Not in Osaka

I am not in Osaka. I’m in Kyoto. I spent last night in Kobe after visiting Himeji Castle. Today I went to the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge, the longest bridge in the world outside of Kobe. I’ll be spending two full days in Kyoto before going to Osaka. My time in Kyoto should be packed as this …

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Off to Osaka

I’m off to Osaka with a stop at Himeji Castle on the way. I haven’t been posting that much, but if you take a look at the loads of photos I’ve put on Flickr, you can get an idea of what I’ll be writing about shortly. I have a lot of things in the works, …

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Random Thoughts on Japan

Styx needs to make a sequel to Mr. Roboto where they go find a hotel, get lunch, and take a train. Japan has beer and cigarette vending machines. A pack of cigarettes is about $2.70, which I guess is cheap. I don’t smoke. The beer vending machine is brilliant. Mothers Against Fun would never let …

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Yakushima

My visit to Yakushima was an amazing experience. The forests there are ancient Japanese cedar forests and were used as the inspiration for the movie Princess Mononoke. One of the days I spent in the forest I was in the clouds the entire time. It was a very surreal experience. I took a lot of …

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Alive at Ground Zero

I’m well in Hiroshima. First, I’m finally around other tourists. Tons in Hiroshima especially around the Peace Park. Second, I get off the train, start looking at bus routes and a Japanese woman comes up to me and says in English “are you lost?” So much for people not speaking English. They also have electronics …

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Off to Hiroshima

I’m off to Hiroshima in a few hours. This will be the second train trip of my journey. The first being a 48 hour hellish experience from Dallas to LA. I expect this to go much smoother. The photos I have from Yakushima should be amazing. I was at Yakusugi early in the morning yesterday …

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…and the Iron Chef was Proud

I just ate what was probably the best meal I had on my trip. (if you don’t include the dinner I had at Picasso’s at the Bellagio for my send off, it definitely was). I’m not even sure what everything was. There was some sashimi, a shrimp dish in some creamy sauce, a hot soup …

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Out of Kagoshima

I finally made it to Yakushima and I finally found an internet connection I can use with my laptop. Getting here was another exercise in frustration. I booked a space at a hostel on the island. I never heard back from them. There were no instructions on how to get there from the port (it …

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National Day

I am a member of Couchsurfing.com. While I have used it to get information, I have never used it to actually stay at someone’s house or to meet someone. The first person I’ve met on from Couchsurfing was Ruby, who agreed to show me around Taipei on National Day. (October 10) This is the story …

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