This morning we say goodbye to Molly 😪 and Megan and I leave the island of Honshu and head south to the next island – Kyushu. Kyushu is a volcanic island known as the “land of fire”. We’ll spend the first night in a place called Beppu and then two nights in Fukuoka. It’s another Shinkansen train journey and the countryside whizzes by so fast it’s hard to watch… plus the sun is shining in the window… plus there’s lots of tunnels… plus a delayed hangover seems to be setting in!
We’re sitting beside four men who seem to be very excited about their trip and they open up beers – it’s 10am!! The loud burping is extremely funny considering blowing your nose in public is considered rude! 🤭
On arrival at Beppu train station we are greeted by the father of Beppu tourism, who apparently was the first person to introduce female bus conductors. There must be a rugby match on as the statue is all dressed up in the gear!
The main thing to see in Beppu are the hot springs so after a quick lunch of toriten (a local cuisine- essentially fried chicken), we get straight to it. As we travel a few kilometers out of town we see steam rising continuously from various small vents and larger springs. I expected the smell to be really strong but it’s not (nothing like the smell in Rotorua in NZ). The springs are called jigoku which literally means “boiling hell”. The most famous is called Ocean hell because of its beautiful blue colour which you can just about see through the steam.
We also see one that has boiling red clay
There’s a green house with huge lily ponds and banana trees and we check out a small museum with some cool old photos of what looks like famous people visiting the springs, of course we don’t know who they are!
Next on our list is to have a bath in an onsen. The onsens in this town, as you can imagine are all fueled from these natural hot springs. We opt for the one at our hotel and it’s a relaxing outdoor experience involving more new robes. Delightful!
We need a little change of cuisine tonight, two weeks of Japanese food is starting to take its toll so we opt for pizza. Trying to keep it somewhat authentic I order “Japanese style teriyaki pizza” but what I get doesn’t resemble teriyaki at all… it has sausage and potato – tasty though!
Next morning we’re off on the train again and heading toward Fukuoka. We have two nights here so a bit of a rest from the constant moving around. Fukuoka is considered one of the most multicultural cities in Japan as it is so close to to the rest of Asia. It’s less than 200 miles from South Korea.
En route we pass what can only be a tribute to the Golden Gate Bridge!
We spend the afternoon exploring the city and our first stop is for lunch at “Ramen Stadium”. Ramen is a local specially and there are about eight ramen restaurants beside each other in this food court. It’s hard to choose so we pick the one that seems the most popular (it has the longest line) and by the time we figure out what we want and key our order into the machine the line is gone. It’s really good ramen:
We explore Canal City which is a huge shopping and entertainment complex built around an artificial canal. It has shops, restaurants, theaters and the canal running through the middle has a regular fountain show and events to watch.
When we are there we catch a bit of a dance competition:
Next we take a walk through the Tenjin area which is definitely the cool hip and happening neighborhood. It’s clear everywhere we’ve been, that the Japanese have their own individual sense of style but I notice it particularly here. They’re definitely very fashion aware and it’s so interesting to see all the different styles.
We settle for a low key evening which we’d hoped might involve takeout and a movie but it seems the Japanese don’t really do takeaways and the “pay tv” at the hotel doesn’t have any English movies!! Ah well, we settle for gyoza and beer. And then wine.. 😀
Next day we have a full agenda of site-seeing. We start with Fukuoka tower:
There’s a great view from the top of the city….
And the sea beyond this man made beach and resort…
We walk around the Tenjin area again and try a popular and highly recommended ramen place called Ichiran – this may be the best ramen yet. You sit at a counter in your own private booth and the food is served from the other side. They pull down a blind once served so you can enjoy your food in private. It’s served in a dish that looks like a miniature coffin and you choose the spiciness of the broth, firmness of the noodles, richness of the sauce, any extras.. it’s fantastic
Next it’s on to Tochoji temple which has a number of shrines, the tomb of a shogun and a huge wooden Buddha (no photo of the Buddha allowed)
You could literally visit temples and shrines all day long but we pick one more – the Kushida shrine. This is a very popular one with the locals as it’s involved in an annual festival and some of the floats are kept here on show. These are carried by men in the festival… very impressive:
Having reached our quota of temples we decide to hit the Asian art museum. It’s reasonably small so doesn’t need a huge time commitment and charges only a $2 admission. It’s got a wide variety of art from all over Asia and across various time periods. I particularly like this painting by a Chinese artist called Zheng Xiaogang “Painter with Mother as a young Woman”:
For dinner tonight we are very excited to try the open air food stalls called “Yatai”. We walk along the river and suss out a long line of them trying to choose which one. The choice becomes obvious when we see some very delicious looking meat and some English words on one menu. We are told to sit on high stools crammed in beside others and decide to order beef, salted pork, fish cake and a cheese, potato and mentai bake. Mentai is pollock roe and we’ve seen it at the breakfast buffet, where we weren’t tempted to try it, but now it’s on this baked cheesey thing that looks delicious… which it is. We order shochu to drink and we’re happy out.
Next morning we’re off again. This time to Kumamto. It’s another one night stay and feels like a very short drive-by visit. The main draw of this city is the castle so we head there shortly after arriving. Unfortunately the castle was very badly damaged in an earthquake in 2016 and is being rebuilt. The reconstruction is estimated to be completed in 2037!
After a wander around we decide to try a Japanese massage which is just what the doctor ordered … they give you a pair of jammies and then massage the acupressure points – it’s thirty minutes of heaven. We end our brief encounter with Kumamoto by eating a wagyu beef rice bowl at a really nice little restaurant downtown:
Throughout the day we’ve seen this little guy everywhere and apparently he’s called Kumamo, the mascot of Kumamoto.
odohertyelaine 