I only stayed a day in Miyazaki and I think I only missed one thing that’s actually in the city, some weird right-wing monument. There were a few things that would’ve been a road trip that might’ve been cool to see, but I’m OK with missing them this time. I can come back. The bus to the station was quick and I found a pastry shop in the station that was open early. I had a bacon roll and a potato salad roll. And some brown stuff that passed as coffee. My sister is much pickier about coffee. I’ll eat all sorts of crap.

I got on the train to Kagoshima and this time I was the only one in the green car from Miyazaki to Kagoshima. I swear the engineer was giving me dirty looks, but whatever. Back in Kagoshima the weather was nice and the volcano seemed quiet. Of course the weather was nice in Miyazaki as well. I had no luck with that place.

I grabbed an ekiben and got on the Shinkansen for Kumamoto. It wasn’t that crowded, but there were several rugby fans (i.e. roundeyes) in the green car.

I made it to Kumamoto but I was immediately confused. I’d been here just a few years ago (turns out it was 2015) and the station looked completely different! It used to be small with just at Mister Donut and a Mos Burger but now there’s a shopping area and a bunch of restaurants. The hotel I stayed in just five years ago is now a hole in the ground! And the rooms seemed brand new in 2015!

The news reported that the castle just reopened and so I had to go see it. I saw it in November of 2015 and the earthquake hit it hard in April of 2016. It used to be one of my favorite castles because of all the displays and beautifully kept rooms. And it wasn’t open at all! There was just a path through the grounds so you could go in and see the repair work being done. Every place you see a pile of rocks is where the walls crumbled during the earthquake.

This next building was perfectly level when I last saw it.

After that I went to the sorta cheesy castle museum. I bought a 3fer ticket and by the time I got out I didn’t have time to go to the art museum. The ticket is good tomorrow too, though.

I went walking down the shopping arcade towards the newly renovated bus terminal. Got some snacks on the way because, well, I’m kind of a pig. There are a lot of mirrors in the big public baths and I can see I’m a load. Anyway, I needed a rest and Mister Donut was there for me.

Oh, I forgot to mention there’s a street fair at the castle as well and I got the localest beer I could find from Minamata (it’s in the prefecture but not very close). Minamata is someplace I don’t want to go and a place where I don’t want to have source anything I eat or drink, but you know how I am with beer. By the way, don’t google Minamata to see what I’m talking about if you don’t know. Trust me.

The beer was tasty, though.

I got back to the renovated bus station and there’s a huge shopping center there now. And in front of it was one of the Rugby Fanzones. It was free to get in and there was a huge line inside. I went in and saw a crowd and a bunch of food stands with no customers. I found out that the French team was there giving autographs. I have no idea who the French team are, so I didn’t stand in line to get a signature from, as the Welsh guy I met said, “those miserable bastards”.

Hard to see from that picture but the roof garden is on the fifth floor. I took a bus back to the station (it’s still partially a bus terminal after all) and checked in to the hotel

I should’ve had dinner at the new shopping center because they had way more choices, but I went back to the station where there were seven ramen places. I ate at one of the five (I think) non-ramen places. This time I got a picture of the basashi (and you probably shouldn’t google that either). It was all local Kumamoto food and pretty tasty. (That’s a tiny beer in the corner.)

And that’s it for today! I’m in a fairly loud room at the Route Inn so I hope I can get some rest.

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.

Somehow I knew I’d blow the time on one of my trains or something and I’m hoping that this is my one and only screw up this trip. One previous year I booked a seat on the Narita Express for the wrong day. I was lucky that I had a rail pass so they let me ride anyway, but it was just dumb on my part.

I was planning on going on the Ibusuki and Chiran tour today. I took a free shuttle from my hotel and got to the bus stop early and didn’t see anyone. I thought the bus was leaving in 15 minutes instead of 5 so I left to eat breakfast.

Basically, I missed the bus by five minutes. That left me with no plan but I then I came up with the wild idea to rent a car to drive to the “southernmost point” of Japan. The real southernmost point of Japan is an island most of the way to Taiwan, but the old geography courses used to teach that Japan was defined by the four main islands. I wasn’t even sure if I could get to the southernmost point and I wasn’t planning on renting another car. Heck, I was nervous enough renting the first one. But it was time for another adventure. I consulted with my buddy at the tourist bureau who sent me to Orix Rentacar. They gladly rented me a compact car and told me which ferry to take and where to gas up the car on the way back. They even apologetically sold me the most expensive insurance which cost less than $20. Off I went to find the ferry in South Kagoshima City, trying to decipher signs as I drove. Here’s the gray car I rented.

