Month: May 2015

Despite the fact we came home with our full duty free allowance of alcohol, we actually spent more on other stuff, like gifts for other people, and pretties for us. These are the ones we kept. Sorry about the inferior photography. I hope it conveys something of the quality. Continue reading “Japanese pretties”

Kagoshima is a fifty minute bullet train ride from Kumamoto. Our day there was the most pleasant of the trip for one simple reason – mr and mrs bogan weren’t with us. We also visited some gorgeous gardens and saw some interesting things, but not having that man’s voice and their pushy behaviour around was just amazingly relaxing. Continue reading “Kagoshima”

Our hotel in Kumamoto was the worst of the entire trip, both in room size and facilities, and for breakfast (fortunately the BenKay restaurant where we had our farewell meal was a much higher standard.) Was not pleased. However, it was across the road from one of the bloody enormous Tsuruya department stores (with the biggest food hall I have ever seen in my life), and in the middle of the shopping district, so there was that aspect we hadn’t had a chance to explore in any of our other stops. It isn’t a particularly scenic city, or at least we didn’t see that side of it, but I did do some booze shopping, and on two nights, Doug and I went exploring for food, finding a wonderful tempura place the first night, and a ramen place the second. (Doug has become quite the ramen fan :). ) So we ate good local real food while the rest of the group went off to posher places and came back bitching about too much to eat. Again. Continue reading “Kumamoto”

This day we got up and close and personal with some very dangerous volcanoes in the Unzen Amakusa National Park. First was Mt Unzen and its geothermal area, home to many onsen and a lot of smelly sulphuric gas. Continue reading “Mt Unzen and Shimabara”

Our gorgeous hotel in Nagasaki was set half way up a mountain with a fabulous view of the harbour and surrounding hills. Black kites swooped past the window at the breakfast bar 🙂 Continue reading “Nagasaki”

We went by bullet train from Hiroshima to Hakata, our first entry into Kyushu. Kyushu is also very proud of its own type of fatty, tender beef, so we had another yakiniku meal with it for lunch. After lunch, we were taken to the village of Okawachiyama near Arita, a region synonymous with Imari porcelain. Continue reading “Hakata”

What can you say about Hiroshima that doesn’t seem trite in light of what happened there during WWII? It’s a surprisingly lovely city – calling it ‘bland’ as one of our group did was a particularly shitty and tone-deaf thing to say, and not even true. The peace memorial park is of course mandatory,  beautiful while incredibly moving. The peace memorial museum…let’s just say we all left it feeling bludgeoned.  Continue reading “Hiroshima”

We only spent a night in Kyoto before racing off for a day trip to Nara (next post) and the one day we were allowed for Kyoto, we actually spent outside the city proper. So I can’t say we really saw Kyoto at all, but as it was raining, the Philosopher’s Walk would have been a bust anyway. Another city for a return visit. Continue reading “Kyoto”

We only had a day in Kanazawa, but it was one of the more interesting ones. First stop was Nagamachi, to visit a former samurai’s house, with a small but perfectly formed garden, and a museum of samurai armour and accoutrements Continue reading “Kanazawa”

Nara is the former capital of Japan – its first permanent one. En route we visited the Gekkeikan Okura Sake Brewery museum. The water source in Nara prefecture is particularly pure (we were invited to try it for ourselves), perfect for sake, and the region is famous for it. We were already fans though 🙂 Continue reading “Nara”