Blogs from Fukuoka, Fukuoka, Japan, Asia - page 7

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 end I came to the conclusion that nobody bothers to read the blog entries anyway, so I might as well just type what I want and you'll just have to deal with it! Therefore, I'll simply present the most interesting shots from each day with some random commentary or ranting in general. Let the good times roll! First of all, finding the Kokusai Center was not very difficult. ... read more

Ten long hours after boarding the Scandinavian A340 we dove into the thick overcast hanging over Tokyo. As usual I hadn't spent more than an hour or so slumbering between the itching and boredom of being stuck in a rather cramped seat. Beware of the window seats on Airbus A340s carrying inflight entertainment systems as there is a boxed in computer stealing some of your legroom. For ten hours I didn't really know where to put my right leg in a comfortable position, and it started to drive me nuts. The captain finally made an announcement regarding our arrival time. We had gained 30 minutes but were still more than two hours behind schedule. I had allowed for four and a half hours to transfer smoothly between the international terminal at Narita and the domestic terminal ... read more

Stand by me sabitsuita sekai ni nani ga aru no? Show me stars again itsuka demo mienai kirameki ga aru koto kidzukasete kureta kara I just new I would wake up thinking this, and I did. Got up later than I expected, I guess Mr Assahi saw to that, when I arrived back early this morning. What a great idea to have the hotel right next door to Lawson, now thats what I call conveniant 1.Taking the short stroll up to Hakata station the city had changed dramatically, now it was busy, it was hot, it was teaming with people going about their daily business, people working, people shopping, traffic everywhere and far too many bicycles on the pavement. Thank heavens for the cycle bell otherwise I might not have survived, this also reminded me that ... read more

I日本は韓国でない! Where were our Korean friends when we got to Japan?!? We weren't lucky enough that they were able to come with us. We weren't lucky enough that everything was in Japanese, and none of us could speak more than a few words we'd learned in preparation. But what am I giving luck a hard time for? Luck is good 'cause it makes things easy. We got off that 3-hour ship from one country to the other, no problems, got through customs, no problems... The guard just dug deep enough through my suitcase to pull out the Japanese tea I had received as a gift. But I just smoked it with the customs guard and we parted with a merry AraH-GaHt-Oh!* We gotta get somewhere, so we hopped on a bus. I was pretty sure what ... read more

Well today was definitely more relaxing. Like I said yesterday I went to the big shopping centre here in the city today and it was unreal, you should have seen it! I slept in which was a good start to a relaxing day, just what I needed and had a late breakfast then took my time getting ready to go out, it was nice to do that for a change because I'm usually rushing around packing everything in my bag before check-out time or I have an early train or bus to catch or I want to make the most of the day so I don't want to start too late. But today I knew that I would have plenty of time to see what I wanted so I could take my time. So, this shopping ... read more