I didn’t have much planned for Osaka except maybe sitting in my room and looking out my window. Unfortunately I didn’t get a view this time and looking out the window would mean looking out onto an enclosed courtyard with an astroturf roof a few floors down and into the rooms across the way. That’s OK, I’ll find something to do.

I went to the travel bureau and brainstormed there. Couldn’t think of anything, though, so I got an unlimited subway pass (they’re cheaper on Sundays) and went south towards China, I mean, towards Shinsaibashi. Of course I ended up at the center of all evil (ha) and wanted to ask a question. They told me to stand in a line outside. Turns out the answer was yes, and I had to come back in an hour to stand in another line. The guy at the front of the line kinda looked like Carl Lewis and was really nice. (This picture is at night, but I was there in the morning.)

I wandered for a bit and somehow ended up in front of a stand-up beer bar that wasn’t open for a few more hours and I started feeling hungry. I decided to have ANOTHER hamburger, this time at Mos Burger. I saw a Japanese Uber Eats guy and I rushed to get his photo. I didn’t need to, it turns out. That Mos Burger had EIGHT different Uber Eats people show up in the time I was eating lunch.

Well I stood in the Apple line again with a lot of Chinese people. For some reason, both times I was sandwiched between this man and woman who wanted to talk really loudly straight through me. Oh well. At least the weather wasn’t awful.

After my line standing experience (where someone I know may have purchased a Japanese iPhone 11 Pro) I decided I might want to go see the world’s biggest Muji. I went last year to the world’s biggest Muji in Tokyo, but they were closing that down. Now the world’s largest is in South Osaka, in this Aeon Mall. The mall itself is huge and the Muji was pretty cool. I didn’t take any pictures inside.

It was about three when I was back on the subway, so I decided to stop at the standup bar in Shinsaibashi. Usually I don’t think it’s as crowded from Namba to Dotonbori, but yeesh.

And everyone was taking pictures in front of the Glico guy.

Here’s the first beer I had. I think I tried most of the beers they had. I got smart and switched to small pours at some point.

I knew I had enough and I went back to the station to have dinner at Yodobashi Camera’s restaurant floor. I had omurice shop instead of another hamburger shop, but then I went ahead and got a hamburger steak on top of the omurice.

Then I went downstairs and tried to buy a cool case for an iPhone 11 Pro. Turns out it’s too new and there really aren’t that many cases available yet. Oh well, I’ll try other places tomorrow.

Not many pictures today.

It was still sprinkling when I got up today and I figured out I could take a train directly to Osaka station from Wakayama. There was an option that was a little quicker and cut 15 minutes off of a hour-and-22-minute trip, but it cost twice as much, I think. There were other pluses like assigned seats, but I thought I’d chance it.

I stopped for a morning set and that got me on the train only five minutes early. I had to cram into a seat next to a guy who was reading a paper. The seats are pretty small, so it was a bit of a mess. But what am I going to do, not eat breakfast again?

The train was interesting. At some point it met up with the airport train and hooked the two four-car trains together to make an eight-car train. But it did go all the way to Osaka station.

I got to the hotel and dropped off my bags and immediately started looking for a place to print out some documents. I’ve been waiting to get to immigration so I can try to get my Japanese Trusted Traveler card. The card will allow me to go through an automatic gate and not wait in such a long line to get in and out of Japan. The first printer I tried was at the really crowded 7 Eleven in Osaka station and I wasn’t having any luck. I figured it was the machine and went to look for a different convenience store and a different printer. There’s a FamilyMart not too far away and that let me print everything out. That’s when I realized it was Saturday and I couldn’t just go to the immigration office. I’d have to go to the airport. I got back on the same train I was on before, but in the opposite direction. At least it was only a 70 minute trip. I also got to be on the train when they unhooked the cars.

I got to the small office that took care of applications for the Trusted Traveler card. The guy told me that I’d have to print out my employment information because I’d included it in my application. He also told me I’d need to get a different ID photo because my spare US passport photo was too big for for the form.

