Volcanic steam, a samurai castle, a boat trip and Kumamoto -13 May 2017

visiting the vulcanic steamy and smelly, sulphur site at Unzen

Saturday, 13 May 2017: 

This morning, after (for me) a bad night sleep, we had a typical Japanese breakfast in the hotel. The manager and many of the staff waved us goodbye, which is practice here in Japan and sometimes feels rather embarrassing. 

Anyway we left for the steamy, sulphur smelling volcanic area in Unzen.

Impressive how sloppy all the tubes and pipelines are laying around. Mhm, doesn't look very organised, but oh well this was done I assume several years ago, when infrastructural design didn't matter much.

remembrance cross for the christian martyrs that were tortured and afterwards thrown into the vulcanic mud/water (97 degrees Celcius).

  

After our visit we moved on to do the drive to the Nita pass, which is 1100  meter high and is a great view point for the Heisei Shinzan volcano.

parking place at the Nita pass with a great view on the volcano: the mountain ended up 250 meter higher after the volcanic eruptions due to all the pyroclastic lava

Next stop: the Shimabara castle, a 17th century Shogun castle that dominated the area and played an important role in oppressing christianity as well as the violent Shimabara rebellion. Interesting place to visit

 

Samurai armery

 

view from the top of the castle

 

art in the garden of the castle

Taking the ferry to the other side of the water: the city of Kumamoto, where our home for this evening will be. Always fun a boat trip when it's sunny and warm, we enjoyed muchly. Didn't spot any dolphins this time.

  

 

Kumamoto: (the 'Rotterdam' of Kyushu?) a busy town with great shops and posh hotels/restaurants. There's money earned here, that's obvious.
In our view this town is more prosperous than the other two we visited until now.

 

The Cocosa department store, that has a great food department. There's also a bar there, where we drink beer.

contemporary art

For a change we had a Chinese dinner this evening, which was truly yummie.
When afterwards we headed for the bar of our hotel, we were told it was closed due to a private party. So we took the drinks with us to our hotel room, which is super. The best, most spacious and posh one we had until now. 

our room in the Nikko Kumamoto hotel

Tomorrow we will travel to Kigoshima in the south of Kyushu. Will keep you posted.
dikke kus
Carina