Day 5 : Unzen to Kumamoto Via Shimbahara
Today we will be making our way from Unzen, Nagasaki to Kumamoto via Ferry from Shimabara Port. First thing in the morning before breakfast , we went for Onsen again cos next few days will not be staying in Onsen hotel , as usually in "City" we cut cost by staying in Business hotel like Toyoko Inn.
Before checkout , We did a check on the update of Nita Pass and found that the ropeway is open but view is slightly cloudy. We decided to take chance and go up since we did not went up yesterday. So we decided to skip Unzen Hell and drive straight to Nita PAss ( paid 100 yen again ) then all the way to the Ropeway. It was very cold about 9 deg in the morning as since yesterday , Kyushu is hit by a low temperature current for the next 1 week , else the temperature should not be this cold at this time of the year here ( 2 days later , a fellow TA member said there was light snow and hailstorm in Unzen )
It started to rain a bit when we were up the top of the Ropeway and wind was howling. There was too much clouds for a good view though we could peek a bit on and off when there happen to be a "gap" between the clouds.
After that we move on to Shimabara, first we visited a site where it had some house covered in soil, these are the after effect of volcano eruption and the lava moved down and covered that area.
Then we moved on to
Shimabara Castle , the main reason here is to "wear" the
Samurai uniform for photo taking else we would have skipped cos next day we be visiting the Kumamoto Castle. So we did a quick tour and then move on to lunch nearby at
姬松屋. The main outlet is very near the Castle , almost next to the foot of it. when we reach there was about lunch time ard 12 pm and was quite crowded. This place sells a famous Shimabara dish called Guzouni ( 具雑煮 ) This is a local dish from the Shimabara region, made with mochi rice cakes and over 10 kinds of ingredients gathered from the local sea and mountains, with a wholesome flavor brought out by the combination of the light soup and pleasantly savory ingredients.>> The soup itself is actually quite nice , will recommend to try if you are in the area.
Before heading to the Ferry Terminal , we detoured nearby to Shimei-Sou 四明荘 ,basically it's a house that is open for tourists to visit.(
link to video on Youtube here) Shimabara is famous for the cool spring water due to the volcano , so this 四明荘 actually got a pond in front whereby you can just sit on the house and view the koi fishes inside. The friendly lady will make you great tea ( free ).
Another place to go is KOI NO MIZUBE MICHI / 鯉の水辺路 which is basically drains … yes i mean DRAINS , this is because due to the natural cool spring water , they actually had Kois living in it, did not had much time so did not search for those many that Kois , but did saw a few in a part of the drain nearby.Next we make our way to the Ferry Terminal , NOTE : there are 2 different ferry company that operate from Shimabara Port to Kumamoto Port.
Kumamoto Ferry is the faster one takes about 30+ min but more expensive ,
Kyusho Ferry is the slower one takes around 1 hour but cheaper. they had slightly different time table , so depends on what time you reach there ( if you never do reservation like us ) or if you wish to save money. Basically when you reach the Shimabara port , there will be 2 lane at entrance with a few guys standing there, they will have the timing for the next ferry , once you choose the ferry , they will direct you to the respective parking lane to wait for the ferry. ( oh we took the ferry with our rented car ). They might pass you a card to state the size of your car in order for the ticket booth to charge the correct amount, with the car ( or think car key also can ) you will go to the counter to purchase the ticket.Think Kyusho is counter 1 and Kumamoto Ferry is counter 2 , there just pass the card and tell the number of passengers in the car and they will charge you the tickets according. The car ticket comes with the ticket for driver , so if 2 of you inside , meaning you will only need to purchase 1 car + 1 additional passenger ticket.We made a mistake by choosing the slower ferry ( cos i forget the timing ) then after purchased the tickets , i realised that and quickly ask for a refund and purchased from the other booth and had to shift our car to the other lane for the faster ferry.
