Justin-Klein.com – Life of a Traveling Programmer

Shopping for some fresh fruit, Nagasaki

Before I start, I’ll just say that due to extremely intermittent internet access I’ll most likely be preparing updates little by little and uploading them in huge chunks whenever I have the ability to do so. This means that they’re likely to get pretty huge – like this one. During a trip like this I like keeping as detailed of a record as possible for myself, so I figure why not just kill two birds with one stone share those records with all of you too 🙂

African cultural festival in Fukuoka

As expected, I spent the rest of the day on Friday exploring Fukuoka – from Canal City, a huge shopping mall “designed to strip you of any disposable income and make you feel good about it” to an African cultural festival to a half-kilometer long underground walking arcade in Tenjin to Fukuoka Tower, it was another intense day of walking. And let’s not forget the beach. Ahh, the beach.
Continue reading »

Note: This was NOT the color of the water at Amanohashidate. I am merely illustrating how much I miss the beach…

Amanohashidate, one of Japan’s three most beautiful places, can now be scratched off of my to-do list.

Two days ago, while sitting in my room and planning out my route for next week’s Rail Pass journey, I thought “Well, while I’m at it, I might as well plan out the route for Amanohashidate too.” Then I thought “Wait, when am I going to have time to go?” Then I thought “I’m not doing anything tomorrow.” Then I thought “All of this thinking is making me tired. I’m gonna go get an ice cream sandwich.”

So the next day I woke up at 6:30am and went!

Amanohashidate’s kanji means “The bridge that stands to heaven,” or something to that effect

At first I was a little worried about the weather, because Amanohashidate is a beach-area and when I left home it was completely overcast. But lucky for me, within the last 30 minutes of my 3-hour journey it cleared up and turned into an absolutely perfect day.

The journey carried me through the mountains that run down Japan’s main island and divide its two coasts, through smaller and smaller towns along the way. Many train stations were so small that they didn’t even have a turnstile, just a man nodding each rider through the entrance. Falling in and out of consciousness, I watched the riders come and go as I passed through the endless mountains and plains of rice fields.
Continue reading »

Goodbye I-House 2!!

Before I start, a quick request. Because site traffic has been increasing recently, I’ve decided to insert a small Google ad to help cover the cost of web hosting. Please remember that I’m a student paying for this site out of my own pocket and maintaining it purely in my free time. I would really appreciate it if you could click the ad in the sidebar or on the bottom of the page whenever dropping by to check for updates. Every single click helps a little bit. Thanks! 🙂

Likely the coolest Star Wars ad I’ve ever seen. This is just outside of the Hankyu train station in Umeda, Osaka.

OK, so here’s a short summary of the five days that have elapsed since my last update:
1) Attended the Tenjin Matsuri in Osaka
2) Attended a goodbye party for YHM
3,4) Stayed awake for 40 hours during which I traveled to Tokyo and back, and climbed Mount Fuji
5) Slept. A lot.

I guess I should start from the beginning. After a bit of idle web-surfing, I uncovered the following information:

Would ya look at that…another matsuri in Japan!

Held on 24-26 July, Tenjin Matsuri is one of the three main festivals held annually in Japan.(Incidentally, the other two main festivals are the Gion Matsuri and the Tokushima Dance Festival. I’ll be attending the latter in a couple of weeks). Originating from a purification ceremony, the highlight of this centuries-old religious and cultural event is a two-kilometer procession from Tenmangu Shrine to Tenjin Bridge, followed by a fluvial procession comprising some 100 ornately decorated boats from the Dojima River to the Okawa River. Performances of sacred music, court dances, folk theater and other forms of traditional Japanese arts entertain the lively crowds from a boat stage gaily festooned with lanterns.
Continue reading »