After mijamia I headed to the southern section of Japan.

I saw Fukuoka first which is quite a busy town which is famous for its scenery. It has loads of street stalls, markets and I met a lot of travellers here. Only stayed for one night and then caught a train to Nagasakai. Unfortuneatly its was raining really heavily the whole time I was there so I saw the atomic bomb museum, markets, china town and shrines and everything that was indoors! Stayed in a huge wooden ryokan which was nice and strange as I only saw one other peson the whole time I was there! The owners were a young couple so I had my meals with them and another person showed up on the last day.

Then I headed to Beppu which had a lot more travellers. It is quite touristy and famous for its hot springs. There are 7 hells which are famous themed springs, the water is boiling hot and you can cook eggs and things and eat them. Crocodile hell wasnt that much fun, urghh. Loads of steam comes out of the hells and you can see it in the mountains and its quite noisey too. I also managed to get some onsens on the mountains which was cool (althought a bit strange). The weather was incredibly hot whilest I was there and the onsens are too warm so I only visited a few. The beach was nice too, first one i've seen here.

I planned to go to Mt Aso an active volcano but we had quite rough earthquakes so I thought I'd give that a miss. Instead I headed to Okayama and Kurashiki. Ended up in a strange hotel which had a restaurant full of tables with menus on each one and a kitchen but each time I ased for food the owners said no? I dont think they understood what I was saying to be honest, but its not rocket science! Kurashiki has a very beautiful old town and a canal running through it (which I too a ride down on a Japanese gondola) , I saw Ivy square with all the animals and tried a tea ritual.

After this I headed to Nagano where I have been for a week or so. I went to the Firefly festival last weekend which was good fun and have been meeting up with people I've made friends with here and doing a bit of exploring.

Looking forward to the next bit of my trip, really like Japan but I need some different food!!! Off to Tokyo this weekend!