I am 3 hours away from boarding an overnight ship headed for the Japanese harbor city of Fukuoka. I am hoping this trip goes better than my experiences traveling across the Caspian sea, however from what I am told we will arrive in Fukuoka sometime between 3-4 am.
Korea has been a great experience I really enjoyed my time here. I will post Korea in retrospect when I arrive in Japan. See you there!
Ann Yong from Korea -Julian
Miss Kim, KimChi master!! I will tell her story next post
Last trip with Baba 
down in the SE corner are some great hot springs, especially ibusuki with their volcanic sand baths on the beach. you might like the ride down to cape sata. kyushu means “nine provinces”, and it has a long history of being the gateway between japan and china/korea/okinawa/taiwan. over the centuries it challenged the other power centers of honshu repeatedly.
Good idea Janet! There is also a route called the Shimanami Kaido that goes from Imabari to Hiroshima. The idea to so south does seem enticing, but since I have to fly out of Tokyo on Dec 19th I don’t think I can make it all the way to the cape and back, that is unless I start randonneuring again.