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day 8: Seoul to Heathrow

We were on the 0740 shuttle bus from the hotel and in the Asiana Lounge for breakfast by 0830. It's almost deserted here.

This is the only airport I know where you can watch the planes from the comfort of a massage chair!

Off to the gate to board the B777.

On board we had a Chinese ATC delay of 10 minutes and then we're off. Starters number 2:

We didn't sleep much, partly because it's a daytime flight westbound and partly due to a child with Attention Defecit Disorder close by. The child wasn't as much a problem as the trendy parents idea of how to get him to sleep by making even more row. Suffice to say that the oriental kids in Business were good as gold.

Anyhow, the Asiana ladies pandered to our whims and we arrived in reasonable shape for a 11hr 40min flight.

cheers!

P.S. Arrival at Heathrow isn't a great advert for the UK. For a start, all the 'Priority' tagged business class bags came off the plane last, about 40min after we arrived, plus the prepaid car park system still doesn't work which means one has to go visit the office to get out. Hey ho...

day 7: Kumamoto to Seoul

Back to Kumamoto airport to drop off the car, which seemed to be the only way we could stop the satnav from jabbering away in Japanese at us and fly to Seoul. Most of the Japanese passengers have face masks on thanks to the swine flu publicity and we saw our first Westerner since leaving Seoul a week ago. And he was wearing a mask too, perhaps in an effort to blend in. Or maybe he understood Japanese and was responding to a directive. In 'normal' i.e. 'oh my god we're all going to die of a strange disease' times many of the Japanese wear face masks; I know I don't have a biology degree, but can't viruses get through face masks?

Goodbye to Kumamoto.

We were in 'Travel' class on the 90min flight up to Seoul but were well looked after so I'd imagine that Asiana Economy class would be pretty good long haul too. It was wet on arrival and Korean immigration included a thermal imaging camera which we assume to be aimed at detection of anyone with a high temperature - for swine flu detection - I was just hoping that my sunburnt nose didn't set it off. No queues though and we were on the shuttle bus to the Best Western within minutes.

Unfortunately, check in at the hotel wasn't so speedy. In fact, it didn't happen at all as I appear to have made a reservation for a month ago and because of the holidays all the airport hotels were full. As we waited for the shuttle back to the airport a nice Korean guy got on his mobile phone and found us a hotel that had a twin for USD80. It was difficult to know whether he was taking us to his brother's flat but in the end all was well; as seems to be the case in these parts people are actually trying to help you, not themselves, and we spent the night in the Hub Herb Hotel which was in a housing estate close to the airport. I'm sure something must have been 'lost in translation' (must watch that film again) as Hub Herb doesn't mean anything to me!

We went out in search of some local delicacies and found a bar around the corner. This proved most acceptable and we pointed at some dishes from the menu to go with our 'Hite' beers. Mine turned out to be sausage, chicken and something else which was quite tasty. Nick had a selection of various sausages with some pizza topping on top; each sausage had a different flavour, which inevitably leads to the question of which is the Dachshund, which is the Labrador etc.

This photo taken before Nick had too long to think and went monochrome. There wasn't much else to do near the hotel so that was that.

day 6: Kumamoto to Nagasaki

A Phantom to start.....

The Japanese seem to have everything sorted including how to make the Expressway stay Express even when it's a bit like the Friday before Bank Holiday for us. They make the toll for the Expressway a deterrent so that only rich tourist - and probably the average local - can afford it. The toll from Kumamoto to Nagasaki is approx £30 each way, distance same as Bournemouth to London. From what we could understand from Happy Radio in garbled English the A roads are rather busy.

Another thing the Japanese do really well is car parks. You take a ticket on the way in, pay on return to the car but don't have to put the ticket in the exit machine as technology recognises you as having paid and you drive straight out. Saves a couple of seconds, but clever. Compared to what happens when we get back to Heathrow in a couple of days where I am probably expected to produce a credit card that was used to book and pay for the car park 8 months ago which I doubtless don't have any more or on me so I'll end up in the office.

