Sat Oct 1, Visit with Chika's Grandma

We got up and got ready pretty quickly, and put some of the photo albums in the car and headed for Chika's grandma's house. They got a call from Chika's brother, and he and his wife were able to come out to visit today, too. We got there, and once again there was much more food that any of us were able to eat. There was sekihan, tamago no tempura, norimaki, oinarisan, uzura no tamago (quail egg) and boiled chicken, osuimono (tsuyu) and various tsukemono. We sat around taking pictures, talking and generally laughing way too much.




Around 5:30 we left to head back to Chika's parents house, and stopped by a nearby Lawson store to buy tickets to the Ghibli museum for the 5th (my birthday). Then we can back, and relaxed a bit, and ate a small dinner, and Chika researched where we can buy beer for tomorrow (when we're meeting up with a bunch of people for an afternoon in the park). I finally uploaded all the pictures we took on our Kyuushuu trip, and entered really brief descriptions of what we did over the week we were away from the internet.

Fri Sept 30, Back to Tokyo

Woke up at our business hotel in Nagoya and went down for the free breakfast. Then we left and got in line for getting our shinkansen tickets back to Tokyo. There was an old lady just behind us in line that kept standing really close to us and I felt like maybe she was quietly trying to slip past us in line, so I kept making sure to stand in front of her. Chika laughed and said I'm becoming more Japanese, because everyone here pushes into any empty space so you have to be careful not to lose your place in line or a place to sit, etc.

Once we got on the train, Chika found a public phone at the end of the train car we were in and took the tickets to tell her parents when we'd be getting in. While she was still on the phone, a guy came around to check tickets, and just before he got to our row, I got up and left =\ I was going to try to find Chika to get our tickets, but by the time I saw her, the guy had left.

When we got to Tokyo station, we had to change trains quickly for the shinkansen to Omiya, then we got on a local train for the last bit to Higashi Omiya, where Chika's parents picked us up. We went straight to Hanaichi Ichiba and had various seafood (kaki, ebi, kani). Then we went home and started laundry and uploading pictures, and Chika's mom brought out some old photo albums of Chika and we looked through those a little bit.

Chika and her mom and I went to Ikebukuro to wander around a little and go to Tokyu Hands. Tokyu Hands is a really interesting store. They've got a little of everything, but the best part was that they have lots of electronic parts, chemistry equipment, wood for building things, and even a section for how to do melted / blown glass stuff. If we had a store like that in America I'd probably want to do a lot more DIY stuff.



Then we went to a Lotteria to have something to drink and sit and watch all the people getting off of work and heading out for a fun Friday night.

When we got home again, the souvenirs from Kyuushuu had gotten there and we had ika from Yobuko and satsuma age for dinner, and we looked at more photo albums, watched TV and just generally relaxed.

Thu Sept 29, Squid in Yobuko and Okonomiyaki in Hiroshima

Woke up in our business hotel in Saga, had continental breakfast and took a train for Karatsu. Once we got there, we asked a lady at the information desk how to get to Yobuko and she looked at the clock and told us that if we ran a block or two, we could catch the next bus, so we ran out the door and she ran after us with a couple of maps for us. It was a half hour bus ride, and when we got there we had some time to walk around the market (ichiba) and we found a good deal on some dried squid to take back with us.




When we decided to head over to Kawataro, we got mixed up and walked about 15 minutes up a hill that we didn't need to. But along the way we saw lots of bugs and a snake.




After asking for directions at the top of the hill, we walked back down and found our way there. Along the way we saw lots of squid drying on lines and a couple of spinning racks to help dry the squid out faster.



Once we got there, they still weren't open, but we were pretty close to the front of the line. Once we got in, we sat right next to a big pool where they kept a bunch of live squid, and we ordered 2 live squid lunches =) After we ate the mantle and a few of the tentacles, they took the rest away and fried it for us (everything except the eyes and the beak).






Then we walked back to the bus station and saw a huge flock of hawks along the way flying around hunting for food. We took a bus back to Nishi Karatsu, then a train back to Hakata, and then a shinkansen to Hiroshima. We got off there and I took Chika to a building called Okonomimura, where two floors are nothing but lots of little okonomiyaki restaurants. We ate at Momotaro (once of the places I went the first time I was there).



Then we went back to the station and found out that it was too late to make it all the way back to Tokyo, so we decided to go as far as we could, which was Nagoya. Chika has a cousin that lives around Nagoya so we gave her a call, but she was busy and it seems like she lives pretty far from Nagoya station, so we just decided to stay in a business hotel close to the station.

