day 5 Miyaknojo to Kumamoto via Mt Aso

We were feeling less enthusiastic about an early start today. Left the hotel at 0930 with a very pleasant lady thanking us for staying with them and set off for the east coast and a look at Nyutabaru again. As it's 'Golden Week' here with many people on holiday following the Emperor's Birthday PH on Tuesday we weren't too hopeful, but as we arrived 6 Phantoms departed on a mission.

A couple of hours later, just as we were preparing to leave, two military policemen came over to record some details. They were very sweet - probably pleased to be interviewing plane spotters at home rather than Shia or Shiites in Iraq - and didn't even want to see passports; this compares very favourably to an experience that Nick and I had at Point Mugu, California a few years back when a SWAT team arrived to take our details because the car had one wheel just out of the allotted spotters parking place. It's not at all clear how the Japanese ever went to war as they seem far too placid and reserved to do anything nasty.

We decided to do the scenic route through the central mountains of Kyushu via Mount Aso - the world's largest caldera at 130km across and an active volcano - to Kumamoto. Dolis the satnav was quite adamant that this wasn't a good idea and although we overrode her, on reflection, when we were stuck on a single track windy road in the middle of nowhere, we think she may have been right.

Anyhow, the scenery was great and eventually we found a shop to buy lunch of ham, crisps, bananas and lettuce. I ate a whole lettuce in 20min as I don't recall having seen a vegetable since I arrived....at least, an unpickled one. It's 2 yen for a plastic bag (1.5p) so the lady gave us this box. Why the lettuce has 'fresh crisp lettuce' written on the covering I'm not sure. Either it's imported from the USA/UK or it makes it look more appealing to the average Japanese?

As it was late we didn't do the cable car into the mouth of Mount Nakadake which is one of the 5 peaks and the one which is active.







We checked in to the Sleep Inn in Kumamoto and as there is a train station nearby, thought we'd go into the city by train and see what was going on. The result was nothing much at all. There are schoolchildren everywhere still in school uniform despite being 'late' by our standards.

Trying to find our way back to our obscure station could have been a problem until we thought that taking a photo of the sign was the best bet. More of a problem intially was trying to work out which of the signs was actually the station sign and which wasn't. I wasn't quick enough to get an illustrative photo of Nick looking at a sign which could have been a doctor advertising breast enhancement although thinking of us showing the train booking office a photo of it and asking to go there would have been funny.



On the train on the way back to the hotel, one brave high school lad started chatting to us; his name is Hiro and he hopes to go to America one day. I tried asking him about the length of the school day; he didn't seem to think it abnormal to leave home at 0730 and get home around 2130. His mates weren't anything like as brave as him; it was only just now that we realised that we have not seen any other Westerners at all since we arrived in Japan. Given that we've been in airports as well as the back of beyond, this is really surprising.

It's amazing how far you get in a country knowing 3 words - hai, konichi-wa, arigato = yes, hello, thank you - but using smiles and sign language!

Off to Nagasaki tomorrow....

day 4 Kanoya and Kagoshima

'Preloaded' (trendy word I must have learnt from radio 1) breakfast in the Sleep Inn today which was spicy meatballs and omelette plus toast, strange looking pickles etc. Then off across country to the Naval base at Kanoya which has a museum.

There's about 20 planes and choppers outside, plus a reasonably sized museum indoors. It's free, it's peaceful, there's no on-site gift shop (it's across the road) and there's war memorials mixed in with the aircraft. And a pond with Koi.

The peace is wonderful and allows you time to reflect. I guess this is the point, but because you don't go into it expecting to feel like this, it's more powerful.

Anyhow, I felt humbled by the experience.



There are lots of P-3 Orions based here but nothing was flying. Perhaps because today is a bank holiday as 29-Apr is the Emperor's birthday which marks the beginning of Golden Week. It's supposed to be busy but here in South West Japan it seems almost devoid of life at times. The back roads are very quiet! We've finally mastered the all-in-Japanese satnav with really irritating female voice we've christened 'Dolis'.

