about. But they look so good it must work! I have not seen an overweight japanese person. They are very funky and well dressed at all ages. I have seen a lot of girls hoiking their skirts up like every girls does once, but they do it so much better than I could, with haircut and shoes [View Full Entry]

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Being a bit spent of all my memory card emotion, it was time to get positive again, and back to the purpose of seeing this beautiful country and it's gracious, polite people! That morning was himid, and I got up and went for a long walk into the huills of Mt Ogi and Tsurumi, above Beppu town. The colours and agriculture were beautiful and reminded me of my times in north queenlsland. On the memory stick front, I picked up one for 3000 yen for a 1gb memeory stick, sony of course, and got busy with some sightseeing. Beppu is lovely, [View Full Entry]

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I have sad news, well it is incredibly sad for me being here and having lived the memories that the pictures have maybe 10% conveyed......I have no more memory sticks. So you will have to use your imagination as I try to describe things.... The loss of the sticks goes like this.... It is wet now, torrential,, flooding in streets. It was not wet in Kagoshima, just hot and sultry. Hence, I went on to kirishima Jingu early today from kagoshima, and on to Takachiho Gawara 35 mins away for a spot of hiking. Met some good fit japanese almost thrice [View Full Entry]

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After an interesting day and night chasing my lost yoofuku and strange men about the Aso Youth Hostel, a group of us decided to get physical and hike around Aso national park. This area is at elevation 1200-1600m, actvely volcanic, and very prone to closures due to gas vapours, much like say White island in NZ, or the case where Ruapehu erupted. Someone I met, Marcelle, a brazilian who was travelling with Donelo his partner, is making this a research trip for his journalism work in Brazil, writing of adventure tourism. Part of this involved interviewing Shinotani san the elderly owner, [View Full Entry]

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Aso!, I here you say, that is meant to be some expression of surprise reserved for Japanese folk. WEll be informed readers, that is not entirely true. It is indeed a region in central kyuushuu renound for volcanic activity. And forms the middle of my central Kyuushuu island adventure. But before I get to the guts of Aso and smoking volcanos, I had an exceptional Monday, and I have to say monday evening too. I shall elaborate...i.e.go off on tangent.... Nagasaki worked its charms on me, then it was time to head to Aso on the 1245 train - with several [View Full Entry]

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Pictures from this morning whilst I lost and found myself in the beautiful port city of Nagasaki.... Well Nagasaki was truly fantastic! The tourist brochures describes Nagasaki as historic、romantic and exotic....well it certainly was historic with the peace dome that I got lost trying to find,　the Dejima port and the memories of Dutch settlement ihere and in the Glover park region and atrocities of the early demise of japanese christianity.......exotic in that it was bloody hot and gloriously exotic, on the edge of japan and the tropical okinawa chain of island...., but I am [View Full Entry]

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I just could not part with the witty captions froｍ the last entry, so here is the first part of Kyuushuu again with proper pictures......... After a busy 24 hrs with Chihiro in her lovely MANSHON flat in Saitama prefecture, I planned to head southwards to Kyuushuu, on　Sunday morning. The trip to Nagasaki was fast! Not a patch on some other trains in the world, the Hikari shinkansen whisked me from Tokyo central to Nagasaki via Shin osaka and Hakata, the terminus of Fukuoka station at the northern most part of Kyuushuu. The trip of 900km took about 8 hrs, that [View Full Entry]

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After a busy 24 hrs with Chihiro in her lovely MANSON flat in Saitama prefecture, I planned to head southwards to Kyuushuu, on　Sunday morning. The trip to Nagasaki was fast! Not a patch on some other trains in the world, the Hikari shinkansen whisked me from Tokyo central to Nagasaki via Shin osaka and Hakata, the terminus of Fukuoka station at the northern most part of Kyuushuu. The trip of 900km took about 8 hrs, that is including some stops of up to 40 mins where I felt it a good to fix the cock up of getting the incorrect adaptor [View Full Entry]

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