Wed Sept 28, Kagoshima to Saga

We woke up in Kagoshima and had our free continental breakfast. Then we checked out and left our bags at the front desk to go walk around. First we went into Bic Camera in the station and saw God of War Ghost of Sparta on the shelves =)



Then we went to the Miyage Yokocho in the station and got lots of free samples of food. After that we went to the mall attached to the station called Amu. We went to Mujirushi Ryouhin and Uniqlo. We went to the bottom floor and looked for some good shouchuu, and the guy working at the store seemed to know a lot about it. We got some samples and decided on one called Minankata, but we'd come back for it after lunch. We found a phone and called Chika's mom, and then headed up to a book store where I bought volume one of Nichijou. After that we went to the top floor where there was a game center, and saw Chabudai Gaeshi and I played a drum game called Taiko no Tatsujin



Then we went back outside to look for lunch, but it had gotten a little late, and the streets in Kagoshima (around the station anyway) are completely covered in dust. We think it's because of its proximity to the beach. Anyway, since most places outside were closed, we went back to Amu and found a kurobuta shabu shabu place called Ichi Ni San (1 2 3), and we shared one big lunch with extra meat.



There was one tsukune ... but I ate the whole thing before I realized that Chika didn't get any =( Then she disguised a hint at trying to get me to chew my food better by saying it tastes better when you chew it for a long time.

After that we went back to the liquor store and bought a bottle of Minankata (but not before having another couple samples =) And we walked back to Miyage Yokocho. We found some honey vinegar for me, and satsuma age for Chika's parents. The store there offers to ship it where ever you want, which I thought was a nice service. But then the lady told us that we could ship the other souvenirs we had with us since the shipping fee was a flat rate up to a given weight. Then Chika asked if we could put some of our luggage in with it as well (the limit was something like 50 kg). So we ended up leaving our souvenirs and half our luggage with them to ship back to Saitama for us. I felt kind of embarrassed pulling out all my dirty clothes to give to them in the middle of lots of other shoppers =\

Then just before we grabbed a train for Saga, we bought murasaki imo man (steamed bun with a purple potato filling) that we ate once we got on the train.



Then we checked into a Toyoko Inn close to the Saga station and then went back to a Family Mart and bought some oden, oinarisan, shiodare buta kalbi musubi, croquette and a weird coffee jelly drink. Then we went back to the room ate and went to sleep.

Tue Sept 27, Sunaburo in Ibusuki

Since I stayed up later, Chika woke up a little early and went for another dip in our private bath.



Then we went to breakfast and had things like onsen tamago, Jersey milk, and namekojiru.



Then we went back and took one last bath in our room before we had to check out. We got ready and packed up, checked out and left our bags with the onsen staff. They drove us to noshiyu onsen to use our last onsen pass. It wasn't a konyoku bath, but they had utaseyu (kind of like a waterfall of warm water that you can sit under) and that was great for my sore back. Then we walked back to the information center and found a place selling shave ice. Then a driver from our onsen brought our bags and drove us to the bus stop in time for our bus back to Aso. We went to a rest stop (michi no eki) close to the Aso train station and got some ice cream made from the milk of a nearby farm that was really good.



From there we took a train back to Kumamoto where we picked up some lunch before catching a shinkansen to Kagoshima. Chika got a French bread bacon potato sandwich and some mentai cheese bread, and I got 2 curry pan. When we got to Kagoshima, we found a nearby Toyoko Inn and left our bags in the room, and quickly took a train for Ibusuki. Then outside the Ibusuki station we had to wait around a half hour for a late bus to take us to Sunamushi Onsen (sand bath).



When we got there, we changed into a yukata that they gave us and walked down to the beach. There was a long stretch of beach with really coarse sand that stayed a consistently hot temperature. We laid down on the sand and some people shoveled sand onto us with just our heads exposed. We stayed there for about 15 to 20 minutes. It was really interesting.

Then we looked around a nearby liquor store for some shouchuu that we could only buy in Kagoshima, but we were running out of time and just went back to our hotel. From there were found a kurobuta shabu shabu place, and had kurobuta kakuni, miso tonkotsu, buta bara aburi, and buta nigiri with some shiso paste. We also tried a couple of local brands of sake / shouchuu to see if we could find something we really liked. Then we went back to the hotel and went to bed.