It doesn't seem fair to amuse ourselves by the local pronunciation of 'l' and 'r' (You're so rovery' etc) as our Japanese is non-existant, extending to a konichiwa, arigato and somewhere we read that you 'domo' on reply. So it's not amusing, but interesting that they have road signs with the English words saying 'Rocation of Hory Shline' as we saw today. Every road sign has an English and Japanese text associated, so good on them. Or we'd be lost!

This isn't our hire car, but I've been amused by the latest products of the Japanese motor industry. This is a Nissan Cube which I know we can get at home......I quite like it. It's like a mini size Hummer.....but I don't think Ben will feel the same.

On the road to Kagoshima we're hugging the west coast of Kyushu. Thus far we haven't been to any kamikaze museums but this is the area they set off from.

Nice bridge and plenty of fishermen in the river below fishing for creatures to serve up for dinner (see below)





















Mount Sakurajima

is an active volcano near Kagoshima and is enormous. When it erupted in 1915 it became joined to the mainland of Japan. Today it was puffing gas from the side which creates a smog over the bay.

Then on to Kagoshima airport. I have no idea why the Japanese airport authority is out of synch with everywhere else in the world but they build airports with open air spectator facilities on the top level of the terminal. There's only an unarmed guard who dissuades 2 year olds from throwing themselves onto the tarmac so I can only assume, post 9/11, that there's some covert presence up there. But for photography and general plane and people watching, Japan is probably the one remaining location to go. Scanners, cameras, radar boxes all encouraged!

Now back in Miyakojono we filled the car up with petrol. Attendant service here, they marshal you into a refuelling slot and do everything for you at double quick time. Fuel is half the price at home but then again most of the world's is; more amusing is that the attendant got rather worried we were going to drive off without or 17yen change (10p). I know that tipping isn't expected but I guess it's not so much an insult as a cultural, service ethic. Maybe Tesco Express in Eastleigh could go this way as much of the limiting factor is getting people on the forecourt (inc the numpties who don't know the pump nozzle is designed to reach the 'other' side of the car)

.....on to the restaurant across the road for dinner

Mmmmm. Starters in the 'Family Restaurant' had legs which Nick was sure were still wriggling when they arrived. Thankfully, neither of us have the faintest idea what we ate. Simple 'point at dish' type menu. Plus beer of course!

Tonight's beer. And the hot water > green tea maker of course. And Nick's laptop.

day 4 the hotel toilet

No trip to Japan would be complete without photos of the sanitary facilities. They'd win the world cup for toilet facilities any day.

If it's not odd enough that they have a custom built toilet at Nyutabaru military base for the use of plane spotters, then it is surely odd that the hotel toilets get more and more sophisticated. I for one do not like the heated toilet seat (maybe because it feels like Nick's just got off it?) and just don't get the attraction.

I do like the graceful closing of toilet seats - a Boeing 777 toilet is supposed to do this too but I think most are broken - but this one seems to do all the spraying of orifices and drying and plays music so you aren't embarassed by bodily noises and then automatically sprays deodourising spray into the atmosphere.

Another thing the Japanese do well is Internet. It's free everywhere we've been, no suggestion of charging and really useful. I shall resist the temptaion to Google more photos of Japanese loos....

day 3 Din dins

Lucky us! A curry house 'CoCos' is about 100m down the road from the hotel so that was a fairly easy choice.

