E^5K
Ok, let's get down to business, I've got a lot to cover. I'm pretty hard at work on the photos now, so hopefully by the time I finish the entry, I'll have those up for you and you can go there to get the long version of everything. Or just to look at the pictures without seeing me blab. You know, whatever floats your boat.
E5^K: Digest version
Kanazawa: In Kanazawa we saw, in no particular order: The Ohi pottery museum, the Kutani pottery museum, Kenrokuen, the ninja temple and a wide variety of book and cd stores. I continue to be very fond of Kanazawa, but I have to tell you that the ninja temple is wearing a leetle thin. Really, the charm lies in the fact that you don't KNOW what they are going to show you next, but, sadly, my memory is good enough that the thrill of the unknown is simply lost on me.
The only new things in that line up were the two pottery museums. Ohi is quite underwhelming - the style is not particularly attractive and the price is, well, it makes Japanese fruit look reasonable. Kutani on the other hand is staffed by a...very nice young man. (also, hot.) His English is EXCELLENT, which means that he can give you the very nice guided tour and will be able to explain things to you in Actual English Pottery Terms (TM), now, for some of us that may be no better than Japanese in terms of what we will understand. The pottery is still kind of overpriced, but we got some anyway because the tour was so nice and we wanted the cute guy to like us.
We had the best ramen in the world for lunch, this weird fluffy ice flower stuff that is DELICIOUS, seriously, and Elizabeth scoured the town in search of a Rie Fu cd which led to me having "Life is a Boat" stuck in my head for the entire afternoon. Naturally, mentioning it now has caused it to be stuck once again. Curses.
We spent the night at the first of our FIVE separate Toyoko Inns and got ready for the actual, actual start of our trip the next day.
Fukuoka/Hakata - the train trip passed without incident. We witnessed some sort of scruffy beard convention getting off at Osaka with us, they appeared to be a little confused as to whether they had gotten off at the right stop (probably due to ShinOsaka/Osaka confusion) but no doubt their beards showed them the way. We also had to sit in the smoking car in the shinkansen because there were no nonsmoking seats left available. This was probably due to the fact that we were basically taking the shinkansen to the end of the line, we needed seats that were free for that entire duration - I'm not surprised that there weren't that many. Also, it was around Obon, so everyone was trying to get...well, somewhere other than where they were now. I will say this for taking the shinkansen to the end of the line: there is no worry that you will miss your stop.
At Fukuoka (the city is usually referred to as Fukuoaka, but the name of the main train station - and the shinkansen terminus, is Hakata, which is a bit confusing when you are buying train tickets.) we found out that the reason our Toyoko Inn was so cheap was because it is really far away from the station. Oh well, a shuttle to the station ran in the morning so we only had to drag our baggage one way.
Fukuoaka is mostly about shopping, but we managed to find some stuff to see anyway. We went to the temple with the biggest wooden buddha in Japan. The buddha was nice and there was a little passage underneath it that was a metaphor for going through the buddhist hells and attaining enlightenment. Apparently attaining enlightenment involves walking through a long twisty dark tunnel. Anyway, we totally conquered it. AND the caretaker lady gave us cake. Good times. We also went to Kushida shrine, which can be viewed in the pictures, as well as the Furusato-kan, which is basically a folk museum. The folk museum, i should warn my fellow travelers is CLEVERLY hidden and FAILS to be marked on the handy English map you can get from tourist information in Fukuoka so that you don't have to cart around the huge Lonely Planet book. We wandered around for half an hour before we finally gave in and asked the Asian Art Museum people where it was.
It's a very nice museum, but the best part came when I went to sign the guestbook and noticed that the entries directly above mine (made that day) were from other Ishikawa JETs! Small world! Even smaller country.
After the folk museum, we checked out the Asian Art museum. I have several pictures up, so you can go and look at those.
We finished up the day by heading to Canal City - Fukuoka's giant shopping complex and having Hakata ramen (a regional specialty) in a really really neat restaurant. Once again I refer you to the pictures, and say only "cubicles".
