Keep to the left, head down, one foot in front of the other...

This is one of the things you see everywhere in Kyoto... I mean the power pole and overhead wires. Women in red shawls, kimonos and sandals are much more rare. Pagodas are rarer still, having been replaced by the colourful (i.e. gaudy) Pachinko gambling parlours.

Its easy to be sarcastic but Japan does have so much going for it I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it as a valuable, enlightening, sometimes frustrating, but always fascinating travel destination. It has to be seen to be believed!

...and my little adventure has hardly begun...

I hope you have enjoyed my little venture into web journalism. It has been a pleasure to bring it to you. Perhaps I'll have one last "e-Hurrah" before I return... but for now...

I fly on a little plane to the tiny island of Yakushima. Here I shall hike through the deep, dark forests of ancient cedar and moss, across the streams and water falls, beneath the constant torrential rain, and over the towering granite peaks which break through it to be smothered in heavy blankets of snow.

After Yakushima I catch a boat to the large island of Kyushu and journey northward to hike in the wind around the rim of Aso-san, the world's largest volcanic crater.

Of course this is all a plan... who knows where I'll end up in the next ten days? Wish me luck. This is going to be one hell of an adventure!

Sayonara.
Alan the Japanese tourist

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