life update:

hey! sorry, it's been so long.. i've been busy. BIG news on the way! but first..

in about an hour the amazen hazen should be rolling into okayama on the hikari limited express! for those of you tragically unfamiliar with the man, he's a long-time friend and room mate from university. i'm guessing he's been traveling for 18 or so hours but, knowing the guy, he should still be up for a night on the town!

man, hazen's great - he's always into eating the weirdest possible shit and doing the craziest stupid shit even i've been too embarrassed to admit i want to do.. here's the list he sent me last week (he really wrote this):

- See Basho Sumo tournament in Osaka
- Visit Peace Park (park and museum showing the effects of the Atomic bomb) in Hiroshima
- Beach it, check out the tropical like setting of Okinawa
- Temples, Japanese Gardens, Cherry Blossom Trees, see the Geinra in Kyoto
- Lonely Planet recommends a JTB Sunrise Tour which has the same kind of reputation as the tour we went on back in Germany (remember Boris's tour?)
- Try a public bath house (sento or onsen)
- Stay at a capsule hotel. (* holy shiat! So it really is like sleeping in coffin?)
- Stay at a love hotel?
- Spend a .5 day at Mt. Fuji
- Go to electronic district in either Osaka (Den Den Town) or Tokyo (Akihabara)
- Ride a bullet train (shinkansen I believe it's called)
- Try a bunch of authentic food, meet some new ppl, drink a lot of beer

i love it! i couldn't have imagined a more hazen vacation!

he's hanging here this week so i've made a short list of okayama adventures and challenges to keep him busy while i'm at work.

next weekend alex and eric are landing in tokyo and we'll meet the 2 of them and taku for a 4 day japan adventure via rail! (thanks truly to my dear sweetheart manager for getting me some time off!) i'm totally geeked! i've been so lucky (taku says blessed) with visiters this year! i'll try to give you all the highlights! here we go!