And another thing is mealtime. You can go in any restaurant, choose your food from the photobook menu. Then when ready to order, press a dingdong device (I was tempted to nick one for work for use with the PA but the Japanese don't steal anything so this would be really poor) and the staff appear instantly.

And there's free internet everywhere. My mobile may not work, but that's my provider's fault. Roll on nuclear fusion and free energy for all too. Fusion....leads me to fission....

...as we rolled into Nagasaki town looking for the Peace Park, Atomic Bomb Museum and the Memorial we noticed that an usually large number of locals were using parasols. We were expecting facemasks given the swine flu media coverage. Anyhow, we noted that perhaps the locals had more experience of the effects of radiation than others.

The museum was just great. Describing it is difficult as I can't do it justice but they do do museums rather well too and it makes the point.

Having done the museum and stood in the remains of the church 500m above which the bomb exploded we went to the Peace Park.

I'll think about what to say later.....

...and another thing they do well is drinks machines. They're everywhere - farmers fields etc - and dispense all sorts including hot coffee. Naturally this wouldn't work too well in the UK as someone would just steal the whole machine. Here's me with a can of lemon tea.

day 5 Miyaknojo to Kumamoto via Mt Aso

We were feeling less enthusiastic about an early start today. Left the hotel at 0930 with a very pleasant lady thanking us for staying with them and set off for the east coast and a look at Nyutabaru again. As it's 'Golden Week' here with many people on holiday following the Emperor's Birthday PH on Tuesday we weren't too hopeful, but as we arrived 6 Phantoms departed on a mission.

A couple of hours later, just as we were preparing to leave, two military policemen came over to record some details. They were very sweet - probably pleased to be interviewing plane spotters at home rather than Shia or Shiites in Iraq - and didn't even want to see passports; this compares very favourably to an experience that Nick and I had at Point Mugu, California a few years back when a SWAT team arrived to take our details because the car had one wheel just out of the allotted spotters parking place. It's not at all clear how the Japanese ever went to war as they seem far too placid and reserved to do anything nasty.

We decided to do the scenic route through the central mountains of Kyushu via Mount Aso - the world's largest caldera at 130km across and an active volcano - to Kumamoto. Dolis the satnav was quite adamant that this wasn't a good idea and although we overrode her, on reflection, when we were stuck on a single track windy road in the middle of nowhere, we think she may have been right.

Anyhow, the scenery was great and eventually we found a shop to buy lunch of ham, crisps, bananas and lettuce. I ate a whole lettuce in 20min as I don't recall having seen a vegetable since I arrived....at least, an unpickled one. It's 2 yen for a plastic bag (1.5p) so the lady gave us this box. Why the lettuce has 'fresh crisp lettuce' written on the covering I'm not sure. Either it's imported from the USA/UK or it makes it look more appealing to the average Japanese?

As it was late we didn't do the cable car into the mouth of Mount Nakadake which is one of the 5 peaks and the one which is active.







We checked in to the Sleep Inn in Kumamoto and as there is a train station nearby, thought we'd go into the city by train and see what was going on. The result was nothing much at all. There are schoolchildren everywhere still in school uniform despite being 'late' by our standards.

Trying to find our way back to our obscure station could have been a problem until we thought that taking a photo of the sign was the best bet. More of a problem intially was trying to work out which of the signs was actually the station sign and which wasn't. I wasn't quick enough to get an illustrative photo of Nick looking at a sign which could have been a doctor advertising breast enhancement although thinking of us showing the train booking office a photo of it and asking to go there would have been funny.



On the train on the way back to the hotel, one brave high school lad started chatting to us; his name is Hiro and he hopes to go to America one day. I tried asking him about the length of the school day; he didn't seem to think it abnormal to leave home at 0730 and get home around 2130. His mates weren't anything like as brave as him; it was only just now that we realised that we have not seen any other Westerners at all since we arrived in Japan. Given that we've been in airports as well as the back of beyond, this is really surprising.

It's amazing how far you get in a country knowing 3 words - hai, konichi-wa, arigato = yes, hello, thank you - but using smiles and sign language!

Off to Nagasaki tomorrow....

day 4 Kanoya and Kagoshima

'Preloaded' (trendy word I must have learnt from radio 1) breakfast in the Sleep Inn today which was spicy meatballs and omelette plus toast, strange looking pickles etc. Then off across country to the Naval base at Kanoya which has a museum.

