Back from Japan. It was pretty cool. I landed at Kansai Airport, which is a man made island. I believe it is the largest man made island in the world, but don't quote me on that. I just remember reading that somewhere.

My first day I got in about 1PM and hopped the 'express' train to downtown Osaka. By the way, Osaka's train system is beyond confusing. The subway is easy, but the trains... yea, rough. I went to the hostel I planned at staying at (I got there about 3PM-ish), only to find that they didn't have any beds. Alright, that is one of the bits to not reserving a hostel bed ahead of time. I go to another hostel I knew about. Oops, booked up to. By now it is 5PM. Ugh... I manage to convince the hostel owner at the second hostel to give me the names of other hostels around. He really didn't want to, saying he didn't have time to do that. I kept nagging him until he agreed. He reached under the counter and pulled out a sheet with 10 of them on it... cool, a lot of hard work that was.

Anyway, I go to a public phone and start calling around. The last one on the list, SUMO backpackers had one bed left. Friggin' sweet, last hostel bed in the city and it is all mine. When I got there I tried to book Saturday night as well, but they didn't have any spot open. Crap, I called around all the hostels again, no beds. Oh well, I got tonight figured out, I'll deal with tomorrow tomorrow. Anyway SUMO was pretty nice.

Long and drawn out story short, I met some people who were hosting backpackers at their house on Saturday night and they invited me to crash there. It was pretty sweet. I'll get pics up soon.

Thailand

So, I was in Thailand at the tail of the the revolt they had two months ago. It really didn't affect me, or any other travelers, and we went around like we normally would have. However, Two days before I arrived, all the public transportation in Bangkok was shut down (reported to me, not witnessed). Well, it seems the strife continues. The airport in Bangkok has been shut down. Shots have been fired between police and protesters, as well. Seems I went at the right time...

Japan

So, I tried to buy a ticket to Iloilo, but the stupid airlines kept declining my card... kinda annoying. So, I changed my mind and grabbed a flight to Osaka. I'm leaving Friday and come back Sunday. It is pretty expensive for a weekend trip, but hey... it's Japan.

Squid... ugh...

Ate some raw squid last night that really isn't agreeing with me. Blugh. In Thailand I had some chicken liver that was not in its most fresh state, so on the good side of things, I don't feel as bad as that.

Anyway, it's been raining for 3 days here and it is supposed to keep going for another 3. Not pouring like a typhoon, but drizzling. It really has been nice since the rain has kept it pretty cool. It is about 18C here which is about 65F. People are running around in jackets, it's pretty funny.

Hong Kong Pictures

Put up some HK pictures. I took about 120, but I only put up about 40. I didn't like the rest.

http://picasaweb.google.com/schmitt.ericS

HK

Back from HK. It was pretty fun. I spent some time in Lantau, which is a small island that hasn't been overly developed like Kowloon and HK Island. Lantau was really cool. All the foreigners where getting onto this gondola thing to go up to the gigantic sitting Buddha which Lantau is known for, but the gondola looked pretty lame. I walked around a bit and found all the locals getting on a small bus, so I hopped on the bus and got a 2 hour bus ride around the island. I saw some pretty cool fishing village type places. The bus finally ended up at the temple with the Buddha, where I got off. It was a pretty cool statue.

I spent Halloween night at a huge party. The city closed down quite a few city blocks to traffic and had a shindig. It was awesome. I snagged some pictures, although they arn't very good. I'll get 'em up soon.