Karatsu (aka: the Day of Fail): The next day we were supposed to go to Nagasaki, but decided to take a side trip to Karatsu, which is a potter town about an hour away from Nagasaki. We got there with no problems and even found coin lockers to stick our luggage in. However, Karatsu simply proved to be underwhelming in every respect. The pottery was not that nice, the open pottery studios were too expensive and were pretty difficult to find, and the day was just really really hot. Which is not Karatsu's fault, it's true, but it didn't make it any easier to bear.
The only nice thing about the town was the float museum. I talk about this in the pictures, but seeing all the different floats in the area was very interesting. In Noto, we have kirikos (and are quite proud of it) but the other stuff is pretty cool, too. Comparing such things would make a nice coffee table book, with giant glossy pictures.
Eventually we got bored of Karatsu and decided it was time to get to Nagasaki. (I completely blame Elizabeth for what happened next because she placed too much faith in me knowing what I was doing.) Sadly, due to a similarity in kanji in the destination names, we caught the wrong train and lost two hours going to the terminus and then having to go back to Karatsu. Then the train to the ACTUAL place we wanted to go took FOREVER to get there. Then when we finally got there (we had to change trains) it turned out that the tickets to Nagasaki were RIDICULOUSLY expensive AND that the express train was running late. The announcements about the train, incidentally, had been confusing me for some time due to the fact that they seemed to be for two different trains at once. This was quickly explained once the train arrived. You see, the train was in fact TWO trains which would be separating to go to two different destinations.
Naturally we got on the wrong one.
Fortunately, we were able to switch trains at the next stop (which was incidentally, the stop at which the trains separated) and we FINALLY (4 hours after I had us scheduled to) made it to Nagasaki. Once there, we crashed in the hotel room and I refused to leave for the rest of the night.
Nagasaki: The useful thing about spending all this time on public transport is that you have ample time to work out EXACTLY what you are going to be doing at every place you go. That's why, on the morrow, we woke up with a plan of action all ready. This was the first night that we were actually going to be spending in the same place as the night before, so it was quite exciting. Not to mention a load off of our minds - carting one's bags around is just no fun.
The day in Nagasaki was spent visiting various shrines, temples, random Christian sites and the Atomic Bomb impact site. The latter was depressing and the former was interesting. For more information, check out the pics.
My general impression of Nagasaki is quite favorable. I would definitely classify it as the most aesthetically pleasing of the cities that we visited. It has a very nice public transport system (of trolleys, naturally), with five different lines. They are a flat 100yen per ride, but you can only transfer at one specific station, otherwise you just keep paying 100yen each time you get on. There's also a day pass, which is actually a little pamphlet thing. It's very nice, because it tells you at exactly which stops to get off at for various important landmarks. Useful!
I mention it in the pictures, too, but Nagasaki is just CHOCK FULL of stairs. In fact, most of it is built on hills, so nearly everywhere you go it is uphill. This sort of thing makes me sad. Very sad. Also, tired.
In general, we were highly effective at Nagasaki, which naturally led me to expect that the day after that would be full of the same sort of annoying that the day in Karatsu had been. In fact, I had specifically counseled Elizabeth to avoid being particularly effective that day so as not to invoke the curse of Karatsu upon us. Sadly, neither of us heeded the advice, so it was with some trepidation that I viewed the next day's schedule and projected stop in Unzen.
Unzen: I am still amazed that we actually managed to accomplish the route that I wanted us to take. I thought for sure that something would go massively wrong at any moment (like the ferries not running or something). In order for you to share my shock, allow me to relay to you the route we took: Bus to Unzen, run around Unzen for a bit, bus from Unzen to Shimabara, ferry from Shimabara port to Kumamoto port, bus from Kumamoto port to Kumamoto proper.
Ok, it doesn't look as impressive written down, but I still consider it to be an accomplishment. Especially since there are a grand total of TWO buses from Nagasaki to Unzen in a day.
