While in Hanoi, I made it a point to pick other traveller’s brains on where to head next.  Most people were going on tours of Halong Bay, and while an organized tour is a great way to see an area, I’m just not big on being herded around.  While reading my book on Vietnam, a little island called Cat Ba jumped out at me, and I just knew that’s where I wanted to go.

I bought a combined bus and ferry ticket, and even though the bus driver kicked me off the bus a good half hour from the dock (I was the only one left on the bus, and I think he just couldn’t be bothered), I managed to catch the ferry before it left.

The ferry I was on was much smaller than the one pictured below, which seemed to serve as a makeshift dock; we had to walk through the bigger ferry to jump on the smaller one.

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Although I spent four days in Hanoi,

I didn’t really get around to actually doing much; what I wanted was to just sit for a few days and decompress, to chill out and relax with absolutely nothing at all on my schedule.
I did just that, but instead of finding myself in blissful relaxation like I imagined, I found myself almost completely quiet and withdrawn. I met many wonderful people in my short stay there, but I just couldn’t get into socializing, which is something I absolutely love.
Enter Rudy, a wiry, quirky New Yorker who has no qualms about breaking into a skip down the street if the mood so strikes him.
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Here’s a video taken at a revolving sushi bar in Osaka where The Ig, myself, and Lincoln from Toronto gorged ourselves.

Heaven, absolute heaven…

On our second night in Osaka, The Ig and I were itchin’ to go out and play some darts or pool.  I’d heard a couple guys talking about a pub they’d been to the night before, and so I asked if they were going again that night.

“No,” Baudewijn said, “we’re going to karoke.”

I laughed in surprise and said, “Karoke?!  Are you serious?”

I just couldn’t imagine these four young guys sitting in a private room signing on a hot Saturday night.

“Yeah,” he said, “you can’t come to Japan and not go to karoke at least once!”

He invited us to tag along, and I hemmed and hawed about it; karoke is about on the same spot of my favorites list along with say, pulling my neck muscle barfing.

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Although the sign I’m holding in the previously posted photo says, “Kobe”,

working for food was literally what my friend Baudewijn and I were doing; an active hitchhiker, Baudewijn let me tag along to Kobe, where we intended to indulge ourselves in a little of the world-renown Kobe beef.

Standing near the entrance to the freeway, it wasn’t long before a carload of young people stopped and gave us a ride.

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Wallnut Ig here, folks. One last time. Tomorrow Jamie and Adventure Turtle will pack up and head for parts unknown, a tale that they will will have to relate to you as it unfolds.

I am squandering my last few days overseas here in Osaka, with possible side trips, but for the sake of the GreatWallNut, my part is done. I must confess, I am having some mixed feelings. On the one hand, I am anxious to get home and see my friends and family, settle into a new apartment and return to a relatively normal (for me) life. On the other, I have spent the better part of the last year thinking about getting to the end of the hike, and now the end seems to have come far too soon.

I have been thinking, which is hard for me, and I often have to wait if Jamie is using our brain for other thoughts, about the last year. I have some pretty vivid memories of just about every day. Except a few that involved tequila, those are fuzzy.

All in all, this has been a great year. I’d like to thank everyone who has followed along with us, your comments and good thoughts really kept us going through all the difficult times. Some of you I will see soon, some of I look forward to meeting one day, and some of you I probably will never meet. Thank you all, just the same. It has been an absolute joy for me to be here.

It is with considerable sadness that I say good-bye to Jamie, Adventure Turtle, and all of you.

Shibble be with you all.

Wallnut Ig

I really am going to miss that turtle.

Just found another batch of sumo pics in a different folder, so I created a random photos page under “Sumo”.

They’re close-ups–WOOT!

It was last May when The Ig started watching sumo on the tube while stuck in Beijing waiting on our visas. 

At first I snickered at him for his new fascination with big guys in thongs, but it wasn’t long before I found myself sucked in and jonsin’ for the next match as well.  And A.T.?  He’s just as hooked.

Most of the rules and rituals were a mystery to us, but it didn’t matter; they stomped, they squatted, they pushed each other around, and they did all this seemingly oblivious to the fact they were almost completely nekkid.

Now however, we have a bit of an understanding of what’s going down in the dohyo (sumo ring).

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Guess what I did today?

And guess what song’s been continuously looping on the daily playlist in my mind? Hint; yesh, it has something to do with the country I’m currently in.
Ooooooh what I wouldn’t give to have the circus music back!

The video of the day.