As you may have gathered already, I travel for work quite a bit.  One of the places I go is Japan.  Occasionally we get sent down South to the city of Sasebo.  It’s been a while and I had forgotten how long it really takes to get there… We left Seattle early in the morning (4:00 ride on the bus to the airport! yay!) but had the misfortune of a connecting flight in San Francisco to add a good 4-5 hours to our day before we even began.  We usually land at Tokyo-Narita airport, however these were last minute tickets so we decided to enter Japan through Osaka and not have to sit in the middle seat.  I didn’t realize it at the time, but Osaka is further away than Narita and made our flight time a solid 12 hours. That’s the longest flight I’ve been on so far.  It actually went really well and I slept a bit and didn’t get fidgety or anything! After clearing customs and all of that shenanigans, we got on a domestic flight bound for the Fukuoka airport.  Once we arrived (at this point a rather disheveled looking bunch…) we had to figure out where to buy bus tickets, how to actually buy them, remember how to count money, and then locate said bus.  The best part is that the bus ride is also a few hours long.  A short cab ride from the bus station and we arrive at our hotel more than 24 hours later drooling slightly and unable to remember our own names or complete sentences.  Honestly, it’s a terrible experience that I wouldn’t wish on anyone! 😉

All of the unpleasant traveling aside, Sasebo is a charming little city.  It has considerably less American influence than the other places we visit and has always felt a little more authentic to me.  It was also the place I went on my first ever visit to Japan, so I’ll always remember it fondly.  I convinced my coworkers to stay at a hotel in town instead of on the base which is way more fun.  The rooms are TINY.  The only place to put the suitcase is on the rack that’s half in the hallway.  There’s not enough space to walk around the bed, and the bathroom is about the same size as the ones in the cheap rooms on a cruise ship.  The breakfast more than makes up for the room size though.  Our morning walk to work takes us through the open air shopping center and a park.  After work, we generally wandered around for a bit before finding food, which gave me ample opportunity to play with my camera.