I found a “business center” where I printed things out quickly and then had to go look for the ID photo booth. The airport was a zoo today, by the way. I couldn’t find anyone to ask and I almost missed the booth because a guy was restocking the Coke machine right next to it and the door was obscuring the view of the machine. Then I had to find someone with a ruler to figure out how big of a photo to get because the damn booth had so many options. I stood in a long line at a bookstore and, luckily, they lent me a ruler and a pair of scissors.

When I got back to the office, the first guy was gone and there was another young guy there who had no idea what to do. He called his superior who was pretty cheerful about the whole thing. They looked me up on the computer and said my application wasn’t actually ready, but I gave him a copy of the email that said it was ready. Luckily, they went by the email and not their computer! Of course they didn’t want half of the forms I brought, nor did want the photos at all, so that was a waste of effort. They finally got it all sorted out and I made them take some of my forms because I sure didn’t need them. I walked out with my Trusted Traveler card and it was time to go back to Osaka.

When I got my room at the Granvia I found out it was tiny and had a view of an industrial courtyard! Nothing like the room I had last year or the room I had in Okayama. I didn’t even know they had these rooms! Oh well, I suppose I can blame booking.com. I watched some rugby on TV and when I looked at the local map I noticed there’s a Shake Shack here! I didn’t like the Shake Shack burger I had in Shinjuku, but I thought if anywhere was going to do it right it would be Osaka. Can’t trust those Tokyo people with food.

Sure enough, the burger was excellent.

I tried going to a couple of taprooms but none of the beers they had on tap excited me at all. Oh well.

I bet I’m going to spend a lot of time in this closet of a room because I’m in Osaka to wind down a bit. It was Saturday night and the place was jumping. I think there were six or seven live bands on the street, and I watched rugby at an outside bar for a bit. I think they completely redid the basement restaurants near the hotel, too. I already sort of miss all the small towns I visited.

I guess that’s about it for the day.

I woke up late this morning and there up on the wall, the skeeters and the bedbugs were playing a game of ball.

Wait. No. I woke up at 6AM because I set my alarm. I had to set my alarm because my stupid Bose Sleepbuds (which are great when they work) were malfunctioning again. Usually the left ear is the one that acts up but this time the right ear was acting up. Sheesh. Fortunately, the onsen in Kamikatsu was pretty darn peaceful. The only weird thing is every time I woke up and heard the rapids outside my window I’d think I needed to turn it off or I’d be wasting water. I dunno. Maybe this trip is getting to me.

Anyway, the trip back to town was much easier because they offered me a ride to the ferry terminal. Turns out they needed to replace the tires on the hotel bus and the tire shop was near the ferry terminal.

I got down to the ferry terminal before the restaurant was open, so I had to get breakfast at FamilyMart again. Even then I was an hour-and-a-half early for the ferry. It’s a Nankai ferry, and connects to the Nankai railway.

At the end of the people mover is the Nankai Railway station. I had to go down the stairs and wait for a bus because I was just headed straight into town. Google told me to get off a couple of stops early and of course as soon as I got out it started to rain hard. I ducked under an office and got my little umbrella out.

I was able to check in early to the Dormy Inn where they lent me a big umbrella. The tourist bureau told me I should check out the castle, so I headed out.  It was drizzling and humid and hot, basically some of my least favorite weather.

When I got to the castle it was a ferroconcrete reproduction that made me kind of sad.

But I did sweat my way up to the top of the tower and I saw a cake place down below. Since I hadn’t eaten anything since my pathetic excuse for a late breakfast, I went to get some cake.

And then I walked around to the other side of the castle to find the only original part – the Okaguchi gate. Well, I miscalculated and the gate was actually right next to the cake place and I went around to a re-created tiny gate. I had to walk all the way around again, but here it is. I’m still not all that impressed by Wakayama Castle.

I decided to go to a craft beer bar for dinner. They make their own beer and that can be iffy in Japan. Even worse, they take orders on iPads, and so you can’t ask any questions unless you flag someone down. I got the large onion rings. I’d already eaten several by the time I took the picture since I was so hungry. That first beer was a Heiwa Craft fresh hop “pail” ale. It was the only half-decent beer I had there.