Unzen, incidentally, is a teeny teeny town situated right near a (mostly) dormant volcano. The area thus has a great deal of geothermal activity, which largely expresses itself in the presence of Onsens and these things called hells (jigoku) which are basicallys steaming vents and places where the hot springs have bubbled up to the surface. We wanted to go there because that sort of thing sounded nifty and because we were really missing the smell of rotting eggs form our lives.
Anyway, we were completely successful in our plan. Unzen is a much nicer town than Karatsu - certainly more attractive, and in general it just feels very friendly. Probably it is simply more focused on tourism. We had been somewhat worried about whether there would be coin lockers big enough for our luggage, but the lady at the bus center was kind enough to store it for us instead. Score! She was cheaper than a coin locker, too. Only 100 yen! We saw several of the hells, had Unzen lemonade and I spent an excessive amount of time making fun of the Kyushu Hotel (oh, i bet THAT one took a while to think up. We're in Kyushu? I had no idea, etc.) The only annoying part came in when we got on the bus to Shimabara, at which point the bus driver refused to let us put the luggage under the bus. WHAT ARE THE COMPARTMENTS THERE FOR, HUH? To hide the bodies perhaps?
At the ferry terminal, I terminally (ha ha) confused one poor souvenir selling lady by trying to find out if I could ship Castella (which is a Portuguese cake that Nagasaki is famous for - I'm not actually sure that it is spelled that way, usually it is written kasutera) to the States. The answer turned out to be "uh, maybe" but I didn't really have time to stay and find out more as I had to go get on the ferry. The ferry itself was quite nice, maybe half an hour to the port and we were able to catch a bus ride to Kumamoto at no problem.
Of course, it was at that point that the being foiled at every turn started, but I'll save that for another entry and wrap up here.
Before I finish this entry, I am pleased to announce that ALL (yes, you read that right, all) of the Kyushu pictures are now up. This link will take you directly to the collection of all the Kyushu picture sets, and you can go from there.
I'll probably not finish the E^5K write up until I get back, but hopefully soon after, as I have a giant "summer festival round up" to get on after that.
E5^K: Digest version
Kanazawa: In Kanazawa we saw, in no particular order: The Ohi pottery museum, the Kutani pottery museum, Kenrokuen, the ninja temple and a wide variety of book and cd stores. I continue to be very fond of Kanazawa, but I have to tell you that the ninja temple is wearing a leetle thin. Really, the charm lies in the fact that you don't KNOW what they are going to show you next, but, sadly, my memory is good enough that the thrill of the unknown is simply lost on me.
The only new things in that line up were the two pottery museums. Ohi is quite underwhelming - the style is not particularly attractive and the price is, well, it makes Japanese fruit look reasonable. Kutani on the other hand is staffed by a...very nice young man. (also, hot.) His English is EXCELLENT, which means that he can give you the very nice guided tour and will be able to explain things to you in Actual English Pottery Terms (TM), now, for some of us that may be no better than Japanese in terms of what we will understand. The pottery is still kind of overpriced, but we got some anyway because the tour was so nice and we wanted the cute guy to like us.
We had the best ramen in the world for lunch, this weird fluffy ice flower stuff that is DELICIOUS, seriously, and Elizabeth scoured the town in search of a Rie Fu cd which led to me having "Life is a Boat" stuck in my head for the entire afternoon. Naturally, mentioning it now has caused it to be stuck once again. Curses.
We spent the night at the first of our FIVE separate Toyoko Inns and got ready for the actual, actual start of our trip the next day.
Fukuoka/Hakata - the train trip passed without incident. We witnessed some sort of scruffy beard convention getting off at Osaka with us, they appeared to be a little confused as to whether they had gotten off at the right stop (probably due to ShinOsaka/Osaka confusion) but no doubt their beards showed them the way. We also had to sit in the smoking car in the shinkansen because there were no nonsmoking seats left available. This was probably due to the fact that we were basically taking the shinkansen to the end of the line, we needed seats that were free for that entire duration - I'm not surprised that there weren't that many. Also, it was around Obon, so everyone was trying to get...well, somewhere other than where they were now. I will say this for taking the shinkansen to the end of the line: there is no worry that you will miss your stop.
