Farewell to Kyushu

For Wednesday 19 October

We had superb weather today for our last ride on the island of Kyushu.

We had all day to get from Fukuoka to Kitakyushu, so we were able to take it easy along the way.  We stopped in at Miyajihama, a lovely sandy beach, for a leisurely morning tea break.  I went for a wander along the beach while John sat in the shade with his Kindle.

Kate being a beach bum again - Miyajihama

It's only a toilet block, but I thought it was rather nice!

Our scooters at Miyajihama

Our lunch stop was at a shopping centre where we had a good browse through the shops before buying lunch at the bakery.  There were a number of interesting items in the bakery including purple rolls!

Hmm!  Things that we DIDN'T have for lunch

We took a bit of a detour so we could see the bridge which connects Kyushu and Honshu.  At the point where the bridge crosses, the islands are very close together.  The reason we chose to go by ferry rather than riding is that if we took the bridge route, we would have had a long ride to Osaka, while the ferry will take us all the way as we sleep.

Bridge to Honshu (taken from a cemetery on a hill)

We had trouble finding our ferry terminal as it was really not clear on the website where our terminal was located.  We went to the wrong section of the port and had to ask directions which were delivered by a nice young lady who couldn’t speak any English, with a map which was less than helpful.  Fortunately, we had several hours to spare, so we weren’t too concerned and we finally found our terminal.

A nice ferry terminal we found during our search - however, not the right one

When it was finally time to board, we were amazed at the number of trucks which were lined up.  Interestingly, they drove on to the ferry, dropped off their trailers, turned around and drove out again.  So our ferry has a large number of containers on board, but not the trucks that brought them.  They will be picked up at the other end, saving the need for the truck drivers to make the journey.

We were waiting at the boarding area with a small group of motorcycles, including some very shiny Harleys, when the ferry staff gave us the go-ahead to board.  John chose to start his engine after all the others, so they didn’t hear his ‘rattle, rattle’ engine!  We’re relieved to now be on board, as once the scooter is in Osaka, if it breaks down, we can ring Mr Tanaka, the rental guy, and he will come and get it.

We had a nice dinner in the ferry’s restaurant and then sat in the comfortable lounge area to have our after-dinner ice cream – which, incidentally, seems to have become a bit of a habit.  We followed this with watching a TV show about obesity!  It’s a good thing we don’t have any shops in our vicinity at home, so we’ll be able to stop this ‘ice cream after dinner’ routine.

A trip to the library (I couldn't help it!)

A full day of sightseeing today!

We purchased an all day bus pass in anticipation of our exploring.  An individual pass was 600 yen, but a ‘pair pass’ was available for 1000 yen for two people travelling together.  This was great value as we could make as many bus trips as we wanted for the whole day.

Our first destination was the Fukuoka Tower area.  Before visiting the tower, we went to have a look at ‘Marizon’, a waterfront facitlity which is part of the Momochi Seaside Park.  There is a lovely beach area and a wedding facility with a 30 metre bridal walk and 4 ocean view banquet rooms.

We then went over to the Fukuoka Tower, a 234 metre high mirror-covered tower with an observation deck to view Fukuoka from above.  A good spot to have a sit down and an ice cream!

Fukuoka Tower (and Kate resting her legs)

Next on the agenda was the Fukuoka City Public Library.  I sat John on a comfy seat and went for a good browse.  The library was an interesting combination of modern and ‘last century’ features.  The building was very impressive with pleasant seating/reading areas and a nice staircase leading up to the second floor.  A display in the main foyer area showed the energy savings made by the solar panels and the self-check machines appeared to be well-used.  However, the library still had a collection of video cassettes which all looked like they were well past their use-by date and the International materials upstairs were accessed by a card catalogue.  It's been many years since I’ve seen a card catalogue so I had a rummage through it just for fun.  The children’s area was very good – spacious and with a good collection of materials including books in other languages.

Fukuoka City Public Library

After my ‘busman’s holiday’, we went over to the Museum.  Before admiring the collections, we visited the café for lunch and another much needed sit down.  The museum was very interesting.  Items of interest included very old pottery jugs and bowls, and various tools made of wood and stone.

Fukuoka Museum

We then had to work out which bus to take to Ohori Park, our next destination.  We asked a couple of young ladies for help and although they weren’t sure, an older lady worked out what we were trying to do, explained in Japanese to the young ladies, who then pointed us in the direction of the next bus stop down the road.

