Caught up - Day 15 Nagasaki

We went to Nagasaki today. The group split up, and I went to Chinatown and a few shops. It was a relatively quiet day, so this post will be a little light.

A piece from the train station at Nagasaki. 

From near Chinatown.

Had lunch at an Indian place called Milan. It was very good. It was 100 yen to upgrade the Naan to a Garlic Naan. Totally worth it.

Catching up - Day 14 Getting to Fukuoka

Departing Hitoyoshi turned out to be a bit more complicated than expected (and it was already complicated, as Hitoyoshi is pretty far out of the way), as a landslide had shut down the train we planned to take out of town.

We ended up taking a bus to a station where could catch the Shinkansen we needed to get to Fukuoka.

The apartment in Fukuoka was... pretty disappointing. It consists of three bedrooms, a main room, and not a whole lot else. Maybe we are spoiled by the nice places we have gotten in past, but the room is really underwhelming, and lacks a lot of things we were expecting.

Catching Up - Day 11-13 Ryokans

We spent three days at Ryokans (traditional Japanese inns). The first two were in Amagase, at the Tensui Ryokan (which we stayed at before and liked enough to come back), the third day was in Hitoyoshi, in the Hitoyoshi Ryokan.

Tensui has excellent baths, amazing scenery, and unique cuisine. This is the Sakura falls nearby.

A Tensui breakfast. I grabbed the granola cereal from their breakfast buffet, but the rest was served.

Excellent presentation of some vegetables. The rocks (or maybe something under them) was heated, so you could hear them cooking as they brought it to you.

A hotpot (tabemono) we had with dinner. For the curious, I did not eat the mushrooms, they were just to flavour the broth. 

Dinner at Hitoyoshi. They had a really cool method where they gave you uncooked rice and lit a fire under it.

Hitoyoshi breakfast. 

These days consisted of bathing, cuisine, and exploring. A very nice few days.

Back in civilization again

Good Morning from the city of Fukuoka! We have left the southern side of Japan and have returned to one of the bigger cities in Japan. Now before I begin I would like to address my last post which came off very ranty. Let's say it was a way for me to vent out a bunch of pent up frustration and stress I had. Now one must understand that this is still a blog so it still functions as a way for one to put their own opinion and thoughts into words. Would I have worded my last post different if I wasn't as stressed? Perhaps. Would I have wanted to changed the content of the post? Definitely not.

Ultimately Hitoyoshi wasn't a bad place overall, boring yes and as one would say it "rustic". Would it be somewhere that I would seek out given the chance and choice on choosing it over somewhere else? Probably not. It was a okay place with an okay ryokan. One's enjoyment is subjective and as such I will not force myself to lie and say I love the town because that would not be the truth. Did I hate the place? No. Was I miserable there? Kinda but it wasn't because the place but due to other factors.So the town was fine, the ryokan was fine, the food was fine, the staff was actually pretty nice. And it is okay to be super picky about food, if very wasteful. Overall it was okay just a tad boring.

Now onto the update with our adventure so far. Following our night at the Hitoyoshi Ryokan and a dinner of some of the local delicacies (including horse meat), we came to learn that the rails leading out of the town was completely blocked off by a rockslide that occurred while we were sleeping. All trains going in and out of the town were cancelled as result. The guys went to the station to try and figure out if there was an alternative on getting out of the city.

Many of the other visitors in the town were of like mind and a queue had built up at the station. Many were changing tickets and rebooking for later trains in hopes that the blockage would be cleared by then. With our schedule, we did not have the option for that and instead opted to find out if there was a bus route of the city. Which to our relief there was, while it was not covered by our rail passes it was still better than nothing.

With the figured out we returned and reassembled at the ryokan to check out. the staff there was kind enough to drive all of us and our luggage to the bus terminal. We caught our bus, got to the bullet train and then we were off to Hakata Station in Fukuoka.

The new lodging we are in was one I had searched for during the planning phase when we were running out of options that provided enough beds, it is not one I voted for but it suited to our needs. It is...well, it's okay? It's definitely not as nice as the last two airbnbs the gang stayed out, and its not even as nice as the one I stayed at with my siblings. But it has enough rooms with enough beds, the place is a bit small for 7 and the bath isn't the cleanest but it'll work for a few nights.

