I didn’t miss the train this morning and even got there a little early. Took the free bus from the hotel and got there with time to spare. Unfortunately, the coffee shop was out of most of the morning set items, but I did get something.

The train was kind of a mess. The Green car was a Green half-car, and there’s only 11 or 14 seats. Let’s say 14. It was full of one family that was loud with two little kids that ended up crying at one point. So 13 of the 14 seats were grandparents and parents and two kids. They were uncharacteristically loud for Japanese people and they were annoying me. But they got off at Kirishima-jingu and I had the car to myself for the rest of the trip.

The volcano was still going at it as well.

When I arrived I noticed my hotel wasn’t next to the station. AGAIN. And it was raining (thanks for telling me it was nice weather.com) so I took a cab. I got there around 12:30pm and started looking for lunch. Found a place next door with a craft beer sign and vegetable-heavy lunch specials so I went in. The clientele was mostly women but there were two guys and, more important, the food was great.

After that it was off to Miyazaki Jingu, where the first emperor of Japan was enshrined. Google is useless here (I guess it’s too far off in the sticks) and I had to use Navitime which also has its issues (the walking map is horrid).

I went to the Miyazaki Prefectural Museum of Nature and History to find out more about this area. For an area that was so important long ago, it sure isn’t much now. The museum isn’t that big, but I liked it. Mostly local history, and that’s what I was looking for. It was different from the sort of history they talk about in castles (not as much about battles and such) but I think that’s because the first emperor this area was defeated and the land was subsumed into the Satsuma area of Kagoshima.

Getting back was a little odd. Navitime sent me in loops around the museum and I walked for about half an hour to get to a bus stop. The bus took me back to the museum before going on to the hotel. Sheesh.

I got back to the hotel and took it easy for an hour until dinnertime. I was told about some local craft breweries so I went looking for a taproom. I should’ve known it wasn’t going to happen when people kept telling me to go to the gift store and just buy bottles there. Google sent me down this deserted-looking street (which is right off of a main street by the way).

Well, the taprooms were closed but the owner of one was there and told me that ALL the taprooms with craft beer are closed on Mondays. I mean really, f*ck this place.

I went walking around to make sure all the taprooms were closed (they were) and even asked a liquor store if they had any local beers. They told me to go to the gift shop as well.

I made it to the gift shop as they were closing. Luckily, they weren’t completely closed.

I wanted to keep the beer cold so I took it back to the hotel and I had to go back out for dinner. The front desk suggested a couple of places and I picked number one on the map, Ogura Honten, where I had Chicken Nanban. That stuff is great. Fried chicken with tartar sauce. I could eat it all the time.

I got over being mad at Miyazaki after that. I made it back to the hotel and tried the two beers I bought.

I really liked the Hideji Beer pale ale and I thought it may have been a good thing that Aozora was closed because the IPA wasn’t to my liking. I think I decided it was because they used Simcoe hops and it also didn’t seem to be aged enough.

And that’s about it for Miyazaki. There are a few more places I’d want to go, but none are that close and would require a longer stay. I’d need more of a reason to stay, though. And the funny thing is, I’ve had four or five people tell me my Japanese is very good. I dunno. This place seems a little off to me.