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Hakata -> Kochi
This morning we woke up, checked out of our hotel, and met up with Christina at Hakata station, as we were putting bags into lockers. We found a taiyaki place not open yet, and then took the subway to Tenjin and went around there for a while before opting for some tonkotsu ramen for lunch. Only, we went to Ichiran, which means that really we were eating together at a place meant for people to eat alone. Still good ramen though.
We tried to wander up the side of a building with a step garden in it but it was closed, and we went through a music festival, then ended up walking to Gion, pretty much. There was a temple there, and I insisted we get a photo with the four of us:
After the temple, we went to a Hakata museum of sorts and learned about city life there a hundred years ago. Carl got accosted by a bunch of Taiwanese tourist girls. They wanted to take a photo with all of us crazy white people, so I insisted on getting a photo with my camera too.
In the next building over, we also saw an Ancient Japanese Computer:
(You either get that joke or not -- it's a Jacquard loom, which is basically the first machine to ever use punched cards to program a series of instructions, see.)
And then, well, we ended up having to bail on Christina and make our way over to the train station and go to Shikoku. Though we did first stop in the taiyaki place and have taiyaki-softcream sets.
The train ride to Shikoku wasn't too bad. Hikari shinkansen to Okayama, then the Marine Liner or whatever from Okayama to Kochi. The sunset was pretty, and getting to actually cross the Seto-Ohashi while it was still light out was good, although a little too bright at the time. And the bathroom on the train was pretty scary.
We got to Kochi, found our hotel, checked in, and went to get dinner at a Tosa-ryori type place, ie, Kochi home cooking. Oren had his own set and Carl and I split a bunch of things like katsuo tataki, tosa age dofu, tosa maki, some nagaimo-age, a salad, I forget if there was anything else. The katsuo tataki really WAS awesome, as recommended by one of my friends.
Carl and I walked around the big covered street Obiyamachi for a bit. A lot of shops were closed and I was joking we'd find a taiyaki place... and amazingly, we DID. The guy was closing up soon and he told us he only had red bean taiyaki left and one chocolate, so I got the chocolate one and he gave Carl a red bean one for free. Wacky.
Oh, and I passed a gamecenter and was like "That CAN'T be..." and walked in and sure enough...
It's funny, I remember being totally excited to find a DDR MAX machine back in 2003, for the sake of playing Bye Bye Baby Balloon. Now it's more like "WTF is this still doing here?" more than anything, being as I can't/don't really play DDR anymore. They also had a pretty old Pop'n machine, I think it was Fever, which is now like 3 mixes ago?
Anyway, back at the hotel (which is REALLY nice, by the way), unable to do laundry today (mostly because Carl is using 2/3 of the machines). It's not a problem assuming that I can actually do a straight shot back to Tokyo from Kochi on Monday -- but if I get delayed anywhere, I'm going to have issues with clean clothes. Hrm.
Teikyo lost to Gifu Shogyo today. Sigh. I don't know WTF happened because I didn't see the game, but the pitching order confuses me. Alas. I guess now the hope is for a Gifu-Chukyo final, which is about as close to a subway series as you get in Koshien.
Gonna go sleep, hopefully wake up early tomorrow and go to the ballpark here and uh, see Hideki Irabu pitch. That should be FUCKING WEIRD.
We tried to wander up the side of a building with a step garden in it but it was closed, and we went through a music festival, then ended up walking to Gion, pretty much. There was a temple there, and I insisted we get a photo with the four of us:
After the temple, we went to a Hakata museum of sorts and learned about city life there a hundred years ago. Carl got accosted by a bunch of Taiwanese tourist girls. They wanted to take a photo with all of us crazy white people, so I insisted on getting a photo with my camera too.
In the next building over, we also saw an Ancient Japanese Computer:
(You either get that joke or not -- it's a Jacquard loom, which is basically the first machine to ever use punched cards to program a series of instructions, see.)
And then, well, we ended up having to bail on Christina and make our way over to the train station and go to Shikoku. Though we did first stop in the taiyaki place and have taiyaki-softcream sets.
The train ride to Shikoku wasn't too bad. Hikari shinkansen to Okayama, then the Marine Liner or whatever from Okayama to Kochi. The sunset was pretty, and getting to actually cross the Seto-Ohashi while it was still light out was good, although a little too bright at the time. And the bathroom on the train was pretty scary.
We got to Kochi, found our hotel, checked in, and went to get dinner at a Tosa-ryori type place, ie, Kochi home cooking. Oren had his own set and Carl and I split a bunch of things like katsuo tataki, tosa age dofu, tosa maki, some nagaimo-age, a salad, I forget if there was anything else. The katsuo tataki really WAS awesome, as recommended by one of my friends.
Carl and I walked around the big covered street Obiyamachi for a bit. A lot of shops were closed and I was joking we'd find a taiyaki place... and amazingly, we DID. The guy was closing up soon and he told us he only had red bean taiyaki left and one chocolate, so I got the chocolate one and he gave Carl a red bean one for free. Wacky.
Oh, and I passed a gamecenter and was like "That CAN'T be..." and walked in and sure enough...
It's funny, I remember being totally excited to find a DDR MAX machine back in 2003, for the sake of playing Bye Bye Baby Balloon. Now it's more like "WTF is this still doing here?" more than anything, being as I can't/don't really play DDR anymore. They also had a pretty old Pop'n machine, I think it was Fever, which is now like 3 mixes ago?
Anyway, back at the hotel (which is REALLY nice, by the way), unable to do laundry today (mostly because Carl is using 2/3 of the machines). It's not a problem assuming that I can actually do a straight shot back to Tokyo from Kochi on Monday -- but if I get delayed anywhere, I'm going to have issues with clean clothes. Hrm.
Teikyo lost to Gifu Shogyo today. Sigh. I don't know WTF happened because I didn't see the game, but the pitching order confuses me. Alas. I guess now the hope is for a Gifu-Chukyo final, which is about as close to a subway series as you get in Koshien.
Gonna go sleep, hopefully wake up early tomorrow and go to the ballpark here and uh, see Hideki Irabu pitch. That should be FUCKING WEIRD.