Aigh. Seems like the farther out from Tokyo I get, the harder it is to find internet access, and the more expensive it gets! Im currently at Kinkos shelling out 200 yen for 10mins. Ok, so thisll be fast and typo ridden!
When from Nagano to Nagoya to Hiroshima, to my present location in Fukuoka/Hakata. Nice little town they got here. Im staying in a capsule hotel for the first time because they dont have any youth hostels in the city. Its a pretty good deal actually considering i get a free sauna/bath (multiple i think....), lounge chairs, etc along with the capsule which sort of reminds me of one of those pet carriers....
I happend to stumple across the Asian Pacific Festival theyre having right now. Looks like they were doing Korea, Thailand, New Caledonia, and one other spot i cant remember. Anyone know where New Caledonia is? Only thing i could think of is BG3 from DAOC (if any of u r reading!).
So Fukuoka doesnt have too much in the way of cultural sites..the usual temples and stuff. So i just wandered around and ate. The malls hear have one interesting characteristic and that most seem to have cooking schools in them! They also got art galleries. The mall right by where im staying is especially nice with a couple hotels, a movie theatre, and a faux river...and an enterntainer dude that comes out every now and then doing tight rope tricks and the like. Oh ya, and it has the first Wendys ive seen so far!
Louis Vutton seems to be everywhere in the malls.
Hiroshima was pretty cool, seeing the abomb dome and the like. Really amazing museum. Curiously though, Hiroshima is the first place in Japan ive seen gokoburi, or cockroaches! The place i was staying at WAS rather dingy (as described in the guide), however can u believe they actually served me MOLDY tea? GROOSS. And the tatami mats had mildew growing in them, and the room itself smelled like pee. Ohwell, it was cheap and close by to the station. The people also seemed nice.
So in Hiroshima i had Okinomiyaki which is sort of a japanese pancake. Not enough time to describe in detail, but it has an egg, noodles, pork, some extra filling of your choice, some sauce (sorta like oyster sauce) and a batter thing at the bottom. I tried it twice thinking the first one i got was no good. The second one tasted about the same and my conclusion is that it tastes sorta like a bland spring roll.
Oh ya, had Ramen again tonight in Fukuoka and this place (apparently in business for 40 years) has these tiny little stalls to wat ramen in and a curtain so you cant directly see the servers. Funny. It felt like being in a porn booth or something! Anyway, it was cool cuz you get to specify how you want your noodles cooked. How much "special" sauce to use. How much fat to use, etc. It was taaaassty. wish they gave more though. Ok, running out of yen. More next time!