Catching the train from Aomori to Hakodate in Hokkaido, Japan.

We finally arrived at Hakodate station. We spotted support beams holding the roof of Hokkaido station so that it did not collapse. It looked very make shift and seemed to be put there as an emergency measure, not very reassuring.

View of the rail tracks from inside Hakodate train station in Hokkaido, Japan

Outside the station it was very spacious and wide though a little quiet. It was also quite chilly as to be expected when you travel north of Japan.

View of Hakodate train station from outside in Hokkaido, Japan

We had found a very good rate on our hotel room, after checking in we found out why, there was a large construction site outside but the room was soundproofed so it did not worry us.

We made our way to a ramen restaurant, as Shio (salt broth) ramen is famous in Hakodate. It was tasty & delicious!
It was a basic looking dish though very satisfying to eat.

Having Hakodate shio ramen in Hokkaido, Japan.

Views of Hakodate town in Hokkaido, Japan.

After spending the afternoon at a large spacious Starbucks, we took a tram to go to ‘Yachigashira’ Onsen (hot spring) on the edge of Hakodate. It was really, really nice onsen with a good selection of hot indoor and outdoor baths at varying degrees of temperature. We spent one hour there but wished we had made it longer.

You can communicate with the tram driver with pen and paper.

June buying tickets in Yachigashira onsen in Hakodate, Hokkaido, Japan.

Heading back to catch some dinner in Hakodate, Hokkaido, Japan.

We finished the day with Hakodate Izakaya town.

Having some dinner at a izakaya in Hakodate, Hokkaido, Japan.

It had been a long but very nice day.

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Wandering around Kiyomizu in Kyoto, Japan

The slopes from Kiyomizu-dera is also nice thing. Nice atmosphere buildings and shops… You sometimes see ‘Maiko’ (looks like Geisha) there and we saw them by chance.

Outside the front of Kiyomizu temple in Kyoto, Japan.

At Kinkaku-ji, unfortunately it was heavily raining though we were successful taking photos of Kinkaku-ji temple.

The golden temple at Kyoto, Japan.

Ironically, the weather was clearing up after we left Kinkaku-ji temple. It just seemed to be one of those days where every time we attempted to take a video or photo shoot the weather would quickly go dark and start raining.

The golden temple in Kyoto, Japan.

Kinkaku-ji (Golden temple) garden area.

After visiting Kyomizu-dera & kinkaku-ji were had to make the long journey to Kanazawa.

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We then moved from Osaka to Nara. Unfortunately due to the heavy rain we had to cut short our trip in Nara.

Firstly we went to Nara koen, or Nara park where lots of deer were just hanging around waiting to be feed. Be careful when handing rice crackers, deer have been known to aggressively harass . (You can buy rice crackers for deers at the park, you cannot feed them anything else.) In fact the rice cracker vendors will react vocally if you attempt to feed the deer with anything other than what is bought from the vendors themselves.

Passing through the gates to get to Nara Temple.

Then we went visiting Nara Buddha, Todai-ji Daibutsuden (Todai temple Buddha house). It is a famous huge buddha. You can walk around the Buddhas. There’s one big buddha & other 2 smaller buddhas.

Visiting the famous Buddha of Nara, Japan

The Nara koen park is huge, you can walk around and see other temples or shrines if the weather is good.

Nara is an extremely popular tourist spot even when the weather is bad there will always be a large volume of tourists.

Nara is well accessible from either Osaka or Kyoto.

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We left Kyushu and moved to Okayama, where the express train ‘Nanpu’ departs to Kochi. The train crossed over the Seto bridge, which used to be the longest bridge in the world. The view of the Seto strait from the train is awesome from both sides.

There is an attractive looking tram right in front of the train station.

Tram is directly in front of Kochi’s train station, Shikoku, Japan.

In Kochi, we saw famous bridge ‘Harimaya-bashi’ (-bashi means bridge, or the word is not connected, you can say ‘hashi’). The bridge is tiny one but pretty.

The famous bridge in Kochi, Shikoku, Japan.

The local shopping district in Kochi.

Then we went to the food market popular with both locals and tourists. It is called ‘Hirome Ichiba’ (Ichiba means Market).

Kochi’s famous authentic local food stalls.

The food there was delicious. What we choose were Katsuo-no-Tataki (Half cooked Bonito), Nankotsu-no-Karaage (Fried chicken cartridge), Gyoza (Fried Dumpling) and Gyu-Suji-Nikomi (Beef tendon stew).

Food from Kochi’s famous authentic food court, Hirome Ichiba, Shikoku, Japan.

Had fun Kochu night.

Breakfast next day served by hotel was only 100 yen but quite good.

