Blogs from Yamaguchi, Japan, Asia

Wednesday, 26th June 2019 Dark clouds greeted me this morning as I woke up on my 40th birthday in Japan. Not a great start for me as I had planned to commemorate this special day with a cross-island expedition between Honshu (Shimonoseki) and Kyushu (Mojiko) via the 780m Kanmon Pedestrian Tunnel. After responding to the well-wishes from my friends over whatsapp, I was soon on my way to Shimonoseki. It didn't help that I had forgotten to bring along my jacket to counter the strong, icy winds along the coast. Thankfully, the rain that was almost guaranteed did not materialise eventually. After walking for a good 20 minutes, I soon reached the entrance of the undersea tunnel which would bring me across to Kyushu (Mojiko). This was easy to navigate even though emerging from the Mojiko ... read more

Hagi Domain Meirinkan School As we left the Hagi Grand Hotel Tenku, we walked down on Yoshida-cho Dori. We popped in the pottery shop and walked past historic buildings. It took approximately 25 minutes on foot from our hotel to Meirinkan School. We entered the ground from Kantoku Gate and started looking round Yūbikan Building. A volunteer guide was there and showed and explained to me that this wooden building was used for military training and tournaments with spears and swords and historic buildings e.g. South Gate, Suiren Pool and Meirin Gakusha on the site. Historic wooden building of Former Hagi Domain School looked beautiful from any angle. I was told that No.1 and No.2 buildings are designated as Tangible Cultural Property and these buildings were used as school fairly recently and have recently become the ... read more

Kaikyo Yume Tower We decided to go to Kaikyo Yume Tower, which is one of the landmark towers in Shimonoseki. We went to the reception to buy the tickets. The receptionist heard that I was telling Mark that the ticket was ¥600. She told me that the foreign national is half price; Mark was asked to pay ¥300. I told her that I’ve got British passport. She said, ‘Wow!’ And she asked me if I could show my passport. She asked me how I got British citizenship. I told her that I’d married to British husband and have been living in Britain for nearly 20 years, and became a British citizen in 2006. She asked me if I took the test. I told her that I managed to avoid the citizenship exam, which was introduced a ... read more

My brother told me about a photo booth in Iwakuni where teenaged girls cosplayed as different characters come frequent. Knowing that there are no shortage of photo booths in Japan, this peaked my curiosity. And for good reason! It is a standing photo booth, big enough for a group of 4 or 5 people! There is a big circular beauty lamp in front of you, to give you flattering lighting (almost like a professional photo shoot). Then, using my crude Japanese translator, we saw that for 300 yen, you get to take 6 photos. Before you start, you choose a couple options. First, you pick your eye enlarging option. We didn't know what that was at first, so we picked one at random. We ended up with big anime eyes as the final product! You then ... read more

If anyone knows me personally, they know I love to just people watch and observe my surroundings. With that being said, I decided to start my Kayko Travel Talley. It will just incorporate something I have observed that has turned into a pattern. Enough for me to start a tally. After day 1, here is my running tally: 1. Times toddler screamed NO on 3 hr flight to LA - 31 (before I stopped counting) 2. Accidental eye contact with a stranger - 9 3. People who have spoken Spanish to me and were disappointed - 4. LA tourists wearing douchey newspaper boy hats or trilbys - 18 5. Girls traveling in heels that can't walk in them - 11 6. Times I've checked for my passport - 1000+ 7. Jokes about United flights - TOO. ... read more