Last stop - Karatsu and then Fukuoka

Today marked the last day of the trip with destination back to where we started, Fukuoka. While enroute back to Fukuoka, we took a drive through Karatsu. We went up to Karatsu Castle where we had a magnificant view of the ocean and the little islands around.

Overlooking Goto Island - Isn't this so beautiful?

I can't take my eyes off this place.

We continued the trip into Fukuoka. What is travelling to Fukuoka without trying the Ramen Stadium at Canal City. At Ramen Stadium, they have several ramen shops. U can try the various types of ramen (from both Hakata or Tokyo) in the most convenient way at less than JPY1000 per bowl. We tried this highly recommended one, which was the original Hakata ramen. A little oily but the soup was rich. You can ask for 2nd serving of noodles. We were told that in the past, there used to be a competition and only the winners get to open their store at Ramen Stadium. This helped to ensure that only the best ramen were served here. But in recent times, there is no longer such competition, which is a pity.

No. 1

We went on to try out the yatai stall in Fukuoka. This is their street hawker food. Food is fairly decent but not the sophisticated type. But you need to get a drink to eat there and u can order and they will cook right in front of you. We had bbq chicken drumlets, stewed pork ribs with lots of soft bones, omelette with mentaiko (Fukuoka is famous for its mentaiko produce, which is spicy fish roe), some mixed yong tau foo (Jap style), fried ramen. The star was the fried ramen but unfortunately, we were all too full by then. What a pity.

Chefs at work right in front of us. This is how "big" their kitchen is.

Nagasaki, the city that was once buried in darkness

We headed towards Nagasaki and passed by Yanagawa on the way. Yanagawa is also known as the city of waterways, with canals running across the towns. It reminds me of Cambridge and you can pay for a ride on their cruise, which is similar to the punting at Cambridge too. This area has one of the best unagi but unfortunately, this is not the season for eels (eels are fattest and most yummy during summer). Nonetheless, we decided to give it a try at one of their unagi restaurants. Lucky us were given a room facing this man-made garden with 280 pine trees. Pine trees are a symbol of longevity and are a favourite good-luck plant for Japanese.

An overkill with the pine trees....

Eel bento - 4 miserable pieces of eel + a big box of flavoured rice.
Well, as expected, the eels are so-so only.

We continued our trip to Nagasaki, visiting the atomic bomb museum, ground zero and lastly, Glover Garden. Though the A-bomb that hit Nagasaki was more powerful than the one that hit Hiroshima, as it did not hit the city core, the damages were very much reduced as compared to that for Hiroshima. But nonetheless, it was a dark summer morning on 9 Aug 1945, 11.02am.

Nagasaki is a harbour city and as it is opened to foreign trades, it has a rich mix of Chinese, western and Japanese history, buildings and food (they have the Japanese version of our kong pak bau here!). Be prepared to walk up and down when you go to Nagasaki as it is a very hilly area. Among the places visited, Glover Garden (laid out by a Scotsman) was most impressive, providing a breath-taking view of the Nagasaki harbour. And they called it the 10-million dollar view.

View from Glover Garden

Enroute to Kumamoto

We embarked the day moving towards Kumamoto. Had an interesting lunch. In fact, we made our own lunch...making buckwheat noodles. Not too bad for a first timer.

Looks not too bad right!

Well, by the time we reached Kumamoto, we only had time for a short visit to the Kumamoto castle. Well, castle was never my thing but if u are into history and all these arrior stuff, then this is the place for you. But alot of castles in Japan (including this one) had suffered lots of damages over the past centuries and were restored to their original state. So what we are looking at today is after the restoration and not the original castle anymore.

Kumamoto castle

The closest one could ever get to near a live volcano

Today's highlight was Mt Aso. Mt Aso has one of the largest calderas in the world and is an active volcano. We were lucky that we could look into the caldera as the wind was blowing in the right direction and there was no explosions that day. We were told Mt Aso constantly has mini explosions at times.

Smoke coming out from one of the calderas

Ok, after a while, it is just looking at black hills...one after another

Overdose of hot springs.....

We spent the whole morning (nearly 3 hours over) on a train, travelling up from Miyazaki to Beppu, also called the capital of hot springs. Beppu is the 2nd city in the world with the most amount of hot spring water gushing up from the ground (after US yellowstone park), and Yufuin (which I would stay over tonight) was the 3rd. But, Beppu is however the No. 1 city in the world with the most hot spring water available for bathing. We went to a highly ulu and localised place for lunch. At JPY1,300, it comes with a free hot spring bath and a set lunch.