Ohori Park was a lovely place to visit and we enjoyed our stroll in the sunshine.  Fukuoka has a number of open space areas, which help to make such a big city much more enjoyable.  Ohori Park has a large lake in the centre - which was once a part of Fukuoka Castle’s moat - and a 2 kilometre walking/jogging/cycling track around the circumference.

Lake at Ohori Park

Cute paddle boat in Ohori Park

At one end of the park is a beautiful Japanese garden, the next stop on our journey.  This garden was really gorgeous, with bridges, waterfalls, traditional ornaments and beautifully trimmed trees and box hedges.  This garden was mostly responsible for the fact the we took over 170 photos today!

Japanese Garden

...and more Japanese garden

This time we were able to work out for ourselves which bus we needed to catch and we made our way back to the hotel for a quick refresh before going out to find dinner.

Since we were on a roll with our bus pass, we caught the city loop bus to the Canal City area, where we had noticed many street stalls setting up when we passed by earlier.  It didn’t take us long to find a stall with some spare seats and some nice food on offer.  We had gyouza (fried dumplings) and John had a few skewers of pork.

A nice spot for dinner!

We took one last bus ride back to the hotel and did the washing and a bit of research in readiness for our trip to Kitakyushu tomorrow.

The time seems to be going really quickly now – we’ve just realized that this time next week, we’ll be in Hong Kong and rapidly running out of holiday!

Sightseeing in Fukuoka

Another lovely day for sightseeing!

Our first stop today was the Tochoji Temple.  This temple houses Japan’s largest sitting wooden Buddha (10.3 metres tall).  The temple and the statue were both very impressive.  In 1992 a new pagoda was built in the temple grounds.  It is really stunning!  The temple has a number of guides who take visitors around, so we had our own personal tour guide who spoke very good English.

The pagoda at the Tochoji Temple

One of two guardians at the gates of a nearby shrine

After that we went (via a little workshop where a man restores old motorbikes) to the Hakata Traditional Craft Centre.  This was a very small centre, but the items on display were very beautiful, including the traditional Hakata clay dolls and woven silk fabrics.

At 12.00 sharp, all the salarymen erupted from the surrounding offices

Our journey took us down a quaint little street with traditional small Japanese restaurants so we dropped into one for lunch.  This was a ‘one woman show’ in a very small shop, with two basic items on the menu, which came in a few different variations.  The set meal which we bought included a large plate of fried noodles, a bowl of rice, miso soup, some tofu and vegetables.  All for 680 yen!

Yakisoba (fried noodles) being prepared on the hotplate

Our next stop was Canal City for some daytime photographs …

Canal City by day

…and then back to the hotel to recover.

We checked our email and have received confirmation of our changed ferry booking, but needed to find a way to cancel the original one.  We booked it online with the help of a Japanese friend and did not have the login details to make the cancellation.  The website had no email address and I wasn’t happy about trying to have a complex conversation in Japanese on the phone.  I finally went down to the front counter staff at the hotel and explained my dilemma.  The lovely young lady at the desk immediately picked up the phone and sorted it out for me.  We love our Toyoko Hotels!!

We hadn’t decided about where to go for dinner but I’d read that the Tenjin area, which is a few subway stops away from here, has a large number of ‘yatai’ (street stalls) which are set up from about 6.00pm each night.  We took the subway to the Tenjin station and wandered about.  It didn’t take long to discover the little stalls which were scattered along the roads around the station.  We went into one and each had a bowl of champon, with a couple of skewers of meat for John.  It was delicious, inexpensive and fun to eat in a little booth on the footpath.

Watching our dinner being prepared

We did a bit of browsing and window shopping in Tenjin, which is a very lively place at night, before making our way back to Hakata station on the subway.

John found some new girlfriends in Tenjin

I forgot to mention yesterday that there is a large multi-storey store at the Hakata Station and we noticed that Floors 1,2,3,4,7 and 8 had ladies clothes and accessories, while only Floor 6 had men’s clothes  Judging by the fashions that we see on the young ladies in Japan, this isn’t terribly surprising!

Back at the hotel, we watched Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia talking in Japanese.  R2D2 and Chewbacca sounded the same as usual.

We’re going further afield tomorrow, so will need to work out how the bus system works.

