Robins Japan

My fukuoka trip is nearly over. It was my second time in fukuoka. The first time was very short so this time we wanted it to be more relaxing. It totally worked out. Our hotel is close to the hakata station. With the station comes many shopping mals and restaurants. So we spent actually much time around that station area. Also we had some nice time with my mother in law, I met a former boss of my wife, enjoyed massages in the hotel, ate lots of udon noodles, had fun at the Hardrock Café and were at the cinema. Today we even managed to head to the really nice beach at fukuoka and I played there with my ukulele. Normally I'm playing more guitar but when it comes to travel, nothing beats the ukulele! The beach was pretty empty. Maybe couse it was no weekend but it's also nice that it wasn't so crowded. One other thing which was amazing was a trip to a really big Buddha statue. We saw the picture in a magazine for fukuoka travel and decided to check that out. Actually i...

So I'm sitting here and waiting for my flight to fukuoka, which means that the Okinawa time is over. Two days ago we wanted to try another beach in Naha but we had bad luck. The beach itself was nice but not allowed to swim in the water. The problem was that a typhoon some days before caused the staff to remove the jellyfish protection net and now they have to wait until the jellyfish are gone until they reinstall that net. Actually most beaches seemed to have such a net. That was new to me. So we kinda switched the plan and walked to an outlet store nearby. There we ate Okinawa Soba. Which reminds a little bit of udon noodles. Then we started to master the confusing bus system and after that drove with the monorail to the Shuri castle. The castle was really nice and pretty different from castles in Europe. Especially the inside had so many wood. Also it explained a little bit about the ryuku kingdom (Okinawa) and it's relationships between China and Japan. Its actually a ...

My first trip to Okinawa! Yeah! That was my thinking before. But at the first day it turned out that my expectations were a little bit high. It startet with a stressful check-in in Tokyo so we suddenly had no time for dinner. At Okinawa Airport first stop was something to eat. Nice Udon noodles :-) Taxi to the hotel was also OK. Hotel also what I expected. City beach near the hotel... ちょっと... Not so good. Small and the beach store decided to make much music for everyone. So it felt more like a small party beach. But just without party. Also the beach looked far from what I expected a beach look like as I knew it from Spain, Netherlands or France. But hey city Beach so my expectations were probably just wrong. Then we headed to a recommended street by catalloges called the international street. I would recommend it if you like to fresh up your Chinese and be at a tourist hot spot we're most things are just expensive or fake. Not to mention we actually tried to eat dinner there...

So the last days I was leaving my beloved Tokyo for a trip to Fukuoka  (福岡)! I met there the Mother of my Girlfriend^^ I whish I could fly to Tokyo as fast like in the time of this flight. Fukuoka so far I saw is a nice big city at the sea! The first impression actually were at the Subway. My girlfriend met surprisingly an old friend and I had a nice talk with a guy originally from Great Britain who lives in Fukuoka with his Japanese wive. Most times only strange people wants to talk to me. But in Japan I sometimes got nice chit chat with other Foreigners for exchange experience :D Our resident this time was the Hilton Hotel with a nice view to Fukuoka Tower. The first time I could actually walk in a Room at a residence in Japan :D. But actually I love my tiny room at our Hotel Wing International Korakuen in Tokyo, they are so nice! Back to Fukuoka! We visited the Fukuoka Tower and had a nice view over the Town. Also I got discount for being German :D At the tower was also a f...

So yesterday we wanted to go to a firework at Odaiba. Many japanese kind of suit up for those events with wearing yukatas. With a little (actually a lot of) help i bought also a yukata. The cheapest one looked not good. But then we went to a better shop and found a really cool one with dragons. Until that it was easy. But try to find traditional shoes as a European with big foot... I tried a lot.... and at some point we decided to look for sandals instead of traditional shoes. That was not easy too but we found some. I like them and it looked good with the yukata! Really a big thanks for the help! Maybe i wear the yukata on a convention sometime. Couse of that we needed so long we was way to late to meet the other people. We arrived just as the fireworks startet and forgot to bring snacks and such things: big sorry for that! The firework was nice. And really long! Couse of the others we had a great spot at the beach. I also met new intressting people from France, Italy, Swiss and...

Today i somehow managed to squeeze the amount of the adventures from 3 days  into one. I met my japanese friend. After a short break in Shinjuku we decided to visit a huge budha statue in kamakura. But beware: this thing is big but it also can appear out of nowhere! After that we went to the beach. And guess what i found.... a german restaurant! These germans seem to be everywhere xD On the way home we thought Yokohama is right in the way!  If you are a fan of pikachu go there! You can't get out of the way of pictures of him. There is even a park with roller coasters and a big ferris wheel where you can see Yokohama at night. Its great especially if you do this at night ;-)