At Fukuoka (the city is usually referred to as Fukuoaka, but the name of the main train station - and the shinkansen terminus, is Hakata, which is a bit confusing when you are buying train tickets.) we found out that the reason our Toyoko Inn was so cheap was because it is really far away from the station. Oh well, a shuttle to the station ran in the morning so we only had to drag our baggage one way.
Fukuoaka is mostly about shopping, but we managed to find some stuff to see anyway. We went to the temple with the biggest wooden buddha in Japan. The buddha was nice and there was a little passage underneath it that was a metaphor for going through the buddhist hells and attaining enlightenment. Apparently attaining enlightenment involves walking through a long twisty dark tunnel. Anyway, we totally conquered it. AND the caretaker lady gave us cake. Good times. We also went to Kushida shrine, which can be viewed in the pictures, as well as the Furusato-kan, which is basically a folk museum. The folk museum, i should warn my fellow travelers is CLEVERLY hidden and FAILS to be marked on the handy English map you can get from tourist information in Fukuoka so that you don't have to cart around the huge Lonely Planet book. We wandered around for half an hour before we finally gave in and asked the Asian Art Museum people where it was.
It's a very nice museum, but the best part came when I went to sign the guestbook and noticed that the entries directly above mine (made that day) were from other Ishikawa JETs! Small world! Even smaller country.
After the folk museum, we checked out the Asian Art museum. I have several pictures up, so you can go and look at those.
We finished up the day by heading to Canal City - Fukuoka's giant shopping complex and having Hakata ramen (a regional specialty) in a really really neat restaurant. Once again I refer you to the pictures, and say only "cubicles".
Karatsu (aka: the Day of Fail): The next day we were supposed to go to Nagasaki, but decided to take a side trip to Karatsu, which is a potter town about an hour away from Nagasaki. We got there with no problems and even found coin lockers to stick our luggage in. However, Karatsu simply proved to be underwhelming in every respect. The pottery was not that nice, the open pottery studios were too expensive and were pretty difficult to find, and the day was just really really hot. Which is not Karatsu's fault, it's true, but it didn't make it any easier to bear.
The only nice thing about the town was the float museum. I talk about this in the pictures, but seeing all the different floats in the area was very interesting. In Noto, we have kirikos (and are quite proud of it) but the other stuff is pretty cool, too. Comparing such things would make a nice coffee table book, with giant glossy pictures.
Eventually we got bored of Karatsu and decided it was time to get to Nagasaki. (I completely blame Elizabeth for what happened next because she placed too much faith in me knowing what I was doing.) Sadly, due to a similarity in kanji in the destination names, we caught the wrong train and lost two hours going to the terminus and then having to go back to Karatsu. Then the train to the ACTUAL place we wanted to go took FOREVER to get there. Then when we finally got there (we had to change trains) it turned out that the tickets to Nagasaki were RIDICULOUSLY expensive AND that the express train was running late. The announcements about the train, incidentally, had been confusing me for some time due to the fact that they seemed to be for two different trains at once. This was quickly explained once the train arrived. You see, the train was in fact TWO trains which would be separating to go to two different destinations.
Naturally we got on the wrong one.
Fortunately, we were able to switch trains at the next stop (which was incidentally, the stop at which the trains separated) and we FINALLY (4 hours after I had us scheduled to) made it to Nagasaki. Once there, we crashed in the hotel room and I refused to leave for the rest of the night.
Nagasaki: The useful thing about spending all this time on public transport is that you have ample time to work out EXACTLY what you are going to be doing at every place you go. That's why, on the morrow, we woke up with a plan of action all ready. This was the first night that we were actually going to be spending in the same place as the night before, so it was quite exciting. Not to mention a load off of our minds - carting one's bags around is just no fun.