At the suggestion of the person delivering the onion rings, I got some chicken wings.

And at the suggestion of the person delivering the chicken wings, I got local beef. Once again under-seasoned and, well, meh. That’s the Agara IPA from the “Wakayama Brewry”. It wasn’t very good.

I decided to try the Nom-something IPA, the only other local IPA they had, and it was similarly not very good.

I got back to the Dormy Inn (the buses in Wakayama aren’t cheap) and did some more laundry. This is the last Dormy Inn I’m staying at this year, and so these are the last “free” washers I’m going to see. I had a surprisingly large amount of laundry to do. Didn’t I just do laundry a couple of days ago?

Oh well. Onto Osaka tomorrow.

Today was the only day of my trip that I was kind of worried about. Number two would probably have been that trip to Wakkanai with the flight and rental car, but this one was a visit to a brewery in the middle of nowhere with iffy transportation and a stay in an onsen that also was an unknown. I met the guys from Rise and Win brewing in Portland about three years ago and the old head brewer of Labrewatory sometimes makes it here several times a year. I even finally made it to Rise and Win’s taproom in Tokyo and so I thought why not?

But first, breakfast in a crowded room, but not too bad. The curry was a little bland and the potato salad wasn’t really to my liking, but it wasn’t bad. I paid extra for this because I knew I’d probably be drinking at lunch.

And the view from the counter seat at breakfast.

Here’s the first of three buses I needed to take.

I had to change buses at the Tokushima Red Cross Hospital, which was kind of a grim place to wait for a bus.

The bus came tearing in about seven minutes late. It was a brand new bus, and he made up some time on the trip. It was a ¥690 trip and that a deal. It was a long ride and there were only three people on the bus at the peak.

I made it in time to catch one of the four Kamikatsu buses of the day. They let me off right in front of the brewery!

The brewery was much smaller than I expected. The picture you usually see is of these big recycled windows from the outside. Kamikatsu is a “zero waste” town because they were losing so much population that they fell off the map and lost garbage service. So they have a recycling center where they divide up their garbage into 45 different categories and try to reuse as much as possible.

This is the whole store, and you can arrange to barbecue with a group of people if you call ahead.

The store is on the left and the original brewery is on the right.

Portland Kettleworks nine-barrel systems!

I had a sampler of the four beers they had on tap. While a couple took some getting used to they were all good, as I knew they would be.  Charlie, the head brewer I talked about earlier who runs Ronin Fermentation Project in Graegle, CA, made some interesting beers her in the past.

And I ordered the pulled pork sandwich. It was quite tasty.

They gave me some roasted Kamikatsu shiitake mushrooms as a gift! Those were great, and I wish I could show you how large they were.

I took the bus to the onsen, and one of the five people working at the brewery came to drive me to the brewery and give me a tour. They’ve relocated the brewing operation up the hill and have an 18 barrel Portland Kettleworks system.

I didn’t take any pictures, but it was a nice big building. It was bottling day and there were two people doing bottling by hand, one after the next. It took a while. I met the head brewer and he gave me some tastes of a couple of bottle-aged beers that had been in a cask. It needed a bit more work, but I don’t think they were quite done with their experimenting.

When I got back it was still early so I took a quick walk around the area. This is looking from the onsen to the camping area across the river. I think the camping area belongs to the onsen as well.

That’s the onsen in the middle of the picture.

A new pedestrian rope bridge they put up last year? Or was it this year?

Oh, and here’s the awful view from my room. 🙂

So there’s maybe one other place to eat around here. There’s no included dinner and there’s no breakfast at all in the morning. Fortunately, there is a dining room at the onsen and it is open for dinner. It wasn’t expensive and the fish was incredibly fresh. Whoever ran the tempura fryer was a master at it. (Buried under all that tempura is another shiitake.)

The noodles weren’t awesome, but I think that’s just because I don’t like hot soba.

I took a bath in the onsen and it had bubbles in the middle of it like a jacuzzi. I tried to sit in the middle and it kind of made me float away. It also shot water up my nose at one point.

