Japan Trip 2023: Reflections

 4 hours and 51 minutes to our destination of Washington D.C. airport. Hey, it ain't Chicago. Although, after going through security at another airport and just connecting at Chicago with at least two hours until the connecting flight has been okay. It's also saved the day being the airport we have to fly to Japan when our other flights have been canceled on us (2012 we missed the flight to LAX due to a delay at CVG with engine trouble AND 2023's flight to Houston being canceled due to weather).

But we got there, we made it to Japan! We got to see a part of Japan we had never explored before, moving up from beginner mode to intermediate by picking Kyushu (beginner mode is the Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka loop trip often favored by first timers to Japan, and there's a reason: it's all easily accessible by train, the JR passes are made more for the Tohoku region, and English is more widely available on signs, in stores, and on menus).

Kyushu was definitely a much more nature-intense Japan trip. So many green mountains and trees and rivers! That hike in Yakushima was the most intense hike I have ever taken in my life! Being able to hike up the mountain at Fushimi Inari was just a walk in the park (ha!) compared to this climb!

So much room for activities!

I think that's what brought about any of the downsides to this trip: inability to find the right info or not completely or well-translated websites allowing me to fully research what to expect. I do NOT consider that trail to the top of Taiko Iwa to be easy, as the Y.E.S. website alluded. I also was unable to research our trip to Aso very well, leaving it to be a lot of waiting around for an infrequent bus and any points of interest not being within walking distance. 

Which brings me to point two: okay, okay, I admit it, the Redditors are correct when they say that renting a car will allow you better and quicker access and unlock a lot more of Kyushu than what the train lines access. There, happy? But, I still absolutely refuse to rent a car and drive around on the "other side of the road" with limited knowledge of Japanese. Yes, Google maps exists, but I don't know if I can retrain my brain enough to safely drive in Japan.

Do not cross the Business Class curtain or you will be vaporized!

With all that said about the limits and downside to our trip, what about some upsides and observations?

First of all, let's hand out some awards: First award goes to Agoda, for being a legit website (that I think is a part of booking.com) and a third party hotel booking service that came through for us. No horror stories here! The deals were real and we got to stay in some really amazing hotels and ryokans for really good prices! We were expected and our rooms were ready and really really nice! My favorite is definitely our last one, the Solaria Hotel Nishitetsu. It was FANCY, had the best shower and bathroom and AC unit, hands down, and the beds were fine and the location was pretty great. Our ryokan in Beppu, the Seaside hotel Mimatsu Ootei, comes in at a close second because they were tattoo friendly with their public onsens and the fact we had our own private onsen in our room that overlooked the ocean made it easy to soak at least twice a day LOL! If you're looking for a great Japanese ryokan experience that is foreigner friendly with traditional breakfasts and a kaiseki dinner, this is a great way to try it out!

Second award goes to Y.E.S. Yakushima for being a fantastic tour and booking service for people like us who don't wanna rent cars but still want to experience this fantastical island of old sugi trees and moss. They did it all: booked the ryokan, the ferry tickets and also picked us up, drove us around, and dropped us back off at the hotel. Both guides were great, Masashi was super friendly and funny, Steve (the boss) was very knowledgeable and accommodating and put up very well with the chatter of 6 Ohioans in one car.

Third award goes to Kuroneko-san of Yamato delivery and the amazing service that is luggage forwarding, or takkyubin! You saved our backs as we had one less city we had to carry our bags to and from and now I'm kinda thinking we should just always use it LOL! It's cheap too! It was about 1500 yen per backpack (carry on size) and while we gave them two full days to get it to Fukuoka from Kumamoto, I think that short a trip can get done in one. Either way, it was amazing and I'm glad it also worked flawlessly!

And lastly, our major award of platinum goes to Tonya of the United counter at CVG. You are the real hero of this whole vacation and I will never forget what she did for us in making sure this vacation actually happened and her strength in assisting us in our battle with ANA customer service when our hopes were at their lowest!

