Enjoy Kyushu

 You think Kyushu is far from Matsumoto, don’t you? It’s true it’s a long way, but if you take a flight, it takes only an hour and a half from Matsumoto airport to Fukuoka, and from there to the Shinkansen station, Hakata, is only fifteen minutes. My plane took off from Matsumoto airport at 15:30, and I arrived in Kumamoto at 18:00. It is not far!

 

Kumamoto is a pleasant city, not too big, not too small; just right medium size. There is a beautiful castle in the center of city, nostalgic trams trundle around, and there are lots of green spaces even in the city centre.

 

JR Kyushu runs some interesting special trains services. These are completely different from regular trains. Most of these kinds of trains were designed by Etsuji Mitooka, who is a great industrial designer. These trains are eye-catching on the outside, and inside have amazing designs and original styling. One of them has a bar in the train car, another has sofas and bookshelves; there are also lovely mummy & kids’ chairs, wonderful viewing decks, etc.

The inside of "Aso-boy"

 

I experienced the journey from Kumamoto to Beppu aboard “Asoboy”. As a passenger, you can spoil yourself with original food, buy branded souvenirs and be treated to special service. In the train, there are some play spaces for children and lovely pair seats for children and parent. I enjoyed the panoramic view of Mount Aso from the high viewing seats. The friendly crew offered to take memorial photographs for travelers. It was an exciting, lovely experience. I enjoyed a lot.

 

On this trip I realized again how wonderful Kyushu is, especially abundant with beautiful waters. You can enjoy a wide variety of amazing hot springs, or “Onsen”, in places like Beppu, Yufuin and Kurokawa. You can explore unique cities and see abundant nature. Of course, the food is lovely. As I experienced, the people are calm and kind as well.

Teruki

 

 

The most idyllic place I have ever visited is....

The most idyllic place I have ever visited is Ohshika-mura in Nagano Prefecture.

I lived in Nagano Prefecture for a long time, but I didn't know Ohshika-mura until one of my friend worked for elementary school there. I visited her together with my friends. It is located in the southern part of Nagano.

We drove to south by express highway and exit from Matsukawa IC. It was a long winding road to the village. It took over 30 minutes into deep valley to east. There were neither houses nor shops along road. Sometimes deer and/or monkeys jumped out from valley.

After coming out of a tunnel, there is a small village. There are dotted with houses. There is only one grocery store, but no convenience store. I love the hot spring spa there. It was located in the middle of mountain. It is a small facility and has only open-air spa. In the spring, I could enjoy the beautiful green landscape down to the village.

 Ohshika-mura is famous for Kabuki which is the traditional Japanese performance art. The people living in Ohshika-mura play some famous story every spring and fall.

Well, I love to visit there but I don't want to live there. I am living within walking distance from the convenience store as well as bus stop. Also our parents live near to our house. It is very convenient environment for me.

Posted for Tomoko, after reading "Double Trouble"

Report - things to do in my hometown: Suwa, Nagano prefecture

Suwa lake firework Festival (Photo credit: Kurosawa Michiyo)

1. Festivals in Suwa

Summer Season: The majority of festivals are held in the summer. You can enjoy fireworks around Suwa Lake in August, every evening at 8pm. In additiona, many "Bon Odori" and "Ofune" festivals related with Suwa Lake are held.
Winter Season: Suwa Lake is frozen in January and February. The frozen lake blessing is broadcast on the news as "God`s walking on the Lake".

2. Onsens everywhere

There are onsens (public baths) which tend to be a bit cheaper than the majority of the high range hotels.

3. Suwa Lake

There are many options if you want to go fishing, boating and walking. While enjoying the outdoors, you can nearly always feel a nice, peaceful wind.

English: Lake Suwa, Suwa, Nagano prefecture, Japan  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

4. Eating out sight-seeing

Most traditional food restaurants are open near Suwa Lake. Generally speaking, some traditional food is cooked with very unique materials, such as bee larva etc. For your experience, we recommend trying to eat them. If you want to see a beautiful sight, why not visit "Kirigamine kogen". It takes one hour by car from Suwa station.

Posted by Yumi

Urban safari - in search of springs

We live in an area rich in onsen (natural hot springs), but less people know about all the natural fresh water springs dotted around the city centre. Another beautiful day here in the central Alps, and the school still cluttered with boxes and stuff...bus trip!

Post office

Today we jumped off our bus before the station - we'd had fun waiting for the bus playing with the ice off the bus stop bench, and watching it melt quickly as our fingers got colder! We tried to walk on the sunny side of the street, as it was chilly in the shade. We inspected the post office and watched people put their letters in the post box.

We soon found a spring on Nakamachi street, with an old hand pump on top. We were careful not to wet our shoes. Across the road was another one, with bamboo pipes - and just up the street from there we found a man cleaning freshly cut poles of bamboo, which must have been 4 metres long. I never knew we had a bamboo business in the city!

We met a lot of older people at our next spring, and they talked to us as they filled their plastic bottles. It seems that a lot of people rely on the springs for their water supply. It was very fresh, and Sota said it was 'sweet'; it was also at a comfortable temperature - they never freeze over even in the middle of winter.

Bus stop gang!

On Frog Street we posed for a picture; what do you think? Clowns or really kool kids?! Snack time in the sunshine, gave us the energy to chase the pigeons around at the shrine, before we ran out of steam walking back to the bus stop...Sota and Hina were both ZZZzzzing in no time at all, and were transported magically back to a comfortable kip at Luna.

A delightful little excursion, lots of fresh air (and water!). Think we'll all sleep well tonight!

Bathing etiquette and advice for foreigners

With the arrival of Kevin next week, there has been a lot of opportunity to exploit the "foreigners in Japan" topic. Besides the obvious questions we might like to ask him about his country and his experiences (look out for the pod-casts later on), it is also a good time to extend a hand of friendship, anticipate any problems he might have in his first few months here and offer some valuable advice regarding cultural taboos, and customs.

To this end my adult class this morning devised a list of pertinent points regarding a visit to the onsen (hot spring public baths). It goes something like this:

* Before entering the hot bath you should wash your private parts and armpits.
* Don't wear a swimsuit in the bath.
* Don't put your towel in the bath (but on your head is ok!)
* Don't wash your underwear in the bath! (taken from a real sign)
* Don't swim, splash or dive in the bath.
* If you suffer from high blood pressure, you should not enter the bathtub for a long time.
* You should dry your body with a towel before going into the changing area so you don't wet the floor.
* Sweep the area after using the hair-dryer.

The place where I live - Shiojiri

I live in Shiojiri, which is a city almost in the center of Japan. It has a population of 60,000 people and it’s a small city in Japan.

It’s a beautiful city enclosed by high mountains and a lot of nature. There is an old road that is called “Nakasendou”, and there are old towns that are called “shukubamachi”. People walk on this old road, and see historic sites.

The weather here is different from cities on the coast of Japan. The city is located about 600m above sea level , and enclosed by high mountains. The winter is very cold and snowy. The summer isn’t so hot. It is comfortable compared with other towns. A lot of people visit seeking cool air in summer.

Shiojiri is famous for wine. There are a lot of vineyards around my house. These are used to make wine. There are some wine tasting events that I enjoy drinking wine, and a lot of people visit them.

I think the best thing about Shiojiri is winter sports. There are a lot of good ski areas, and the access is also good. There are a lot of good Onsen. After I do sports, I can rest my tired body in an Onsen.