JOTTINGS IN A JOURNAL; AIRLINES ARE CIRCLING OVER GREEK ISLANDS.

Byline: Staff and Wire Services

Many people dream of boat-hopping the Greek islands, but for those who don't have time for the leisurely method, there are more air options than ever for getting around the Mediterranean country.

Deregulation has spurred more air service, according to the Hellenic Tourism Organization. Besides Olympic Airways, the national airline, at least five smaller companies ply the sky over Greece: Aegean Airlines, Cronus Airlines, Axon Airlines, Air Manos and Air Greece.

In addition to major destinations such as Heraklion on Crete and Rhodes, some of the airlines go to other islands, and one, Manos, is offering interisland service among Santorini, Mykonos and Samos - destinations that previously required a return to the hub in Athens.

For information, call the Greek National Tourist Organization at [phone]. Web: www.vacation.net.gr.

Japan plays host to many visitors

Japan was host to a record 4.43 million foreign visitors last year, up 8.1 percent from 1998, a tourism official says.

The number topped the previous record figure of 4.21 million set in 1997, says Eigo Onuma of the Japan National Tourist Organization. Economic recovery in the rest of Asia contributed to last year's increase, he said.

Tourists and people on short-stay business trips were counted as visitors. The figures did not include foreigners living or working in the country.

Brein's gets you around town

Detailed maps of public transit systems are often hard to come by until you reach a destination. For those who want to know where a subway will take them, there is a new series of city public transit maps packed with information.

Brein's Travel Guides cost $5 each and include a list of a city's 50 most popular places, as well as walking maps of their surroundings. Information about a transit system's hours of operation, telephone numbers and how to get tickets is also included. Fares, subject to change, are usually not listed.

The series began with the Oahu bus system 20 years ago. In the last couple of years, the publisher has added London and Paris. Amsterdam, Vienna and Washington, D.C., will be added to the guides this spring.

The maps can be ordered at [phone], identification number 0026. They can also be ordered by mail from Michael Brein Inc., 298 Winslow Way West, Bainbridge Island, Wash. 98110.

See how their gardens grow

Garden-loving travelers should know about the just-published latest edition of ``The Garden Conservancy's Open Days Directory: The Guide to Visiting Hundreds of America's Best Private Gardens.''

It lists more than 400 private gardens in more than 26 states, plus hundreds of public gardens.

To order, call [phone] or send $18.45 to Garden Conservancy, Box 219, Cold Spring, N.Y., 10516.

His 15 minutes of pen and ink 

Andy Warhol was not exactly an Old Master, but he was quite an accomplished draftsman.

Pittsburgh's Andy Warhol Museum, at 117 Sandusky St., has opened a show of his spare but highly stylish drawings - a virtual career retrospective encompassing his work on paper from 1942 to 1987.

The exhibit closes April 30. Phone: [phone].

Barcelona boasts a work in progress

t was Antoni Gaudi's grandest dream - a temple of faith that wasn't finished in his lifetime and may not be finished in ours.

Gaudi, the architect whose curvy, modernistic buildings give Barcelona, Spain, its distinctive look, planned a glorious cathedral in that city, with heavily decorated spires shooting heavenward, and three facades, representing faith, hope and charity.

The building was begun in 1882 but Gaudi got involved in 1891 and radically transformed the design. When he died in 1926 after being struck by a trolley, most of only one facade was finished. Construction began again intermittently in 1940, and today - more than a century after it was started - La Sagrada Familia is perhaps half-finished.

The work goes on, but today's workers have an advantage over those who labored in Gaudi's time: computer-guided saws that can chisel a granite column in one-sixth the time it takes by hand.

For more information on Barcelona, call the Tourist Office of Spain in Beverly Hills, [phone]. Web: wwww.okspain.org.

In Vermont, it must be the cheese

Five hundred dollars may seem a stiff price for a hunk of cheese, but at Shelburne Farms in Vermont, it comes with a three-day cheese-making workshop and a two-night stay at the luxurious Inn at Shelburne Farms. On May 12, 13 and 14, the farm will offer a residential course called Pasture to Palate: The Art of Cheese Making.

Shelburne Farms, on Lake Champlain, is a 1,400-acre working dairy farm, a National Historic Site and a non-profit environmental education institution.

Information: [phone].

Stretch your legs out, even on coach

United Airlines announced that it has completed the reconfiguration of nearly 450 aircraft to provide extra leg room for some coach passengers.

Economy Plus will provide 35 inches of pitch on some aircraft, 36 on others. (Pitch is measured from the back of one seat to the back of the seat in front of it.) The standard coach seat has 31 inches of pitch.

The reconfiguration will affect passengers in the first few rows or coach - varying from six to 11 rows depending on the aircraft. These rows are generally reserved for Mileage Plus members who have achieved Premier status or above - often business travelers.

London makes few site changes

Several new attractions figure to intrigue London visitors this year:

--The Tate Modern is set to open in May in a converted power station on the south bank of the Thames, giving London's Tate Gallery a new showcase for its large collection of modern art.

--A new wing will be opened at the National Portrait Gallery, and a new museum housing the important Gilbert Collection of decorative arts will open in 18th-century Somerset House.

--Dulwich Picture Gallery, one of London's less-well-known art gems, will reopen after a major refurbishment.

--A new gallery dedicated to the Holocaust will open in June in the Imperial War Museum, while the Science Museum will open its new Wellcome Wing, which will be the world's leading center for the presentation of contemporary science and technology.

It's a bug's life in museum display

The ``Bug Zone,'' which displays more than 5,000 insects, opened recently as a private museum in Port Angeles, Wash.

Four microscopes allow museum visitors to see a fly's head magnified 40 times, a flea magnified 30 times and other wonders.

Museum owner Maria Shinta Smith and her husband, high school teacher Alexander ``Coke'' Smith, collected the insects during their travels to South America, Africa, Asia and elsewhere. Their personal collection has more than 50,000 bugs, they say.