While we're handing out awards, let's have a round of applause to items we bought or packed that were indispensable: I, Angie, would like to personally nominate our Suica cards, my handheld fan, my dependable handtowel (Japanese bathrooms are notorious for having no to puny hand dryers and never any paper towels), Google translate, Lion footpads, berry-flavored powdered Tylenol packets, my two packable reusable shopping bags Yoshikitty and Peak Design (used almost every day since you are charged 10 yen for the store's plastic bags), and Happy Step insoles (so much cheaper than Superfeet, didn't last as long, but long enough and the spring in the heel and the arch support was so lovely)!

Favorite memory: Sangen-en gardens in Kagoshima. I know, right?! Sakurajima was just so cool in the background, the gardens were beautiful and easy to amble around, and I just loved how much of an adventure it felt to get there, taking the small train to a small station and walking to the bus stop where I got to watch that old guy fish and had the best view of Sakurajima. It was at the beginning of the trip so we were still pretty fresh and wide-eyed and bushy-tailed. It was a small part of the trip, but I think my favorite little place.

Best meal: Oh no, it's a tie for me. The kurobuta katsu at Ooyama where we made our own sauce but it tasted great on its own, but also the toriten fried chicken on rice in Beppu. Both of those were just fantastic, fried to perfection, and really used some tasty, fresh cuts of local meat!

Observations: What trends and fashions did we notice about Japan this time? Let's start with the cars. We never got over being amazed at just how QUIET traffic is. All the cars and small trucks are electric and just turn off when stopped at a light. We'd be walking down a four-lane street and it would be completely silent despite the fact it was rush hour traffic and there was a long line of cars just waiting at the light. We had to DEFINITELY check both ways before crossing a street, or we'd be walking down a one-lane street and a car would literally sneak up behind us they were so quiet. It was the sound of tires on gravel that made any noise or gave any indication there was a car behind us!

Baggy clothing is still very much in fashion. All the layers to protect your skin from the sun, but large, light and airy to keep you cool. Many women wore long, flowing ankle skirts, a nice blouse or tee shirt, and a cardigan or light sweater over that. Fukuoka is very much a big, expensive city as that's where we saw all the fashionable people wearing expensive shoes and purses and nice outfits. Luckily we weren't too schlubby compared to the people of Kagoshima or Yakushima or Beppu! The city-folk makeup trend I noticed in the smaller, younger girls was what I'd like to call "China doll that just got done crying" with red eyeshadow lining the lower eye and some of the upper eyelid, and a slight blush on the cheeks and nose and very tiny, pouty lips like on a doll.

While there aren't very many western tourists there were a TON of Chinese tourists. I think they were just very recently allowed back into the country. I didn't notice many Korean, even though it is just a ferry ride away from Nagasaki, it's fairly easy to get to Kyushu from China as well. I'll leave it to Jeff to talk about the geography side of that observation. Meanwhile, on the non-Asian side of tourism, the rest of the white people were either German or Italian. We did meet that Swedish lady in Aso, and a Canadian couple in Kumamoto waiting for the train to Fukuoka (while a German couple sitting on the bench across from us just kinda glared at us and staunchly refused to be engaged in the conversation). Let's just say we are not impressed by the Italians. Any time we overheard a conversation that made us frown: Italian. Our least favorite person on this trip: David from Italy with all the OPINIONS. I'm just gonna add Italy to the list of places I don't really wanna vacation to (the only other place on there is France, really).

Mask wearing was made optional in March of this year, outside of businesses, and the mandate compeltely lifted at the end of April, right before Golden Week, just a week before our vacation. I'd say about 60% of the people were wearing masks, most of them being in the cities and most definitely more often on mass transit. Speaking of wearing masks, the lady behind me, who sounds like she has freakin' tuberculosis, better be wearing a mask! The guy in front of me has been kind a cough-y too...

What should we remember to do or not do for next trip?

DON'T PRE-CHECK IN FOR YOUR FLIGHT IF FLYING MORE THAN ONE AIRLINE! It was that cursed pre-flight check in with United when I booked through ANA that apparently caused that whole stupid mess when our flights with United to Houston were canceled and ANA was like "I can't do anything until the check-in status is canceled with United", but even after United canceled that they still refused to say they could do anything (until Tonya told ANA what's what! Wooo!). But anyway, weird lesson learned. 

