kitakyushu, kokura city. internet cafe in a pachinko parlor - 100 yen/hour + free drink (grapefruit juice in my case) - attractive all night rate: 1560 from 10-8 - considering staying.

oh man, i had fun in beppu! i ran into this canadian guy who was cycling across an island or two and we rolled to the beppu gardens. he played a little guitar too so we set up and started playing. an older lady gave us beer and then we ran into some dudes from wisconson who were studying abroad. i sold another cd, but they lived out in the country and had to catch a bus back. the park was pretty dead at 9:30, but there was one wild party going on under a big tree a ways off - we could hear it. when we got there we could see that the group had brought a generator with them so they could party late - their trees were all lit up and beautiful! we walked by close, but not not too close, and slow, but not too slow, and sure enough they caught us. they waved us over and shouted, we politely refused their hospitality and then they dragged us down to the tarp and forced endless food and beer on us! it was a good score, they loved the guitar and i sold the last cd i had with me that night. when they packed up to leave they gave us 6 surviving beers and we made friends with a family resting at the onsen attached to the hostel.

that morning, slightly hungover and the staff slightly anoyed with me, i rolled out of beppu. i had some trouble catching a ride, but eventually got one to yufin. i had lunch, got orientated and took a ride out to an interchange. at the interchance i crossed out to a wide berth of north west bound road and a bus pulled over instantly. what? maybe he doesn't know how this works. "no, no, i'm hitch hiking!!", "ok," he said, "where to?" haza! he was returning to nagasaki after dropping a brazilian tour group in beppu - i had an entire tour bus to myself!

the driver dropped me in hita and pointed me to the park. i camped out and watched the noon-time ohanami croud do their thing - all groups of moms with little kids and wheel chair country clubs. i played for a while and an old lady gave me 1000 yen. then this middle aged guy in fisherman cloths came over with a friend and asked me loads of questions. he played the guitar and showed me some country and japanese enka (like country, maybe, but japanese). soon his friend had materialized two more guitars out of thin air and we all played together. later he showed me to a cheap place to stay, a b&b run by a friend of his and that night the whole group sat around and i got an enka lesson. very groovie experience, really!

the next morning i hiked out to the highway and caught a korean couple on their way to the fukuoka airport. i got a ride into the rainy, aweful, big city and found myself with no agenda. i would meet a friend from okayama, now living in fukuoka at 7, but i had lots of time to kill and in the endless rain, there was no chance of ohanami.. i played at the station for a little while but the cops kept me moving along. there's no place for a poor boy in the city when it's raining. i ended up camping out in a mcdonalds.

i met ide-kun at the station and we walked to the voodo lounge. a bunch of his friends play artsy-noise music and progressive fusion jazz, ambient, etc. the show was cool, really. the last group had a chick singer who unfortunatly studied at the yoko ono school of vocal training, but she rocked - no doubt about that.

in the morning i took a bus out to kitakyushu and will let you know how it goes. so far so good.. hope this rain quits soon!