Japan Last Night

For our final night in Fukuoka, we went back across the canal to the row of outdoor food stands overlooking the water. We figured it would be kind of cheap (for Japan) to eat at a stand, but evidently eating on prime view real estate costs kind of a lot. We ate like a little variety pack of meat on a stick and some noodle soup, as I recall, and I don't remember how much it actually was per person, but we were all very disappointed with the price. We were also getting a lot of silent, and then more vocal, pressure from the proprietors to get the hell out, as some of the group were taking their time with their beers. It didn't really seem like anyone was waiting, but I'm sure they would rather have a table ready to rope customers in.

Afterwards we found these two chicks who were doing quite an entertaining musical performance. We stayed and watched for a while and talked to a couple of the locals.

Here are some shots of the bridge. This is the silver statue lady:

And some street (bridge) musician:

And us. This is my new jacket, by the way:

Next we were on our way to a bar, but got distracted by all these bands lined up in the park that was giving the music festival earlier in the day. We heard this band of strapping young lads, called Sept Couleurs, and decided to listen to them for a while. I think we stayed about two hours, drinking beers from the corner store the whole time. They were quite good, and a lot of fun.

The dude in the white hat we met over where the two chicks were playing. He was talking to us for a while and seemed cool and I figured he could find us a good bar, so I invited him along when we left, even if only to be polite and not leave him hanging. He ended up being pretty annoying, continually bothering us to get going to the bar, while we were enjoying the music from these boys. We told him to go ahead if he wanted, but he waited for us, anyway. When we finally were ready to go, he brought us to this bar called Broadway (he had previously told us he had been an actor in New York and worked on Broadway, and we were very impressed, but I think that was a miscommunication).

Eventually Emily joined in while the others took a break:

The coolest thing about these guys is that although they didn't speak a lick of English, the singer was still able to sing Beatles songs, and even read the lyrics he didn't know (in English) WHILE PLAYING AND SINGING as someone scrolled down a lyrics website on a cell phone.

When we got to the bar, we ordered a very large pitcher, which I guess Emily didn't take a picture of (these are all her pictures), and the white hat dude drank some of it, but didn't contribute any money. What a douchebag. Evidently he was a promoter or an employer for the bar, and had been antsy all night because we were wasting good money-spending time away from his bar.

This is how I feel about THAT guy:

Japan Next Day

Well, this has got to be a short post, since I'm busier than I've ever been in my life, practically.

So day broke in Japan, and I think I was the only one in the group who got up early enough to take advantage of free breakfast. It was good--combination of Japanese and Western breakfast.

Later in the morning, the boys went out to do touristy things, and the girls went shopping. My goal was to get some sharp boots and a smart jacket, and some souvenirs or something.




Apparently there was some music festival going on that weekend, so everywhere we went there were bands playing. It was cool. Here's the nearby park where they had a lineup of bands all afternoon. We stayed and saw one band, but then there was a break for a while, and we needed lunch, so we left.

For lunch we had coffee and Italian. It was pretty good.

Next we went across the canal nearby to the little downtown area, where this tourist-helping police robot was patrolling. I also spent quite a bit of time in the Pokemon store, but I couldn't bring myself to buy anything. I probably could have spent all day in there.

We saw this band in the mall courtyard, which was decorated for Halloween. I spilled coffee on my leg.

After several hours of wandering around this mall and hitting a number of other stores along the street, I ended up with a smart jacket, but no boots. I have calves way too massive to buy boots in Asia. Le sigh...

Japan Night 1

So let's flash back a few weeks to the first weekend in October, when I went to Fukuoka, Japan with some friends. We got there in the early evening and after a brief rest, went out to find some supper and drinking.

These are the sounds I picture coming out of us in this picture: Grrrrr! YEAH! Teeee! Hmmmm. Hyuk!


I'm not sure who these chicks are. They might have worked at the restaurant we went to, but they might also be prostitutes.


This is the restaurant we ended up at, after walking around for a while. We chose it because it seemed reasonably priced, at about $5-7 for a lot of the dishes. It ended up being not so great, because that kind of money only got us a plate with only five or six bites on it. We should have known better in Japan. We ended up going to a chicken place later in the night, because we got hungry again.



