GUESS WHAT WE DID TODAY... read more

Stopped off at Kyoto again. Jun continues to be a boss. Nijojo castle was enjoyable. The floors made bird sounds. I was slayed by another migraine.... read more

Well, I'm falling way behind on these. As predicted, I lack motivation to sit at my computer and type when there are other things to be doing. After our day in Fukuoka (the furthest we could go on that side of Japan... easily), we were ready to start heading back to Tokyo, and eventually to Hokkaido. For our return journey, we decided to head to Hiroshima. I don't remember much of the day up to reaching Hiroshima, so I'll assume nothing exciting happened. We walked to the local train station, rode it to Fukuoka terminal, and hopped onto the shinkansen to Hiroshima. We knew the name of the hostel we wanted to stay at, and even had some basic directions saying the place was no more than 7 minutes walk from the main station. While we ... read more

Today, we decided that we wanted to visit Osaka and Jun had a day off of work, so he decided to come with us. Jun knew of a youth hostel he wanted to stay at in nearby Shin-Osaka, so we were set for the night. We took the train to Shin-Osaka and left our bags at the hostel so we would be free to walk around. For lunch we took the train to Osaka proper where Jun treated us to a dish he said was very popular in Osaka, okonomiyaki. Okonomiyaki is kind of like a multi-layered pancake full of seafood, including octopus, and vegetables. Jun said that it is common to smother it with mayonnaise, so we did. It was very good. Served with the okonomiyaki was takoyaki. Takoyoki is basically a hollow circular bun ... read more

As I said before, the hostel looked surprisingly modern while retaining a Japanese design aesthetic, though it did seem out of place in the older looking neighborhood in which it resided. Upon entering, it was nicer than we had imagined. The place looked brand new; I believe it was built in 2008. The clerk greeted us with excellent English so I didn't have to try to book a room while butchering his language. He also asked us if we would like him to bring some drinks down to our room later, which I just assumed was something commonly done at the hostel for new guests. We grabbed our room keys and headed for our room, a fairly standard looking rectangle with medical style floors and walls and 2 bunk beds. After our 40 minute walk uphill ... read more