Kyushu/Chuguku Japan Day 5 - Kumamoto

We took the direct train from Hiroshima to Kumamoto.  

Even though it's 380km away, it only took us 1h 40min by train! 

First we went to Keika Ramen to try out the Kumamoto style ramen

http://keika-raumen.co.jp/

According to the guide book, the stewed pork is supposed to be soft, melt in your mouth while not fattening but I had a big lump of fat :(

with Katsu - 

I prefer this then the other one

We then walked to the Kumamoto castle.  We entered through the "Closed" gate..
It's called the "closed gate" because historically it's normally closed but it was opened while we were there.

Giant tree!!! 

The gift shop featured lots of Kumamon (The black bear that represents Kumamoto)

The castle

Kumamoto castle is one of the top 3 must visit castle across the whole Japan

Love the artwork inside the castle.
There was a video showing how they have restored them which was very interesting

so beatiful! 

There were these two men outside the castle teaching kids how to fight like a samurai :p
It was hilarious

Model of the original castle

View from the top 

Went to visit the Residence of Hosokawa Gyubu - an ex-samurai's home.
It's tastefully decorated! love it.

We then get some snacks on the main shopping street
This was recommended on our guidebook - you can get red / white fillings.
very soft and pillowy

For dinner, we went to the Ninja restaurant lol 

Keith wanted to go to the Ninja restaurant already when we were in Kyoto but it was fully booked. 

so when we walked past it, he said we have to go back.. 

so all the waitors/waitresses dressed up as ninja and each of us have our very own cabinet with a black curtains :p 

To start we were offered these ninja star bread :p with some condensed milk .. 

It is definitely style over substance lol but it's a nice touch

Stewed pork

Sashimi on dry ice

Giant croquette

Fatty tuna chazuke

Deep fried mochi with cheese

The food there was good - like what you would expect from a normal Japanese restaurant.  

I was expecting more - atmosphere wise. 

Like I would expect the waitors/waitresses to act more like ninja (e.g. zooming from one place to another haha )

not sure if it's because we don't speak Japanese, or maybe I was just expecting too much. 

we were given two toy swords as souvenirs when we leave though.

Kyushu/Chugoku Japan Day 4 - Miyajima

We went to Miyajima on the next day.  Took the train to Miyajimaguchi and changed to the ferry 

(All these are free with the JR pass too! )

There are a lot more to see than I have expected

Originally we wanted to go to this very famous eel restaurant : うえの by the train station! 

http://tabelog.com/hiroshima/A3402/A340202/34000065/

But to eat in, it's a 1.5 hr wait!!!!! so we gave up and thought we'll just go to miyajima island and just look for another restaurant.  

Possibly because it's the weekend, there were tons of people there! 

There were tons of little food stores/restaurants around Miyajima so we were spoilt with choice

There were also tons of deers too ... roaming around
They are slimmer than those in Nara though :p
Possibly because there wasn't any people selling deer cookies to feed them.

There were quite a few restaurants grilling oysters (Hiroshima/Miyajima's specialties) 

But neither of us are a fan of oyster.. 

We have found another popular grilled eel restaurant  いな忠

http://tabelog.com/hiroshima/A3402/A340202/34007506/

Unlike the unagi don we had in London, it doesn't have much of those thick sweet sauce.  

It was served with sansho pepper - which is an earthy, tangy lemon spice! 

For dessert, we had the Japanese version of gelato con brioche :p 

We had matcha icecream with crispy bits served in a bread cone. 

The bread was deep fried quickly to warm it up before serving.  

It was very nice!!! 

This is a very nice little snack, thats fishstick wrapped with different toppings eg cheese and bacon, asparagus etc

Love watching these machines :p
This makes the little japanese cakes stuffed with fillings like red bean paste, custard or chocolate.
You can buy freshly made ones for 90 yen and they are very soft and pillowy

Itsukushima Shrine
The shrine with the world famous floating torii gate.
By the time we got there, it was during low tide so we could walk towards the gate!

It doesn't look right without the water so we've decided to come back again during high tide

We walked up along the designated walking trail, stopped by and said hi to the deers :p 

Amazing view :)

We walked up to Daishoin temple at the base of mount Misen.

First things first - tea time :p

There's a little Japanese cafe.

The cakes themselves are so so.
We had a steamed cake and soya milk cheese cake, serve with homemade apple sauce and cream.
But everything looks so pretty though :p

As we walk around, other than the usual amazing features, there are some surprising ones too

eg buddha with blue hair

With scarfs, hats, necklace!

Henjokutsu cave - it contains a fascinating and eerie collection of Buddhist icons related to the 88 Temple Pilgrimage in Shikoku. 

We didnt really keep track of the time.  We rushed to the ropeway station and managed to take the last train up to Mt Misen..
The trip up itself was magnificent! Even though we didnt' really have much time to properly explore all the temples/view points up there, it was well worth it.
Can't imagine what it would be like in Autumn time when the whole mountain is covered in red leaves! guess we just have to go back some time in the future :p

We went back to the shrine at the end of the day and now.. the gate is finally floating :p 

We were starving but most of the restaurants were closed in the island :(
We bought these little cakes again  (but this time from another shop) for the ferry trip back.

They have a lot more flavours there!! 

We love the lemon one - which has some little zesty bits in the filling  

We had another Hiroshima Okonomiyaki at the train station for dinner 

One with ramen and the other with udon