Yesterday was my first day getting out beyond Sasebo. We boarded the bus and went to Hirado City located on an island in the Nagasaki Prefecture. This was a very historical town that offered a lot of insight into Japanese culture. Just the ride there was amazing as we went through dense forest covered mountains up and down and all around. In Hirado we visited some famous tombs and shrines, toured the grounds of a temple and climbed a castle. There was also a Flying Fish Festival (or as they say, "Frying Fish") taking place in town while we were there so we got to try some local delights.
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Tomb of William Adams, an Englishman who contributed
to the developmentof foreign trade in Hirado. |
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| A monument to St. Francis Xavier, the man who first introduced Christianity into Japan. |
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| Bamboo forest |
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| Hirado Castle in the distance |
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| Kelsie and I |
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| Approaching the Castle |
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| A beautiful view from the top |
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| The bridge we drove over on |
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| Loving life |
After touring the castle, we were free to explore for lunch. Kelsie and I checked out the local place known for it's chupon, a vegetable and seafood noodle dish.
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| We weren't really sure what to expect (or if we even ordered the right thing) but it was so YUMMY! It had octopus in it and I think that pink and white stuff is some kind of fish. The noodles are slighty bigger than the traditional ramen. |
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| Checking out the Flying Fish Fest. We were offered a free sample, but I had to politely turn around and spit it out. The fish sample was very dry and boney and well, fishy. |
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| some squid. or octopus. |
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| Me with Rie and Kelsie. I worked with Rie in the CDC and she happened to be the tour guide for this tour. She's so cute. |
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| Soaking our feet in the onsen (hotspring). There are rounded stones on the bottom that feel so good on your feet. |
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| This one was only for hands and feet. I want to visit a full body onsen. It is very relaxing and replenishing. My feet felt so light and clean after soaking. |
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| The Matsura Temple. I don't really know the significance, the pamphlet is all Japanese. |
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| Take your shoes off before entering and wear some stylin' sandals |
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| A Buddha that was made over a thousand years ago |
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| Samurai helmet |
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| Trying on a traditional kimono |
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| A water basin. Everything is just prettier here. |
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| Backroom of the tea room. |
And then my camera died.
But the day was not yet over!
We got back in time for an evening adventure so Kelsie and I decided to make the trek to try to find the 99 islands. They are located a couple miles away, on the other side of a moutain. We rode our bikes for as long as we could (flat terrain), then parked them and started climbing staircases and steep slopes in the direction that seemed right. We had no idea where we were going but hey, that's half the fun. We passed through some small villages, some graveyards, some highways, and some backyards. It was a really cool walk.
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| Right over yonder! |
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| These are EVERYWHERE and somehow my eyes always avert directly to where ever they are. You have to be careful when walking through the trees. I walked into a couple webs on our way, YIKES! |
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| pretty purple. |
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| awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww |
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| This leaf that resembles the pot leaf is everywhere around here, people have it hanging in cars and windows and on signs like this. I found out that it's actually the Japanese maple leaf. Ha, right. |
And finally, we came across our first view of the islands!
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| So we took this small dark path that seemed to lead us down to the islands. |
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| There it is! |
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| and a pretty sunset. |
So we walked around and explored for a while, the sun went down and we had to find our way back in the dark. As we were walking back, we started to realize that nothing around us looked familiar... We were walking down some road and out of nowhere, these warthogs came running out. There were probably 5 or 6 of them and we just took off sprinting in the opposite direction (no time to take a picture!). We got super lost but retraced our steps, passed the warthogs again and finally found our way back. We made it out alive!
Today, we took the kids to Saiki park for a field trip.
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| Pretty good view from the playground. Lucky kids. |
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| Scary slide that I had to demonstrate for the kids. |
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| More spiders |
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| Coolest playground ever. |
Also some pictures from the other night. We're starting to learn how to get around town. I now know what it must feel like to be an illiterate adult since I can't read any Japanese. You really have to rely on pictures and luckily Japan is a very visual friendly country, many of their signs have really cute pictures on them.
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| So many mushrooms in Japanese cuisine! At this restaurant, you cook your own food on your table. |
They even pulled down a curtain to make our table "private".
Then on to the sake bar..
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A pour-it-yourself machine. How clever.
I'm still trying to like Sake, I really am. I guess it's an acquired taste. |
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| Pickles are cucumbers soaked in evil. I happen to love evil cucumbers. |
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| The bartender here spoke some Engrish and gave us a free poster! |
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| There's this photo booth place where they make you look all blemish free and perfect. Everyone here was all dressed up like for prom. Then after the picture, you go in and edit it adding sparkles and makeup and prettiness hahaha |
On a side note, my jellyfish sting from over a week ago, came back in full force all red and itchy. I think I had an allergic reaction to it. I hear there's a place where you can order a jellyfish salad. I shall go and seek revenge to the jellies...
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| Sorry, gross. |
Sorry, that was a long blog. Stay tuned for more, friends!
