Turning Japanese

We have spent a week basically doing a coastal circuit of Kyushu, the southern most island of Japan, with a couple of forays inland for good measure. About 15 train trips, 4 long bus trips, and too many local bus trips to count, and now we have headed half way up Honshu again  to Kanazawa. 5 different Shinkansens today, some of them with a very tight changeover, particularly the need to navigate some fairly complex platform arrangements. Luckily, the late running of trains here is measured in seconds not minutes, so any spanners in the works are down to us. Beppu 20/3 - 22/3 Our stay in Beppu was wonderful. The town itself didn’t do a whole lot for me, but the Ryokan we stayed in was a delight.   I have already mentioned the food, but it really does warrant another rave. It was superb. So too was the private onsen. We were only at Beppu for two days, but we took no less than 6 baths. That’s more than I have taken in the last ten years.  Beppu was also the base for a day t...

Beppu 21/3 Just got back to our room from dinner at the Beppu  Nagomitsuki Ryokan where we are staying, and I have to say that I am feeling a little uncomfortable. I guess it is my own fault. There was no-one standing with a gun at my head forcing me to indulge in all 16 courses of wonderful Japanese cuisine offered to us, but in my defence, the chef poking his head around the corner as dishes were presented and smiling beamingly as empty plates came away from tables did make me feel obliged not to offend. The last time we spoke we had one day left of our Michinoku walk. Well, we still have one day left. That snow that blighted us the previous day just kept coming and we woke to 0 degrees and a nice cover of snow, and the promise of more to come. It took us all of about 5 seconds to agree to bail on our last day. Weak, I know. So we breakfasted in style and bid a fond farewell to our Ragaso hotel hosts, who had our wet weather gear dried and folded and our boots all ready to go, an...