The Land of the Rising Sun

Country number eight is officially in the books.

I flew into Narita on August 18 after what works out to be a 34 hr trip (include time changes). After arriving, I took a 4 hr journey - although it only had to be 2 - on the train to get to the Zushi station to meet my friend Ryan Kowalchuk. Since he has a second apartment for the month due to "clerical error" I had a free place to stay for the two nights. Thankfully, he met me with "beer" (to be explained little later). We went out for some food, before I had to go to bed, since I was a little tired from the trip. The next day, I went off to see the temples of Kamakura. There are 140 temples in the area, and I saw about a dozen of them, and went down to the beach in Hase. That night I met up with Ryan and his girlfriend and went out in Yokohama, the second largest city in Japan at night (apparently Osaka is bigger during the day). We had some dinner, and went out for some more adult beverages. By which, I mean we sat on the patio of one of the variety stores, and drank more "beer". To explain this a little further, Japan has beer and synthetic beer flavoured beverages that have alcohol added. Tastes better than some of the beer I've had in the past. Also, It turns out that this is a common thing. The patio was at standing room only!! Since I flew out at 1:30 the next day, I boarded the airport express at 8:07, and arrived at the airport at exactly 10:30. Couldn't have planned it better if I tried. Sadly, my only sushi experience came in an airport restaurant, but it was still the best sushi I've ever eaten.

The private shrine outside my apartment.

There really ARE vending machines everywhere.

Inside the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Temple

The giant copper Buddha at Diabatsu

The stairway to Sasukeinarijinja Shrine

A small piece of my favourite, the Kosokuji Temple.

Isn't this the cutest statue ever?!? Found at the overly popular Hasedera Temple. Oddly, the Kosokuji Temple was completely vacant, while only a 1 minute walk from Hasedera which had a hundred or so people at it.

A jellyfish on Yuigahama Beach in Hase. The sand was extremely fine, but also black. I assume this is due to the volcanoes that formed the islands.

Me. Ryan.

The "beer".

About time

My International adventures will take on brand new heights in this next year. It starts with a visit to Tokyo, Japan in just a few days' time. Fortunately, my old friend Ryan lives in Tokyo, and has offered a spare apartment to me for the two nights. Since he will be working through the days, it will give me an opportunity to go explore a bit on my own and then meet up with him in the evenings. I expect it to be much like my time in Seoul, but with fewer Canadians.

In December and January, I will be traveling to Europe for the first time. I will be flying in to London (via Moscow) to spend five days in jolly old England. Once again, I will have a tour guide, as my girlfriend is from England. We will spend Christmas day with her family (what a day to meet the parents) and will take off for the continent the next morning. We plan on a couple of days in Amsterdam, one in Brussels, two or three in Paris, one in Lyon and finally a couple in Barcelona before getting back to London in time for us to fly off to our respective countries of employment for another 6 months away from each other.

In addition to the 7 countries I have already stepped foot in (past the airport) I will be adding numbers 8-13 to my list by early January. And no, I am not including Russia since I will not be leaving the airport at any point.

I'll be back in a week with my stories from Tokyo!!