Departure
First flight, to London
Four hour wait in Heathrow.
Plane drifting into Hong Kong.
Hong Kong airport has a metro running between the gates. (One up from the bus at Heathrow)
Third plane, about to leave Hong Kong.
Passing over Taiwan.
After a good nights sleep at a capsule hotel, it's a lovely day.
My room at the Wasabi Guest House.
Slightly unfortunate naming: The KKK building.
Tokyo Sky Tree.
View from the top.
One of my favorite views in Tokyo, from the Starbucks across from Shubuya eki.
Hyaku shiki.
The last remaining tram in Tokyo.
Tokyo eki, in slight overcast weather.
A view of the Rainbow Bridge from the harbour.
No bicycles or rickshaws allowed on the expressway.
There's loops on the trains here!
It turns out that the Rainbow Bridge can be crossed on foot.
Did I cross the wrong bridge?
Ready to save the universe from the space nazis.
Haro latte.
Eating an excellent sukiyaki diner with Nicholas.
Took the tram again.
The grave of Natsumi Souseki at Zoushigaya cemetery.
Meiji Jingu.
Ueno park at night.
Fujisan at 300km/h.
Transfering from the shinkansen to the local train.
A brief view of Osaka city.
I got a 100cc Honda Spacy. (Unfortunately not the one with flip-up headlights).
Ate dinner with a lovely view to the Akashi Kaikyo bridge.
On my fist half day of scooter rental, I have made it to Okayama. It was a beautiful day, albeit a bit cold. Getting out of Osaka city took longer than expected, as the first ~100km was city driving, with lots of congestion, and lots of traffic lights. This made me miss Himeji-jo, as the sun had already gone down when i reached Himeji city. After that, I hit a fantastic bit of the 250-route, running along the shore, with lots of bends, no traffic (except for a single fawn crossing the road), and had it not been dark, probably a great view too. Hopefully, I'll find more like it tomorrow.
There was actually a reason that the hotel was called “riverside”.
Not a bad view for a snack.
Climbed Fudekageyama. Breathtaking view on all sides of the Seto inland sea.
Very good mountain roads for a while.
...But the the road turned to gravel. It took two whole hours getting back to paved roads. (You're not lost until you turn back.)
Distant view of a part of the Seto Ôhashi.
Reached Hiroshima.
There's trams here :)
Hirosima Bomb Memorial Museum, lots of scary melted objects (and people...)
The dome in daylight.
The tram in daylight.
Met up with Louisa and went to Miyajima.
Itsukushima shrine.
Itsukushima shrine again.
Beware of exploding antlers.
Pagoda.
The Ootori.
By night.
Heading for the ferry in Tokuyama on an overcast day with occational ligth showers.
I had to ask at two convenience stores before I found the right ferry.
Leaving Honshū.
Two hours later, arriving in Kyūshū.
The youth hostel i went to turned out to be closed, but the manager let me stay anyway. I got a whole dormitory, with a kotatsu, for myself.
A random country side shrine.
Brilliant roads again today.
Brilliant views.
Riding through highland plains.
Then suddenly, I'm in the crater of an active vulcano. (This picture doesn't even begin to do that view justice)
Arrived in Kumamoto. The castle can be seen from the roof of the hostel.
They have trams here, as well :)
Kumamoto-jō.
The view from the top.
Inside the (reconstructed) castle.
The only original wooden building left of the castle.
Traditional samurai flourescent lighting.
The grave of Miyamoto Musashi.
Reigandō, the cave where Miyamoto Musashi spend the last of his days writing “Gorin no shō.”
I thought I'd climb Mt. Kimpu, but I ended up being lost in endless orange fields.
Finally found my way back to a good road.
En route to Kagoshima, on a lovely warm day.
Lovely mountain passes.
Pit stop.
Distant view of Sakurajima.
The Haibisukasu, headed for Tanegashima. Mainly a goods transport, but also carrying passengers and scooters (which the much faster hydrofoil won't.)
What could be seen of the ferry, after nightfall.
Some cave.
Some other cave.
Tanegashima space center, Yoshinobu launch complex. I came a week too early to watch the launch of Hayabusa 2.
The actual H-II rocket for flight 7, that ended up getting canceled.
It's first stage.
JAXA space-rope© used for coupling the engines to the rockets on actual space missions!
I wanna burn this engine while it's strapped to the bed of a kei-truck... For the motherland!
Range control center.
Kadokuramisaki, the suthernmost point of tanegashima. (Also the place where the evil robot legs killed off the disabled shop-lady)
Don't let your robot legs run amok when you're near that ledge.
Rocket launch observation tower.
Another nice beach.
This is where I stayed in Tanegashima. I had to leave at 4 in the morning, to catch the ferry to Yakushima.
