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)