New Sky Kumamoto
2 Higashi-Amidaji-cho Kumamoto, Kumamoto, Kyushu-Okinawa, 860-8575, Japan
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Kumamoto Layover
Short entry today, as I'm spending most of the day in transit. Left Hiroshima mid morning on the new Sakura shinkansen (bullet train), which basically extends now to the end of Kyushu in Kagoshima.
Entering Kyushu, I noticed a shift in demographics. For some reason my train car had a fair amount of Chinese (judging by the accent, probably from Taiwan). In addition, the station announcements were now four languages (Japanese, ...
Mt. Unzendake
... to Shimabara. By the way, Nagasaki Prefecture, where the mountain was located, was the 47th prefecture I visited, which meant that I visited all the prefectures of Japan.
I left my hotel at 710 for Kumamoto Port. I had taken a ferry many times, but that was the first time to get on the ferry with a car. The ferry ride to Shimabara cost only JPY 1,000 and took one hour. After I got off the ferry, I headed for the first destination Unzendake Disaster ...
On the rails to Kumamoto
... able to catch the train for Shin-Osaka with about 10 minutes to spare. At the platform yet another helpful elderly man asked me if I needed assistance. I've finally got the hang of the positioning of the trains along the track - if you have a reservation in say car 8 - where you need to stand is marked on the platform (and that saves doing what I've had to do in the past - ...
Day 45 - Cute modes of transport
... and pay, the chef came up, and asked whether we were from Italy and asked if we could speak Italian, I indicated we were from Australia, but my parents were from Italy. We then had a conversation in Italian, with my broken Italian, and established he was in Italy in Turin for 3 years for study. How random, we were in Japan, speaking to a Japanese man in Italian. After a little more converstation, we said our goodbyes, and headed back ...
Volcano
... and people viewing it up close had to find shelter. Thankfully, we didn't have to use them.
After waiting half an hour for the viewing area to be deemed safe, we got our chance to check out the caldera up close and personal. What an impressive site! Just a m***********. The rocks had a greenish tinge to them in spots which looked really cool.
We left the volcano and headed to our hostel. We stayed at a place called Aso Rider House. It was basically a guy's bachelor ...