Let’s see, I must’ve started around 9AM. There was a 40 minute ferry ride across to the opposite peninsula and we went by the volcano “island” again. The bus driver from the hotel told me that there was a lot of ash on the cars today and I saw the reason. The volcano was being active again.

So off I went with my rudimentary understanding of the Japanese GPS to Cape Sata. Lots of driving down the coastline, which was beautiful, but it took 2 ½ hours or more to get to the cape. And I was “speeding”. The speed limit varied from 40 to 50kph which is 25 to 30mph. I was doing 30 – 35mph.

I got down to the cape and it was HOT. Well, there’s an explanation. 100m from the parking lot for Cape Sata is this monument that says you’re at the 31st parallel which also runs south of California thorug Baja California, and through Texas.

At Cape Sata there’s a tourist information counter and then a 20-minute walk to an observatory. That’s as far south as the path goes and I wasn’t sure which was further south: the end of the path or the ruins of the ruins of the lighthouse quarters. I went to both just in case.

Do I really look this goofy?

It was pretty out here, too.

I could even see the mountain I would’ve been next to to if I hadn’t missed the tour bus (the conical one in the middle distance).

On the way back I stopped at the souvenir shop and they gave me a postcard commemorating my visit to the southernmost point. They said I could’ve gotten a card for the northernmost point. I also asked if there was anything to see on the way back and they told me to see Ogawa Falls. This was a spectacular Google Maps fail. I couldn’t find it on the car GPS and Google took me to the top of the falls through windy one-lane country backroads. The top of the falls is unspectacular. There’s a viewpoint where you can see down into the valley and down to where I really wanted to be.

It’s quite a drive down around to the mouth of the valley and then narrow windy roads up to the parking lot for the dam. From the parking lot there’s a 30-minute walk along the river up to the viewpoint. it was a pretty walk, though.

Yes it was humid, but the waterfall was spectacular. A lot of the water came from springs in the face of the cliff.If you look towards the top left of the cliff you can see a pole. I think that’s part of the hydroelectric plant you can see at the top of the falls. If this was a video, you could also see a flashing ramen sign from up there.

Then it was time to get back. I was tired of all the driving (it wasn’t freeway driving and would it kill a guy here to make a straight road?)

The volcano was still going.

I got back to town, filled up with gas, and returned the car. Then I hit the train station department store for some dinner. I think I overdid the carbs.

If the people next door stop slamming their goddamn door, I may get some extra sleep tonight.

Well, I didn’t feel great this morning (or most of the day) but I was all set to take the two half-day bus tours. First, I went to the closest coffee shop to the hotel but that didn’t turn out to be very close and it was in the opposite direction from the main train station, where the tour started.

I took a cab to the station and got on the bus.

 

The morning tour was to Sakurajima, the volcano “island” in the bay right across from Kagoshima.

 The bus drove straight onto the ferry. There was a big concert going on so the Sakurajima Ferry was crowded.

It was hot today (I guess it’s usually hot this far south in Japan) and we drove around the island. The first stop was at the observation point. You can’t go much further up the mountain because it’s still active and the area is restricted for people’s safety.

Then it was down and around the shore. Most of the stories here were about the most recent huge eruptions. Here’s a shrine gate that was buried by lava!

I put “island” in quotes because the most recent large eruption in the 1950’s connected the island to the peninsula across from Kagoshima. I guess there was a dangerous fast-running current in the small space between the island and the peninsula before they were connected.

It was hot, and most of the areas we visited had no shade!

We made it back and we weren’t that far behind schedule. I even had time for lunch. A beef bowl (yes there’s rice under there). Was it good? I’d tell you if it wasn’t.

The second tour was around the city and most of it was all about Saigo Takamori, the “last samurai.” I didn’t take a lot of pictures because there were museums, graveyards, placards in front of parking lots, etc, and the only interesting things to take pictures of were shots out the bus window as we drove by. That never works well. I’d definitely recommend the tour, though.

I do have a couple more pictures of the volcano, though.

We ended up at Sengan-en, the gardens and house of a feudal lord that also had an iron smelting plant on-site. They made weapons near this site, but that’s gone as well.

A couple of older women kept talking about jambomochi, and of course I had to try them as well. I think they only have them here, in or near this garden, and they’re tasty.