Anyway, it was a rather relaxing and fun side-trip. The wireless is great, too, so I’ve been watching Netflix.

Well, I should probably plan some of this stuff better. I even tried really hard to sabotage my trip.

I did start out OK with another breakfast at the Comfort Hotel. But jeez was the computer network bad there.

I got to the station in plenty of time to catch my first train.

Somehow, though, it was late to the transfer point. The next train was there but I misread the ticket and thought it left an hour later, not a minute later, and I missed it. I was stuck in a podunk little town that had nothing really going on.

I did find the one museum in town that was closed on Wednesdays. It’s a tobacco museum. I’m not sure what that’s about BECAUSE IT WAS CLOSED. I met some Aussies who actually spent the night here and they told me this was pretty much it.

Well here’s the train I had to take instead. All two cars. The train I missed was two cars as well, but I had an assigned seat and it would’ve taken one hour and not 1 ½ hours. Not the worst mistake I’ve made.

I finally made it to Tokushima. It’s pretty big. The towns go on for a long while up the valley.

I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to get to where I’m going tomorrow, an onsen in the middle of nowhere and the Rise and Win brewery. People have heard of it, but I have to take three buses and one of the transfers is cutting it close.

I went to the Awa Odori museum and paid ¥680 for a 40 minute show on the dance they do during the yearly festival. They also show how it evolved over the years and show you how to participate. I did not participate. The audience dance winner was a 90-something woman!

I knew I’d probably walk up the mountain behind the Awa Odori museum to the viewpoint. It started out with a bunch of stairs and so I thought it might be pretty easy. They told me it was a 30 minute walk. What they didn’t tell me was that it was a 30 minute walk straight up the mountain for 680m and it was pretty rough. It just looks like this most of the way. I think the 100m marker was right after the stairs ended.

The view from the top was pretty impressive.

After that it was back to the hotel to really make sure of where I was going. I’m heading into the hills to visit a brewery I’m familiar with – the guys came to Portland a while ago.  I talked to the one taxi company that serves the area and they told me to just give it a try and then call them if I need them. I also had to figure out why my IP Phone app wasn’t working. Skype worked, though, and I used that to call. It was kind of a big mess but fooling around with computers is what I do.

I asked the front desk where to go to dinner and I didn’t like their suggestions. I used google maps to find “craft beer” again. I know I’m going to a brewery tomorrow but I found another one to go to tonight. The beer was, well, it was OK. The food was tasty, though.

Local grilled chicken.

Fish and chips!

The brewpub was just on the other side of the river, and the river had three illuminated bridges.

That’s about it. I have to get on a bus at 9, transfer at 10, and hopefully transfer again at 10:55. All to see a brewery and I’m not even sure the owner’s going to be there tomorrow. Well, I know they have pretty good beer so it’ll be interesting.

This is what I get for using a coin-flipping app to figure out where to go to dinner. I can be indecisive, so it’s easier than fumbling for change and possibly losing a ¥100 yen coin down the sewer grate, and I don’t know which is heads or tails on a ¥100 coin anyway. I had several “local” beers but they weren’t that big, so I should be OK, right?

I started the day at the Comfort Hotel Kochi’s breakfast buffet. It was pretty good.

My plan was to get on the morning bus to Katsurahama and do some quick sightseeing before going to the Sakamoto Ryoma memorial museum. Walking around Katsurahama was nice and the beach was pretty, though there were construction crews digging out the public restroom on the beach. I guess the big waves from the last typhoon filled the bathroom with sand!

I didn’t pay the ¥100 to “see what Ryoma” sees. Hell, he was a guy, not a statue, so it should say, “see what Ryoma’s statue sees.”

The views were great without climbing the stairs to the platform.

The museum was interesting as well, but no pictures to take in a museum. There was a decorative screen with Sakamoto Ryoma’s blood on it from when he was assassinated.

I took the bus back into town and started looking for aka ushi, the local beef for lunch. I guess some places have it but they’re usually closed on Tuesday. There’s some dinner places with it, but they were closed because yesterday was a national holiday. I ended up having ramen, with a side of a small pork bowl and egg.