I dunno if JR railpasses will be worth it in the future. I think we just barely broke even on ours for the 7 day All-Kyushu rail pass. And prices are going up 65% in October of this year!!! Railway tickets in general are going up, so I guess it's to compensate for that, but the JR railpass only covers JR lines, and outside of Tokyo it doesn't cover as much. We used the subway more than the trains for local places, and JR was basically the big city to city trains anyway.

Hm, can't think of much of anything else... but I'll try to add on to this if I do!

I'm gonna hand this over to Jeff and he can fill in his own awards, thoughts, and faves!

Most Indispensable Things I Brought With Me: I touched on this (I think) in a previous entry, but buying new clothes (at least new socks and new t-shirts) was a great move. They all broke in at the same rate, so there wasn't any sensory inconsistency from day to day. The feeling of putting on a fresh pair of new socks at the start of a new day was great. I know a lot of folks bring their oldest socks/underwear/t-shirts with them on these trips so they can just pitch them to make more room for souvenirs, and I've tried that before - definitely wasn't worth it. I'd rather have a slightly heavier pack to take home than wear clothing that's nigh-on uncomfortable. Honorable mention goes to this cheap UV protective light-weight hoodie I picked up at Donki in Beppu. That thing was super useful in both the streets and the hotel rooms. Also, my sun umbrella. While we didn't use it exceptionally frequently, it was very useful when we did. 

Favorite Memory: As little as I was able to find, and as silly as it may sound,  I think digging through bins and boxes of old anime figures at the various shops along the way was my favorite bit. Nature is all well and good, but fighting against the sun and exhaustion definitely took a bit of the fun off the top. 

Best Meal: Probably a tie between the Hambagu Steaki at Royal Host and the first round of Family Mart's Famichicki. I'm a trash man, I eat garbage. So a lot of the dinners at the various hotels were a bit too fancy and delicate for my Big Ol Baby With Money palate. Also, that green green goodness - CocaCola Melon. 

Observations: Tourists ruin everything, and I say that as a tourist. The best places we went had the lowest percentage of tourists, conversely the places with the most tourists were the least fun overall. How would I advise you to be a good tourist instead of a bad one? If you're gonna go on a vacation to a place, do your research so you don't show up in Japan not knowing how to use chopsticks or not knowing the basic greetings/thank yous/etc. Move with intent when walking. Don't stand around gawking in the middle of the lane. Don't walk multiple people abreast in crowded areas, because you're inconveniencing those around you. Be mindful of your surroundings. Speak quietly when possible. Wear a mask when you're in public. Be thankful to people you interact with. 

I need to very much echo the cars observation Angie made as well. The quiet and calm of rush hour traffic in every major city was *phenomenal*. I know that it'll take decades for that to happen in America, because a large percentage of people take pride in being as disruptive and loud as humanly possible, but I'm hopeful that it'll happen for us one day. 

My dislike of busses continues, but I've finally figured out some of the Why. Firstly, they're subject to traffic - which can throw off the time tables by up to 20 minutes in some places. Secondly, they don't stop at every stop unless someone pushes the button, so there's a non-zero chance of missing a stop if you're not hypervigilant. I don't want either of those things when I'm on public transit. I wanna chill out until I hear them call my stop and then get off the mass transit. All in all, trains are superior to buesses, but I will deal with busses when necessary. 

Pachinko parlors are much, much quieter than they were on our previous trips. There may have been an ordinance passed about them that limits their noise, but it's the difference between feeling like you're sticking your head between two slot machines both simultaneously hitting a jackpot (how loud it used to be) when you walk past one, to honestly not even noticing that you were in front of one unless you read the sign. Good change, overall. 

Even with my limited baggage, I still feel like I overpacked. I brought a pair of unnecessary jeans. The hiking pants will do just fine next time. I brought several things that I never even used once, but if I wouldn't have brought them we would've somehow needed them (a couple extra battery packs, a belt, an emergency poncho, a large and small packable towel).

(Angie here: meanwhile, I feel I packed just enough! I used everything and really needed that laundry day and a half (where we did a small load in Yakushima). I wish I had brought cuter things, like a skater dress or pinafore, since I really liked my overalls, but all in all what I packed was perfect!) 