I had the same 71-year-old bus guide on both trips and I think the same driver as well. It was a fun day. I don’t think you can really see them through the window.

And then it was dinner. I ended up waiting a while to get into a shop that seemed to be in the basement of an office building. They warned me I was wording the “big” tonkatsu and I should’ve heeded the warning. I always hate how the Korean people who run Japanese restaurants in Portland serve such thin pork cutlets and call them “tonkatsu.” This one is close to an inch thick! I had to waddle back to the hotel.

And that’s it for today (and I’m sticking to soft drinks for the moment!)

Oh boy, I had a couple more beers than I should’ve. But I’m getting ahead of myself because that happened at the end of the day.

I finally found a coffee shop that opened at 8am (Okayama’s a lot bigger than Sakaiminato) and that alone was a huge win. I’ve eaten at conbini a lot the past few days.

There were a bunch of mascots around trying to promote an event I won’t be around for.

Then I got on the Shinkansen to Kagoshima, the southernmost Shinkansen stop.

The first part of the trip I think I was the only Asian in my car. I wondered if everyone was heading for Hiroshima, and sure enough a bunch of people got off. But the same number of non-Asian people (by non-Asian I mean whitey) got on. I checked the World Cup Rugby schedule and I figured they’d get off at two different station. Sure enough, after the two stops I thought, it was just me and a few Asians.

In the middle of all that I had a pretty good ekiben from Okayama.

When I got off the train I wondered what I was thinking. I should’ve found a way to stay up north. It’s not THAT hot, but with the humidity it sure seems hot to me.

And of course I got lost. In preparation I looked up the WRONG train station and the WRONG hotel, so I thought I needed to be near the train station in the middle of town when I really was closer to the Shinkansen station. But I made it to the hotel pretty early and went back to the train station and asked the tourist bureau what I should go see. There were some bus tours that looked promising, but it was too late to do any of them. Kumamoto looked pretty spread out and, as I mentioned, it was HOT so I just asked if there was any beer to be had. I went to the closer place they mentioned and it had two craft beers: Yona Yona (from Tokyo) and something from Brooklyn Brewing. Yeesh. The kid there was nice and went to SWOCC! (Southwestern Oregon Community College in Coos Bay!) He suggested the other place that the tourist bureau also suggested.

THere’s a fancy hotel on the hill, the Shiroyama Hotel Kagoshima, and there’s a free bus to get up to it. It’s a fancy hotel, so when I got off the free giant shuttle bus, a dude with a bellman sort of uniform asked me what I wanted and he had to run in to find out where I could go. They sat me in a “bridal lounge” (a very sterile room) and I had the tasting set.

On my way out I had to ask where the beer was made. It was after 5pm but they said I could go down and check out the brewery! The brewer was quite friendly and used a lot of hops from Washington.

It’s a 250L system (approximately 2.5 barrels) and it takes two batches to fill the maturation tanks that are only 500L. We got to talking and he said I went to the wrong part of the hotel and there’s a bar with more taps. He gave me a couple tastes off the zwickel, a nice hazy and a Brut IPA.

On the way out he told me to check out a taproom not far from my hotel. The burgers there were great and they had a couple of Japanese craft beers on tap. They had the rugby game on, though, and I “had to” keep buying beers until it was over.

And that’s about it.

Sakaiminato continues to disappoint. On Google Maps I found some coffee shops that open “on time” in Yonago, so I thought I’d take an earlier train and grab breakfast in Yonago. Well, the short train to Yonago was delayed enough that I only had 30 minutes until my next train so I still ended up eating breakfast from 7 Eleven.

By the time I got back to the train station, I found out the train to Okayama was also delayed.

Well it was a nice calm ride back to Okayama, a place I’d been many times before. I decided to stay in a nicer hotel, though and my room at the Granvia is huge by Japanese standards. It’s even big for, say, San Francisco.

It was a very humid day and fortunately it didn’t rain very much. I was planning on just hanging out in the mall next door if it was too rainy. They’re having the Okayama Art Summit right now so I spent most of the afternoon visiting modern art installations. Most of the time I spent rather confused. Some of the installations are on the grounds of the castle, some are in random galleries. It was actually a lot of fun.

The big plans though were to meet my sister’s old co-worker and friend Yumi for dinner. Her brother and one of her marathon buddies (who I’ve met before) also came. It was a lot of fun and the other marathoner (who is a whiskey expert) gave me a small single-shot bottle of Yamazaki 12!