I was close to the castle again so I decided to go see that. It was a pretty nice castle and much larger than I expected for Kochi. 

On the way back I decided to go see Harimayabashi and it’s a tiny little bridge. There’s a sad story about a monk falling in love with a merchant’s daughter, which was forbidden, and they were both sent into exile.

I had a craving for something sweet, and I knew if I went back to the train station there was a spot where I could get a treat and a stamp in my Ryoma passport (whatever that’s worth). I bet this passport will be useless the next time I get back here.

So back to the coin flipping. I went by the place suggested by the hotel and I wasn’t sure about it, so I started wandering. I tried going to the aka ushi place but it was closed unless you had a reservation. I ended up walking quite a ways to get to 5019 Premium Factory and had a burger they called the Ryoma burger. It was huge.

I finally noticed they had local beer in bottles and I had a couple.

Well more than a couple.

I didn’t take any more pictures after I realized I couldn’t tell what they were. The first one had sake kobo in it. The second one was an IPA. Both were a little sweet but nicely balanced by the hops. The third one I had was a Yuzu beer and I don’t remember that being too sweet.

I talked to the cook and the kid behind the counter for a while and a customer who works at the local TV station. I even talked to a couple from the US military who were traveling around. I think my coin flipping app took me to the right place!

Today was a travel day and I was expecting it to be worse than it was. I even tried to make it worse. It took three trains to get from Sabae to Fukuchiyama, and four trains to get from Kinosaki Onsen to Sakaiminato, so I figured the weird criss-crossing across Shikoku would be as bad. Nope. Just two trains.

But first, breakfast at the Candeo Hotel.

The quality was good and the view even better. The Dormy Inn had more interesting things last year, including Tai Meshi, but I really can’t complain.

So then it was off to the train station. I had exact change (¥160) because I can learn sometimes. I got change by buying a Mickey D’s cheeseburger last night that was ¥140.

The first train was the express bound for Okayama. Holy crap were the rails bad. The train swayed a lot.

I transfered at a place called Tadotsu and that was another hole-in-the-wall station. But not only did it have a 7 Eleven, but there was a bakery there. The second train was another Anpanman train! And it also hauled ass.

I waited until I got on the train to have my lunch. It’s like what I usually get at 7 Eleven but much better. The apple pastry was made with Fuji apples, which got a little mealy after baking. I remember people pick different apple varieties for different recipes and this was a good example of why. The sando and the chocolate twist were great.

The train took us through a beautiful gorge with rafting. The train was going too fast and I was on the wrong side to get any good pictures.

When I got to Kochi my stomach wasn’t doing so well. I dropped off my bags and found the tourist bureau and they went on about a Sakamoto Ryoma passport. I walked towards the castle and was almost there when I decided I should head back and check in and take it easy. My intestinal issues were making me feel pretty tired.

I finally left the hotel to get the passport and then later to get dinner. Here’s most of what I had. Under the onions is a huge slab of seared bonito. It’s a Kochi dish and it was excellent. The other dish is deep fried whole small fish. Those were good too.

I did finish up with some pastries at the hotel and a banana the fish place gave on the way out. I took it easy and it wasn’t a bad day. I hope I feel good enough to go exploring beyond the city tomorrow.

Well, I didn’t plan this day very well. I knew I had to get on a ferry and I knew I’d probably also get on a train to get from Beppu across to Shikoku and then up to Matsuyama. It wouldn’t be that big a deal but I always have some trouble finding the Japanese ferry times online. Plus, it was the day after the big typhoon and the winds were still causing high waves, prompting a warning. I figured I’d find out when I got to the ferry terminal.

I got a fairly early start and found a coffee shop called “Italian Tomato” and had pretty much the same breakfast that I did both days in Hakata. IT was fresh and it was tasty. The coffee, not so much.

The ferry was kind of odd but it’s a ferry. I found a seat rather than lie down on the tatami. The waves were pretty bad and going out on the deck was too windy. I felt like I was going to be blown away. But the ferry was stable and plowed through the waves without much trouble.