The fried chicken was superb. They called the bowl of soup with
some mee hoon kuey, dumpling soup. Not sure why. But it was nice
and comforting for the stomach.

After a bath and lunch, we went to visit the several famous hot springs in Beppu. Let the pictures do the talking and u be the judge. I thought they were not as impressive as I thought.

Bubbling mud at 98deg

Clear blue hot spring water at nearly 100deg. Suplur smell filled
the air. Unbearable.

Same hot hot spring but this one has copper. Hence, red. Not
the most pleasant sight.

Steamed mini tau sar bao, steamed using the hot spring steam.
I hope it is ok to eat. But it is really yummy.

We also tried the eggs boiled using the hot spring water, hopefully
with no added "ingredients". The egg yolk was good...slightly watery still.

We continued the day travelling to Yufuin, where we would stay for a night. Yufuin is a little hot spring town at the valley of this mountainous region. In fact, it would be my 2nd time back to Yadoya at Yufuin. I really enjoyed the food and the private hot spring there, which overlooks the mountains. Breath-taking.

Kagoshima Part II

Today, we continued on our trip at Kagoshima with a visit to an observatory overlooking Mount Sakurajima. Mount Sakurajima is an active volcano which still spews steam and fumes into the sky at times. There are actually people living at the bottom of the volcano and they travel by ferry (20min) to the mainland for their daily activities too...It is amazing to know that people stay in these places even though it is so dangerous. Perhaps they make alot of money just by farming using the rich volcano black soil.

Mount Sakurajima - What an amazing feeling to be so close to a
live volcano.

We continued next to Sengan-en, the garden of a very powerful lord in Kagoshima in the late 1600s. Well, nothing fascinating about the garden (which you must pay to visit) other than you get another view of Mount Sakurajima and get to visit his 10-room house (with complimentary cake and green tea after the house visit, which I thought was the highlight). But, this garden has one of the best steamed sweet potatoes and sweet potato ice cream.

So sweet and soft..I feel I was like in heaven eating it...
This is a season special and apparently, sweet potatoes grow
very well in volcano soil here.

Sweet potato ice cream - plain look but rich taste

Lunch was Kagoshima ramen. This was good. I had the non-pork version (had enough of disappointments from the Kagoshima black piggies) but the soup and texture of the ramen was already good enough to blow me over. If u like slightly chewy ramen with rich thick soup, this ramen is for u!

I am salivating just looking at this picture!

The day ended with a visit to Kirishima Shrine before we headed to Miyazaki for an overnight stay. Quiet little town and I hope the night could end sooner...boring here.

Kagoshima, Ibusuki - All things black...

We arrived at Fukuoka airport on a November cloudy morning, with slight drizzle. Luckily our mood was not dampened, constantly warmed by the thoughts of having the Kagoshima black-haired pork for lunch. We lugged our already-heavy luggage (day 0 of trip), travelling 2.5 hours via subway and shinkansen to Kagoshima.

Travelling to Kagoshima was only made easy by Shinkansen from Mar 2011 onwards so lucky us. This saved us so much inconvenience. Once we arrived at Kagoshima, we had only one thing in mind - BLACK PORK.

Deep-fried black pork - Shopping mall besides Kagoshima
Shinkansen station, basement 1

The pork, though lined with one thick slab of fats, was kind of disappointing as the meat was tough. Was expecting melting pork in the mouth. Well, but the serving was huge with lots of cabbage and a big bowl of rice. Honestly, I think the fried katsu at Maisen in Tokyo was alot better with free flow of cabbage and more tasty sauce.

With mouth still lined with a layer of fats (I am exaggerating here but u can imagine how oily it is), we continued on our journey via local train for over an hour before we reached Ibusuki. Ibusuki is at the edge of southern Kyushu and is famous for its black sand onsen. It is a little town with a population of only about 30,000. When I reached Ibusuki, it struck me as a tropical county like Hawaii with palm trees but the town was so insanely quiet we could hardly see anyone walking on the street. We stayed at Hotel Phoenix which is on high ground and overlooks the ocean.

At the black sand onsen - Still prefer the water onsen. Sand is too
heavy and u get really dirty after that!!

This is complimentary from the hotel. Sugar-coated cornflakes +
ice cream + coffee jelly. It is really yummy and u can make it at home!

We ended the night with a kaiseki dinner in the hotel. Again, the black pork disappointed me...