Free Drinks With Nausea

Ok, so it`s been a while. This I know. I am sitting in a really clean and pretty amazing internet cafe here in Osaka, near the main JR Osaka station. I have been using my JR Pass for the week and will use it until late tomorrow night when I finish up over in Fukuoka on the island of Kyushu. Have I mentioned that I will be going to a town called Oita which is a really large hot spring city. The guy that I will be staying with has invited me to attend a bluesgrass fest there. So cheap, like twenty bucks, to camp and watch the show. I never would have believed that I would be seeing a bluesgrass festival, ever, never mind it being here in Japan. I`ve been traveling too much by shinkansen bullet train, and must admit that it becomes quite addictive. You go as fast as a taxiing airplane but you never lift off. The weather was completely shitty all day, raining as hard as you can imagine. The trains were all delayed over and over again so I made it as far as Okayama before turing around and coming back to Osaka today. I was over in Hiroshima yesterday, meeting an Australian dude and we went to visit the A-Bomb Dome and Peace Museum in Hiroshima. It wasn`t as moving as I would have hoped. Actually it was a little too grotesque. I had visited Nagasaki four years ago and as it was my first time seeing an actual city affected by nuclear war naturally it was quite emotional. But Hiroshima wasn`t. I was a little confused. I`m an emotional guy as you all well know, but nothing. Hmmmmm....Regardless, Hiroshima is a beautiful city with many rivers and natural scenery. I thought that it would be more concrete than green. Happily I was wrong. I take a late shinkansen over to Shin-Yamaguchi and will see if I can get farther towards Hagi where I will spend most of the day tomorrow. It carries a lot of history and has been a long time coming for me, having missed it my first run over here.

It`s been about three months here. July has flown by. And I am happy about that. I am in that traveling mode, where you just keep going until it`s time for you to stop and take off. I have been a little concerned about my getting back into the country again, but as I am not working over here and have a clean sheet, a ticket back home and money, there won`t be an issue. South Korea is in less than seven days. I am excited for the food and the people I have been speaking to about crashing at their places seem very very nice and hospitable. I am even going to the J-League/K-League All Star game in Incheon. It`s called the Jomo Cup (an oil/gas company I think based over here) and was expanded to the K-League just last year. It was the national Japanese all star game for years. My host in Incheon will be going with me. Excitment all around. I have changed my plans and will be coming home earlier than expected, early November so that I can get some work and cash under my pants. Sounds good? Good.