Category: Uncategorized

Hi friends, Today was a big travel day. We had to take three trains and a boat to get to Naoshima, which took most of the afternoon. I don’t know if I’ll be able to go back to riding trains at home after traveling here for a month. Even the local trains are clean and…

Hi friends, We slept well in the ryokan. The blanket was heavy and almost weighted and even though we couldn’t figure out how to work the heat, it was comfy. We woke up early and groggily made our way downstairs in time for breakfast. Turns out an early Japanese breakfast would continue our streak of…

Hi friends, Woke up again to construction. We’ve had some problem with noise almost every morning: roosters, construction, what will be next…! Laid in bed and showered and packed up. It was raining so I got a chance to test out my little bright red Eagle Creek travel umbrella, which worked great for the short…

Hi friends, We woke up to horrible construction noises outside around 8am. Incessant. Jake described it as every type of construction happening at once, or like a kid banging pots and pans together. We’ve really had bad luck with morning noise so far, but it’s okay, it means we get an earlier start to the…

Hi friends, We wanted to go to Bread A Espresso again for breakfast but as we were leaving we realized it was closed. Not just Tuesday but Wednesday and Thursday as well. Disappointed, we found a suitable replacement nearby in NGS Coffee just around the corner on the main boulevard. It had an airplane motif…

Hi friends, We started our rainy day off by walking the windy streets to Bread A Espresso, a modern, sparse cafe run by a (again, I assume) husband-and-wife duo. Pastries and breads are laid out in a display case and a big coffee machine and grinder sits to the right. Other than a couple of…

Hi friends, The roosters started at 4:30am again. I desperately needed to exercise, so I went for a run in the morning with Jake. I did a little under 3 miles along a little river/canal in this weird suburban-rural neighborhood, which would have been really nice had there not been construction up and down the…

Hi friends, Got a late start again. The roosters (I kid you not) started crowing around 4:30 and repeated a couple more times by the time I was up for good around 8:30. I think they got it wrong the first time, but I can’t be sure. Stopped at 7 Eleven for some more salmon…

Hi friends, We woke up and checked out. I was hungry so we walked down the street until we found a cute looking cafe, IENA Coffee. I had a chocolate chip cookie and an iced coffee that was balanced, with just a hint of the normal bitterness of iced coffee. I really like that everything…

Hi friends, I woke up late and took a while to get out. We walked around the quiet back streets of Fukuoka and headed toward Ohori Park. We stumbled upon a modern, trendy-looking shop, &locals, which I insisted on checking out. It turned out to serve miso soup and Inari sushi (rice and savory fillings…