There's about 20 planes and choppers outside, plus a reasonably sized museum indoors. It's free, it's peaceful, there's no on-site gift shop (it's across the road) and there's war memorials mixed in with the aircraft. And a pond with Koi.

The peace is wonderful and allows you time to reflect. I guess this is the point, but because you don't go into it expecting to feel like this, it's more powerful.

Anyhow, I felt humbled by the experience.



There are lots of P-3 Orions based here but nothing was flying. Perhaps because today is a bank holiday as 29-Apr is the Emperor's birthday which marks the beginning of Golden Week. It's supposed to be busy but here in South West Japan it seems almost devoid of life at times. The back roads are very quiet! We've finally mastered the all-in-Japanese satnav with really irritating female voice we've christened 'Dolis'.

It doesn't seem fair to amuse ourselves by the local pronunciation of 'l' and 'r' (You're so rovery' etc) as our Japanese is non-existant, extending to a konichiwa, arigato and somewhere we read that you 'domo' on reply. So it's not amusing, but interesting that they have road signs with the English words saying 'Rocation of Hory Shline' as we saw today. Every road sign has an English and Japanese text associated, so good on them. Or we'd be lost!

This isn't our hire car, but I've been amused by the latest products of the Japanese motor industry. This is a Nissan Cube which I know we can get at home......I quite like it. It's like a mini size Hummer.....but I don't think Ben will feel the same.

On the road to Kagoshima we're hugging the west coast of Kyushu. Thus far we haven't been to any kamikaze museums but this is the area they set off from.

Nice bridge and plenty of fishermen in the river below fishing for creatures to serve up for dinner (see below)





















Mount Sakurajima

is an active volcano near Kagoshima and is enormous. When it erupted in 1915 it became joined to the mainland of Japan. Today it was puffing gas from the side which creates a smog over the bay.

Then on to Kagoshima airport. I have no idea why the Japanese airport authority is out of synch with everywhere else in the world but they build airports with open air spectator facilities on the top level of the terminal. There's only an unarmed guard who dissuades 2 year olds from throwing themselves onto the tarmac so I can only assume, post 9/11, that there's some covert presence up there. But for photography and general plane and people watching, Japan is probably the one remaining location to go. Scanners, cameras, radar boxes all encouraged!

Now back in Miyakojono we filled the car up with petrol. Attendant service here, they marshal you into a refuelling slot and do everything for you at double quick time. Fuel is half the price at home but then again most of the world's is; more amusing is that the attendant got rather worried we were going to drive off without or 17yen change (10p). I know that tipping isn't expected but I guess it's not so much an insult as a cultural, service ethic. Maybe Tesco Express in Eastleigh could go this way as much of the limiting factor is getting people on the forecourt (inc the numpties who don't know the pump nozzle is designed to reach the 'other' side of the car)

.....on to the restaurant across the road for dinner

Mmmmm. Starters in the 'Family Restaurant' had legs which Nick was sure were still wriggling when they arrived. Thankfully, neither of us have the faintest idea what we ate. Simple 'point at dish' type menu. Plus beer of course!

Tonight's beer. And the hot water > green tea maker of course. And Nick's laptop.

day 4 the hotel toilet

No trip to Japan would be complete without photos of the sanitary facilities. They'd win the world cup for toilet facilities any day.

If it's not odd enough that they have a custom built toilet at Nyutabaru military base for the use of plane spotters, then it is surely odd that the hotel toilets get more and more sophisticated. I for one do not like the heated toilet seat (maybe because it feels like Nick's just got off it?) and just don't get the attraction.

I do like the graceful closing of toilet seats - a Boeing 777 toilet is supposed to do this too but I think most are broken - but this one seems to do all the spraying of orifices and drying and plays music so you aren't embarassed by bodily noises and then automatically sprays deodourising spray into the atmosphere.

Another thing the Japanese do well is Internet. It's free everywhere we've been, no suggestion of charging and really useful. I shall resist the temptaion to Google more photos of Japanese loos....