I’m back in Japan at last!  And so happy to be with Christopher again.  I arrived late Thursday night.  It’s pretty much a 24 hour trip – door to door.  Since I left home at 6am on Wednesday and arrived at 9pm on Thursday it’s like one 24 hour day.  I stayed awake the whole way so when I arrived I went right to sleep.  Pretty much no jet lag – although these cozy little pods looked pretty tempting in the Tokyo terminal.

Early Saturday morning Bill, Tracy and their daughter Pearl picked us up for our first road trip.  We traveled south on the expressway to the island of Kyushu.  At the top of the map below you can see where the bridge is that connects Kyushu to Honshu, the island we live on.  This is a very mountainous island and is the southern most island of the four main islands that make up Japan.  Note the rounded peninsula near the upper right part of the island.  That’s our destination.  We’ll spend some time there as well as inland from there.

We stopped at a typical rest stop along the Expressway.  This one had lots of wood carvings out front.

In the gift shop were these little stuffed Kokopelli’s all dressed in different outfits and t-shirts for sale.

For a salty snack there’s always dried sea life. And, my favorite from the Pacific Northwest.

 

 

Or you can get ramen in a bun – to go.

After about a three hour drive we arrived at Bungotakada.  Lots of interesting little shops.

We had lunch at Coffee House Brazil.  Really good food.  The owner brought out some of his homemade grape juice for us to try.  I had the “Lady’s Luncheon.”

 

Lots of fun wandering the town.

We wandered into a museum of sorts with some interesting cars.  The first is a Subaru 360 Deluxe.

Then it was off to our Onsen for the night.

It is on the site of a Buddhist temple.  Very peaceful.

We hiked around the grounds,

And climbed these stairs

to find this little shrine carved in the rock.

I love these old old stone steps

and how this wood has become one with the stone.

Then it was back to the onsen for a hot bath before dinner.  The main building was quite beautiful.

After our hot bath we don our yukata’s and head for the dining room for dinner.

First course.  How many tasty morsels can you name?

Second course – Nabe, prepared at the table.  On plate in foreground is duck.

Next course – Soba, buckwheat noodles, with dipping sauce.

And last – Miso soup.  It goes great with a little Rogue Stout!

After dinner we head back to our room where we’ll move the table to the side and lay out our shikibutons on the tatami mats.  (Roll our bedding out on the floor.)

After a great night’s sleep we head into the dinning room for breakfast.

While there we watched soba noodles being made.

Forgot to take a picture of breakfast but check out my coffee cup.

A pleasant way to start the day.