My original plans were just to hide out and maybe just hang out in the mall if it was too rainy and it was a lot more fun than that today.

(And that’s the reason why I relax at the Granvia. I like sitting in the room and just looking out the window.)

I took a bunch of pictures today but most of them are only interesting to me. Sakaiminato continues to disappoint me but I keep finding ways to amuse myself. I thought the coffee shops opened at 9am instead of the standard 8am, but it turns out it’s 10am today. So I decided to ask about how to get to Ejima/Eshima so I could see the bridge. I was considering taking a taxi across and back or renting a car, or just walking it. Well, it turns out there’s a 8:27am bus and there are only 3 buses per day. It was 8:25 or so and I asked where the bus was. The “bus” came right after I got outside and it was just a small van. I was the only rider! I got to chat with the driver and he said there’s really nothing on Eshima and the bridge looks more impressive from the other side.

Well the bridge ain’t much. The famous pictures of it are taken with a telephoto lens from a boat off the other side of the island. On foot there isn’t much to it, but I like doing this sort of thing. I even took my girlfriend to the world’s longest diagonal elevator. Before I started, though, I saw a FamilyMart and decided to get some breakfast since I still hadn’t eaten.

Just past the sign for the bort ride in Matsue that I didn’t take yesterday. It was too late in the day.

This is what I’m reduced to but the most annoying thing is that this damn little island had a better selection than Sakaiminato which appears to have way more people.

The view wasn’t bad, either. Past the parking lot is a big lake. Or is it a sound? Maybe it’s a sea.

Off I went, in the rain, to the bridge. This is the side that has the straight-on view that is more impressive. But with the wide-angle lens of my iPhone or with the naked eye, it doesn’t look that scary or steep. I think the whole thing is just and advertisement for the area.

I watched a YouTube video where the guy said it was like a rollercoaster. Nonsense.

It is a tall bridge though, with some nice views.

Oh, and the reason I didn’t notice this all is because from the Tottori side (where I came from yesterday) the bridge curves.

I couldn’t get any better pictures because I didn’t want to get run over in the middle of a busy road.

Ok, time to head back. But the first thing I found was a Daiso! (The ¥100 store – ¥110 with tax.) They didn’t have what I was looking for but I did get a couple things I needed and I was only out ¥220.

The next interesting thing I ran into was this sign, so I went in and looked at the placard next to a statue of the founder.

That’s Mr. Onitsuka, the president of Asics, who is from here and owned one of the three companies that merged into Asics, Onitsuka Tiger. Those are the shoes that started Nike.

And then I kept walking because, well, I forgot to call a taxi like my original plan. I didn’t mind walking through the farmland. I find it more peaceful than house after house.

I finally made it to the train station and found the next train was 27 minutes away and the hotel (where I needed to pick something up) was 23 minutes walking. It was humid and sweaty and I kept walking.

Around noon I headed towards Yonago to see the castle ruins. I don’t think they get many tourists because the guy at the tourist bureau went on and on. There’s an Aeon mall on the way so I stopped in for lunch. Most people were buying bentos from the grocery store and microwaving them in the “Eat in” corner but I went to the bakery and got a hot dog, curry pan, and a fondue pan.

Then it was off to the ruins. They were kind of impressive, but also kind of ruins.

Also, there were some stairs. Close to the top I saw a Asian giant hornet and I had to wait for it to calm down before I went by. I think it was nesting in the stairs.

But the walls were pretty neat and there was quite the view from the top.

The rest of the tour of the city was kind of a bust. I mean, the guy told me to check out a bridge and this is all it was.

I did find a craft brewery but it didn’t open until 5:30pm and I was too tired come back and put up with this sort of nonsense.

I went back to the station and found I just missed the train, so I went to the Aeon Mall because I saw they had a Mister Donut. Not the best doughnuts but still tasty and I always find it to be a nice place to rest.

They must’ve sensed that I’m a spoon thief because they didn’t give me one. I got back to the hotel, took a bath, and ate some Chip Star (Japanese Pringle’s) for dinner. And now somehow it’s bedtime. Not a bad day.

Staying in Sakaiminato was kind of a mistake. I knew that when I asked the lady from the tourist bureau on how to get to Izumo and how to get back and she said, “You’re coming back?” I had two different people laugh at me when I told them I made that mistake. One was a random older guy at the bus stop (probably my age) who said, “Yeah, you went for the yokai? I bet it’s a bit of a disappointment,” and the other was the guy at the Matsue JR Green window who kind of said, “Sakaiminato? Oh boy.” Honestly it wasn’t that bad.

