Kyushu #1: Kumamoto

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8th Feb: Onto the bus at 11 (at night) in Seoul and we were off on the long drivedown to Busan. Hoping that the traffic wouldn't be too bad, even though it'sSeolnal (Lunar New Year) and they had extended the bus only lanes for a few more hours.

9th Feb: Well we made it to Busan around four, half four ish. The traffic wasn't that bad, a lot better than it had been at Chuseok. The bus was freezing though, which made it difficult to sleep. We dropped off the people, who were staying in Busan for the holiday at their hotel and then drove to the port. We parked up in the carpark and slept until about 6 or 7. When I woke up the bus was like a sauna. It's was bloody lovely, after freezing for most of the night. Breakfast was a chocolate muffin.

It was into the ferry terminal to get our tickets, immigration forms, and customs forms for Japan. By the time we got upstairs and through immigration and customs, it was time to get on the boat. We did get a bit lost trying to get on the boat. It wasn't exactly brilliantly signposted. However we made, and it felt like we just sat down and then we were off. Talk about perfect timing.

It was lovely looking at the Busan coastline as we were leaving. The journey took a bit longer than it was meant to. However the sea was calm, so there weren't people throwing up everywhere. My time on the boat was spent filling out my arrival card for Japan, napping and watching the coastline come and go. It was great watching the Japanese coastline appear. After we arrived we went through immigration, Mel got stuck in the wrong line and was the last one to come through. The wife at customs was dead chatty. She was asking me about some of the stamps in my passport. Trusty it to be my dodgy not real ones from the DMZ. That was a bit awkward to explain.

It was onto our tour bus that would drive us around for our time in Japan. We drove for about 5 minutes to the Bayside shopping centre nearby, we got off the bus and had a wander and picked up some bento boxes for our lunches. Then it was quickly back on to the coach for the drive to Kumamoto. The bento boxes were okay, nothing to write home about, you get the same stuff in the convenience stores in Korea, for cheaper. The drive to Kumamoto took about two and a half hours. Once we left the city, the scenery was pretty. The greenery reminded me of England. We drove straight to the castle and got there at around 4 p.m.

Kumamoto Castle was impressive. It was a bit sad, that we only got to spend an hour inside, but the traffic had been bad, so the journey took longer than it should of. The castle is on a hilltop and is considered to be one of the top three castles in Japan. The castle's fortifications were established in 1467 by Ideta Hidenobu and in 1496 they were expanded by Kato Kiyomasa. It has suffered a lot of the years especially in the Satsuma (love it!) Rebellion of 1877, so a lot of restoration work has been done. We only got to see a small part of the massive castle complex due to our time restriction. But we got to climb to the top of the main castle tower and take in the views of Kumamoto. We also went to the Hon-maru Goten Grand Hall. I have to say Japanese people are lovely. The bloke in charge ushered us in just before they closed so we could have a look around. he hall contained old artifacts, old warrior uniforms and some beautiful artwork. I'm glad we got to go in. And best of all, we got to have our photos taken with some blokes dressed as Ninjas. Score!

Back on the bus we drove to our hostel, which was about a 15-20 minute drive through the city. The room was pretty cool with all the bedding spread out on the floor on the tatami mats, and a table in the centre. However the room did have an overpowering smell of hotdogs! Who knows where the smell was coming from. The hostel was a bit ghetto and could of done with a refurb, but in my experience HI ones usually are. Also there were no showers on our floor, which was a bit disturbing, but all would be revealed (in more ways than one) later.

We headed back into the main city for dinner. Our hostel was pretty far out, so we walked about a kilometer to the tram stop and then it was about 5 stops on the tram to the city centre. The tram was cool, you pay when you get off by dropping the money into a box by the driver. The trams were pretty retro. I always thought of japan as pretty high tech and modern, but I found it didn't live up to my expectations in that respect. The same as Tokyo. Maybe it's because I live in a brand new city in Korea, that was only built in the past 5-10 years, so everything is new and shiny there. Also the taxi are really retro, too. And what is more amazing is the way the taxi drivers dress, most of them wear suits and hats, so they look like pilots. How to make old men hot in one move, dress them as pilots. Well I know now, if I can't marry a pilot, I'll bugger off to Japan, and do the poor man's version, and marry a taxi driver.

Getting dinner was a bit of a ballache. There were nine of us and the restaurants were all small and mostly full because it's a Saturday night. We ended up splitting up. Me, Mel and Terri went back to this ramen place that Terri had spotted. I'm glad she spotted it, the food was amazing and they even had an English menu for us. It's the small things that count. The restaurant, Niboraya, was great. There was a counter, where we sat around the chef and blokes serving us. We all had different ramen. I had wonton ramen, so it had wontons in the broth and also some char siu pork. The pork was lovely and it also had a boiled egg. I was in heaven!

Eventhough we were full for the ramen, our dessert stomaches were still empty, so we went to this nice (and expensive) cafe, Swiss, for dessert. The cakes were gorgeous, although it was a bit weird sitting in cafe and people smoking in it. It'snot like they had a separate smoking section, strange. Especially as Korea has become an anti-smoking Nazi since the start of the year.

We had a mooch about the shopping area, hoping to find a bar or something a bit fun. But there wasn't really much going on for a Saturday night. It was pretty dead, we had failed to find the happening part of town. We went into an arcade and found a photo booth. We didn't have a clue what to do, but it was fun and we got some Japanese girls to help us when we had to pimp up our photos. It was good fun, definitely something I would like to do again. It was also funny, loads of Japanese girls were there dressed up to the nines to get these photos done.

We took the tram back to the hostel and a couple of the girls, who were already back told us to go and use the big communal bath on the 4th floor as it was really nice and relaxing. We put on our yukatas, traditional Japanese robes, and headed upstairs. First of all we sat on the little stools and washed ourselves with the shower heads that were lined up in front of the mirrors. Thank god it was steamy, so I didn't have to see my naked body. Something I try and avoid. Then, once all clean it was into the big bath for a soak. After a long and busy day, this was th perfect end to it. Although I wish the bath had been a bit warmer. Also I should mention that the baths are separated, so it was women only.

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Photos

The Dream Boat
Our boat that took us from Busan to Fukuoka.

Some Dude
Probably a VIP,
Kumamoto Castle