I decided to try to beat the rush by taking a taxi from the ferry terminal to the train station. There was no rush and there was a bit of a wait for the train. Yahatahama station has nothing around it (no cafes, etc) but it did have a 7 Eleven. I bought a tonkatsu sandwich and bought a ticket for the train to JR Matsuyama station.

The train arrived and it was an Anpanman train! That thing went quite fast through the countryside. It was kind of fun and went through parts of Shikoku I haven’t seen yet.

At the Matsuyama train station I asked about places to see. It’s a bit of a trip from the station to the hotels and I didn’t know if I’d be back before I left the next day. I decided just to go to the free Botchan train museum and then do laundry. (Botchan is a famous novel by Natsume Soseki and you can even find info on Wikipedia about the local Botchan train.)

I had a bit of an issue on the tram because they don’t take Suica in Matsuyama (the backwards bastards) and I didn’t have anything smaller than a ¥10,000 bill. The change machine only took ¥1000 bills maximum. Fortunately there was an older woman who had change for ¥10,000!

I checked into the hotel and walked to the Botchan train museum through a long shopping arcade. The museum is in a Starbucks! It’s Japan’s first narrow-gauge railway going from Matsuyama to Mitsuhama and turned into the city tram system.

It took a while to do my laundry. The dryers weren’t the best. I was late to get dinner and my first try was to get a Matsuyama specialty I haven’t tried yet: nabeyaki udon. I got lost when I got close and asked a woman in a shop where it was and she looked at me like I was going to rob her. I went to another shop where they were much more friendly and they told me that you can only get nabeyakiudon for lunch! So I walked all the way back to the hotel and then north to the dinner place I went last year to get taimeshi (sea bream rice). This time I got a different style than the last time I was here. This one comes with raw tai and egg.

After that it was back to the hotel to watch Japan eke out a win against Scotland in the Rugby World Cup game.

That’s about it.

So today is a typhoon day and I’ve been fairly lucky to have missed the big ones in my travels this year. I’ve been away from the edge of two really bad typhoons. Fukuoka was just windy (very windy) and there were some cancelled trains on the Kagoshima line. I heard the wind blew something across the tracks and delayed a bunch of trains.

Almost the same breakfast as yesterday, at Pronto.

I got to the station early to get my last reserved seats on my railpass. I used two three-week rail passes and now it’s pay-as-I go. There was a long line, of course, but I’m not sure it’s because of people rescheduling their canceled trips. I think Hakata is always a shitshow in general. Like I said before, Fukuoka is much larger than I expected.

Anyway, here’s my train. It went up to Kokura, and then went backwards to Oita. Or maybe it was going backwards to Kokura. I dunno. Either way, it was late!

I got to Beppu late, of course, and dropped off my bags at my hotel. It’s so-so. I went to the tourist bureau and of course they told me to check out the hells. The tourist bureau had a weird feel. It’s small, but you know it had a lot of people coming through it. It seemed to lack polish for a place that’s traditionally known to be a tourist spot

I went to the hells and honestly Jigokudani in Noboribetsu was a lot more interesting and natural. There’s only so many variants on geothermal springs so some of them got gimmicky.

This next one had a bunch of hot springs and they showed you how smoke would interact with the superheated water and create steam.

And this is all I had for lunch. The pepper flakes just made me cough and didn’t really add to the flavor of the ice cream.

I think this next hell was so boring that they took the hot water and made a crocodile farm.

There was a huge guy next to this one and I was lucky enough to see feeding time. Those guys can jump and the big guy was 20+ feet I bet.

The next hot spring had tropical fish.

I guess this is what piranhas look like.

I went to the trouble of taking a bus to the last two hot springs. This is “blood lake”. It’s much less impressive in person.

And as long as I was there I waited 45 minutes for the geyser to go off.

I got back to town and checked into my hotel but I decided to find some eyeglass cleaner for my brand new eyeglasses. The instructions say use the proper cleaning cloth and make sure you wet them first with the proper blah blah blah. I know I’ll do that for the first couple of months at the most.

Then I went looking for dinner. The hotel suggested two izakaya and two teishoku places and I went to a teishoku place. And overate because I hardly ate anything today.

