A slight change of plans… Since Nagasaki was totally booked up for the few days of the festival, we chose to go to Fukuoka and head to Nagasaki the next morning. Our first night in Fukuoka wasn`t very eventful. We got in, in the mid afternoon and found ourselves one of the only hostels availible. We quickly booked it and dropped off our bags. From there we took a little stroll through the city. Fukuoka doesn`t offer anything different than most of the other cities we`ve visited. Tall buildings, busy streets, Japanese food… nothing to write home about. We took it easy that night. Although the most exciting part of the day was when Deena had stumbled onto a few websites that were talking about her`s and Robb`s comic book, Titty Terror. People from all over north america were writing about how much they enjoyed it and there was even a fan art section where people were submitting their own titty terror drawings. It was quite shocking to see this, especially for Deena, since they only released a small teaser comic and handed out some coppies in Toronto. Deena celebrated on our way back to the hostel by jumping up in the air, we then returned to our beds and passed out.

The next morning we were awoken by a construction crew next door. It helped us wake up early and rush to the train station to catch our train to Nagasaki for the day. After a beautiful train ride we arrived at the main station. The weather there was VERY hot and VERY humid… We both felt really gross the instant we walked into the open air. We headed for the tourist information booth, grabbed a bite to eat, and then ventured into the city via streetcar to catch a festival with a big paper dragon (the name escapes me right now). It was really neat to see all the participants walking around and hoisting the dragon up and down in the air. Quite the spectacle. Then we walked down the street and saw a huge staircase with Torii all along the way. I hiked my way up to the top while Deena hung back and enjoyed some shade (not like it would have helped, it was still hot as heck). At the top of the staircase lived a large temple, I didn`t catch the name since it was all in Japanese, but it was still very nice. I also enjoyed a great view of the city from atop of the staircase. After I met back up with Deena we both decided to go back to Fukuoka to escape the tremendous heat, and I`m glad we did.

Along the way we planned a spontanious route to Sapporo to hopefully enjoy some nicer cooler weather, to get a cross japan view of the land and also to take full advantage of our rail passes. The trip leaves tomorrow and should take around 17-20 hours. We are both very looking forward to the trip.
Tonight we are staying at a surprisingly large japanese style hotel in Fukuoka, equipped with tea and a biscut. Hopefully they will replenish our stock before we retire for the night. They were damn good biscuits.

Thats all for today, stay tuned for more updates from the land of the rising sun.

g`bye