Prefecture #46 -- Saga! And Kumamoto Castle and stuff.
Woke up this morning in Kumamoto. The Toyoko Inn here, despite having that nice dinner curry service, had a pretty lousy breakfast. Oh well. They were nice and let us keep our bags here while we went to the castle.
BTW, Kumamoto station is under construction, which is why I have no photos of it, sadly. BUT instead I have photos of these adorable animal-thingies they use to prop up the railings that sequester off construction areas:
Frogs!
And uh... other animals?
Ridiculously cute. Almost makes you not feel angry at the construction site.
We took the tram from the station to the castle, and I don't remember the timing, plus it's not a real train, so it doesn't count :P
Kumamoto Castle turns out to be relatively boring, most of it is a reconstruction of the original so a lot of the inside just feels like a museum and not so much a real castle. It's basically all about Kiyomasa Katoh. The thing is that they make him sound like this great guy who did a lot for the region... and not so much a crazy bloodthirsty man. And he wore a ridiculous hat.
I don't regret going, but I gotta say, it's not really worth making a trip to Kumamoto just to see this castle unless you are collecting them all.
View from the top of the main tower.
With the castle mascot thingy at the photo point.
I'm Kiyomasa the three-armed lord of Kumamoto!
These guys are professional cosplayers who go around the castle acting like samurai and take photos with tourists. Not a bad job, I suppose. The dude with me and Benoit spoke pretty good English and said he lived in California for a few years. I asked him if the cosplaying was by volunteer or a job and he's like "This is a tough job! I'm a samurai!"
We ended up taking a taxi back to the station due to confusion over tram schedules. It cost 1040 yen, but at least she took us right to the hotel, so we could grab our bags from there, and we got some bakery food from Trandor, which is my new favorite bakery chain and all over Kyushu. Then, off to Saga!
Kumamoto 1238 -> 1355 Hainuzuka
Hainuzuka 1406 -> 1422 Tosu
Tosu 1432 -> 1456 Saga
The main thing about going on this particular train route is that it follows the route that they're constructing the new Kyushu shinkansen linkup in (currently Hakata is the terminus and then there's also a shinkansen in the south between Kagoshima and Shin-Yatsushiro... on March 12 they will COMBINE TO FORM VOLTRACK! and then you will be able to take the shinkansen from Aomori to Kagoshima. Yay?
Here, for example, is Shin-Tosu station, which is not open yet. We saw a few other stations like that along the way.
The other disturbing thing on this leg of the trip, between Kumamoto and Hainuzuka, was seeing a big puff of black smoke in the sky and hearing sirens at the station... it turned out someone's house was on FIRE. BIG BIG FIRE.
Okay, so we get to Saga and I go chat up the lady in the tourist center while Benoit goes off to find a bathroom. I find out that Saga city has a balloon festival each year, which is irrelvant, and I get a map to go to Saga Kita High School, which is the baseball team I cheered for in the 2007 Koshien, who won it all. This was very important to me because when I think of Saga, I think of that Koshien. Also, the lady was like "...you came all the way here just to see a high school? We have many other nice tourist attractions..." "...nah, that's okay, really..."
Weird statue by the station.
Glico man lives in Saga too, apparently!!
So we set off to find Kitako. The map wasn't very good but at least I had the address in my phone so I knew I could use the GPS to find it in an emergency. But it turned out not to be necessary, we did eventually get there.
Only thing is, it's wintertime, and no classes are in session, but as I know from my JHS, that doesn't really mean shit, the clubs are still practicing and kids still have special winter lessons and whatnot. So of course, we get there and tons of kids are riding bikes out, looking like "wtf are two gaijin doing here???" at us. AND even crazier, the baseball team was out practicing! OMG.
Well, I get Benoit to take a photo of me by the school gate sign and then we kinda watch the team practice for a bit. But I was too nervous to say anything to anyone... a few baseball players saw me watching and pointed like "hey, there are two gaijin out there watching us," and so one boy who was staring at me, I nodded at him (in a gesture I very much picked up from my male JHS students) and he smiled and nodded back, but... yeah. I felt like a real stalker.
So I took a photo of their clubhouse, which honors the 2007 team, and watched for a minute or two, and then we just kinda left. I saw a boy throwing in the bullpen and he too stared at me so I felt like I shouldn't take a photo. Sigh. I bet a few years ago they must have gotten tons of tourists there, but recently, maybe not so much. I was prepared, should anyone talk to me, to explain what I was doing there (about having seen them play in 2007 and even how I've met a guy from the championship team and watch another one play all the time at Jingu), but yeah, didn't talk to anyone. I dunno.
I'm at Saga Kita HS!
The school, as you see it from the road. The baseball field is prominent.
The memorial clubhouse.
And then we walked back to the station. We missed the 1620 train, but got on the 1638...
Saga 1638 -> 1706 Tosu
Tosu 1721 -> 1906 Tobata
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cdinwood met us at the station, and we went to the grocery store and picked up vegetables, and then Benoit and Christina cooked dinner, while I sat at her kotatsu checking up on my stuff in Puzzle Pirates since she has wireless and Toyoko doesn't let me play PP through their firewall. They made a vegetable miso soup, and some eggplant/tofu thing, and then we sat around for a few hours talking about random stuff. It's a little weird that I'm really not sure if/when I'll see Christina again as we don't know when we'll be in the same country again, but whatever, things will work out one way or another.
(She and Benoit are leaving early tomorrow to go on an adventure of their own for the weekend, while I'm going back to Tokyo on my own adventure of sorts.)
Tobata 2305 -> 2315 Kokura
Came back to the same Toyoko we stayed in on Tuesday night, before circling the island. I guess it's good to be back. Benoit's sleeping and I'm updating LJ. Hooray.