Since we arrived after 4pm we had the time but didn't really have anythings to do. So we settled into the apartment and milled about for a bit before we headed out to dinner. Leaving the veggies eaters behind, the remaining members decided to go to the ramen place we had found on our last trip by chance. That would be Ichiran Ramen, aka Japan's fastfood ramen franchise that caters to the businessman who has no time for conversation. Now if you were keeping track of my journal entries, you would know that I had already eaten at one of the franchise's locations with my siblings in Shibuya. At the time it tasted alright but it wasn't as good as I remember. I chalked it up as me being
really sick at the time and that my rosey nostalgia was making me feel like it was better than it was. Well the latter reason was wrong, it is as good as I remembered. So perhaps its a location thing? Cuz the Fukuoka one (aka the very first one I ever tried) still tasted as good as I remembered and is as satisfying as I remembered.

In this leg of the journey, we would be doing a bunch of day trips to nearby cities. Today would be Nagasaki where it is home to one of the Peace Museums dedicated to the history of the atomic bombings in world war 2.

Catching up - Day 10 Nara

Nara, city of the deer. Greedy, hungry deer.

I don't normally do selfies, but I will make an exception here.

Some vegetarian curry. They only offer it at certain locations, and this turned out to be one of them.

We were going to go to the nearby Todaiji Temple (with the giant indoor Buddha), but there were a ton of class trips going on, and the crowds were crazy. 

Catching up - Day 9 Toei Kyoto Studio Park

On this day, I went to Toei Kyoto Studio Park with the girls while Matt and Cristian went to Kobe for some beef.

The Park had basically 3 parts to it, one was a museum of sorts for television characters, the second was a feudal era mock town used for shooting movies, and the third was basically a theme park.

From the first section. This was about one third of all the red power rangers on display. 

 These are from the mock village. It was pretty impressive, and even had blurbs about how things would have been historically, and how these sets can be used and adapted for movies.

Some choice shots from the themed section. They had a ninja house and cafe. You could participate in a shuriken throwing range.

A good example of the type of thing to expect; what appears to be a mountaintop shrine is the God of Good Fortune, that appears periodically.

In addition to its attractions, there were also shows that you could attend. We attended 3; one was a one-man show playing a merchant, another was in a television studio that showed the tricks they use to shoot a scene, and one was a full on ninja drama with mock combat and acrobatics. Even with a limited understanding of Japanese, they were very entertaining.

Overall, I was thoroughly impressed with it, and would go back given the chance and recommend it to anyone interested.

Middle of Nowhere...Nowhere

After two nights at Tensui, we have finally departed Amagase and journeyed yet again to places unexplored. After packing our bags and having a tearful goodbye from Manager-san and the great staff at Tensui. We took the local train from Amagase Station and arrived back at Kurume Station and from there we went even further south into the great unknown.

The journey will have us going south for 5 more hours with only 30 minutes being on the Shinkansen. To the little known city of Hitoyoshi.

Now if you were keeping track you would know that the distance that I have traveled from Tokyo to Hitoyoshi is roughly 1300 kilometers, give or take a few dozen kms depending on the route. Now one would ask why would we decide to go so south? The simple answer is one wouldn't.

While it is true that the area is known for its natural hot springs but due to it being so far out it has yet to have fully developed city and tourist industry like that in Hakone. At the same time the city has a history far enough that much of the local environment has been developed so it doesn't have the natural beauty that Amagase has.

The reason we traveled this far was at the "request" of some of the members of our merry band. Where they insisted on visiting the town which their most favourite anime takes place in. Being the kind hearted man Matt is, he decide to indulge in their desires. So there you have it. The reason we
are in the middle of nowhere...nowhere is due to the desires of a few overly obsessive fangirls.

Still I guess the city has its merits. It has a Castle...ruins where it's castle use to stand. It has a large river that runs through its city, which is filled with brown water. Maybe the local cuisine is to note? It is unagi (eel)...but we have dinner prepared for us at the ryokan already. sigh

The biggest highlight I had today was that there was a bunch of samurai armor sets at the castle ruins. I guess the local shrine was alright as well. Although its key feature was only how old the structure was. Our ryokan room (the guys) is pretty big and roomy I guess, but it smells like old tatami.

I think I am just going to sit in the onsen (hotsprings) for a bit and hope tonight will pass by quickly and without too much boredom. Hey if anything I can be judgemental over how much food the others don't like to eat. That's always fun 😝

 

Catching up - Day 8 Inari and Kyomizudera

We visited two major shrines this day.

The first was Inari, which we have visited every time we have gone to Japan. It is a shrine to a fox god, and is famous for its Torii gates.

It is based on a mountain, and we make a point to always climb to the top, It is quite a hike, and in true Japanese style, has a lot of stairs. It is worth it though.

The other major shrine we visited was Kyomizudera, which we have been to once before. It was under renovation, so it was somewhat more limited in what it offered, but it was still nice to visit.

The main building, covered in scaffolding. You could still walk through it.

And it still offers a spectacular view.