November 26th / 27th / 28th / 29th

Nov 26th
Went for a walk to the Teramachi Area, birthplace of Soba noodles, Green Tea and Udon noodles. Stopped at a Pachinko Parlor, which is a very popular gaming place, it's noisy and smokey but has regular customers. You win small prizes then the place buys them back from you. Walked to the Tochoji Temple, homeof the largest wooden sitting Budha.

Shofukuji Temple, which is a very old wooden temple.

View of our Ferry to Busan, Korea.

Gardeners pruning the trees , surrounding the Temples. Each one is cutting the stems with a pair of scissors.

Peaked through the old wooden temple doors, and saw these gold Budhas. Beautiful contrast.

Once onboard the Ferry, we have to put on our seatbelts, as the Ferry crosses the Tsushima Strait, and there are many whales and dolphins, and the ferry sometimes has to make emergency turns. The ferry is powered by jet engines and rides above the water, on hydrafoils. The ferry takes 3hrs from Fukuoka to Busan, you can take a slow boat for a little less money, but it takes 14hrs.

View from inside. Comfortable seats, movie and free drinks. Very smooth crossing.

View approaching Busan. Once we arrived we had to make our way to the airport. We were walking to the bus stop, when a taxi driver said he would take us to the airport for the same price as the bus 1000Won. Once we were in the taxi, he wanted to see our dollars, we said we would pay him in won, but he kept reaching for Dereks pockets, and driving erratically, saying he wanted dollars. Quite scarey, as I thought he was going to take us somewhere and rob us. When we told him we dont have dollars, he started demanding more won. As the drivers have control of the taxi locks, we couldn't do anything but argue with him. Eventually, we got out, didn't have a clue where we were, so we got another taxi , to take us back to the original bus stop. Waited 1hr for the bus , and just made the check in time for the flight to Cebu, Philippines. Flight went out early (1/2 hr early), so we were lucky to make it. Arrived at Cebu at 11.45pm. Too late to get a room, so we squatted down on an airport chair, and waited till 5am, then we took a taxi to Cebu bus station, where we caught the 5.45 bus to Hagnaya Port. The bus trip was 2 hrs, and the ferry was leaving at 9.30 , so we had time for a cup of coffee.

Cebu's own version of the big mac.

The ferry is getting ready to leave the port. Passengers are at one end, vechicles at the other.

The crossing took 1 1/2 hrs, and they run every few hours.

Budyong Resort sent their bus to pick-up customers. They didn't have this back in February, and we had to walk the length of the pier then be attacked by the numerous tuk-tuk drivers wanting to take your bags .

As we were leaving the port, you can see the shacks that the porters live in. Children are playing on the beach, in amongst the trash.

Approaching Bantayan Island. Our home for the next 10 days. We finally got here, after taking a bus for 15 mins, high speed ferry for 3hrs, 2 taxis for 15mins, Airplane for 4 1/2 hrs, taxi for 30mins, local bus for 2 hrs, ferry for 1 1/2hrs, shuttle bus 10 mins- time to relax at the beach and have a well deserved drink.

Went to one of the roadside stalls for some noodles and was just about to sit down, when we noticed this bat hanging above our heads. Still stayed and ate our noodles, but kept an eye on the bat.

View along the beach.

View from our little bungalow. Such a beautiful place for $10 a night.

View from my deck chair!!

Our first sunset at the beach. After all that traveling, we're now feeling nice and relaxed.

Got showered and dressed and headed out to the town for dinner. Just as we were out the door, the power went out on the whole island. The street stalls were operating by candlelight, so as we could not see what we were going to be eating, we decided to sit down and have a beer first. While we were waiting , a church parade walked down the street. Said our own little prayer for the power to come back on.

Finally, 1hr later, the power came on. Ordered fish and rice at our favorite BBQ stall. It tasted much better than it looked. Fish was caught that day, and rice is dipped into a soy and vinegar,chili mix. Very good! Dinner runs about $1 each, if you have chicken breast it's even cheaper.

This is the main street of Santa Fe, the town we are staying at. Our BBQ place is on the corner, opposite the yellow Burger hut. There are a few western style bars, but mostly street stalls.

Nov 28th

Went to Bantayan Town. Caught a Tuk Tuk for a 1/2 hr ride to town. Power is still out, expected to be on at 2pm. Need to get money out of the ATM, to pay the resort. There's only one bank on the island. This beautiful church is in the town square, and dates back to 18th century.

View of the church.

2 o'clock came and went and the power was still not restored. Walked around the market, which is the only shopping area in town. Stocked up on snacks,mangos and coffee. Gave up on the ATM as the afternoon went by. Will try another day. Hope the resort owners understand that it's not our fault that we have no money to pay them! We got $5 , so we have enough to buy food for 2 days!!!

Nov 29th,

Power is on! Went to the main street for breakfast. Went back to the streetstall that has the bat! Food was good. learnt that the bat is a pet called " Baty", what else! Headed for the beach, where we spent the day, swimming and relaxing.

November 25th

25th
Left Tochigi in the morning and made our way to Tokyo, Mr Sotome had to go to Tokyo for a meeting , so we took the shinkansen together. From there, we took the monorail to Haneda Airport. Our flight left at 12.25 and arrived at Fukuoka at 2pm. It's hard to see , but the whole interior of the train was covered in pokemon charachters.!

