Coffee and Tea

Yesterday was our first Japanese breakfast. 

As pure westerns we weren't quite sure what to expect and the accomodation had it at extra cost so we just followed a friends advice and headed for the closest supermarket. It seems here Family Mart (http://www.family.co.jp/english/) is all you can find. And very conviently they are open 24h!!!

Today we had a more varied approach than yesterday. Me still going for pastries (ain't I original), Diana with rice cakes and Manuel with noodles. Let's see whom gets the best result!?

On a special note, drinks. As W had warned me, weak and sweet are the moto's for coffee, just sweet for tea. Sickning sweet to be honest. I stopped mine 1/3 in, and left 1/2 in the bootle, I was feeling sick. Diana and Manuel went through theirs, true portuguese coffee addicts as they are.

Ash clouds

Day 4

Cloudy, cloudy and very cloudy. That was pretty much today's day.

The idea was to spend the day around Sakurajima and soak in it's beauty.

First stop of the day was at Senganen in Kagoshima, a beautiful garden built in 1658 that is worth visiting. Cherry trees, bamboos, pine trees, ponds, a pretty japanese house.

A trek up the garden hill took to the viewing of the Sakurajima and we were hoping the clouds might dissipate so we went up. Half way through, and after Jorge and Manuel completely missed it, I noticed there was a snake in the middle of the stairs, about 40-50cm long. I panicked and ran to Jorge, mid-way on the step, screaming, crying, sobbing and obsessively looking around to make sure there weren't any more. I found out I really dislike snakes! As Manuel pointed out, my screams were bad enough to set the snake zig-zaging out of there quickly so surely it wouldn't do any harm. It took some time but I got myself together and managed to get to the top. The view was indeed very good, you could see the shape of the Sakurajima through the clouds.

Of to the ferry to cross the bay to Sakurajima peninsula. The trip was fast, about 15min, but it was enough time for another eruption of the great vulcano.

Shorlty after we did a pit stop for food and it had a free foot bath with sea view on the parking area. Don't mind if I do! We had a snack soaking our feet in (very) hot water and watching Kinko Bay. There was a family near us and the children had a laugh watching us complaint about the tenperature of the water.

   

It wasn't long until Sakurajima had an eruption of ash, followed by a second and then a third. We glanced our eyes on the nearby locals and they were so relaxed we assumed that these kind of eruptions were common place and there was no need to be worried. A search on Wikipedia further confirmed our suspicions: Sakurajima had had 500 eruptions from January-August 2014!

At the peninsula there are several observation points of the top of the vulcano but also the cone and it's artificial channels (man-made to conduct the flow to the sea and away from the villages when a full eruption actually happens). The top of the vulcano is obviously off limits and there are only roads and pedestrian routes around the base.

We were spoiled tonight at dinner. The restaurant had an english menu! We had Yakiniku: grilled meat and vegetables that we grilled ourselves at the table. Tasty!

Overnight stay was at Kirishima Onsen (hot spring town) at the Kirishima Yaku National Park. We booked a japanese-style room with mountain view. This meaning that it comprises of a small hall where you take your shoes off and then a socialising area that turns into sleeping area at night and a closed veranda. On our return from dinner someone had made our beds. I love costumer service à la japonais!

Before bed we decided to have a hot spring bath. We put on the yukata, jacket and slipers provided by the hotel and off we went to the hotel's rotemburo (outdoor hot bath). They are segregated though, which means I went alone.

The baths are very organised. There are numbered sliper's pigeon holes, numbered lockers for valuables and numbered baskets for your clothes. The protocol is clear: strip (yes, all clothes off!), wash (facilities provided) and bathe (soak in!). There is an indoor bath tub, an outdoor bath tub and an outdoor jacuzzi, all made of stone with spring (hot and sulphurous) water. The oudoor area is really good, protected by vegetation and lovely cherry trees in full bloom. I tried the indoor bath first but it was so hot I couldn't cope with it. So I went for the outdoor jacuzzi first. It was lovely to soak in at night with cherry bloom petals falling on me, very relaxing. I then tried the indoor bath again but it was still hot, all I managed was to walk in it but definetely not stop and seat for a while. I also discovered a steam bath at 42 Celsius, this meaning I didn't stay in for long. I finished with a coldish shower.