That beer in the background is the only one I had.

Tomorrow I’m winging it because I don’t know if the ferry is running. Plan A is to take a ferry across to Yahatahama, and get a train to Matsuyama. It’s always an adventure on the Shikoku ferries. Lots of web sites in Japanese and I can hardly figure out what they’re talking about. I’ve had good luck so far so wish me luck.

Oh boy. I met a rugby ref from Albuquerque who was originally from Australia and we watched the rugby game together. Once again I’m going to be posting later in the day/morning because I stayed out too late.

I started out the day pretty simply, at the Pronto across the street. I like these easy breakfasts.

I went to the tourist bureau (at the station, as expected) to ask what I should see and they told me Dazaifu. That wasn’t on the web sites but it looked interesting so I got on the 40 minute bus ride to Dazaifu. It sounded like just another shrine, but there was a museum nearby and that sounded interesting.

I wanted to do the shrine thing so I had to line up behind a whole high school’s worth of kids. I overheard one of the boys and he said he was going to wish for a girlfriend. I should’ve told him it hasn’t worked for me so he might want to reconsider especially since Dazaifu is traditionally where you pray for academic success.

Behind the shrine was a Inari shrine. I forgot what the Inari shrine was supposed to deify, but I started to think Inari was the god of staircases.

Two interesting features: instead of one bell, there were 12 bells for each sign of the Chinese zodiac, plus the main bell.

There was a cave behind the shrine as well, something I’ve seen once before.

  

I went by the “waterfall” that was barely a trickle.

Then it was museum time. The first museum I went to held the treasures of the shrine.

Then I followed signs to the Kyushu National museum, which I figured out might be a big deal on the way. First, there’s two escalators to take you up a mountain.

Then there’s two people movers to get you to the museum.

When you finally get there, the building is HUGE.

I doubt this Miyoshi can move. It looks awfully top-heavy.

I went to the regular exhibit floor where they had the standard history of Japan stuff. There was a special exhibit from the 3rd century in China. I also went to the third museum that showed history with Hakata dolls but I just sped through that.

Here’s all I had for lunch. Ume and matcha soft ice cream. It wasn’t great.

I went back to my room and booked my tickets for Hokkaido and my trip to see the easternmost point of Japan at Cape Nosappu near the end of October. I was just taking it easy until the night market started.

The night market was mostly international food and some people I talked to told me to go to the traditional yatai instead and the yatai weren’t far away.

I walked around until I found a place that was crowded and had tonkotsu ramen and teba gyoza. The gyoza was stuffed into the chicken wing!

Sadly, it wasn’t the best ramen I’ve had on this trip. In fact, I think I liked the ramen I had at the street fair in Sapporo better. But it wasn’t expensive.

I went on to a yakitori place and it cost twice as much as the ramen. It wasn’t twice as good. That’s where I met the guy from Albuquerque who wanted to watch rugby and I told him I knew a place. We ended up talking for a while and having a couple more beers. Just enough to keep me from being able to finish this post last night.

I am tired. It was a lot further to the westernmost point of Japan than I thought, and I got back at 6pm. Imagine driving in Japanese rush-hour traffic with pedestrians going everywhere. And imagine that the GPS in your rental car is old and a little faulty.

The day started off easy. The breakfast downstairs changes a bit from day-to-day and Route Inn, while expensive, does a good job.

And then it was on to the Shinkansen for a whole half-hour trip to Hakata.

I had no idea how big Fukuoka was. Turns out it’s the fifth largest city in Japan, population-wise. I got to the hotel and left my bags, and then it was time to go looking for Toyota Rentacar. I didn’t take a picture of my car this time because it was a POS. An old POS that needed a key to open and start (!) unlike either of the other cars I rented and it also didn’t have Bluetooth in the radio! I had to listen to the speakers on my iPhone XS which is fortunately quite loud. And it was a long drive out to Kozakihana too. I passed through three prefectures and the GPS didn’t even know about the extension of the highway I was on.

Anyway, I made it!

