Kumamoto

Arrived in Kumamoto this morning, dumped our bags and set off to visit kumamoto Castle. There’s a bit of annoying drizzly rain hanging around this afternoon. The outside of the castle is lovely and there a nice little restaurant/ souvenir area right at the front of it. The tickets we bought included a Wakuawakza Museum visit. The museum had a lot of interactive stuff, try on a kimono, sit in a golden carriage, ride a horse. Kept us amused so I’m sure the kids must love it.

This poor castle has been burned to the ground in 1877 and rebuilt and then through an earthquake in 2016 which they are still rebuilding from. So while it looks fantastic, disappointingly none of the interior is original of course. The inside is a fantastic museum on 6 floors unfortunately all in Japanese. We did get a nice view from the top floor though.

Back to the room for a rest and the rain has eased this afternoon, so we set off on the city tram again to check out Shimodori. Lots of shops and eateries around. One street in particular was full of bars. Graham stuck his head into one which seemed to have a heap of people in so in we went for one drink.

Not a word of English anywhere in the place and we were sitting there obviously looking perplexed when the old guy sitting next to me offered to help. He had a little English and his friend on the other side had Google translate. So with that we managed to order beers, tuna sashimi, some grisly boiled chicken and some horse sashimi. The sashimis where delicious the chicken not so much. Ive had a bit of hay fever today and the wasabi that came with the tuna, holy moly cleared up my nose in no time.

People are amazingly friendly here. The old boy was going home and the people behind us invited us to sit with them. We thought they were a couple but no, just friendly phycologists in town for a function.

We have the morning to fill in before we pick up our hire car so we’re off to the traditional arts centre. A showcase of all the arts in the Kyushu regions. Some stunning pieces there from Tatami mats, pottery, ceramics, jewellery I would have loved to bring some of them home.

The bonus was it’s just across from the castle so we got to see it with blue skies today.Read more