The children in the hot baths were using it for recreation under their mothers supervision. The women were chatting away, some using a small towel to cover themselves outside the tub, some not at all. A very social experience, probably similar to the public baths in Roman times.

It is forbiden to take pictures at the baths but you can have a look here: http://www.kirikan.jp/en/index2.html#Onsen.

Sugoi!

Day 3

Today we spent the day in Kumamoto, visiting two of it's most iconic landmarks.

Kumamoto castle was built in 1607 and it is very popular with Japanese, specially now that the cherry trees are in full bloom. There were hundreds of people visiting the castle and the majority was photographing the blossoms. It's worth noting that the castle is absolutely gorjeous with flowers and, as Manuel kept saying all day long mesmerised at it's beauty, 'this castle doesn't have a bad angle'.

The castle has two towers.  Both are beautiful towers, made of wood and painted white but inside they have a concrete structure which makes them really ugly. However, I must point out that wooden stairs would not be able to cope with the amount of tourists. The views from both towers are very good.

To see how the rooms would have looked like you need to enter the palace, also in the castle grounds. The tatami floor feels very good and soft under your feet, the viewing platform for the garden is a good touch and the painting used to decorate walls and doors is exquisite. There was also a movie about the restoration process and how all is really done and it is very interesting to see how precise, perfect and time consuming the work is and how attention to detail is a very japanese thing.

Two turrets are also still standing and they have the proper internal structure with wood and sliding doors and are absolutely gorjeous. It felt good to feel the cold wood under the feet as it was quite hot outside but it is a pain to keep taking off and putting on your shoes, specially if you have laces! The turrets have wooden stairs and you can see the use in them, luckely they have less visitors as the majority of the visitors seem to go straight to the towers to watch the view.

The attendant, an elderly man of about 60-70 years old, working at the door of one of the turrets, asked us where we were from. Can you believe he had been in Portugal (Lisbon) at Christmas time when he was 29 years old and he remembered the town and the Christmas celebrations? He also remembered to say in portuguese 'Boas Festas', which ressembles 'Season's Greetings'. Unbelievable!

In the afternoon we visited Kyu-Hosokawa Gyobu-Tei, next door to the castle, a 300-year-old residence. It is beautifully constructed and it has some furniture so you can see how they lived. The garden of the house is lovely. It is worth the visit and it is not crowded like the castle.

In both attractions we saw wonen wearing kimono in the gardens. I think they might be doing marketing pictures, Jorge thinks they might be doing a personal portfolio. Who knows?

Driving to Kagoshima we realised how hilly this island is and why it would take the double of the time to drive there outside the motorway. In 160Km of motorway we went through 25 tunnels!! Different lengths, from 200m to 3Km, but some of them in succession. 

On our arrival Sakurajima (the volcano across the waters and one of the most active volcanoes in Japan) bid us hello by emiting a cloud of ash. Manuel couldn't be happier. Jorge is a bit worried... we'll let him worry for us all!

We spent the night on a very cheap hotel that is the best value for money we have ever seen. For £34 we had a clean and confortable room for the three of us with all the amenities you would expect plus kettle, fridge, yukata (typical japanese cotton gown-like robe) and slippers, a bathroom with all the toileteries plus razors, tooth brush and paste and a view to the Sakurajima. A proper bargain!

Dinner was again an adventure. This time the waitress's English wasn't very good and the menu was again in japanese with not many pictures. We ordered 1 glass of shochu (a destilled sweet potato drink typical of Kagoshima) and 3 glasses of water. She brought us 3 glasses of shochu with water and ice. After observing the locals we discovered that shochu is drunk with either water and ice or hot water, hence her confusion. The boys thought it wasn't strong, I was tipsy. We ordered fries thinking they were made of sweet potato but ended up being normal fries. The salade, the burgers and the tofu were fine but then we decided to order blindly from the day's menu, this meaning no pictures. Manuel thought the name had the kangi (symbolic writing) of horse and we were eager to try. Then after ordering he kept studying the name and then changed his idea to chicken. When it finally arrived it was vegetable tempura!! We're not sure which vegetable, maybe leek.