While we didn't encounter any overt racism on this trip, we did get to see some Preferential Racism a few times. Once, in a Crane Game shop - where the staff kept saying "Please speak Japanese" to several groups of Chinese tourists who were trying to ask questions in both Chinese and English, but those same staff definitely spoke English with us just fine. The other, when I was at Mos Burger and a North African person was having trouble ordering and understanding the staff - I did a bit of Google Translate from Japanese to French for him and he was able to get his food correctly. The staff seemed flabbergasted, as they assumed all tourists spoke English. 

The costs of things in vending machines and at shops has barely changed since our 2019 trip or our 2016 trip. Onigiri went up maybe ¥‎10 (¥‎110 to ¥‎120), sodas are up maybe Y30 (from Y150 to Y180), and Famichiki changed by about ¥‎30 (¥‎200 to ¥‎230). Gas costs the same as I remember per Liter (¥‎160ish in most places). It's bananas. How did Japan not get obliterated by inflation like America did? Unless our inflation was mostly created by corporate greed and profiteering landlords during a multi-year pandemic. Makes ya wonder, don't it?

While I can't speak for the flight cost itself, I can tell you this much: Premium Economy on ANA appears to be worth every penny we spent on it, based on Angie's reactions so far. I've been told that it's basically what standard/coach was back in the 1990s and that (much like the inflation bit mentioned above) corporate greed robbed us of this experience in a post 9/11 world. Thanks a lot, capitalism. Ya shits. 

Last thing for now: These trips are always worth it in the long run. I complain a lot in these blog posts, but that's because the negatives shine much more powerfully in my memory at the time they're happening. I would encourage anyone reading this that if it sounds fun, and you can make the costs work, then you should definitely do it. We'll answer any questions you've got and we'd be more than happy to play tour guide if our dates line up. 

With that, back to Angie for a brief closing. 

I think that pretty much sums it up! We're now 2 hours 11 minutes away from our destination of Washington D.C. Here's to hoping all goes well there, our souvenir suitcase has made it, and all will be hunky dorie and we make it to CVG at the 2:30pm they promised us! 

Premium Economy gets thumbs up from us! (Also, shame on that guy behind us, he put his luggage in OUR bin AND a second bin across the aisle! And his wife was hacking up a storm the whole flight. SHAME!)

Thanks for reading! We look forward to our next trip! :)

Japan 2023: Day 13 - Fukuoka

 Another last day of vacation in Japan :( Always so bittersweet. It's always great to get away and not have to go to work, but then you start to miss your own bed and your cats (and chickens) and friends at home.

Our plan today was the same as yesterday: shop. This time it was more for souvenirs for people at home rather than for ourselves. We might have bought a thing or two for ourselves.... but the rest of it was for our friends and family and coworkers back at home!

Our main goal was to find a cheap piece of luggage. With those two figurines we went beyond our carry on limit and just went whole hog at the souvenir stores. First stop was Lalaport Fukuoka, which was a train ride and a bus ride away. Lalaport is the second place in Japan with a full-sized Gundam (the other is in Yokohama). It is also a huge mall full of fancy schmancy stores. And a Daiso ($1 store). We marveled at the Gundam and then walked around for an hour because the place we wanted to eat breakfast at in the mall wasn't open until 11 a.m. You'd think we would understand that but Japan just doesn't seem to believe in hearty breakfasts.

Breakfast, when it finally arrived, was at The Original Pancake House (which licenses the name from the American chain, but otherwise seems to have no overlap in their management or menu), who specialized in Dutch Babies and Fuwafuwa Pancakes. We both had the fluffy fuwafuwa pancakes and they were delicious! I had them in 2019 at A Happy Pancake in Yokohama but I thought these were better. Jeff thinks Happy Pancake did it better. Either way, they're more like a fluffy custard pudding than a pancake. Delicious! 

Our only other stop at Lalaport was the Daiso store where we were able to get a good start on our souvenir shopping for people back at home. We weren't able to find any (cheap, affordable) luggage there. Or even the Hard Off (which had been suggested online as a place to check for cheap luggage) that was down the street from the mall. So it was back on the bus and on the train to go to the Don Quijote Nakasu. Donki has been where we've bought our souvenir suitcases in the past and they once again didn't let us down! A butt ugly, camo-patterned, hard-sided, rolling suitcase for 9900 yen was the best deal we were going to find! We also bought some more souvenirs there as well and did the tax-free checkout. Side Note: If anyone wants any of our not-gently-used luggage from previous trips, please just ask. We have too much and never use it. 

