I`m writing this much later (2.5 years actually), but here is what I can remember:
The Dutch theme park at Nagasaki was not nearly as tacky as expected (or as it looks in this photo. It included a 1/4 size replica of the Dutch royal palace as well as a homage house to Escher. as well as some more stuff ( 1, 2).
In Takayama I stayed in a temple youth hostel, quite comfy. It had snowed a few feet in the last few days, and when I went to see the local tourist attraction of the pointy roofed housed at shirakawago I got distracted and made a life size pig out of snow.
Some place near Okayama was so overrated that I`ve forgotten its name. What I do remember, though, is that the `close to station, scenic location` youth hostel was a 30 minute hike up through a mountain graveyard! The manager was a mite creepy too, as you would be living virtually alone in such a location (I was apparently the first guest for some time). Anyway, I got out of there and caught a ferry to Shodo Shima, a little island where they grow olives (hence the name `little bean island`) and bill themselves as a little piece of the mediterranean - not quite, but it was nice enough and the hostel food was outstanding. The beach was a little disappointing, with concrete driveways every 20 metres. In Kagoshima I almost killed myself climbing a mountain alone in a blizzard, and didn`t even get decent photos, except for a nice piccy of a deer. In Kobe I met up with the old AIESECers for a nabe party. Still a good bunch of people. We also went for dinner at an Izakaya.
Finally in Kyoto to chill out for a few days before returning I got so down with the ugliness of it all: the concrete block buildings, the tangled cobwebs of overhead power cables, the vending machines dotting sacred temple gardens etc, and just took to photographing wildlife and trees (1,
2). I was ready to come home.