When we arrived at the airport, we saw this plane coming in, it looks like the plane is crossing the road.
We found the youth hostel, not too far from the station. The owner said it was 8mins walk from the station, but carrying our backpacks , we struggled there and it took us at least 15/20mins. Though it seemed like an hour!! Nice place, but a bit pricey at $50. We have a small room with bunk beds , shared shower, lounge/kitchen and internet is available to use. Fukuoka is famous for Yatai ( small roadside eateries- mostly noodles), so we set out to find them. Noodles were ok, but maybe we ordered the wrong thing- it's the only food that Derek recognized on the menu. Normally, we look at what other people are eating, and point to the dish, but all we could see were people eating ramon.. Good walking around, large downtown area with lots of christmas lights.
Each eatery is like a covered hut, very popular with tourists and locals . The guy next to me, wanted to speak the Queens English with me, it took me ages to figure out what he was saying.
We gave the camera to the guy cooking, and he took photos from every angle. Caught the subway home, after standing at the bus stop for 1/2hr and realised that we had missed the last bus back. Transport system is quite easy to understand, the train stops have english under the japanese charachters. Most of the larger cities cater to tourists, thank god! The youth hostel was nice and quite, with comfy beds, so we had a good nights sleep. Busy day traveling to Pusan, then on to Cebu, Philippines tomorrow.

November 22nd / 23rd / 24th

Sun 22nd
Grey skies and it looked like rain, but the competition is still on. We had to find our own launch site and fly into the target. Derek dropped the beanbag approx 10 mts from first target.
Onto the second target, and he's keeping up with the rest of the pack.
Right over the target, he got within 15 mts. Chase vehicles have to stay 100 mts away from targets otherwise the pilot will be have a penalty deducted from his score.
We landed on the road, and bystanders were happy to help pack the balloon away. Sitting on the bag helps get the air out, and gives everyone a chance to catch their breath.
Mon 23rd
Beautiful morning, clear sky and warmer. Last night , we had another night glow. The forcast was for rain at 7.30, but it came early and all the balloons got rained on. Everyone was wet and cold by the end of the evening, but at least the spectators got to see the balloons illuminated for about 15 mins. All the balloonist were glad to have today to fly, to dry out their balloons. We couldn't have wished for a nicer day. There were 2 tasks today, and Derek was 1 meter away from the first, and 23 meters from the second. Not a bad days work. This is the last morning of the competition, so he was pleased that he done well.
In the afternoon, we took up last years homestay children , and Utah our driver.
Ready to take off from the parking lot. Our friend Alex, who we met at a balloon festival in Cheju, South Korea, and who has since been following Dereks progress in Competitions, helped us launch.
While we were chasing drove past this beautiful Temple.
The Watanabe Family help pack the balloon away.
Beautiful Mayu peeking through the basket. She was too scared to fly in the basket, and cried when she saw her brother and sister flying away. Once everyone was back on the ground, she was smiling again.
In the evening we went to the Awards Ceremony. Derek came in 26th, so as this was the best ever placing, he was very happy. The winner was Mizukami, from Japan, second was Nick Donner, from USA, and third was David Bareford, from UK. The winner takes home $16,ooo, not bad for a few days work!
Our host family joined us for the Ceremony, again lots to eat and drink. Said good-bye to everyone, hard to believe it's been a year since we last saw everyone. Met some great people, who were observers for us, and got to know some officials better, so we had a great time.
This is our Home Stay House, just 5 minutes away from the mornings briefings. Those extra minutes count at 5am!
Tues 24th
Lovely lay-in, and leisurely breakfast. Managed to pack all our clothes back into the backpacks. Re-fueled the propane tanks, ready to take them back to Tochigi. One of our friends is going back to Saga, so we gave him a bag of clothes and balloon equipment, to take back to our Saga Homestay, ready for next year. Hopefully, we won't be needing any warm clothes on the rest of our trip. Host family took us to a lovely Onsen ( Japanese Hot Springs ) where we soaked for an hour and got all the grime and dirt out of every crevice! Relaxed and chatted with them for a while, before we hit the road for Tochigi. Returned the balloon to Mr Sotome, and will stay the night at his home, before we head to Tokyo tomorrow morning to catch a flight to Fukuoka. Tomorrow will be our last night in Japan, can't believe how quickly it all went. Had a Great time, and have to thank all our homestay families for taking such good care of us. We are very grateful for welcoming us into their homes and lifes.

November 21st / 22nd

Derek threw a marker at this intersection, as he was quite close to the target, I stood guard as he didn`t want any farmers to pick it up. ( Apparently, the farmers take these beanbags as souvenirs of the balloon festival). The wifes of the farmers gathered for a chat!
Fri 21st
Multiple tasks today, including finding our own launch site and heading for Twin Ring race course. Of course, we followed the experienced Brits and ended up on this pebble beach, in the fog. Quite a few chase vehicles got stuck on the beach, but everyone pitched in and pushed them out.

View of the other balloons getting ready to launch.
View of Motegi, as the balloons head for the target.
We were supposed to have a night glow at Twin Ring, but it was too windy. So, only the burners were turned on. Not much fun for the crowds, but there were fireworks throughout the event.
We let the son of our homestay family from last year, do the burners for the night glow. He did a great job. Think we might have a pilot in the making.
Sun 22nd

Balloonist have to find their own launch site again this morning. Most of the pilots were grouped around these fields. We inflated on this narrow road, so we didn`t have to get any farmers permission.
Beautiful countryside.

Balloons heading into the target area.

Derek went up to 6000ft, it was snowing up there.
His computer showed the speed at 55kph!