It’s beautiful out there but it really is in the middle of nowhere. No one else was out there, and the last bit was on a windy one-lane two-way street lined with houses. It’s a fishing area and I don’t think they get many tourists.

There was a sign that told you how to get the postcard that says you were at the westernmost point (at least that’s what I think it says) and I had to call the company where they had the cards because I got lost. Also seriously in the middle of nowhere.

Everyone kept talking about going to “city hall” to find out more, so I figured I’d at least see where the second phone number on the list took me. Even the woman at Cape Sata said something about the Sasebo City Hall. Sure enough, it was city hall for the tiny fishing village I was in. At least the GPS had the function where you type in a phone number and it takes you to the associated address.

I got to the city hall and they were quite nice. It took them some time to find the forms, but they gave me the form to fill out to get the certificate that says you made it to all four. I told them I might try the last point (easternmost point in Hokkaido) during another trip but they said the certificate is only going to be issued until March! I’d better actually get on it and get to the fourth corner!

I was going to make a side-trip on the way back, but it’s 3 hours back with no side-trip. I was afraid I might miss the 8pm cutoff for returning the POS car. I got back into Fukuoka at 6pm, right in time for rush hour. Lots of cars, lots of pedestrians. And the GD GPS took me to the opposite side of the building from the rental agency office! Since I don’t know the area at all, I stopped, got into a verbal altercation with a motorcyclist (I was just asking directions and he told me that I was in his way) and drove in circles. Fortunately, I found the office on the other side of the building.

That was enough for me. I decided to retreat to what I know best and went off to find some craft beers. Here’s one from Isekadoya and Culmination in Portland!

Oh, and my new glasses came!

That’s it for the day.

I had a coupon for the castle tour (ha, castle – more of a rubble tour), the weird museum outside, and the City Museum. I still needed to see the Kumamoto City Museum, so that was where I set off for. First, though, I had breakfast at the hotel.

Then it was off to the tourist bureau because Kumamoto’s buses are a mystery to google and the goddamn Japanese transit apps that are maddening and want me to make some incomprehensible in-app purchases. The free ones don’t work that well and I’ll be damned if I’m going to pay money just to find out the the paid ones also suck (I read the reviews.) Anyway, I got printed schedules from them and got on this goofy loop tourist bus that took me to the museum.

Not many pictures today because who takes pictures in a museum? The city museum had local history as well as natural history and archeology and it was pretty cool. There was also an art exhibit of sketches of the castle area that I paid extra for. I kept going and went to the Prefectural Museum Annex that had several exhibits by people in Kumamoto and that was free. I skipped the Kumamoto Prefectural Traditional Crafts Center because I figured they were going to charge me to see things that they wanted to sell me. I did take yet another bus to the Shimada Art Gallery, a small display of Miyamoto Musashi’s weapons and of Japanese battle helmets. Had some nice curry there, though.

After that it was back to the bus terminal/mall as it’s the nexus of all bus activity and I finally called the Wakkanai City Hall to see if I could get the postcard for being there. That made me wonder how far it was to the westernmost point and it’s only 2 ½ hours from Fukuoka! So I decided I’m going to take an early train to Fukuoka so I can rent a car and go to the westernmost point. I started researching the last place I’d need to go, the Easternmost point, way out in EBF Hokkaido. I might just take a day trip from Tokyo. I’m going to try to call my sister tomorrow and see if she can talk me out of it. There was a bit of scrambling at Toyota Rentacar to make sure I could rent a car tomorrow.

For dinner I decided to try getting Higo Beef, or Akagyu. I tried to go to the fancy New Otani Hotel across the street and they treated me like crap and the steak restaurant that I went to four years ago is closed. They suggested I go to the hamburger place in the train station. Well, I did look but they didn’t have anything. I went to the bus mall steak restaurant and spent $47 for not a whole lot. And it wasn’t that good.

I couldn’t leave it at that, so I went to the Rugby Fanzone and found a Akagyu skewer for ¥300 and it was great! I told that story to one of the guys in a nearby booth and he gave me some Akagyu sushi for free! That’s where I should’ve gone in the first place!