Kamikaze Canuck

The instructions printed on my train ticket explaining how I get to Beppu ~ "Beppu is transfer considerably by all means at station" Gotta love Japenglish.

After relaxing in the hot spring town of Beppu for the evening, I hit the road again.  With the corniest song ever (Genesis – Easy Lover) blaring through the headphones of my ipod, I smiled patiently until eventually I had hitchhiked my way back to Fukuoka.

This completed the loop of Northern Kyushu (shown below).

The loop of Northern Kyushu. A distance of about 350km. All but 30 km were done by hitchhiking. FINISHED.

Back in Fukuoka, the beloved Softbank Hawks were taking on their rivals, the Hiroshima Carp in preseason baseball action.  $50 got me a ticket 2 rows behind the backcatcher.  As I was hoping, it was absolutely awesome.  Even if you’re not a baseball fan, the fervent passion that the Japanese show for baseball makes the atmosphere at the game electric.  Here are some pics and a quick video of the game:

This pitcher was consistently hitting 96 mph on the radar gun.

"Cabrera". Obviously not Japanese. Players come from all over the world to the Japanese League to make it big. Including Tom Selleck.....

After the ball game, I bummed around Fukuoka for one more day and packed my bags for the 4th largest city in Japan, Nagoya.   A 3 hour bullet train ride put me into Nagoya near supper time.  To quote the great philosopher Johnny Cash, “I’d just hit town and my throat was dry, I thought I’d stop and have myself a brewwwwww”.   I stumbled into the nearest pub, and although I didn’t find the dirty, mangy dog that named me Sue, I did make friends with the owner of the place.  Over a meal, a beer, and a couple games of darts, Shiochi, the bar owner took a liking to me.  He insisted that he show me his favourite izakaya (Japanese style pub) in town.

So off we went.  Like a scene out of an Indiana Jones movie, we wound our way through narrow back alleys until we made entrance into an old, tiny, seemingly abandoned wooden building in the middle of nowhere that he called “Mamas”.  I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

"Mama's". Shoichi, the bar owner, is in the front of the pic.

I got the feeling they weren't used to seeing foreigners here.

"Mama" is on the left. A large woman with attitude that I'm sure, thinks she is black.

Shoichi, insisted that he pay for everything.   This was another night I’ll never forget.  Having booked no accomidation for the night, I payed $15 for a booth at an internet cafe and hit the hay….

My room

Big Gulps eh?  Well, see ya later!