We wheeled our new luggage with that day's purchases back to the hotel room and went out for linner, our last meal here :(  I was feeling a sit down, cafe-like restaurant and a search for Cafe ガスト also brought up similar places (maybe owned by the same chain company?) like Peitro and Joyfull. We decided on Joyfull and found out through their fountain drink selection there's such a thing as melon Coca-Cola and it is DELICIOUS! Jeff had a parmesean hamburg steak and I had Tenshinhan, a chinese omurice with a seafood omlette over rice. It also came with a side of gyoza and karaage! YUM. We were both satisfied with our decision of Joyfull.

As another last hurrah, we stopped by Taito Station to waste some of our last yen, or ten... but we won another tiny, adorable borb, and a cute Bocchi the Rock plushie, and we did one last purikura.

We also decided to walk back to Lashingbang to see if they had anything else worthwhile in the bargain bin, but nope.

So we stopped by Family Mart for some dessert and headed back to the hotel to pack. To our credit, our souvenir suitcase isn't nearly as heavy or packed to the gills as some of our past suitcases! And I feel like I'm forgetting something big because packing my backpack wasn't really that bad....

Well...that's all from me. Jeff? Anything you have to say about our last day today? We'll write up a summary while we're on the plane, but for now, how was your last day here in Japan?

Today was a pretty good day, overall. I cut it a bit close with my budget (or, as close to a budget as I can manage), running out of money officially at a little after two PM today. I do have some change left, which somehow miraculously totals ¥777. I'll take that as a positive. 

My continued trouble with Waifus continues, as it once again seems like the ones I pick in each series are the least represented in the merch aisles. What's so bad about my tastes, Japan? Why do you hate my money?

I'll save my What Would I Do Differently list for next entry, but I wanted to take a moment to talk directly to anyone reading this who might be planning a trip to Japan in the future. And this might seem like very obvious to anyone that isn't me, but it still needs to be said: 

An international vacation will not fix all of your problems. It'll probably alleviate some of them, though. So it's still worth it, in the end. 

Japan 2023: Day 12 - Fukuoka

 Not much to write about for today.  We shopped until we dropped and then we shopped some more because we're masochists, apparently.

Started out the day with a hearty breakfast from Mister Donut. We did our best not to fall into what I call the "mochi trap" because we like our donuts not mochi-mochi, thank you. All mine were pretty good: old fashioned donut, a churro ring, and a regular-ol' yeast donut dusted with sugar. Here's a photo of what Jeff got:

And that's the only photo we took today!

Today the plan was to shop at all the nerdy anime stores with a concentration in doujinshi and second-hand figures (read: cheaper). Our pilgrimage took us all around Tenjin and then two subway stops to Hakata. Here's the list of shops I texted to Jeff when I did a google maps search for 中古アニメ: Village Vanguard, Animega Sofmap, Yellow Submarine, Book-Off Tenjin and Hakata-guchi, Mandarake, Box Showroom, Surugaya, Gamers Hakata, and Manga Souko.

No major finds, really. Book Off was kind to me with a Mewtwo figurine and some CDs (BUCK TICK, P-Model, Susumu Hirasawa and X-Japan). We went to the Fukuoka Pokemon center but there was absolutely nothing we wanted (and it was a little small).

Oh yeah! We were approached by a guy who was like, "where are you from?" and we're like "America" and he's like "Are you brother and sister?" and we're like, "No, husband and wife," and he's like "You like Japan?" and we're like, "Yes! We love it here!" and he says, "Let's take a picture together!" and hands Jeff his cell phone and puts his arm around me and touches my butt while asking my husband to take a picture LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!! Oh weird chikans.... Jeff said he turned the camera around so the guy got a picture of Jeff's shirt front. Sorry buddy, no picture of me for your spank bank! Also, he tried to give me a hug after Jeff took the picture but I just said "No, we shake hands," and he turned it into an awkward handshake-hug. Oh Japan.... *shakes head*

It was a LOT of walking and it was all concrete sidewalks, so our feet are so tired right now. And Jeff is even more tired since he was up at 1 am last night registering for GenCon events and then again at 3:30 am to see which ones he got into.