Off to Fukuoka

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Karatsu, but today it was time to move on to our next destination.

Before we left, we walked down to the building adjacent to the railway station which houses a collection of pottery from various kilns around Karatsu.  We bought a couple of chopsticks rests in the shape of renkon (lotus root) slices.  Very cute, a nice memento of Japan and most importantly, they'll fit in my bag.

A fugu (puffer fish) restaurant in Karatsu.  No thanks!

We then headed off for Fukuoka, which is the seventh largest city in Japan.  After riding for only a couple of minutes, we found ourselves riding through Niji-no-matsubara, a 360 year old pine forest which runs for about 4 kilometres along the coast of Karatsu.  It was beautiful riding under the cool canopy of trees.  The rest of the ride was varied.  The first half was along the coast, with the sea on the left and the tree-covered hills on the right.  The traffic was reasonably light and we saw the occasional fisherman enjoying a pleasant Sunday morning by the sea.

As we got closer to Fukuoka, the traffic became much heavier and it wasn’t really much fun.  I did see another amusing name for a hairdresser shop to add to my list.  This one was called “Hair Labo Nosh”.

It was good to arrive in Fukuoka and get the scooters parked at the Toyoko Inn.  We picked up a few benefits from our Toyoko Inn membership today.  With a 20% discount because it’s Sunday, a 5% discount for the other days (a standard member benefit)), a voucher for the value of a single room because we’d accumulated 10 points, and a discount for choosing the ‘eco plan’ (no room cleaning on the second day), we only paid $59 per night for the three nights we’re here – right in the middle of a big city!

We started our exploration at the railway station to pick up some maps and information.  There is a Hankyu Department Store attached to the railway station, so we went for a browse through the Food Hall.  Not quite as spectacular at the one in Osaka, but still pretty amazing!

Yum!!

We sat in the plaza in front of the station watching the world go by and then went back to the hotel to browse through the brochures.  We won’t be short of things to do in Fukuoka!

Fukuoka Girls

Kids playing in the pond in the plaza

We've seen a number of ladies in kimonos during the last few weeks

After a read and a rest, we found our way over to Canal City, a mega shopping and entertainment complex.  What an amazing place!  The colourful and curved architecture is wonderful and a canal runs through the middle of the complex.  A fountain performs a water show every half an hour and the whole place is bustling with activity.  We spent quite a bit of time just admiring the sights and then made our way up to a higher floor to find some dinner.  We found a nice place and had an enjoyable meal and a chat with a Japanese man at the next table who was quite interested to hear about our travels.

Two clothing shops in Canal City - "Setting Cracks" and "Mind Blow"

Child playing in the water feature on the pavement

The fountain show in the canal

We wandered back towards the hotel via the 7-11 store to see if they sold tea bags as we’re running out (now THAT would be a disaster!).  Fortunately, they had some packets of Darjeeling tea bags so we’re saved.  We celebrated with an ice cream.

Sign at a dental clinic

OK!

Before returning to the hotel, we decided to check out the view from the observation deck on the roof of the railway station building.  It was a terrific view and gave us a true sense of what a big city this really is.  It was a lovely cool evening – just right for strolling around.

We then wandered back over to the hotel to charge our batteries ready to take on the sights tomorrow.

Exploring Karatsu

Another slow, lazy start today.  I could get used to this! 

We started off with a visit to the former residence of Takatori Koreyoshi (1850-1927).  Mr Takatori was the director, manager and developer of a number of collieries in Japan.  Judging by the size and quality of his house, he must have been extremely successful in his field! 

Takatori House

Takatori House from another angle

We were shown around by our own tour guide, who spoke very good English.  The house was absolutely beautiful and included its own Noh Theatre, a European sitting room (complete with grand piano and sofas), beautiful painted panels and carved trimmings and a beautiful tea ceremony room.  The garden was also gorgeous and contained a number of statues and ornaments which were not of stone as we first thought, but were of Karatsu pottery.  We thoroughly enjoyed visiting this house and felt that it was one of the most impressive buildings we’ve seen. 

When we came out of the house, we strolled along the beach towards the castle.

John found a neko friend

To our great delight we came across an elevator which, for 100 yen, took us right up to the castle.  The alternative was a HUGE number of steps.  We strolled around the castle grounds but didn’t bother to go in as we’ve done our share of castles in Japan lately.  This lovely castle is a reconstruction, having been originally built in 1602-1609.  It was demolished in 1872 and reconstructed in 1966.