Arriving in Yakushima at daybreak.
A road leading to a hiking trail.
It's a waterfall... I don't really think that sign is necesary.
The cedar wood contains so much resin that the pieces cut off 2-300 years ago, when the wood was harvested for shingles, are still laying around.
Waterfalls.
8m circumference. (I shoud have gotten something for scale...)
A second-generation cedar tree, a new one sprouting on the stump of a previously harvested one.
This is apparently a great view... if the rock is not surrounded by clouds.
Shika.
This forrest was the inspiration for the one in Mononokehime.
Northernmost point of Yakushima.
Sunset over the east-china sea.
Yakushima lighthouse, the westernmost point of Yakushima, in a spot of rain. Yakushima gets the most rain of all of Japan.
This is national primary road #78. The speed-limit is 60. This is the wide, straight part.
What, the ambient temperature? Is "Warm water" hotter or colder than "toilet seat"?
A nice, wobbly suspension bridge.
Footpaths made from side brances from trees that were felled some hundred years ago.
Tourist for scale.
The environment is so humid, that new cedars sprout on the stumps of old ones.
The bearded rich man.
Another splendid cryptomeria japonica.
Mount Tachō.
Mount Tachō, from another angle.
Once again, I reached the lookout spot while it was covered in clouds.
2000 years old.
A tree growing on the trunk of a fallen tree.
I stayed the night with Isamu-san and his dog Koro.
A last glimpse of Yakushima.
Cape Sata, on the way to Kagoshima.
A hazy view of Sakurajima.
This view would have been spectacular, had it not been for the foggy weather.
Coffee and a snack outside Miyazaki. Today is rainy and grey.
Kitagawa dam.
A sign from the main road pointed to “Totoro no mori.” There was a nekobus stop.
I've arrived in Beppu, mainly a hot spring resort town.
Takegawara onsen.
Umi-jigoku. A pretty lake of BOILING DOOM!
Distant view of Oita, across the bay.
Beppu.
The ferry for Shikoku.
A last view of Kyūshū (for this trip, at least)
Arrived on Shikoku.
I got a little lost, but the view was nice.
This is a public toilet.
Vestas-windmills.
Dōgo onsen. Supposedly the oldest in Japan.
Dōgo onsen from the back. This is supposedly the inspration for the onsen in “Spirited away.”
This is the nice ryokan, where I spend my night in Matsuyama.
Lovely weather today.
I have no idea what this is for, but I like it.
Went for udon. The women running the place found that hillarious, apparently.
Visited Konpirasan. There is exactly one shitload of stairs to the top.
The view was well worth the climb.
The shrine at the top.
For some reason they've enshrined some kind of boat.
First time I've seen pictures of diesel engines at a shrine.
According to The Internet (which is, as we all know, rarely wrong) this is the best bet for the temple grounds where Kafka woke up covered in blod.
Takamatsu station, the happiest station building in all of Shikoku.
On the ferry to Shōdoshima, on the way back to Ōsaka.
Fantastic weather today.
Ropeway to the top.
View from the top.
View from another top.
Man, that thing is huge!
(That's what she said)
Last ferry of this trip, bound for Himeji.
....okay.
Himeji harbour.
Himeji-jō, 5 minutes before closing time (saaaaafe).
I've arrived safely in Ōsaka (but too late to drop off the scooter, so I'll have to pay for parking tonight)
Ōsaka Shinsekai, meaning “new world”, a seedy, rundown place full of pachinko and homeless people.
Den-den town.
One of many arcades.
Yes, why not build a ferris wheel around the store.
The weather was fantastic since this morning.
Umeda sky building.
Chistmas decorations feels rather strange, when it's 20 degrees C and sunny...
The view down the middle of the sky building.
View from the top.
Apart from it being awesome, I have no idea why they build the highway throug that building, instead of around it...
Futuristic as fuck.
For that homey beach-feeling.
It might be called “Super Kids Land”, but the only kids I saw were ones, their dads had dragged along.
Rain on my last day in Japan.
Another arcade.
Ōsaka castle.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi himself decided the placement of these supply lines.
There it is, complete with conveniet elevator allowing even disabled samurai to take part in the invasions.
Nice view, even in the rain.
Instructions, in case this is your first time taking a dump.
This will (hopefully) take me to Dubai.
Nighto photo from prane... impossiburu!
Breakfast in Dubai.
Last flight.
...Or so I thought. Turned out I had to take a bus out to the runway...
The weird-looking bus.
Dubai skyline.
Flying over Iran.
More Iran.
I'm a bit worried about this flight path...
A patch of frozen Russia.
Barely missed Ukraine.
Kaliningrad.
I'm home.
Subscribe