There are some oddities, though. I went out looking for a coffee shop and found out they don’t open until 9AM! Seeing as how they all seem to close early, I don’t know what the point is in keeping banker’s hours. I had to walk past the hotel and in the opposite direction of the shopping street to find the Lawson which was very poorly stocked. I still got a tuna & egg sandwich set, a ham & cheese roll, a smoothie, and a can of coffee and ate it in my room.

Then it was off to Izumo Taisha, the oldest shrine in Japan. I took a big highway bus to Matsue, a train to Izumo, and then a city bus to Izumo Taisha.

I guess the train was the same one as the other day going from Tottori to Yonago. Lots of waiting around in between the train and the buses, and my lunch was some more combine food from 7 Eleven while I was waiting at Izumo station.

Anyway, the Izumo Taisha is one of the grand shrines and possibly the oldest one in Japan. I spent my time going around the grounds and it was HOT again.

I also went to see the treasures of the temple and proceeded to the Shimane Museum of Ancient Izumo where they have the archeological history of the area on display. Pretty cool.

Then I got on a couple more trains to get to Matsue Castle because why not? It’s on the way back. I took the local electric railway where they still use paper tickets and a conductor with a paper punch to show you got on.

It even had one of those weird turnarounds I never understand.

Turns out Matsue Casle one of the five castles that are National Treasures of Japan, and one of the few made of original timbers. Of course, since it was built in the 1600’s it’s been rebuilt but some of the original timbers are still there.

The train from Matsue to Yonago was listed as canceled on Google Maps so I had time to eat some so-so ramen at the train station.

Finally it was back on the same sort of train to get back to Yonago, and then a nondescript non-cartoon-wrapped train to Sakaiminato.

And another thing I found out – I was on that crazy bridge connecting Tottori Prefecture and Shimane Prefecture (look up the Eshima Ohashi bridge) and I didn’t even know it! Anyway, that’s it for today. Here’s a video of the beer robot that I hope shows up OK.

Oh boy. I’m not sure why I decided to spend three days in Sakaiminato other than it’s nice and quiet and that’s not bad. It’s also the hometown of Mizuki Shigeru, best known for his character Gegege no Kitaro, and a researcher of phantoms and ghostly apparitions and I like that sort of thing. The stations on this peninsula all have nicknames of apparitions and the walk from the station to the Mizuki Shigeru Museum is lined with Japanese spectres.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. I started with a giant breakfast that came with my room:

I did NOT finish it all and it was a leisurely morning since my train didn’t leave until 10:24. It was a small two-car train at first that stopped in the middle of nowhere after a beautiful trip down the coast.

After a 43 minute wait we got on a much newer one-car train that took us to the big city of Tottori.

Then, after a 51 minute wait we rode a much bigger four car train to Yonago.

And then finally a 21-minute wait for the Gegege no Kitaro-themed train (one car) up the peninsula to Sakaiminato.

I checked into the hotel and went to the tourist bureau that pretty much confirmed the road to the museum was all there was to see in this town, and then I asked how to get to the “close” towns of Izumo and Matsue. Turns out you can get there, but it’s 3 hours back from Izumo and 1 ½ back from Matsue. I’ve got nothing better to do, really. (I was mad for a while and considering other options, but meh. I’m on vacation.)

I went down the street to the museum. Today is the LAST day they’re open until 7pm. Tomorrow is October and that means they’re closing at 5pm. I dilly-dallied to see the lighting on the street. The models of the spectres that line the street are all lit by floodlights and there’s shadows of other apparitions projected onto the sidewalk. But the town rolls up the streets at 5pm and it didn’t get dark enough for the lighting until 6-ish. The only people out then were all speaking Asian languages I didn’t understand and all the stores were closed.

I got back to the hotel and the hotel restaurant (the only one I knew about) said they were full for the night. Fortunately I bought a beef sushi bento that I couldn’t eat for lunch because I was too full and I had it for dinner.

Sushi rice topped with nori, topped with egg, topped with great Tajima beef.

Later from the bath on the top floor I saw a Lawson that’s only 5 minutes away so I should be OK. I did my laundry, took a bath, bought a ¥300 beer from the beer robot, and I feel much better.