Bless that elevator!

Kate with Karawankun

[Warning:  Language/culture lesson coming up.  Please disregard if you wish.]

Karawankun is the mascot of Karatsu.   The "Kara" part of this is from Karatsu.  Dogs in Japan don't say "Woof Woof", they say "Wan Wan".  The Japanese word for dog is "Inu", but sometimes they are affectionately known as "Wan-chan" or in this case "Wan-kun".  'Kun' is a form of address like 'san' (e.g. Yamada-san, meaning Mr/Ms/Mrs Yamada).  'Chan' is usually used for children or affectionately for family members (Grandma is usually 'Obaa-chan'). 'Kun' is usually used when addressing male children or teenagers, or by people of a senior status addressing those of a lower status.  The 'u' sound in 'kun' is pronounced like the 'oo' in 'wool'.    So put it together and what have you got?  Kara-wan-kun.

Here endeth the lesson.

Next on the agenda was a stroll around the shopping streets including browsing through some pottery shops.  We found a nice little pottery incense burner that we both liked, so there’s another thing to squish into the backpack.  We had a lovely curry for lunch in a café in the railway station – with trains occasionally thundering over our heads!

Did we take a wrong turn??

The 'street directory' of the local area. 

 Most Japanese towns don't have street names.

This is how people find what they're looking for!

Jacobs Creek wine in Karatsu

After walking our legs off, we made it back to the hotel.  While I sat reading on a bench outside, with the occasional little crab scurrying past my toes, John took his scooter for a final test run before we had to make a decision whether to stick to our original plan or to swap to Plan B which means catching a ferry from Kitakyushu rather than Beppu.  Although the scooter ran better today than it did in yesterday’s bad weather, we’ve finally settled on Plan B.  This will shorten the distance that we need to ride before going back to Osaka and will also give us one extra day in Osaka, which we’re both quite happy to have.

We also discovered the source of the occasional sound of taiko drumming that we've been hearing since we've been here.  There's a clock across the road from the hotel which performs a little ritual every hour.  The clock face and the panel next to it both drop down inside the structure to reveal a little Japanese drummer guy and a taiko (drum).  The drummer turns towards the drum and does a bit of 'boom, boom, boom' and then they both return to their hiding places within the clock to have a litte kip before the next hour comes around.

The Taiko clock

We spent a bit of time before dinner sorting out bookings and cancellations to get Plan B happening and then strolled up to the shopping plaza to find some nice things to ching back at the hotel and some little treats for later.

Tomorrow we’re off to Fukuoka for a three night stay.

A rainy day on the way to Karatsu

Well, I’m afraid that riding in the rain wasn’t such a great adventure after all.  It rained constantly all the way from Sasebo to Karatsu and to make matters worse, we took a few wrong turns along the way.  Under any other circumstances it would have been easy to pull over and check the map and the GPS, but it just would not stop raining.  The nearer we got to Karatsu, the more trucks there were on the road so it was quite an uncomfortable and tiring ride.

Unfortunately, the bad weather prevented us from taking many photos today, but we did see this sign on a window when we found a shelter to check the maps.

It says "A breast it exciting whenever it comes here"

We finally arrived at our hotel – I was soaked through to the bone but John wasn’t quite so bad as he wore his waterproof trousers and had the liner in his jacket.  We stood and dripped outside the hotel for a few minutes and then I went in to see if we could get into our room early.  The man at the desk said that we couldn’t check in until 4.00pm as the rooms were being cleaned.  I just gave him my best ‘desperate’ look and went back outside to drip a bit more outside.  The man must have taken pity on us as he came out and said that it was OK, we could check in straight away.  Bless him!!

We squelched up to our room and peeled off our wet clothes and changed into dry ones.  Fortunately, it wasn’t at all cold (about 19 degrees) so it was much more bearable than riding in the rain in 5 degrees last year.

We have 2 wonderful views from our somewhat dirty window.  The first is of the Karatsu Castle, which is actually a reconstruction built in 1966, the original having been dismantled in the 1870s.  Our kind hotel manager changed our room to give us one with a view of the castle.  Shame he didn’t also throw in a bit of window cleaning!

Karatsu Castle - taken from just outside the hotel

The other wonderful view is of the Lawsons Convenience Store which is a hop, skip and jump from the front door of the hotel.  So far it has served us well, both for a late lunch and for dinner.

