Sunday, June 24, 2007

Kokusai Spirit Bus Trip #1 - Akiyoshido Cave.


Sandy and her friend Hisako formed an international group "Kokusai Spirit." Registered it with the city, and we get to use a city bus for free in order to promote, umm... internationalization? Community? Something like that.

Anyways, on Saturday a group of about 20 gaijin and nihonjin headed up to the caves of Akiyoshido, which were very cool.

Akiyoshi plateau - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
"Towards the southern end of Akiyoshidai is the cave Akiyoshi-do, named by Japan's former emperor in 1925 when he was Crown Prince. This spacious cave is up to 100 meters wide and has 8.7 kilometers of passages, making it the second-longest in Japan. Much of it is accessible to tourists along a walkway and bridge system, entering at the cave's lowest point and exiting via an artificial elevator. This portion of the cave is well decorated with a variety of large and colorful speleothems."




Yes, all gaijin/foreigners DO look alike, actually. The vagaries of fate force Anton and Frenchman Claude to do the twins thing.




Two Marines... now Fukutsu expats.




Point and shoot camera + low light enviroment = wacky pictures.

Obligatory big face pic.



That's right people... that does say "Slippery Way for Monkey." Great truths, yes?

Here you can really see the ghosts that inhabit the cave. Just kidding!
[Or am I? Cue the Twilight Zone music Rod...]



Here, the cave gasses have clearly made Jon crazy. He thinks he's on a beach in Hawaii, the poor bastard.

Having defeated the Mole Men who live beneath the earth's surface, we all leisurely took the elevator back to the daylight.


Takamiya-san guards the bus.

KOKUSAI SPIRIT CREW!!!!

The restaurant we grubbed at after caving. Cool architecture. Good food.

Returning from Akiyoshido we stopped at the Shimonoseki Bridge that connects the islands of Honshu and Kyushu.


While there, Sandy was affected by undue amounts of gamma radiation, grew to enormous size, and began crushing passing boats.

Or something.

[My wife, she has "the issues."]

You'd think I'd know to avoid pics making me look fatter than I already am, wouldn't you? FUGU!

Couple pics not posted, are at the Picasa link below. Follow your instincts. Use the force.

2007-06-23

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