We left the restaurant happy, well fed and with the experience of having dinned in a private compartiment, seating in the floor with shoes off. Sugoi! (Japanese for fantastic)

Are there no thefts in this country?!?

Day 2

To get around in Kyushu island we decided to rent a car, Toyota Prius, an automatic hybrid. Very quiet and ridiculously economical. Easy to drive once you get used to the fact that there are no gears, the hand break is actually a foot pedal and the indicators are on the other side of the wheel. The wheel is on the left hand side, the british side, and that was surprising as I would assume they followed the american way. It also comes without the booth cover which means that any baggage left in the car is completely visible!! Are there no thefts in this country?!?

Today we went to Nagasaki. It was a 2h drive with fluid traffic. We are not quite sure what the speed limit is and the signs are a bit confusing. Japanese drive slowly though, about 100Kmph on motorways, and my portuguese blood can't cope with that speed. I hope they don't forward fines abroad...

Lots of motorways, loads of tolls, excelent signage which includes English town names. The car has a built-in GPS which is very handy and also tells you in advance how much the trip will be setting you back in toll fees.

Like Fukuoka, the city isn't the main attraction. However, it has some interesting sights. 

Obviously, a visit to the atomic bomb (9th August 1945) Peace Park is a must and gives a good view to the surrounding mountains. Urakami's Cathedral (it was the largest church in Asia when it was built in 1895, rebuilt in 1959) most interesting aspect, apart from the city view, is the very friendly cat that lounges around there.

From the north part of the city we moved to the south where we walked around in the old quarters where european foreigners lived (Dejima, Dutch Slopes, Glover Garden), colonial-style houses can be visited, the Glover Garden is beautiful and full of my favorite flowers (camellias, magnolias and cherry blossoms) and some have great views of the Nagasaki port.

Whilst walking between quarters we found Megane-bashi, aka 'Spectacles Bridge' because the way its two arches reflected in the Nakashima river look like glasses. It is the oldest stone bridge in Japan built in 1634.

No tourist can leave Nagasaki without tasting and buying Kasutera cake (Castella cake). This cake is though to have been brough to Japan by Portuguese missionaries in the 17th century, who called it at the time Pão de Castela (bread of Castela), hence Castella cake. However, being a portuguese myself, I must say it is exactly like our Pão-de-ló, taste and texture. It's amazing how well copied the recipe was! 

It doesn't matter how good the original recipe is, you can expect the Japanese to have quircked it up. Alongside the original you can buy castella cake with other added flavours (green tea and chocolate), the same cake with different flavours in layers and even castella cake topped with different flavoured toppings. There is no imagination lacking in the land of the rising sun and anything that looks too bland needs to be made more colourful. The cakes are extremely popular and shops selling these can be seen a bit everywhere in the city's touristic areas.

We've also found a kind of pork sandwich which is very popular. It is called kakuni-manju and it is braised pork in a steamed bun which has a kanji (Japanese character) stamped on top. The bun is sweat and the pork is fatty but tasty.

Dinner was once again an affair of pure luck. Nagasaki was pretty dead on Sunday and there were more shops/restaurants closed than open. We looked for a while until we found a restaurant that wasn't expensive and it looked pretty genuine. When it comes to food we are not keen on the touristic beaten track!

As soon as we walked in the waitress warned us they only had menus in japanese. Adventurous as we are, we said that was fine, blind choice always sounds fun. Luckily her english and our japanese were enough to explain the basics and we ended up having another delicious meal of miso soup (not made from package), something that looked like beef sashimi, chicken rolled in cheese and deep fried, rice (obviously!) and a Japanese salade. We were so hungry we forgot to take pictures! The last dish however was the piece the resistence and something the boys had not had before and I had had in London the week before we left for the first time: shabu shabu. This is a kind of hot pot (nabe) of chopped vegetables (cabbage, spring onions, bamboo shoots), pork and squid cooked in a pork broth in a pot on top of the table.

There was a Japanese couple seating not far from us who had a laugh watching us pick from the menu and eating. It's fun to be the odd one out!