So there wasn’t a whole lot going on in Fukuchiyama, and the JR people weren’t all that nice to me, but it kind of grew on me. And my room at the Sunroute was fairly quiet. It was on the 2nd floor and right across from an ER on a main road which seemed ominous. I even heard one bosouzoku go by with his loud motorcycle (one of several) but that was the only once and it was around 7pm.

Anyway, I didn’t want to pig out (yet) so I went back to the station where I saw a coffee shop. I was the only one there! The guy got a little upset when I said I didn’t like “sour” coffees and was describing the flavor I wanted, insisting that his coffee was not that way. (Take that you hipsters with your light and bright crap!) I think he was quite a coffee nerd and I had a really nice cup of Kilimanjaro with some toast.

Then it was an easy ride to Kinosaki – just one train! I got there way too early to check in, so I looked for the craft brewery I heard about. I upset that guy too when I said I wanted to walk to the brewery. Seems like I found all the touchy people today.

It was a Weizen and not bad, but screw those guys.

It was another hot (and humid) day so I decided not to walk to the top of the cable car (I wore long pants again) and took a ride up. It was nice and cool up there and I even had a fairly good hot dog.

There was a weird game where you were supposed to pray at the temple and then make a wish and try to throw plates through a hole in a board. It looked hard and I confirmed it by watching some people completely miss the board.

I spent some time up there and it was nice and breezy and cool. I figured it was cooling down so I should walk down the mountain. Not the best idea either. It was rather slippery and slightly muddy at the top (a few times I wondered if I was going to end up sliding my way down) and it took a while to get to the temple, Onsendera, at the middle cable car station. I met some people coming up and found out that from Onsendera it was 1000+ steps straight up/down.

At the bottom there’s a spring where the water comes out of the ground at 80°C! They sell eggs there and you can cook the eggs in the hot water to make your own famous Japanese onsen tamago.

I got back to the ryokan and checked in just after 2pm.

I changed into my yukata, got my onsen pass, and went around to all the public onsen except for two – one was closed and the other was all the way back at the station and I didn’t feel like walking that far in my ryokan geta. Five baths killed a lot of time because I got back just in time for dinner! I told them that sure, I’d pay the extra ¥10,000 for the special kaiseki dinner (in-room no less). It was great and not so much that I wanted to pass out afterwards.

After that it was just another bath in the ryokan onsen, and off to bed!

Fukuchiyama was a weird idea for me. I didn’t want to go to Kinosaki Onsen on a Saturday night, figuring I could find a room easier on a Sunday so I made an extra stop in Fukuchiyama. The Fukuchiyama Line is the train that took me from Osaka Station to Itami-city where I used to live so I figured there must be SOMETHING in Fukuchiyama.

I started out the day walking to yet another different train station in Sabae. I thought it was closer and would be more fun. I’m an idiot. It was more fun, but it’s kind of raining and that just means it’s humid as f*ck. I was sweating and wondering why I do this to myself. I even wore long pants again because I’m an idiot. So I sweat for a while and got on the train and almost fell asleep. I had to take four trains. One from North Sabae to Sabae, an express from Sabae to Maibara, a Shinkansen from Maibara to Kyoto, and then another “express” train to Fukuchiyama. The line from Kyoto to Fukuchiyama is rickety and the train rocks a lot. (This convoluted trip is why the guy at Niigata with no computer didn’t want to sell me any more tickets.)

And Kyoto is never my favorite place. It was FULL of roundeye travelers and they were standing around EVERYWHERE. I even ran over some woman’s foot because she was walking so randomly. I got an ekiben there which was one of the most stale ekiben I’ve ever had. The food at 7Eleven is better than this

The god punished me for my constant badmouthing of Kyoto – my internet died on my iPhone. I finally got it back after resetting the damn thing.

I got to my hotel and found Fukuchiyama to be also hot and humid. I went back to the station to get a few more train tickets and the woman I got was a trainee, I think. At one point they kicked me out of the line, made the trainee figure out which trains to take, and made me get back in line. It took 40 minutes to get tickets for four stops. They weren’t happy that I wanted to go somewhere that took a bunch of different local trains.

At least I put that time in line to good use and I figured out where the local “tourist bureau” was. Fukuchiyama is another place with few tourists. I went to see Fukuchiyama castle, which is on a hill (of course everything I want to see is up a hill) which is a three-story reconstruction. At least it’s breezy up high and the view was great. There’s also an interesting little art museum at the bottom and you can buy tickets for both at a discounted rate.