After we walked around trying to find a decent bar, we ended up at this reggae place, which was pretty cool. The drinks were priced okay, and the music was good, of course.

Next we got to a nice jazz bar with lots of old records. Unfortunately, we didn't notice on the outside menu that there was a 700 yen cover charge, so the one beer I had while we were there cost me about 15 bucks. We learned to read more carefully before entering a bar.

There don't seem to be any pictures of me at that jazz bar, so here are the others:

After the jazz bar it was the chicken place I mentioned, and then back home. The next day in Japan was a bit more interesting than the first.

Vacation Plans

I have been meaning to go to Bali ever since I came to Korea, but for one reason or another, it hasn't happened yet. I had planned to go this winter vacation, but again, it fell through. It took too long for my boss to get back to me about our vacation time, and by then the flights from Busan had been booked, and it would be nearly a million won to fly from Seoul, plus the cost and time of a bus ride to and from. Not worth it. Maybe in July for summer vacation. It might be cheaper then, anyway, since Decemberish is peak season, I believe.

I asked the travel agency I use to look into flights to the Philippines, Malaysia, other parts of Indonesia, or any other place in Southeast Asia that would give me a nice beach vacation for between 7 and 800,000 won for a ticket. The agent got back to me with three choices: Saipan, Guam, and Cambodia, all of which use the American dollar, I think. I was surprised that Cambodia does, actually. I looked at hotels and things to do in all three options, and found Cambodia far superior in terms of price and entertainment, so there I will go.

I've booked and paid for my flight already. At 785,000 won, it's the priciest flight I've taken for vacation so far, but not by much, and I may be able to make up some money while I'm there, since things are supposedly wildly cheap.

My first night I'm staying right in Phnom Penh, since I won't arrive at the airport until 7:20pm, and the coast is a few hours away. It seems like there's a lot to do in the city, anyway, so I'll probably wish I had an extra day there. But I prefer the beach. I decided to stay in hostels for most of my trip to save some money, and because they seem almost as good as a budget hotel in many cases, sometimes better. The place I'm staying at in the city is called Hostel Nomads. I booked it online through Lonely Planet, and I chose to stay in the seven-bed dormitory for a whopping $4 a night (plus $2 Lonely Planet charged me for booking online--but I got a free 47-page guidebook chapter emailed to me as a special they're doing this month). I could have gotten my own room for $10, but I figured the money I save could go a long way there, and it's just one night, anyway. I might meet some interesting people.

Here's the website for the hostel:

www.becambodia.com/nomadshome.htm

Let me know if that doesn't work, because this thing isn't letting me paste a copy of the URL in for some reason.

It's kind of laughable the difference between the first place I'm going to stay and the second. After Phnom Penh, I'm going to travel a few hours to the coast in Koh Kong province, and go out to Koh Andet Island. There, I will stay at the newly-opened posh 4 Rivers Floating Ecolodge, for about a hundred dollars a night. This is my splurge item. It looks really awesome. I get my own big room (40 sqm) this time, a floating pool--not my own, of course--and lots of places in nature to see nearby. It's on a river, with the Cardamom Mountains right outside, plus jungles, mangrove forests, etc. The pictures of all the animals on the website are cool.

www.ecolodges.asia/

After three days there, I'll continue on to Sihanoukville, one of the most popular areas in Cambodia, I've read, for some nice beach time. There, I'll be at Orchidee Guesthouse in the midrange, at $22 a night. This place gives me my own room right by the pool, which I'll be glad to have. The place isn't right on the beach, of course, but the little map on the website puts it pretty close, so I'm sure it'll be fine. The beaches are supposed to be really nice, with white sand and all that, so I'm looking forward to that.

www.orchidee-guesthouse.com/engels.htm

This will be my first major vacation without a traveling companion, so I'm a little nervous about that. I usually prefer to have a lot of time alone, but when traveling, it's a lot more fun to share the experiences (and the costs). I'm hoping I'll meet some other tourists along the way, since it's peak season, to go on excursions with and whatnot.