After Amami, we were headed to Naha,Okinawa. We arrived in the pouring rain with no place to stay. Foutunately enough for us, someone was at the ferry exit to reccomend their guest house with a free ride. The next morning we were lucky enough to have a bright and sunny day to wallk around. Okinawa reminded me a bit of Thailand with many islandy shops and little trinkets. We were sort of over the walking and shopping after the 1st day and decided to hop a ferry to a near by island as a day trip. The island was called Takashiki. 1 hour Ferry ride and a short bus ride and we were transported to a beach. Before enjoying the sun we grabbed a bite to eat at the first place that looked like a resturant ... read more

From Beppu we took an early train to Mt. Aso to stay at Aso Base Backpackers hostel. The people who run this hostel were very helpful and gave us a map of the volcano area and recommended treks to take for the day. We took the local bus to Mt. Aso and road a rail car up to the middle point of the crater. There was a tourist area that many people were at taking pictures, and we decided to take the hikes to get up higher and further away from the people. The Naka Dake point was our destination. It started out as a very easy hike up pre-made stairs and then got a bit steeper, and then became more like rock climbing. At one point we steered off the path and were climbing up ... read more

In Kyoto we stayed with a friend and his grandmother who lived in the heart of Kyoto. We walked around all of the temples in Kyoto and came across a few Geisha's as well. The best photo opportunity that I missed by a few seconds was two Geisha's sitting on a bench with their backs to me with Starbucks sitting beside them. They moved before I got a chance to take the picture. At one temple there was a giant singing bowl that you could walk up to and hit and an awesome sound would resonate through the temple, after watching a few students do this I did as well. Another cool thing that we saw was a giant white mound of paper with a hole in the middle, this was a place where people write ... read more

Today we decided to head to Chiba and see a temple that was not in the Lonely Planet guide called Nihonji Temple located in Chiba. The only information we had was head to Chiba, walk 4 minutes to rope-way and it would be right there.. easy enough yea? Once off the train we looked for any information that would be useful and saw a rail car in the distance and headed in that direction. Along the way an old woman sitting near the road tried to help us even though she spoke no english, some how we managed to find it. We purchased a rope way ticket that took us up the mountain and were on our way to the Nihonji Temple. There were many little buddhas along the path but the most amazing one of ... read more

This weekend a group of my friends down in LA decided to meet Brad and I in Death Valley for the Surprise Canyon Hike. After the Yosemite Hike I felt like I could conquer anything. This however, was an equally intense hike. Up, up, up for longer with a Pack on. Very very exhausting. The night before we stayed in a little motel 45 minutes outside of the place were were about to hike. We woke early Saturday packed and ready to go. Our first stop lead us to Ballarat Ghost Town. There was a Jail that doubled as a place to stay when they didn't have prisoners, old rusted cars and dilapidated structures. After getting a few cool recordings and wandering a bit we continued to the trail head to begin our hike. I started ... read more