While I was teaching in Korea, five of us decided to take a short vacation to Japan. We caught the "Fast Boat" which took 3 hours and landed in Fukuoka just ahead of an oncoming typhoon. The consulate said it was safe to stay, however, most things had shut down (which put an interesting angle on our trip). Even though we were proud to be able to read and write Korean, it didn't help us much when trying to order Japanese food. We resorted to the "point and nod" method in restaurants with plastic food displays. We were hilariously helpless.

KFC and McDonalds are everywhere in the world. Who else could have served us a traditional Teriyaki Burger. Michael and Alyson posed.

Soon the rain cleared and we were left with only the wind to play with. It was expensive in Japan. They have little hotel rooms that are basically as wide as a bed and had enough floor room for just the door to open. The most interesting novelty was the availability of beer from street side vending machines. We took advantage of that convenience!

We could see a lot of construction with VERY intricate support structures. Obviously, they were very high-tech ways to keep the buildings from falling down during the many earthquakes.