He toughed it out and we limped a block away to Ichiran for some ramen for dinner and then right next door to Karaoke Kan for an hour of karaoke.

Now it is time for bed. That's all we've collectively got the strength for this evening. 

Japan 2023: Day 11 - Beppu to Fukuoka

 Another day, another train. Or six. Hard to say. 

We woke up early to pack our personal item bags then headed downstairs for another *shudder* Traditional Japanese Kaiseki Breakfast. Today's was a bit more palatable (eggs and ham, rice, miso soup, various pickled veggies, miso-boiled mackerel, and some other stuff that I've forgotten). Afterwards, we headed back up to the room and did the traditional panicking about possibly forgetting stuff. 

We walked back up to Beppu Station, found some tickets for our friendly neighborhood Chili Dog Enthusiast train, the Sonic Express. It was a relatively unexciting and utilitarian ride, which is exactly what I want out of public transit. We headed to the hotel to drop off our luggage, then back to the station. 

Upon our arrival to Hakata station, we decided to head out to the temple town of Dazaifu. Known for having several of temples, it is definitely the kind of place that Western Tourists do no go to. We counted a total of nine tourists of obvious European or African decent. Out of probably 10,000 people. Angie and I stuck out a bit, we'll say. 

You don't see Kirin statues too often

You do see Komainu at shrine entrances a lot though. One with mouth open, one with mouth closed.

Before getting to the shrine you go over three bridges representing your past, present, and future

The main temple, Dazaifu Tenmangu, was very pretty. We walked around, enjoying the scenery (and not enjoying the heat or the sun). After buying a Traffic Safety charm (as Angie's has long since expired), we saw a man and a trained monkey. The weather was not kind to the poor man or the poor monkey, but the crowd was engaged. 

Lots of people there today since it was a Sunday

Lots and LOTS of people lined up to make their donations and pray (probably for academic success since that's Sugawara's thing)

Apparently an ox carried the cart with Sugawara's body on it and when the ox stopped and refused to move, Sugawara's disciple decided it was his master's wish to be buried there. Thus the location of the shrine today! Also, rubbing the ox's head you will expand your knowledge and become smarter!

On our way out of Dazaifu, we grabbed a bag of Baby Castella Cakes and enjoyed a very rapid train back to Fukuoka. Neither of us were especially hungry, so we went out to Melonbooks and another Lashinbang and yet another Animate. Angie found a couple of Rare Figures, I found out that Melonbooks's categorization system is a nightmare snarl (rather than just, ya know, organizing by source material or something). I've been coming up mostly empty, as (apparently) the anime I watch aren't well represented in the merch categories and those that are I've apparently chosen Wrong Waifu. Both of the card game shops I've come across on this trip focused on Yu Gi Oh and Pokemon, so I've been feeling a bit left out on both of those fronts. But, the good news is, I did pull a sick Empire Strike Back poster standee thing from a gashapon machine. So I've got that going for me, which is nice. 

We hit up a Macca's for the first time on this trip, which is a new record for us. Usually, we give in within the first few days after landing. Yay us! 

And now, here's Angie with the traffic. 

I got to finally eat kakigori since the last time I was in Japan in May, so since 2008-ish. Melon flavored with sweetened milk on top? Just as delicious as I remember it. And a very welcome cold treat because today the sun was at full intensity, not a cloud in the sky, but probably only about 81 degrees or so.

I was able to make a connection to a manga I really enjoy, Noragami, and the temple we went to today. Dazaifu Tenmangu is a temple to the god Tenjin (which is the name of the part of Fukuoka we're staying in as well) who was a human named Sugawara Michizane who became deified after death (and then like 5 of the people who had exiled him died in accidents) and became the god of literature and education. This sounded familiar to me and, sure enough, it's the same Tenjin in the Noragami manga! Always fun to see these things in real life after only reading or seeing it in manga over in our non-Shinto part of the world.