The tourist bureau also suggested several odd stops including a textile museum where I could’ve made a coaster on a loom and a couple of older houses that held a bakery and a small museum of the flooding of the river.

The flood museum was just a few posters and some multimedia, but I just looked at the posters and chatted with the guy inside. He explained it all to me and also explained the other display of the older things. He said the building had been a hotel, I think, for 80+ years and he had old household goods on display as well.

After that it was off to another museum, which just was a garage with a steam locomotive inside!

The last stop was a shrine dedicated to Akechi Mitsuhide who is part of Japanese history that I know bits of but I’m not much of a historian. It also had a second shrine behind the first and I know there’s a reason for that but I forget what that could be.

In the park in front of the shrine I heard music and there was a column near some older men who just seemed to be hanging out. The column turned out to be a clock with animatronic figures. I have no idea why it played at 3:30pm.

I just went back to the hotel to rest.

I did get off my tuckus to get dinner and that was a bit more difficult than I’d imagined. Several of the restaurants were izakaya and I picked the wrong one (I was trying to go to the one with the teishoku meals). But before that, wandering around the station, I found another steam locomotive! It’s on a stand made from a turntable.

As I said, I accidentally went to an izakaya which usually turns out to be expensive for me but at least I made it out for ¥3000.

The mystery fish (the thing they always put down when you come in that cost me ¥324), inedible edamame (especially since Niigata had incredibly tasty edamame), and a giant “Caesar” salad that was meh. At least the mystery fish was good.

A mini rice bowl that wasn’t so mini.

And finally tuna that was quickly deep-fried so it was almost like searing it.

The restaurant was odd, too, in that it was all run by young people who looked like they were in their early 20’s.

Anyway, that was my afternoon in Fukuchiyama. Off to a fancy onsen tomorrow.

I thought I lost my hat at one point today and then I realized I’d also lost my phone! At that point I thought I’d have to retrace my steps and miss my bus, but fortunately it didn’t come to that.

But first, breakfast!

I couldn’t decide what to do on my spare day in Sabae, and I wasn’t feeling great about the place anyway. I’d given myself an extra day in case buying glasses in town took time, but just like dropping off my watch it was quicker than I thought. I thought about going back to Fukui on the train but I thought why not just see if there’s anything in town.

Turns out there’s a part of town where they make lacquerware and my new plan was to go there and see the Urushi Museum. Step one was to get to the tourist office that I was sure opened at 10AM to find out which bus to take. I also decided to take the “local” train down there. There was a lot of waiting around because the local train only runs every 30 minutes. There were newer models that looked like the light rail in Portland, but I got to ride the old beater.

I made it to the tourist office only to have them tell me that the bus just left and I’d have to wait 45 minutes for the next one. They also told me that a park was nearby, about 10 minutes walking, and I should check that out. I found out it’s called Nishiyama-koen for a reason since it’s straight uphill to get to the zoo. And it was HOT out. I’m guessing it could’ve been 86°F (30°C) and deathly humid here. My small towel I carry with me was soaked before noon. But I made it up the hill, huffing and puffing most of the way, and I saw the small but free zoo. They have spider monkeys and pheasants and RED PANDAS! There’s a bunch of them (maybe a dozen?) in separate enclosures that are small and sad, but they’re kinda cute.

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Those guys can climb, too!

I made it back in time for the 11:10 bus and was given a booklet with the schedules. It took 40 minutes to get to the museum and I was a little disappointed when it just looked like a store. But there were a lot of placards with descriptions along with small displays with QR code to get the English translation. I asked what the order of the placards were (they were numbered and the order seemed to jump around a bit) and they pointed out which hallways to follow as well as two more displays in separate buildings.

Tere’s an outbuilding with a lacquered cart used for festivals. It’s almost two stories tall! You can see the railing on the second floor where you can look down.

There’s a cafeteria on the way to the outbuilding and the food there is pretty good and inexpensive. I even had a local specialty, a rice bowl with ground yamaimo and yama uni.

Yama uni isn’t sea urchin, but a paste made from local vegetables. Let me quote from the Sabae City web site.

“A Kawada area located in the Sabae-shi east is the producing center of “Echizen Lacquerware” which is traditional industry also original food culture using the climate of the mountain is an inherited area. The traditional condiments made with each house in this Kawada area “mountain sea urchin” grind and mix the simple material as the citron, the red chili pepper of ears with big earlobes (the red number), the red pepper and the salt carefully by an earthenware mortar, and are made.