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| See those "feeding hands" below |
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Once the time for departure , the staffs will direct you to drive up the ferry and park in the ferry , then they will put stopper at the wheels. Once done you can choose to stay in the car or you can move up to the passenger deck on top. ( Note : if you are going up , remember which staircase you went up then you can go down the same way , we almost went on the wrong deck then we took the ferry from Kagoshima to Sakurajima , was a bit panic as we almost reaching the island and couldn't find our car). Many tourists will feed the seagulls on the top open deck, there is a rack nearby that sells the prawn crackers , some will bring bread as well.
Upon reaching Kumamoto , we drive straight from Kumamoto Port to Kumamoto Castle , cos we hope to cover today then will have more time tomorrow morning as
Kumamoto Castle is quite huge and will take at least 2 hours to complete. (
Link to a PDF guide online )
Kumamoto Castle is considered one of the three premier castles in Japan, along with Himeji Castle and Matsumoto Castle. Like most castle , some part of it was burnt and was restored so many part of the castle looks very touristy. Guess this is what happen when you want to let tourist visit , you have to make sure the building is safe , etc. But there is some building which is still the original part of the castle , we went up to one of them which is the "Uto Yagura" , there is nothing much inside , very steep staircase ( the top level is a one way small staircase which you need to wait for ppl coming down before you can go up cos it's quite narrow) the topmost level got a viewing deck.We did not managed to cover the whole castle , so only managed to cover the main castle tower and the main hall.
Cos we bought a dual pass with Wakuwakuza visit, you can dress up for free and take photo and have a some exhibit here, not really worth visiting to me cos maybe we were in a rush before it close ( or maybe i am just not interested in all these history stuffs ) But some interesting exhibit to take picture , like you can sit on a horse display , stand behind a samurai armour , sit in a cart to take picture.
Sakuranokoji is at the same area , it basically consist of shops that sells foods and souvenirs. (
link to the area and different foods sells here ) . there is a shop that sells "肥厚太鼓“ , it's like some mix nuts , at first thought it maybe taste quite normal so just bought a packet of 5 piece ( cos got Kumamon design on the package ) but when i try it back home , it's actually quite nice , regret not buying more. The shop is called "
antagatadokosa " , they actually just opened another shop in Asakusa ,Tokyo. There is also a who selling Uni balls and watermelon soda. Wanted to try the
ice cream waffle from a shop but it was sold out. Kumamoto Prefecture Tourist Center is just about 5 min walk away if you want to get some local products but actually most places will have it.
There is a free shuttle bus for your convenience between Jousaien and the Kumamoto Castle "Hohoategomon Gate." It runs every 7 minutes and only takes 3 minutes. To use this service please wait at the Jousaien bus stop or the Hohotaegomon Gate bus stop.
For dinner , we went to this restaurant called "Clover" cos i saw from this site they actually got all you can eat buffet (
link ) but when we got there , they said there is no more buffet ( but we saw it at the entrance when we left , there is 2 entrances ) , I dunno japanese and they staffs there don't really know english , so chicken and duck talk , but still we decided to eat there. Food was not bad and the best was one of the beef dish , it looks very raw ( i usually had my steak med-well type ) but this really taste so good that we had wanted to order another plate BUT it was a special items aka 1 table of up to 4 pax can only order 1 serving of it. Note: though no buffet , if you print out the slip form the link , you are still entitled to the discount ( 20% on Mon - Thur / 10% on Fri & Sat ).
After dinner , we went to shop a bit at the Shimotori Shopping Arcade (opposite one is Kamitori Shopping Arcade ,
Link here ), basically went Drug stores hopping and also found that Mcdonald had a Chocolate pie for 100 yen , it actually taste good even when cold , it actually is puff pastry with chocolate and peanuts. I even recommend to my friends who were visiting Osaka a week later and try and they loved it too.
Oh before dinner @ Clover , we actually visited
Kumamon Square ( aka Kumamon's office ). Some days he will be in his office at 11am and 3 pm to do a show and you can take picture with him. ( click on the link here for his timetable ) Both days we are in Kumamoto he is out ( from his time table , he is usually in from friday to monday usually ). Anyway was a bit disappointed cos thought can find a lot of his "items" but not that much actually , you can actually find some in one of the shop in Sakuranokoji and in
Wakuwaku-ichiba in Shimotori Shopping Arcade and some in Kumamoto Prefecture Tourist Center.