Melonbooks caters more to the boys who like tiddies and Lashinbang caters more to girls who like boys who like boys. Meanwhile, I'm doing kinda okay when it comes to figuring out the doujinshi organization (it helps that I've got reading kana down pat and a tiny bit of kanji that is enough to start being useful). The girl's doujinshi is in the catagories of anime, game, idol groups, and original (and I think there's one or two other that didn't interest me). Within these catagories are usually the current, most popular titles with lots of doujin (Demon Slayer, SK8, Haikyu), doujin based off Shonen Jump manga, and popular pairings (with their pairing names on the placeholder card). And at the very end of each category is miscellaneous/other. These are the ones I go for because I'm not into any of the new or popular anime and the stuff I like, if it isn't long gone from the shelves due to being no longer popular, is old and not popular. On the plus side, if it's old, I also have a chance of finding it in the bargain bin! Which is where I found my Reno and Rude figurines (not in the doujinshi section, I've switched to a different area of the Lashinbang store, keep up)! $150 figures for $40 you say??? Yes please!! Plus Reno is the best, and I wasn't about to buy him and leave his friend Rude behind! That would be rude!

My souvenirs may have expanded past the point of fitting in my carry on bag...

Okay, I'm done bragging. I set out promising I wouldn't buy anything large but here we are with two big figures. I guess that means it's no holds barred when we go shopping tomorrow and Tuesday! Guess we'll buy a suitcase as per our usual  at the end of all our Japan trips.

Fingers crossed we have great luck shopping tomorrow too! :)

Japan 2023: Day 10 - Beppu

 Today we went to Hell. Well, 7 of them. Beppu has 7 naturally occurring hot springs that are so so hot they are too hot for people or animals, but perfect for devils and demons and critters from hell!

A long day like today needs a hearty breakfast, and that's what the Seaside Mimatsu hotel served as, once again, we were faced with a huge meal of small dishes, all of which were very traditional. My favorite was definitely the egg custard-y dish as it was sweet and yummy! We had a tiny little grill overtop another small flame to cook a piece of fish and a fish cake as well as a cube of tofu we boiled and then put in some soy sauce and added onions to. The fish was... bony. Not something we can get past yet. The tofu was yummy though!

Either way, we ate a lot and were ready to face this long day full of bus rides and walks from hell to hell (or jigoku). At the Beppu station there was a counter where we bought a 1-day bus pass to ride the buses around Beppu and to the hells, as well as a packet with tickets to go into the hells, all bundled up in a day pass that cost significantly less than if we paid for each of the buses and entry fees.

So the hells usually have some sort of mineral or rock type that makes it special, as well as the fact that most of them were well over 70 degrees Celsius (158 degrees Fahrenheit)! Some were red with iron, some gloopy with clay, some blue with iron sulfate, one was a geyser, one was full of crocodiles... Okay, that one was not in the actual hot spring, they had a separate area where they said the warm water conditions were great for crocodile breeding. We made many Cardassian jokes. We got there in time to see them feed the crocodiles and the reaction of the kids was hilarious!

For lunch, after completing 5 of the 7 hells, we randomly went into a chicken tempura place (when in Beppu, you eat toriten). It was called Toriten Kannawa and had one guy, the chef, a bar to eat at, and 10 seats. Two were empty, so we shrugged and sat down. This guy was talking up a storm, hamming it up, supposedly talking about the history of Beppu and its hot springs, mainly to the group of 6 old people that were all together as a group. When they left he did his best to talk to us, mentioning how one of the temples nearby, Kamado, inspired the guy who created the anime Demon Slayer. Have we seen it? Do we like it? Do we like onsen? Our half of the conversation were a lot of "hai!"s and sounds of interest and disbelief. LOL For being just one guy with a motormouth he still was able to whip up tempura'd chicken and veggies on rice for everyone there and holy cow was that chicken good! It was easy to chew, fresh and salty. Mmmm, so good on rice! I wish I had room to finish all of it but I sadly left a veggie or two uneaten, but it was delicious!