At the end of the meal we endevoured to practice our Japanese and said a couple of polite sentences. The waitress was so happily surprised she kept thanking and bowing to us even after we crossed the exit door. I didn't want to look rude so I bowed back but to an outsider it probably looked like I was bowing to the door! How silly I must have looked!

On our return to the car we noticed that a closed shop had part of it's stock outside, probably because the shop is too small for it all. So you close the door and leave your stock outside? To an european that sounds really silly but it probably means there really aren't any thefts around here.

Our first long haul flight

Day 1

There were hiccups even before the plane took off. Schipol airport in Amsterdam was having a power failure and working on a backup generator, no flights could land or take off. So instead of taking off as planned at 10am we were waiting in the plane. We started to worry as we only had a 2h window for the connection flight to Fukuoka. The pilot said all flights were fully booked and there were around 40 people in our flight going to Japan. So losing the flight could mean having to wait a day at the airport for availability in another flight...

The flight was 1.5h late. It was supposed to take 1.5h to Amsterdam but the pilot managed to do it in 30min?!? No complaints there!

We went straight to the connection flight terminal. That alone took almost an hour as the airport is huge! KLM staff told us to wait for seat allocation, in their words 'we'll let you know when we are ready to allocate seats'. It makes sense not to allocate seats before as we could have lost the first flight and seats can be given to other people but we were left a bit edgy as the room was packed with passagers and the plane wasn't as big as we had imagined.

Business passengers were called to board and we still didn't had seats. As I approached the staff to ask (again!) about it, I noticed they were trying to find out how to say my name to handover our new tickets (with seat numbers) :) That was a relief and we were on the go again.

Breakfast on the first KLM flight was rubbish! A small piece of cake and juice was all we were given and we also had some leaftover fruit we had brought with us. There was no time at Schipol airport to browse the shops. By the time we boarded the second flight we were pretty hungry. Yet, some hours passed until we finally had lunch/dinner (depending on time zone). It was worth the wait though! Food was delicious, and so it was the ice-cream we had mid-flight (soothing as it was getting hot) and breakfast.

Novices as we were, flight technology had the wow factor. Do you know that for a fee you can do phone calls and send e-mails? We spent part of our flight playing games, watching movies and tracking the plane's progress in the interactive map. It takes ages to cross Russia and China!

Did we sleep? Yes and no. We were provided with a pillow and a blanket. However, we weren't happy with the neck pillows, Manuel didn't had an eye mask and Jorge couldn't keep his earplugs in. Flighing long haul wasn't as daunting as I had imagined. We managed to rest a bit, KLM fligh attendants were great and I managed to go to the toilet only once (I am scared of airplane toilets!).

Fukuoka is not the most pretty or exciting of cities. Aesthetically pleasant and well kept temples are laid side by side with high rise buildings, supermarkets, small square shops and garages and a flat's balcony dipping into the temple's grounds. So much care and aesthetic planning went into the temples and shrines but the same doesn't seem to be applied to city planning. However, cherry blossoms are in bloom so all is well.

We were lucky to watch part of a tradicional japanese wedding on our visit to Kushida Shrine. How beautiful the bride looked in kimono! It seemed a very formal cerimony, with female guests dressed in yukatas and the monk and his assistants/singers performing what looked like old rituals.

By 3pm we were really tired and decided to follow spanish wisdom and have a 2h siesta. It was enough to revive us for an evening stroll.

After about an hour walking around Nakasu and Tenjin quarters, we decided on a small japanese restaurante in Nakasu where the menus are in japanese  with not a lot of pictures and no-english speaking staff. Fortunatelly we are firm believers that a smile and gestures take you everywhere. The cook tried a translation app to answer our questions, we used a japanese phrasebook and ended up having a fantastic yakitori meal which are a specialty of Fukuoka. Yakitori are typically grilled chicken skewers but we had a multitude of ingredients: liver, heart, pork, sausage, mushrooms, quails eggs, cherry tomatoes (wrapped in bacon taste very much like English Breakfast), yam and a small round yellow berry-type food which we have no idea what it is. 

First day was great. Bring on more!