October 2023

We are on the island of Kyushu in southern Japan now. Today, we explored Sasebo, a city known for its hamburgers!

Not what I expected, but it makes sense when you learn about Sasebo’s history. Due to its proximity to Korea, many US sailors were stationed here during the 1950s. The hamburgers were created to appease their appetites.

The famous Sasebo burger consists of a burger, but it’s topped with an egg, and I’m not sure what all else. We didn’t try any burgers today, although seeing a “Samurai burger” advertised at the local McDonald’s cracked me up.

We’re a lot closer to the equator here than we were on Hokkaido. It was in the 70s here today and quite sunny.

The local shopping street, kinda like a Japanese version of Barcelona’s Rambla, was covered. We appreciated the shade today.

Just as in other Japanese cities, we saw some painted manhole covers, and other designs in the streets.

We popped into a 100 Yen store, where I bought a sour plum candy simply because the business man on the wrapper amused me. I didn’t buy the UFO ramen that also caught my eye.

I bet the American Festival, for which we saw a poster today, is a lot of fun. We also noticed plenty of Halloween decorations, and a poster saying, “Trick or Enjoy.”

Remember the groundskeeper I saw at Yuushien garden? We saw those witchy brooms and lightweight rakes for sale at a hardware store today.Les mer