Since the last two hells were about a 10 minute bus ride in the opposite direction, I wanted to go to an onsen I had seen reviewed online that allowed the reservation of a small, private onsen and tattoos were allowed. Hyotan Onsen has about 12 private rooms with a tub large enough for 2-3 people to soak in. You reserve it at the front desk and they give you a key and a token. You place the token in this box at the room entrance and the hot springs water starts filling the onsen tub. It was really cool! I had never seen that before! It made for a nice, hot, relaxing bath. Almost a little too hot! There was a second tub you could fill with cold water and I filled it up about calf-height and just kinda splashed it on myself to cool down every 10 minutes or so. That water it hot hot HOT! It was also nice to have a tub large enough to share it with Jeff, and the two of us were able to relax together. I'm really glad we took the time to go and check it out!

After our hour was up in the private family onsen room (named Hotaru - firefly) we walked back up to the bus stop near the toriten place and caught the next bus to the last two hells. One was the BLOOOD hell (hint: the water was red, but looked more like tomato soup) and the last one was the geyser that shot up every 40 minutes. Now, we had a decision to make: stay and wait about 30 minutes for the geyser and then get stuck in the bottleneck of everyone trying to catch the same bus OR go hunt down this steamed custard pudding place Satoshi had raved about on a Tabi Eats episode. Pudding or crowds? Uh, no contest! 

Okamotoya is a restaurant that has a lot of foods they steam in the hot spring water: eggs, vegetables, noodles, but most importantly--pudding! We had to take two different busses and it took us maybe 20 minutes total to get there but it was a nice little shop at the top of a steep hill (where we made sure to sit where you can't see this for Jeff's vertigo). The pudding was indeed delicious, and Jeff's ice cream was pretty darn tasty too (no, they did not steam the ice cream) but the eggy, sulfur smell of the hot springs was starting to get to me. While the city doesn't always smell like it, there are many steam vents and places that use the steam (like this restaurant) where it gets pretty intense and my nose just kinda gave up and started to give me a headache :(  

Fortunately, the bus was able to take us all the way back to Beppu tower on the coastline, just a block away from our hotel where we partook in Tylenol and chilled for an hour. I still wasn't 100% feeling better nor was I terribly hungry, but about two blocks away was a restaurant I had been wanting to try: Royal Host. Now this is probably like someone coming to America and being like "I've always wanted to eat at Ponderosa!" but I've heard a couple YouTubers rave about their omurice, and boy do I love my omurice! (I'm just now wondering if perhaps my headache came on from too much sun and maybe consuming so many eggs? LOL) It was a decent omurice, for sure, but I'm a fan of my homemade omurice with good ol' ketchup on top instead of a fancy demi glace. 

I toyed with the idea of going for an hour of karaoke at a little place under the Beppu tower but decided I was just too tired. So I had another good soak in the tub in our room and wrote this blog entry.

Tomorrow we leave Beppu for the last stop of our trip: Fukuoka. It's all gone so fast! :(

Jeff, what's the word, bird?

This will be a bit scattershot, even for me, so here... we... go~

The thing to remember about Ponderosa is that it's the reason I'm aware of Dance Dance Revolution and why I don't trust anyone named Phil, so it holds an important place in my heart. So of course I wanted to go to Japan's Ponderosa Without The Buffet/Salad Bar. It was pretty decent. Would I purposefully seek it out on a future trip? Probably not. If someone was like "hey, I'm feeling like hitting up the Royal Host, you wanna come with?", I'd be on board. 

I only ever take baths while on vacation in other countries, because our current tub is... not conducive to baths. Maybe in the future, we'll have a better one. Anyway, I bring this up because I've been bathing like a 19th century Japanese noble; an average of two times a day and very luxuriously. 

Inexplicably, Monchichis (the 1980s Cabbage Patch rip-off Monkey things) are still very popular - well, at least popular enough to necessitate having them for sale at multiple Jigokus today. Which, I guess, is why they're hellscapes. 

Of all the various and sundry Jigokus, I wanted at least one to be a festering pit of corruption that also happens to have a colony of Nezumi who live nearby because they're immune to the Shadowlands Taint and no one will mess with them there. Alas, that was not the case. 

You know me, I'll try anything twice, but I am not a fan of Kaiseki - whether it be breakfast or dinner. I would like one or two things that I enjoy rather than 13 things that I may or may not enjoy. Such is life in the neurodivergent zone, I guess. 

Beppu is a fine town. Would I come here again? Maybe. Would I rather go to Hakone if I wanted a hot springs vacation? Probably. 

That's all I've got. We'll do this again tomorrow!