We had a long weekend last weekend so some of us headed to Kumamoto. Kumamoto City is a really happenin place. It draws people from all around. For us, its a little bit of a haul, but by no means difficult. This is a photo log of the journey.
We bummed a ride to Shimabara, about an hour's drive from our town.
I just love japanese streets. They are so organic and ancient feeling. They twist and turn and slither narrowly through the little towns.
Next we took a ferry to Kumamoto Prefecture, I can't remember the name of the city we land in. On the ferry we saw this little kid with an engrish shirt. It says California Department of Auditors! Oh if only I could be so cool, to be an Auditor! This ferry was a pretty standard ferry, similar to a simple american ferry. On the way back however, we rode the swanky ferry. Complete with a bar and fancy staircase in the center. Unfortunately I was too tired to enjoy the return ferry so I just buried my head in my nintendo DS.
Next we hopped on a bus into the city. I'm sure we looked funny, all these foreigners crammed into the back of the bus. All these folks are ALTs near me.
When we rolled into Kumamoto we noticed that there were groups of people dressed up. It turns out they were practicing for a festival the next day. Chris walked up to random people and asked for a picture.
Each group had their own colors and style. There was black, blue, red, yellow, and colors in between. I loved this guys hair, and he was eating a delicious popsicle.
So in this practice parade they had this drum, accompanied by a small metal drum, not unlike a cymbal and BUGLES. The marched and sang merrily throughout the heart of Kumamoto.
This is a close up of the bugle guys, I think they just blew as hard as they could, without regard to the notes they played.
But the best part was that each of these groups of people was lead by an angry horse!
The groups would stop into shops of family members or people that had supported them, financially I think, and sing, yell and bang their drum for them.
Japan is also famous for the number of vending machines it has. They are on every street corner and sometimes have their own alleys devoted purely to vending machines. I wanted to snap a pic of a bunch of vending machines.
In the Arcade, as in a bunch of shops in one big place, there was a pet shop with the cutest dogs in the universe. It was way too small for the number of dogs they had. Think of an american pet store like petsmart or something. cut down to less than a 10th of the size and triple the amount of dogs.
While waking in the arcade we stopped by some TV people. Chris speaks japanese, so they asked him some weird questions about girls. "Do you have a girlfriend? What is most important about the girl you want?"
Girl Qualities
A : Gets along with your motherB : She cooks wellC : She is cuteD : She is smart
At first Chris said "She needs to be cute." The interviewer asked him why he picked that. He said "Because she's cute! If I have to look at her all the time, I want her to be cute." I think the answer's comedy was lost in translation because the interviewer just sort of looked at him and chris answered "Gets along with my mother" and that solicited no more questioning.
We then walked in the rain to Kumamoto Castle. I was absolutely beautiful and if I were an invader I wouldn't attack a castle like this.
Like most big things in the world, this castle took a while to build. During the time of this castles construction many other castles in japan were being built. Technology advanced for castle building and they started building new walls. So this picture is the "old" walls, the other side of the castle has the new walls. The newer walls are more steep.
At the top of the castle we were allowed to take photos. This is some of the city of Kumamoto.
As the day wore on, we popped into an arcade ( a real arcade) for some games. They had a guitar hero like game that Chris is playing in this shot, but notice the chap in the background. He's in a business suit playing a drum game. People often stop in after work for a few games and a beer.
Just off the main drag, the Arcade, we found this weird restaurant. They had this really neat and silly tiny door. It was jungle themed on the inside as well.
After wandering from bar to bar, we heard some guys shouting at us from inside another place. They invited us in a gave us drinks. They spoke some english so we talked with them about all sorts of stuff. They were super nice. This sort of deal, just meeting random folks, has always made my trips worthwhile.
Sleeping Cheap
The first night we stayed in a capsule hotel. The capsule hotel was actually really not bad. It was about 3200 yen, which is no more and 35 bucks or so, on a good day. The first floor is your locker/dressing room. Second floor is the lounge, TV's and lazy boys. Third is the bath, a couple of shower sitting areas and a big tub. So the way it works is you sit on this little stool and take a shower. Its an open shower so you can't be shy. You wash really well, then sit in the big tub. Its like a hot tub minus the bubbles... So you soak in there for a bit, maybe hit the sauna, then you can cool off in the cold tub. The capsule is only where you sleep. Its pretty miniscule but gets the job done.
This is Tim in one of the capsules. Only big enough to sit up in and you can't spread your arms wide. I loved it actually. It closed with a curtain.
The next night Chris and I stayed at the Cybac, which is an internet cafe. If you know what Gamelan is in Baton Rouge, it helps give you an idea, but a million times better. So you rent a booth, single or double on an hourly basis. You get all the video games/DVDs/comics you can stand for the allotted time. You also get a computer capable of playing most current games. You get a tiny cubicle where you can stretch out in an play games until you passout, wake up then game more. So for about 20 bucks you can sleep in one of these. Its a step up from sleeping in the park or something, plus you get free drinks cola, water and tea, and you can check your email.
In this pic you can see a blue sign that says Cybac, thats where we stayed.
And the place is just too small to take a decent pic, but this is what our cubicle looked like. There's only enough room to stretch your feet out and lay flat. Its quite tight.
Thats it! I loved Kumamoto.
- Paul