Unfortunately the weather had not been so good but we still had a very nice time in Kochi, Shikoku, Japan.

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We decided to spend the morning at Beppu Onsen (Beppu hot springs).

There were steams everywhere in the town! We understood why it’s called “Hell”. The hotsprings temperature is boiling water of 98 c degrees. You can eat Onsen water boiled eggs or rice cakes there.

There were several Onsens and also several ‘Hell’. It would have been fun to go around all of the hells! We went one of them.

Entrance to one of Beppu’s Hell’s, Kyushu, Japan.

The hell has an amazing turquoise like color and we managed to take a few nice photo’s in between the bouts of steam.

Inside Beppu Hell, Kyushu, Japan.

Beautiful turquoise colour of the hell pool.

Steam everywhere in Beppu.

We went to public onsen as well, it really warmed us up, good Onsen water. Must-go place, Beppu.

One of the original Beppu onsens.

Statue of the man who loved children.

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We woke up in Kumamoto in surprisingly good condition after the nomihoudai. It looked like the udon had worked again

We paid the price of rushing to catch the tram, and jumped on the wrong one which took us to a different location, not the train station.
This lost us about 45 mins, precious time which would cut into our day in Kagoshima.
Fortunately which managed to make it up and lose only a few minutes by catching the next Shinkansen from Kumamoto to Kagoshima.

We must have still been 1/2 asleep because we forgot to put our suitcases in the train station luggage, after back tracking to the station and putting our 100 Yen coins in the locker the machine got jammed and would not accept any more coins. June went to the station office and waited in line in a huge queue. Luckily enough one of the station guards spotted Nige looking suspicious and fixed the locker.

Outside Kagoshima train station.

We caught the tram to make our way to Sakura-jima volcano island. There’s a great view when you watch it from the ferry.

View of Sakurajima from the ferry.

Luckily it was very nice weather. It is only a short journey to Sakura-jima and the boats run 24hrs.

Information boards directly outside of Sakurajima port.

Unfortunately there was not enough time so we could not go around the volcano which would require a full day, but we walked around the port. We pencilled in to return so we would be able to give the island the time it deserved. Volcanic ashes were found on the footpath in the city to demonstrate how active the volcano is.

Kagoshima is famous for its black pork so we looked for a restaurant in an area famous for black pork (kurobuto). Unfortunately this area had been relocated due to the construction of the Shinkansen train line. Since Nige & June were running out of time they decided to eat at the train station.
Once at the train station the popular black pork restaurants were full with long queues, so Nige & June went on the search for one nearby.
They managed to find a black pork restaurant down one of the side streets.

Time was starting to run out before their Shinkansen left for Kumamoto and unfortunately the staff were taking an age to prepare the meal. The lunch was finally delivered 20 mins before the train departed, so the meal was devoured at a great rush.

Kurobuto (black pork) is one of the local food that Kagoshima is famous for.

Nige & June then started running in an attempt to catch their train. Subscribe to see if they made it in time.

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Arriving at Izumo from Tokyo on the overnight train “Sunrise Izumo”

Took a bus for about 30 mins to Izumo Taisha Shrine, which is one of the most famous shrines in Japan.

It was very cold in Shimane, unlike Tokyo before we left it was very warm.

It’s said that if you pray at Izumo Taisha, you can meet right people / person, get a right job, right partner, fertile, money and so on …

After leaving Izumo Taisha, we went to famous rock at a beach and one of the old lighthouse in Japan. It’s Hinomisaki lighthouse.

This rock is supposed to have strong spiritual / life essence powers.

One of the largest remaining old lighthouses in Japan

Also there was another shrine basically same Japanese shinto god are worshiped there. The view from the lighthouse is great.

Pretty shrine you have to pass by on the way to the lighthouse.

Then we moved to Tamatsukuri Onsen (hot spring) where we stay a night. Nice hotel (was on promotion and good reasonable price), both hotel and Onsen were very relaxing, gorgeous.

Upper – View from the onsen hotel Middle & Below – Tamatsukuri onsen station

We spent the night in this area in an onsen hotel.

Onsen water makes June’s (probably Nige’s as well) skin fresh and smooth, it’s recommend for women for anti-aging and for everyone for their good health.

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We then went back to Kawagoe Saitama prefecture where we were staying at June’s sister’s home.

On this particular day, it was June’s nieces birthday so everyone went to a local yakiniku char grilled barbecue restaurant. This Yakiniku restaurant uses charcoal and you can enjoy table cooking char-grilled BBQ. The meat is of a high quality and we all enjoyed the food and ambience.

Nige took some ukon just to ensure he did not wake up with a hangover.

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