I dismantled and bagged my bike up on the 17th (The night before I left) and realised that it would not fit, without any other options I decided to MAKE it fit, and the result was a half bag half bike thing. I set my alarm for 6 am the following morning. So naturally, I lazily woke up around 10am. I got dressed and packed the things I could remember I needed and headed out. I had a bad nights sleep because I had caught a cold a couple of days before. I carried my bikebagthing and my backpack to the train station, and they were sooooo heavy. People on the train platform were hating me, and in return due to this early hour (11am) I was hating everything and everyone. I boarded my first hate filled train at 12 am. I decided to cheer up as I got on the shinkansen, and I started zooming through prefectures at about 186 mph. I looked at the window at the endless forests, mountains and paddy fields. It looked impossible to navigate so I decided to stop looking out the window. I arrived in Kagoshima city after about 7 hours of train journeys, my cold had taken a bad turn and I had a raging headache.

I checked into my hotel about 7:30, 4 hours later than planned. I had dinner from a convenience shop and headed back to my room to build my bike. I fell asleep without even touching my bike. I woke up several times in the night, sweating but shivering with fever. I managed to fall asleep again untill I was woken by a phone call. vera bradley laptop backpack deco daisyThe woman at reception told me that I had to checkout in 10 minutes.skylanders backpack asda I decided to stay here for an extra day, as camping like this would probably kill me. mcm backpack lelongI took more of my japanese medicine. wizzy backpack

Japanese medicine is not made with foreigners in mind obviously so its about as effective as a polo mint, but gives me all the nasty side effects like drowsiness. I felt a little better about 11am, so I thought I may as well as try to see something while im here so　I walked around Kagoshima City.case logic dlbp-116 16 laptop backpack dark gray Kagoshima City seems to me to be a forgotten City. meuse backpack reviewIt’s true, it held no interest for me, it was just a built up place that i needed to pass through. My thoughts however changed as I walked around. I didn’t see a single teenager or young person while wondering the streets, I even passed outside the school and it seemed dead, as though the young people had escaped the city, as to not be forgotten with it. The city is surrounded by mountains, but the mountain on the east side is the most interesting.

Kagoshima City is shadowed by the huge volcano Sakurajima. This volcano is still active and seems to blurt smoke out of the top and rumble every now and then. This is the first time I have ever seen an active volcano. I just hoped it would stay THIS active as i slept in my hotel just across the bay tonight. I sat in a coffee shop and looked out onto the volcano. Do these people not know what a volcano can do? Is there not anywhere else they could have built a city? Sakurajima nearly erupted last year, it ejected ash 2 km into the air and when it does erupt, they think the tidal wave will destroy all that is around it. I would have taken that as a warning. I just hope they have insurance. Still,the people of the city seem to me to be the least work orientated people of japan I have met so far. They are also very friendly. I suppose it comes from living life at natures will, every minute here is given by nature, and it can be taken away…but once again, hopefully not tonight!Turn Up The Heat: Active Volcano Hikes

Warm your body and soul in hot springs! Kumano Kodo pilgrimage routes Visit Kumano, one of the most popular spiritual areas in Japan Visiting Mt. Fuji is something you will never forget. One of the many Superdry stores that have sprung up both all over the UK, and around the world, over the last few years. If you live in the UK, you may well have noticed the recent popularity of the Superdry clothing brand. Everything they sell carries a message in Japanese – but does anyone who buys from them actually know what any of it means? ‘Superdry’ is nothing at all to do with Asahi ‘Super Dry’ Beer (CC) At first I assumed that ‘Superdry’ was related to Asahi Super Dry Beer – a Japanese product which is available in the UK – but a bit of investigation reveals that it’s nothing to do with beer at all. The first place I came across the Superdry brand was on a jacket bearing the logo サンクラスの会社 (presumably a misspelling of サングラスの会社, read as ‘sungurasu no kaisha’, and meaning ‘Sunglasses’ Company’).

Other T-shirts have sported ‘Osaka’ across the front, and the curious phrase 会員証な (read as ‘kai in sho na’), which could be translated as ‘membership certificate’ or ‘official member’, followed by the grammatical particle な (‘na’), which is normally used to link nominal adjectives to the nouns they describe – but which is completely wrong in this context. Another widely seen logo is 堅い天候の会社 ‘katai tenkou no kaisha’, which seems to mean ‘hard [as in solid] weather’s company’ – a phrase that bears little relation to the nature of the company’s apparel, which (in the UK at least) seems mainly to be worn on university campuses. Most recently, it’s the logo below that is most commonly seen on Superdry products.If you keep your eyes open, it probably won’t be long before you catch sight of someone wearing this slogan. It reads ‘kyokudo kanso (shinasai),’ translating roughly as ‘maximum dry’, followed by the imperative form of ‘do’, bizarrely placed in brackets.

This is apparently a bad attempt at translating ‘Do Superdry’ into Japanese – presumably achieved with the help of a dictionary rather than by anyone with knowledge of the language. Whoever came up with these logos seems to have thought that their customer base (which notably includes David Beckham, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet) wouldn’t notice that they were essentially gibberish – and judging by recent sales figures they seem to have been right. Despite (or perhaps because of?) hefty price tags, Superdry has mushroomed into one of the UK’s most successful clothing brands, and now boasts a nationwide chain of dedicated shops, and an international network reaching as far afield as Australia, Venezuela and South Korea – though perhaps unsurprisingly they haven’t yet ventured to Japan – the land from which they supposedly originate. But what makes this brand cool or desirable? Don’t brands have to stand for something? Nike pay sportsmen a fortune to wear their clothes, allowing us consumers to buy their products in the hope that a little bit of the scent of athleticism and victory will rub off on us – so what’s the story with Superdry?

Is it a kind of down-market Louis Vuitton – its only aspirational quality being that its relatively high price has led to it being associated with wealth, quality and luxury – despite none of these properties being particularly characteristic of the product itself? Superdry have even branched out into USB memory sticks – I’d never even realised they were a fashion accessory (CC) But come to think about it – maybe it’s not just the Japanese translations that need explanation. Even in English, what does ‘superdry’ mean? Is the clothing designed for use in wet weather? Not likely given that the core products seem to be T-shirts and hoodies. Maybe it stops you from sweating? Or was the whole brand just dreamt up as a kind of very dry joke? I must admit that I’ve not so far been brave enough to go into a shop and ask – so unless one of you readers is up for it, I guess it’ll just have to remain a mystery. OUR FACEBOOK PAGE   – INCONTOURNABLE JAPON EN FRANCAIS