June 9

06/09/2013

After all that walking and eating yesterday I slept in fairly late -- finally woke up and started updating the blog.   8:00am rolled around and it was time for breakfast:

After breakfast I took a walk down to the station and back to see if I could buy my shinkansan ticket to Beppu, but this station doesn't sell those (maybe only ferry tickets) -- or his english was not good enough to understand.   Eh-- anyway, more deer, manju, etc.

Walked back to the Ryokan and checked out -- then got a ride back to the station with my luggage.   Here's some photos and a video (van, small streets, really not two way-- :-)  *e ticket ride*

And just before we loaded into the van look who said hello:

This was very much an e-ticket ride --

Got to the station and locked my bags up in a locker so that I could hang out in Miyajima for another hour.   Didn't want to get to Beppu too early since hotels in Japan don't like to check you in before official checkin time (3pm).      So walked the streets a little more, saw lots of deer and tourists and had another fried maple leaf manju.

Anyway, eventually headed back to the ferry to go on to Miyajimaguchi port (mainland side).  Here's the ferry boat and the line --

Got a ticket to Beppu -- Local train back to Hiroshima, transfer to Shinkansan (bullet train) to Kokura, then transfer to a "sonic" express train to Beppu.    Will take a few hours with about an hour layover in Hiroshima station.    When I reached the Shinkansen terminal I was hot so I bought a frozen dessert food (green tea ice cream cone from a vending machine)

Then after another wait I boarded the Shinkansen and headed towards Kokura station (about a 50 minute ride).   Slept some of the way--

I was pretty tired, so no more pictures of beppu (yet).   I got directions to the hotel and checked in.   I passed out for about 2 hours and then took a nice dip in one of the two onsen's they have on property.   They switch between men-and-women on different hours, so I only was able to try one in the timeframe I was ready to soak.    After the soak I went back to my room and slept for another 2 hours -- guess the travelling is getting to me!    I'm also not very hungry, which is probably because I've been eating non-stop for the last two weeks!  

I figured around 7:45pm that I'd better go eat something, so I got dressed and walked down about a block to a sushi place.    I figured this out because it said "Sushi Only" in english near the door -- everything else was in japanese and I couldn't make any determination about it!    But on walking in there was a small bar and the sushi chef waved me to the bar.    He even came out when it was clear I didn't speak japanese and produced a "set course" picture menu to be sure I was okay with it (and the price of about $30).   All was good!

So here's what he made me -- note that unlike the US the sushi is just placed on the counter top and you eat it with your fingers and/or chopsticks from there... Fortunately I was able to watch others and mime questions:-!   They were very forgiving!

Yum!   It was really too much food -- there was also a 4 piece tuna cut roll, but the photo didn't come out -- I ate half of it and he wrapped the other half for me to take back to my room (hotel fridge, so it should be okay).

After eating I used my iphone tranlator app to thank him for the meal, apologize for not speaking japanese, and tell him it was great.    He got a kick out of it!    He let me take his photo -- here's my chef:

Anyway, back to my room to type this in and then to sleep at 9:20pm.    While I didn't have dessert (sad!) I can always eat one of the baked manju that I bought yesterday for just such an emergency (should I feel hungry).   But again, I don't feel particularly hungry, so no worries tonight.

Tomorrow I will have breakfast at this hotel and then figure out the bus system (I bought a one-day pass that I'll turn on tomorrow) so that I can visit the various "hells of Beppu".