I spent all morning and the better part of the afternoon on the Shinkansen from Hakata to Okayama, and a highway express bus from Okayama to Izumo-shi to witness all the kami in Japan congregating at Izumo Taisha (go look up “kannazuki”on the internet). All the gods were with me, as all the ticketing and connections worked out perfectly, though it did take a while to find the Misdo in JR Hakata-eki. Spent about ten minutes wandering around then finally asked the information booth girl. Turns out it is right next to the shinkansen gates, so if I looked for that, I’d have found the donuts incidentally. The ceremony had lots of fire. The rainy weather let up just in time for the ceremony to commence, and the stars and moon came out.
Archive for the 'Travel' Category
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You can spot me easily here in Fukuoka. I’m the one guy in a MulitCam jacket and green pants in a sea of black and grey-suited businessmen. …oh, and I have a beard. It’s probably more glaring since I’m in an area with a lot of business hotels. I should blend in better when I get into the sticks this evening.
It’s finally light out enough for me to see. I woke up at 04:00 (09:00 HST) and couldn’t really get back to sleep. The little spot of sky I can see from my room is blue with wispy clouds, which is in sync with the JMA forecast for today. Unfortunately, it’s supposed to be rainy on the Nihonkai coast where I will end up this afternoon. It’s snowing a lot up North (16cm overnight in some areas), and there are gale force winds blowing up skirts in the Kantou region. The internet says there are two Mister Donut locations within JR Hakata-eki, so I know where I’m having breakfast! Continue reading ‘Aozora, for Now’
Landed in Fukuoka and breezed through immigration, baggage claim, and customs. My bag got the “priority/first-class” treatment, so it was one of the first out on the belt! The customs guy actually asked me to open my pack duffle and my Kifaru, but was somewhat discouraged when he found it to be packed tighter than a sausage. The inter-terminal bus was right there, and I got over to the domestic terminal and subway station with ease. 250-yen got me to Hakata-eki, and the Garmin got me to the hotel without too much of a hitch (“track up” might have made my life a little easier, though). I’ll head downstairs to the onsen, then maybe look for a convenience store. I was going to walk over to the nearest Menchanko-Tei, but I’m not feeling hungry, since it is midnight at home. Continue reading ‘What the FUK?!?!’
Odd. This HNL-FUK flight is boarding from gate 61 on the interisland side. Nice that I don’t have to walk all the way down to the international wing.
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Few weeks ago I was sent to Maui on a job. Although a weekend, thankfully this one started late so I didn’t have to catch the plane until 10:00. Flight uneventful, rental car supposed to be a Sentra, counter lady upgraded me to a Chrysler 200. A Chrysler 200 covered in poop. Chicken poop. Gate person said I could take it back and have them wash it again. Seems they have a problem with chickens roosting in the trees of their lot. I said never mind, I’ll just take it. Took it upon myself to later get rid of the most offending poop on the driver door handle. The 200 is itself a ok car, typical overboosted steering feel. Control layout easy to work, thankfully touchscreen only deals with audio. Unfortunately functions disabled so I couldn’t load a bunch of weird music onto the HD.
Yay my box of cream horns made it through TSA!
Amazing how a liitle nice booze takes the edge off, happy happy!
1 hour 15 minutes later I’m finally in the airport bar pounding a .5l draft Hoegarten. Guess that makes up for some of it, and the fact they stopped carrying Guinness.
Da fak?! Is the self service terminals all broken? The screens are up but no one is using them, good thing I’m an hour and 40 minutes early!