Tomorrow I'm starting my journey back, so if you live between Kyushu and Tokyo and want me to stop by and say hi, let me know and I'll see if we can work something out.
BTW, Kumamoto station is under construction, which is why I have no photos of it, sadly. BUT instead I have photos of these adorable animal-thingies they use to prop up the railings that sequester off construction areas:
Frogs!
And uh... other animals?
Ridiculously cute. Almost makes you not feel angry at the construction site.
We took the tram from the station to the castle, and I don't remember the timing, plus it's not a real train, so it doesn't count :P
Kumamoto Castle turns out to be relatively boring, most of it is a reconstruction of the original so a lot of the inside just feels like a museum and not so much a real castle. It's basically all about Kiyomasa Katoh. The thing is that they make him sound like this great guy who did a lot for the region... and not so much a crazy bloodthirsty man. And he wore a ridiculous hat.
I don't regret going, but I gotta say, it's not really worth making a trip to Kumamoto just to see this castle unless you are collecting them all.
View from the top of the main tower.
With the castle mascot thingy at the photo point.
I'm Kiyomasa the three-armed lord of Kumamoto!
These guys are professional cosplayers who go around the castle acting like samurai and take photos with tourists. Not a bad job, I suppose. The dude with me and Benoit spoke pretty good English and said he lived in California for a few years. I asked him if the cosplaying was by volunteer or a job and he's like "This is a tough job! I'm a samurai!"
We ended up taking a taxi back to the station due to confusion over tram schedules. It cost 1040 yen, but at least she took us right to the hotel, so we could grab our bags from there, and we got some bakery food from Trandor, which is my new favorite bakery chain and all over Kyushu. Then, off to Saga!
Kumamoto 1238 -> 1355 Hainuzuka
Hainuzuka 1406 -> 1422 Tosu
Tosu 1432 -> 1456 Saga
The main thing about going on this particular train route is that it follows the route that they're constructing the new Kyushu shinkansen linkup in (currently Hakata is the terminus and then there's also a shinkansen in the south between Kagoshima and Shin-Yatsushiro... on March 12 they will COMBINE TO FORM VOLTRACK! and then you will be able to take the shinkansen from Aomori to Kagoshima. Yay?
Here, for example, is Shin-Tosu station, which is not open yet. We saw a few other stations like that along the way.
The other disturbing thing on this leg of the trip, between Kumamoto and Hainuzuka, was seeing a big puff of black smoke in the sky and hearing sirens at the station... it turned out someone's house was on FIRE. BIG BIG FIRE.
Okay, so we get to Saga and I go chat up the lady in the tourist center while Benoit goes off to find a bathroom. I find out that Saga city has a balloon festival each year, which is irrelvant, and I get a map to go to Saga Kita High School, which is the baseball team I cheered for in the 2007 Koshien, who won it all. This was very important to me because when I think of Saga, I think of that Koshien. Also, the lady was like "...you came all the way here just to see a high school? We have many other nice tourist attractions..." "...nah, that's okay, really..."
Weird statue by the station.
Glico man lives in Saga too, apparently!!
So we set off to find Kitako. The map wasn't very good but at least I had the address in my phone so I knew I could use the GPS to find it in an emergency. But it turned out not to be necessary, we did eventually get there.
Only thing is, it's wintertime, and no classes are in session, but as I know from my JHS, that doesn't really mean shit, the clubs are still practicing and kids still have special winter lessons and whatnot. So of course, we get there and tons of kids are riding bikes out, looking like "wtf are two gaijin doing here???" at us. AND even crazier, the baseball team was out practicing! OMG.
Well, I get Benoit to take a photo of me by the school gate sign and then we kinda watch the team practice for a bit. But I was too nervous to say anything to anyone... a few baseball players saw me watching and pointed like "hey, there are two gaijin out there watching us," and so one boy who was staring at me, I nodded at him (in a gesture I very much picked up from my male JHS students) and he smiled and nodded back, but... yeah. I felt like a real stalker.
So I took a photo of their clubhouse, which honors the 2007 team, and watched for a minute or two, and then we just kinda left. I saw a boy throwing in the bullpen and he too stared at me so I felt like I shouldn't take a photo. Sigh. I bet a few years ago they must have gotten tons of tourists there, but recently, maybe not so much. I was prepared, should anyone talk to me, to explain what I was doing there (about having seen them play in 2007 and even how I've met a guy from the championship team and watch another one play all the time at Jingu), but yeah, didn't talk to anyone. I dunno.
I'm at Saga Kita HS!
The school, as you see it from the road. The baseball field is prominent.
The memorial clubhouse.
And then we walked back to the station. We missed the 1620 train, but got on the 1638...
Saga 1638 -> 1706 Tosu
Tosu 1721 -> 1906 Tobata
cdinwood met us at the station, and we went to the grocery store and picked up vegetables, and then Benoit and Christina cooked dinner, while I sat at her kotatsu checking up on my stuff in Puzzle Pirates since she has wireless and Toyoko doesn't let me play PP through their firewall. They made a vegetable miso soup, and some eggplant/tofu thing, and then we sat around for a few hours talking about random stuff. It's a little weird that I'm really not sure if/when I'll see Christina again as we don't know when we'll be in the same country again, but whatever, things will work out one way or another. (She and Benoit are leaving early tomorrow to go on an adventure of their own for the weekend, while I'm going back to Tokyo on my own adventure of sorts.)
Tobata 2305 -> 2315 Kokura
Came back to the same Toyoko we stayed in on Tuesday night, before circling the island. I guess it's good to be back. Benoit's sleeping and I'm updating LJ. Hooray.
Tomorrow I'm starting my journey back, so if you live between Kyushu and Tokyo and want me to stop by and say hi, let me know and I'll see if we can work something out.
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