Annoyed in Fukuoka

I've had so many good chats with taxi drivers that I sometimes forget my manners. Four of us jumped into a taxi at Fukuoka station to take us to the 5th hotel. The 5th hotel is a luxurious place. There was a huge marble bath and even with a collosal double bed in the room, there was still room for a 48 inch TV, a humidifier, lots of other gadgets and lots of space too. Of course, it was an accident that we were staying there at all. The company rep who booked it was new in the country and wasn't quite aware of all the cultural implications of the Internet website photos. It was so luxurious because it used to be a love hotel, or what the Japanese more carefully refer to as a 'fashion hotel' or 'boutique hotel' these days. Love hotels are so much nicer than regular business hotels. I can live with the scent of previous liasons in exchange for all that extra space and comfort.
We took a walk over to another part of the 5th hotel and saw the people walking in two by two, just as if they were entered Noah's arc. It was so romantic to sit there watching them walk by, stopping on their way to their true love tryst to select the room from among the photos on the electronic screen in the lobby. When I looked at the charge sheet for the hotel and saw that they still rent by the morning, afternoon, evening or overnight stay, I realized that there will need to be a 6th hotel before the love hotel business really closes down.

So anyway, on our way to the hotel, we had so much luggage that I put my guitar into the front seat with me.

When I tried to engage the taxidriver in conversation, he was very abrupt and said "I can't see anything on the left. It's very dangerous".

I apologized. We got out and moved on. Sometimes that's the only thing to do.