Still in Kagoshima

I`m still in Kagoshima. I finally got to upload a few photos, but only a fraction of what I`ve taken. I also found a solution to my wireless problem. There are plenty of wireless net access points in Japan, but you have to pay for all of them. I just purchased a Boingo account which …

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Sometimes you just get rucky

When you travel by the seat of your pants and make things up as you go along, sometimes you strike out and sometimes you hit it big. Yesterday, I hit it big. Totally by accident. I reserved a hotel room online in Kagoshima. The cheapest one available was in Kirishima, which I assumed was a …

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Kobe

Just a quick update. I`m in the Kobe airport. I got bumpted to first class for the first time on my trip. In the Okinawa airport I saw robots. The plane I flew on had a camera mounted on the belly of the plane and one on the nose. When you were landing, you could …

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This Isn’t My First Time You know….

This isn’t my first time in Japan. I was here for one day in 1999 during a stop over from the US to Taiwan. We took off in a blizzard and the de-icing on the wings required a fuel stop in Anchorage. The delays resulted in me missing my flight to Taipei so I was …

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Final Thoughts on the Philippines

I think I should finish up writing about the Philippines before I get too much farther in my trip. The farther I get away, the less fresh it is in my mind. From the moment I landed in Manila to the moment I left, there was something that just didn’t seem right with the Philippines. …

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Lost in Translation

Well, I made it to Okinawa. The flight was only about an hour long. The real difficulty was when I got on the ground. There were no working ATM machines that took foreign cards in the international terminal, and only one in the domestic terminal. There were no places available to change currency. Very little …

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My Visit to Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park

Along side the rice terraces of Banaue, the highlight of my trip to the Philippines was my visit to the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park. it is a UNESCO World Heritage site and the longest, navigatable, subterranean river in the world. (got that?) Puerto Princesa is the capital of Palawan province, the westernmost province …

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Zai Jian Taiwan

My stay here was about a week longer than I expected, but I’m booked to leave here tomorrow and arrive in Okinawa. I’ll be there for three days then I fly to Kagoshima in southern Japan. I got my Japan Rail pass so I’ll be able to explore the country by rail for 21 days. …

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The Happy Prosperous Restaurant of the Golden Arch

For all the new readers, you can get the background on why I’m writing about McDonald’s here. McDonald’s Taiwan is the first McDonald’s I’ve experienced since New Zealand to have a completely unique item on the menu: the rice burger. The rice burger is a burger where the bun is replaced with rice and the …

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