It was a look and point sort of menu which would have been OK if there weren't subsidiary choices. So we ordered the plate of food that looked OK but then had two more choices. I went for '400g' and '3'. I'm assuming this was weight of meat that went in a deep far fryer before being sliced and strength of sauce before being slopped on the rice. What sort of meat we had I have no idea....Nick is hoping his wasn't dog....but when we left we realised that this may be a ditinct possibility...

day 3 Nyutaburu and Miyazaki

Managed to get to breakfast before it closed for some lovely scrambles egg, toast and ham. Well we only managed toast after failing to select the wrong buttons on the toaster and having to receive tuition....and I ended up engaged in one of those conversations where the local guy was trying to explain to me something but we couldn't quite get there. Then it all clicked and he was trying to tell me that I'd used a used butter knife rather than a clean one. Being terribly organised over here they expect you to pile up your used plate, used knifr, used fork etc in different piles so neatly that they looked like an unused British version. Anyone who's been to a Little Chef of a few years ago will understand.

Then off to Nyutaburu which is a bit of a mecca for Military plane enthusiasts.
No hassle from the authorities, locals piping in the R/T and even a homemade viewing platform and a hole in the ground for a loo.



Not a great photo but you get the drift.















video of F-4 go around

Then off to Miyazaki aiport which is where all the Japanese pilot training school is located.

day 2: Kumamoto to Miyakojono

Nick asked what the raw octopus tasted like and I described it as a bit like someone's plastic trousers. But he ate it anyway, possibly for fear of hurting the feelings of the crew members assigned to pander to our every whim.

We arrived at Kumamoto Airport in rain. We were first off the plane and first to collect our bags. The customs chappie looked like he couldn't believe his luck though and shortly afterwards we were opening our bags. He seemed to think it odd that two work coleagues were on vacation together and why would travel half the way round the world to an obscure corner of south west Japan. Anyhow, we eventually escaped and found the Europcar desk more by luck than judgement...we actually asked a nice lay if she knew the way to the Europcar desk when that's exactly where we were standing.

We eventually collected the car; luckily it has a satnav, but unluckily we have no idea how to change it to English so we are suffering with a chatty Japanese female chirping away at us all day.

The 'Sleep Inn' hotel is about 60 miles south of Kumamoto and quite acceptable. I tried asking at reception for the location of the nearest bar or beer and after involving everyone else in reception was told there aren't any (or at least that's what I think they were telling us by making an X gesture with both arms). Anyhow, we set off in the car to find a bar, didn't find one, tried to buy some food in what turned out to be a bookshop and eventually bought food and beer in a 7-11 type place where Nick managed to get a cheeky smile from a local lass on her bike as he nearly wiped her out on a zebra crossing.

Back to the hotel with a fish pizza for me, we found a vending machine in reception that sells beer.

This is Nick practising his bow

day 2 Seoul to Kumamoto

Following Nick's excellent example, I decided to try out the Asiana Lounge shower facilities. Unfortunately I forgot to take the camera with me - but then again that may have looked a little odd - so I can't share photos.

I decided that add I'd had my white, bought in Fujairah UAE, pants on for 24 hours that they could use a wash. This probably wasn't the best move as the hair dryer wasn't particularly effective and I didn't fancy going commando for several hours. So an ingenious method of jamming the hairdryer switch on and into my shreddies was engineered while I had a shower.

Fresh as a daisy with damp underwear we trotted down to the gate for our Asiana A321 to Kumamoto. The passengers were diligently lined up, but why I'm not sure as they all had seat numbers, as we bypassed them to the Business Class line of nobody and boarded the plane to find that we were the only pax in the 12 seat business class with 3 crew to serve us.

And serve us they did, producing a special Japanese food tasting menu. Nick looked a little pale at the prospect


the yummy food looked like this

and this is where we are

day 2: Seoul Incheon airport

It's a dream. Light, airy, quiet and civilised. I don't know why I thought it may be anything else, but it's certainly not China. The general calm is broken by groups of giggly girls which is somehow what I remember of these oriental places. I'll try and take a photo of a group of giggly girls later if it looks like I'm not going to be arrested!

We're here for 3 hours in the Asiana business lounge which has a grand piano and is really rather nice. It has a good view of the planes, Nick's been for a shower and we've avoided food thus far but as it looks like a restaurant or wedding buffet I guess we'll have to sample it.