By the quantity of the ingredient and an earthenware mortar, it’s ground, degree, a change is seen by the taste and you’re fonder as the taste of each home. When it’s rubbed carefully with big earthenware mortar, it’s considerable hard labor because there is also viscosity but as it is rubbed, it’s said that sweetness and flavor come out more, and I make an effort and am made.”

Ahem. At least it was tasty.

There’s also another outbuilding that has some studios where you can watch people make lacquerware. The woodworking area and the delicate work area weren’t being used so I watched a guy do the rough base lacquer painting. He was quite nice and we had a little chat. He told me to just go to the workshops throughout town and ask them to let me in.

After I was done with the museum (I took forever to buy a pair of travel chopsticks. Yeah, buying chopsticks like an American tourist.) it was only 1PM and I thought there was a bus back around 2:30PM. I looked at the booklet and all I could find was a bus at 3:50PM! (Turns out there was one at 2:28PM that could’ve taken me directly to the hotel, I think. But I didn’t know that at the time.) I had time to kill. I asked the museum for a map and they also told me there were many workshops and most of them would let me in if I asked. I wanted to see the shrine with the maki-e ceiling, but they told me I’d have to ask the area government to let me in.

The first thing I did was get lost. The second thing I did was walk up the hill to the shrine with the fancy ceiling but it looked old and abandoned. I saw a workshop next door, and they looked at me a couple of times, but I didn’t ask to to in. I couldn’t figure out where the entrance was. So back down the hill I went. After dithering a bit, I went back up to see if I could get their attention again but by this time they weren’t by their windows. I wandered around and the only greeting I got from the only person I saw was “It’s hot, isn’t it?”

I finally found a workshop that said “gallery” and I saw some people inside. I asked them if I could look and they invited me in. The lacquerware was beautiful and the items were hundreds or thousands of dollars. I don’t have the eye to tell, but some of the things looked spectacular. And older gentleman came over to chat, and eventually we got to talking about China. He was lamenting the fall of Japan and the craft work he was doing, and said China’s the future. He was pleasant about it and handed me a soda can. They had me sit in the work area to drink it and I talked to his wife (I think) who said they’d just come back from a big show in China. I had brought up the closed shrine and he called around to get me into the shrine. I sat in the shop and stared at one piece that was in front of me. It was beautiful and I bet it was thousands of dollars for a small cup. He gave me a small lacquered spoon and his business card on the way out and I found out he was Matsuda Sanao, one of the top craftsmen in the area according to someone else I talked to.

I went back on my way to the old shrine and a gentleman came to let me in. The ceiling was pretty spectacular, and he told me his grandfather had done three of the sixty maki-e squares on the ceiling. We chatted for a while and he told me why Sabae seemed to be doing so well – it’s the only city in Fukui where the population in increasing! And as for the Kawada lacquerware area, it produces most of the lacquerware for the Japanese restaurants in Japan. He gave me a ride back to his factory which happened to be right in front of the bus station. He made the modern urethane-coated bowls and trays as well as plastic glasses he was making suitable for restaurants and dishwashers. Everything was just as beautiful and he said he’s one of the bigger manufacturers in the area. He even showed me some of the works his grandfather did which were on the level produced by a “Living National Treasure”. He gave me some chopsticks as a gift!

I’ve been trying to figure out who the second guy was and I think his company is https://www.9emon.co.jp which makes his grandfather the guy you find when you search for ?? ?? in Google.

I was at the bus stop 10 minutes early when I realized I didn’t have my hat. “Well,” I thought, “it was worth my hat to meet these interesting people in Kawada!” That’s when I realized I couldn’t find my phone. I walked back up to the gallery, rang the bell, and waited. It took long enough that I was thinking I’d miss the bus and have to take a ¥10,000 taxi ride back to the hotel, but a kid came out after a bit and after I explained about my hat and phone, he returned with both! I made it back to the bus stop a few minutes to spare.

Whew. I made it back to Sabae station and waited 30 minutes for a bus that put me right next to the hotel. Oh, and all those buses are Sabae city buses that only cost ¥100 per ride. I ate dinner at the hotel which wasn’t bad and it was cheap. ¥1000 for everything here, including the (mostly empty in the photo) glass of beer.

And that’s it for Sabae. It took some work to find interesting things to see but this place is definitely growing on me.