AND....Into the Hot

Of course we had to explore a HotSpring hotel for a night.

As "usual" we just hadn't  bothered with pre-booking, so when we found THIS neat little inn, they had a room for us

with Privat HotSpring...But no food.

 A deal was made, we would supply the food ourselves during our stay...

so we had...

Cup Noodles for dinner

and rice balls for breakfast!

And that night zillion of soaks Into the Hot!

Did we sleep well!

(BTW on request i'm happy to send you a pix of the Girls Into the Hot).

Salute.

Into the Green

In June when Marleen and Loek were here with us, we took Esther the Car for a spin into the Heart of Kyushu. There is a great National Park near Mt Kuju. The weather was too wet to hike up that mountain, so we just went for walkies at "base camp".

We walked a great board-walk trail to observe all the local plants and indeed the many flowers and huge mushrooms!

Next morning we finally could see the top ((@one side) of Mt Kuju...See the active volcano?

And oh yes, the rice is doing well this year with all the rain we had.

Next day on the list was a stroll through Yufuin Town.

Window Shopping...what a contrast!

But also a great place for some food...see "post Above".

Salute

And....MA-ON is going East

This was the situation on Tuesday at 0800. More or less from that time on she started to make a turn away from us...with the result: a longggger period of 30 knots from the north. Now it is 24 hours later and it is still blowing those 30 knots but more from the NW.
When talking to cruising friends about sailing to Japan they always tell us: We would love to sail to Japan, but those typhoons......
Again the rule: Find a good spot in a harbor and then: A typhoon is just lot of pre-stress and a little trouble. 
The average winter gale gives us more wind and trouble than these warm windbags in the summer.
Anyway,  the sun will start shining again tomorrow.

Salute

MA-ON going North

This is MA-ON. a biggy

Good thing is ...It looks like she'll pass us to the East, so we gonna get winds from the N, NW and THAT is the right direction for Alishan here in port.
A windy start of the week, indeed.

Salute

Do for Japan

This is Kusuda Temple in the Rain.
Kusuda temple is the heart of the Yamakasa festival, so we had to visit it with Marleen and Loek. Despite the down poor!
Oh yes everywhere in Japan they are collecting sympathy (and money) for the victims of the Tsunami.

But of course NOT this way.

See here the remains of that BIG Ferries wheel

we had here across the river from us.

They decided to relocate the whole thing to Taiwan and so

they took it down: bit-by-bit!

Until the last standing legs...a bit of wind and the lot came crashing down.

Oops Again.

Smiley Faces

22 years ago we first set foot on land in Japan.

That was after a yacht race: sailing 5500 miles from Auckland, NZ to Fukuoka.

One of the first Japanese people we met was Mr Nagazawa and his wife. He promised to look after us and he STILL does so, so we think he is our best Paparin!

That time our boat was sy Jan Haring and for the race we had extra crew on board: Sister Marleen.

Now Marleen and hubby Loek are visiting us... a good reason for a reunion.

Hence this picture with Smiley Faces;-)

BTW, it is Yamakasa Time here in Fukuoka, we are standing in front of one of the display floats. The thingy is 20 metres tall...oops didn't fit on the same picture.  Read More