If there was a cheap shirt around I'd buy one as I look a right mess with beer, wine and in-flight food stains on my shirt! Instead I'll watch the planes

day 1 Frankfurt to Seoul

We went to the lounge in the terminal at Frankfurt for an hour or so. The same one that I went in with the family en route to India last October and we weren't very impressed. It's much the same although it was much quieter and there was an attempt to provide some hot food in shape of round sausagemeat with cold potatoes in a cheesy mixture. Not great and there was draught Becks but we'd had enough beer so went easy.


Went down to check in for the flight and Nick was told - apologetically - that his seat was broken and they needed to move him to 4D. After some careful consideration I agreed to leave 3A - a nice window seat - and move to 4E in the middle of 3 in the centre of the cabin.

4F was occupied by a Chinese chappie who was very quiet, didn't drink much and slept most of the way. But as I explained to Nick, the Asians don't like the sound of anything being expelled from the body so as he had a runny nose he spent the journey snorting. Which would have been useful sound effects if Babe was available on the in flight entertainment, but it wasn't.

We picked Asiana Airlines partly because there was availability for our bmi Diamond CLub reward points, partly because Asiana could connect through Seoul to airports at the Western end of Japan and partly because they have won several awards recently for best service. They were supposed to be better than Singapore Airlines. Although I haven't experienced Singapore Business Class since 1988, I have been Lufthansa and BA recently and they eclipse both of these for customer service.

The Boeing 777 is 2-3-2 configuration whereas BA with the same aircraft are 2-4-2. I think the BA beds are better, and always have been pretty good, as Asiana have those 170 degree recline versions which don't suit me very well...with the effects of being wined and dined then 'cooked' I had a few hours disturbed sleep - woken every now and then by Percy the Pig next door to me - before realising that the best way to sleep is rest feet at the bottom end of the bed.


A procession of nice hosties came and took out food and drink orders; although I asked for the Korean menu they'd run out so I had the Western one. Very nice too but at least we managed a Korean beer. It's called 'Hite' and tasted ok. There's no hidden 'S' under Nick's hand.


A not very good view of the cabin and some of the 6 girls assigned to serve the 18 of us in Business Class.


The seat back video monitors are the largest I've ever seen. But then I guess Korea is at the forefront of TV production.



Yum yum. This is the starter. No idea what we were eating as they took the menu away after we'd ordered but I don't recall seeing anything that sounded like it would go 'woof'. Tasted nice anyway.

About 2 hours before arrival at Seoul we were served a substantial breakfast, most of which I couldn't manage. Although I did have a very nice omelette and Tabasco and some more strange sausages. These were long thin ones so could have been Dachshund I guess.

We were both given customer surveys and Head Hostie knelt at our feet and told us what a pleasure it had been to have us on board. She did this to everyone of course, but it's nice to be looked in the eye like this. So I'm not sure about the non-lie flat beds but the overall service was delightful; I like the Asian touches such as delicately checking the overhead bins are closed and always closing the curtain behind you. As well as little touches such as the silver service condiments on a trolley (English Mustard etc) and when she saw me about to put my shows on, producing a show horn.

Flight time was 9hr 40min so quite quick.

day 1: Heathrow to Frankfurt

No dramas getting to Heathrow; Lufthansa should be operating from Terminal 1 by now with the rest of Star Alliance airlines but are still in Terminal 2. I believe that they are suing BAA over the delay; for us, it means we're in the T2 Lufthansa business class lounge which is OK but poor compared to the T1 lounge (which used to belong to BA) with deckchairs etc.

Anyhow, there's plenty of German beer to consume.

Boarded the flight to Frankfurt and a rather nervous sounding hostie announced that as she only had 17 business class meal trays and there are 31 passengers that she would be very grateful if some of the customers would have a salami sandwich instead. Naturally, as we were stuffed with lounge food we helped Lufthansa out and had a salami sandwich. And a couple more beers.