Kanazawa day

Nice old day in a lively city.

This was the best latte I’ve had in a long time
I went back to the park
Much better this time
Id swear the trees are redder today
There’s shrines surrounding the castle hill. This is a quiet one
That’s a lot of fortunes
At the bougie shopping mall. I almost bought a 200 dollar wallet
Its corn soup season!
This was more yummy than a wallet
The samurai neighborhood. Most of the homes are privately owned
A defensive screen
This is a thank you note from the governor to the samurai of the house, on the occasion of the samurai bringing home the head of his enemy
My walking tour
This is my best fortune yet. Huge profits, indeed!
At the train station

Travel day

Had a decent breakfast at a chain restaurant. Kind of like a Dennys. Fish, soup, and rice. These guys eat natto in the morning too, but no thank you.

The flight was short but I’ll take the train next time. Its more civilized somehow.

Kanazawa is bigger and more urban than id expected. Ill find the charming parts of the city today.

My only activity was the local gardens. Lots of folks taking pictures because it is beautiful.

My hostel is interesting. It’s upstairs of this guy’s house, and he’s not much of a housekeeper. The sheets are clean, and the water is hot, though. I slept ok, and that’s all I really care about.

When the leaves start getting really red, this place will become a free-for-all.
Hahahahaha no

Last Fukuoka day

My railpass expired (and I needed to get some exercise in anyway) so I was on foot yesterday.

I had a lovely walk to the bougie shopping area and got a coffee. A production team was shooting a commercial, so I watched that for a while. So much hurry up and wait lol.

The local art museum had some really great stuff. I saw some modern art too, which I love.

After lunch, I went down to the sumo stadium fan zone. I was trying to manifest a ticket, but that was a bust. Watching the wrestlers arrive is hilarious. They get a small round of very polite clapping as they walk by.

For some reason, watching a minivan roll up and barf out a giant man is pure entertainment.

After a sit down, i went to see the last temple on my list. Very peaceful.

Im fixing to move on to Kanazawa on Friday.  Kyushu has been fun but im ready for something else.

Anish Kapoor. He’s famous for his use of pigments
Its actually hollow
This was an American fighter I guess
Each upper division fighter has two assistants. The minivans aren’t big enough for all of them, so the assistants arrive early and just sit here. Poor guys lol
You can pay a lot of money to have your remains placed here
The first lords of fukuoka are buried here
Its bigger than it looks here
Fukuoka’s manhole cover
In the old town
Very famous brass frog of hakata station
Haha a Christmas market
No mulled wine was consumed

Beppu

This was the last day of my rail pass, and I squeezed the heck out of it. I got an early train for the mountains and enjoyed the morning reading and looking out the window.

In beppu there isn’t much to do but relax and see some tourist stuff. Apparently, there’s some kind of animal park.

I have questions

The main attraction is the “hells of beppu.”

Instead of onsen hotels, they took the hot water and created this string of hot water pools. It’s super touristy, but why not?

The shtick here is that you eat the eggs and steamed pork buns cooked with geothermal heat
An egg-cooking basket
Looks neat but I suspect that the effect of the steam is a bit contrived
The gardens are beautiful, and the flowers bloom out of season because of warm water
It tastes like an egg
Some kind of clay, I guess
The water tasted salty
Don’t mind if I do!
Bacteria makes the red color?
As you go down the hill, the steam pools get crappier and more tourist attraction-y.

I skipped the last 2. Instead, I walked around the little town, and it’s pretty charming.

Apparatus for capturing the heat?
There’s many free public footbaths
You can get a nice steaming just walking down the street lol

After a coffee i headed back to town.

Nice day, but 5.5 hours on the train was too much.