Miyazaki, Takachiho and Nagasaki

It's cold! Much colder than we thought Kyushu would be, and not helped by the typhoons that seem to be blowing through with alarming regularity.

Neil's place is a big, cosy haven with internet access and a beautiful sea view. A good place to watch storms go by.

At a party hosted by a friend of Neil's we met a really awkward unfriendly flight attendant, an equally awkward quiet one and the rather more lively girlfriend of the pilot host Oliver, who extended to us an invitation to visit his farm (and wife!) in France next year. Hope we can take advantage of that offer.

Shikoku to Kyuushu

Ito-san (remember him?) advised us that it was possible to get back to the mainland from Shikoku via the scooter/bicycle bridges spanning the islands between. We got shouted at. The highway for us then, and another chunk of change from our dwindling bank account.

Oyamazumi shrine on Omi island made for a mildly interesting stopping point. It features 80% of the military national treasures from the feudal era, including swords of almost 2m in length weighing in at 5kg! How anyone wielded those things in battle is beyond me.

Shikoku holy site tour abandoned, aka we fail at pilgrimaging

Creepy faces side-by-side with kittens and flowers on the ceiling.

Cold and with a forecast of yet more heavy rain we make use of free temple lodging for the first time. A garage, featuring a wailing shutter-of-the-damned and the occasional cockroach is to become our home for the next two days. Both nights walking pilgrims share the space, though a couple more with tents opt to camp nearby instead.

Shikoku holy sites, day 9 + Tengu highlands

A man-made waterfall?

Shikoku holy sites, day 8

Statue for recovering alchoholics.

Shikoku holy sites, day 5 + Ryuuga caves

Temple #25 is the ugly duckling of the tour, refurbished and concreted. We still wrangled a good photo out of it though.

Shikoku holy sites, day 4

The map seemed to indicate that this temple could only be reached by cable-car. We rather foolishly take the walking path as far as we can by bike... less than 2m wide, covered in leaves and dirt, wet and treacherous with a sharp drop-off. Even so we end up hiking most of the way up. We arrive to find a car-park and swarms of nursery-school kids on an outing. D'oh. Still, we got a taste of what the walking pilgrims go through every day of the 40 day+ route!

Shikoku holy sites, day 2

Majestic pines and a variety of statues lined the approach, but this chubby fellow won the coveted '12th temple' prize. The prize being having your photo taken next to Hozumi's fingers.

Shikoku holy sites, day 1

A photo blog, since we finally got our photos uploaded, yay!

Tottori to Shikoku

Tottori's biggest draw, and the reason for our visit, is the Tottori sand dunes. Covering about 15km by 2km, it's the closest thing Japan has to a desert. I wasn't expecting much, to be honest, but it was every bit as impressive as the picture here implies. I enjoyed both marvelling at the sand flowing at our feet and whipping over ridges and bounding down the steepest side of the dune like a big kid.

Osaka to Tottori

Hozumi had a fairly serious crash, but escaped with no more than torn clothes and bruises. It's been a while since my last entry though, so I'll start from where I left off: Universal Studios.

Much more entertaining than I expected, perhaps because it didn't all revolve around cartoon characters I dislike (see Disney) but rather a bunch of films that were actually quite good.