After getting in to dry clothes and adorning the room and the bathroom with dripping coats, jeans etc., we had a bit of a nap.  Riding in the rain is quite draining as every painted white line and man hole cover becomes a slippery hazard requiring an enormous level of concentration.

John’s scooter is still rattling along.  It sounds a bit dodgy, but we have a Plan B if it proves to be too much of a problem.

We whiled away the evening in our room.  Neither of us has the energy or the inclination to go out in the rain.  Well, not quite true.  John just had the inclination to go and buy an ice cream at Lawsons.  

We’re warm, dry, relaxed, full of ice cream and watching some amazing men's gymnastics on TV, which is a nice way to end a rainy day.

A quiet day in Sasebo

For Thursday 13th October

Hooray for Toyoko Inn breakfasts, where you just take as much as you like and nobody gets offended!  This one even included bread rolls with packages of margarine and jam.  Nothing with which to spread the aforementioned, but we've become quite versatile with our chopsticks!

We ventured out to explore our surroundings this morning and started by visiting the Tourist Office, passing this cute little cartful of Child Care Bubbies along the way. 

Who will buy my beautiful babies?

 There really isn’t a great deal that we wanted to see here but we thought we’d see if we could get inspired.  We thought about hiring bicycles, but they were a bit expensive (we were spoiled last year in Himeji, where they are ‘hired’ for free!).  There is a Dutch theme park nearby called Huis Ten Bosch which we had originally intended to visit, but we’ve since been told that it’s a bit of a let-down and not worth the high admission charge, so we’re giving that a miss.

We finally just decided to wander, window shop and indulge in people-watching.  We went down Tunnel Alley which is a market street set in the side of a hill.  It was used as an air raid shelter during the war, but is now a quaint street of small market shops selling fruit, vegetables, fresh and dried sea creatures – and even one that sold seaweed in its various forms.  We bought a couple of bananas for a morning snack.  They’re much cheaper than we were paying in Australia!

Sea creatures galore!

Knives and tools

Kujira-ya (whale meat shop)

Umm...Umm...I'm lost for words!

We made it to the Post Office where we had intended to post our small number of souvenirs and miscellania that we’ve accumulated so far, but then we realised that we’d left behind the package of green tea that Mr Yamaguchi gave us so we decided that we’d make another trip later.

Not quite sure what they're selling - but I don't think I want it!

...but I wouldn't mind this!!

By this time John was feeling a bit ‘off’ and we were both pretty tired and drained by the humidity, so we decided to laze our way through the rest of the day in the cool comfort of our hotel room.  Although we haven’t been operating at a fast pace, we felt that a holiday from our holiday was just what we needed.

To my great delight, we discovered that there was another post office diagonally across the road from our hotel, so I took my bag of goodies over there to post while John was still recovering.  I’m a bit concerned about posting the green tea.  Firstly because I’m not sure that it’s OK to post any vegetable matter, tea or otherwise, to Australia.  Secondly because it’s an unmarked ‘brick’ of dried green stuff that might raise some eyebrows when it arrives in Australia.  We’ve taken Yamaguchi-san’s word that it really is tea, so I’ve filled in the Customs Declaration form and will hope for the best.

Once we’d recharged and revived, we went out for dinner, passing quite a few of the gorgeous bar girls tottering off to work on their stilettos.  As Sasebo is the home of an American Navy Base, there are many hamburger shops throughout the city.  The official mascot of Sasebo is a hamburger in a sailor suit!  We even picked up a ‘Hamburger Map’ from the toursit office.  So, what’s a tourist to do?  We did browse around the more traditional Japanese restaurants first, but we decided that the authentic Sasebo hamburger was the way to go.  It was really good and topped off nicely with a 7-11 store ice cream.

Last on the list of activities was a visit to yet another 100 yen store.  There were loads of things that we’d like to buy, but we’re holding off until the last few days in Osaka.  If we buy anything here, we’ll have to hang it round our necks!

John's creation on the 'light and music cascade' in front of the Arkas Sasebo (multifunction convention centre/concert hall etc.)

There is a panel with buttons which switch on corresponding

 lights on the board.  It then plays music to accompany the 'artwork'.

The weather forecast is not looking good for our ride to Karatsu tomorrow, but that’s all part of the adventure.