The day in Nagasaki was spent visiting various shrines, temples, random Christian sites and the Atomic Bomb impact site. The latter was depressing and the former was interesting. For more information, check out the pics.
My general impression of Nagasaki is quite favorable. I would definitely classify it as the most aesthetically pleasing of the cities that we visited. It has a very nice public transport system (of trolleys, naturally), with five different lines. They are a flat 100yen per ride, but you can only transfer at one specific station, otherwise you just keep paying 100yen each time you get on. There's also a day pass, which is actually a little pamphlet thing. It's very nice, because it tells you at exactly which stops to get off at for various important landmarks. Useful!
I mention it in the pictures, too, but Nagasaki is just CHOCK FULL of stairs. In fact, most of it is built on hills, so nearly everywhere you go it is uphill. This sort of thing makes me sad. Very sad. Also, tired.
In general, we were highly effective at Nagasaki, which naturally led me to expect that the day after that would be full of the same sort of annoying that the day in Karatsu had been. In fact, I had specifically counseled Elizabeth to avoid being particularly effective that day so as not to invoke the curse of Karatsu upon us. Sadly, neither of us heeded the advice, so it was with some trepidation that I viewed the next day's schedule and projected stop in Unzen.
Unzen: I am still amazed that we actually managed to accomplish the route that I wanted us to take. I thought for sure that something would go massively wrong at any moment (like the ferries not running or something). In order for you to share my shock, allow me to relay to you the route we took: Bus to Unzen, run around Unzen for a bit, bus from Unzen to Shimabara, ferry from Shimabara port to Kumamoto port, bus from Kumamoto port to Kumamoto proper.
Ok, it doesn't look as impressive written down, but I still consider it to be an accomplishment. Especially since there are a grand total of TWO buses from Nagasaki to Unzen in a day.
Unzen, incidentally, is a teeny teeny town situated right near a (mostly) dormant volcano. The area thus has a great deal of geothermal activity, which largely expresses itself in the presence of Onsens and these things called hells (jigoku) which are basicallys steaming vents and places where the hot springs have bubbled up to the surface. We wanted to go there because that sort of thing sounded nifty and because we were really missing the smell of rotting eggs form our lives.
Anyway, we were completely successful in our plan. Unzen is a much nicer town than Karatsu - certainly more attractive, and in general it just feels very friendly. Probably it is simply more focused on tourism. We had been somewhat worried about whether there would be coin lockers big enough for our luggage, but the lady at the bus center was kind enough to store it for us instead. Score! She was cheaper than a coin locker, too. Only 100 yen! We saw several of the hells, had Unzen lemonade and I spent an excessive amount of time making fun of the Kyushu Hotel (oh, i bet THAT one took a while to think up. We're in Kyushu? I had no idea, etc.) The only annoying part came in when we got on the bus to Shimabara, at which point the bus driver refused to let us put the luggage under the bus. WHAT ARE THE COMPARTMENTS THERE FOR, HUH? To hide the bodies perhaps?
At the ferry terminal, I terminally (ha ha) confused one poor souvenir selling lady by trying to find out if I could ship Castella (which is a Portuguese cake that Nagasaki is famous for - I'm not actually sure that it is spelled that way, usually it is written kasutera) to the States. The answer turned out to be "uh, maybe" but I didn't really have time to stay and find out more as I had to go get on the ferry. The ferry itself was quite nice, maybe half an hour to the port and we were able to catch a bus ride to Kumamoto at no problem.
Of course, it was at that point that the being foiled at every turn started, but I'll save that for another entry and wrap up here.
Before I finish this entry, I am pleased to announce that ALL (yes, you read that right, all) of the Kyushu pictures are now up. This link will take you directly to the collection of all the Kyushu picture sets, and you can go from there.
I'll probably not finish the E^5K write up until I get back, but hopefully soon after, as I have a giant "summer festival round up" to get on after that.