A 24 hour stopover in Kanazawa reinforced my belief that I absolutely lucked out on my choice of the town as my first place to stay in Japan two years ago.  It's a great spot with Kenrokuen garden, the castle and its extensive grounds (not forgetting the smaller but delightful garden within the grounds), other open spaces, its historical areas, its museums, its modern facilities and its surrounding countryside and closeness to the sea.  

I had lunch with Keira and friends.  This is my lunch.  The main item (top left) is like beef olives except that the beef was pork and the filling was avocado.  Delicious and tempting to try it at home.

I then spent the afternoon in the gardens and the castle grounds.  It was Children's Day, almost the end of the Golden Week holidays and everything was very busy.  In the castle grounds there were various stalls and a number of entertainers.  A group of girls were doing a fast song and dance routine that I quite failed to get an action shot of and my attempts to photograph kids flying kites on one of the large lawns were equally underwhelming so they won't grace a calendar or even a blogpost any time soon.  My excuse is that I'd dumped my luggage, including my camera, at my hotel before lunch so had only my phone to use.

I'll leave you instead with another shot from Kenrokuen which the phone has captured very well.

 

Osaka castle is probably the most impressive castle I've seen in Japan.  It's absolutely gorgeous, is set in beautiful grounds and has the most imposing double moat arrangement and enormous walls.

I spent a lot of time walking around taking pictures, enjoying the sunshine and enjoying the huge variety of people.

I'm pretty allergic to queues so I didn't bother joining this one to get into the castle.

I got to the castle by taking a subway from near my hotel to the main station and then taking a mainline train to a stop called Osaka Castle Park.  That seemed to be an optimum route though I discovered later on my way back to town that there is a service bus that would have done the job for me more effectively.  It doesn't seem terribly well publicised and I wondered given the enormous number of taxis at the main entry point to the castle whether this is an arrangement that suits the cabs nicely.

I got that bus back and it turned out to be a bonus bus because it dropped me more or less in the middle of a holiday weekend junket in Nakanoshima Park.  This is a relatively small area between two rivers that was covered in food stalls, amusement stalls, second-hand book stalls and the like.  It was teeming with people and music and general liveliness.  I lingered here and there, had a snack, watched some frenzied dancing, found a restaurant by a rose garden and scoffed some deep-fried shrimps screaming of garlic lying on a bowl of rice with salad trimmings.  It was all a very pleasant experience.

 

Tiny dogs in silly outfits being wheeled around in pushchairs I found verging on the repulsive though.

 

The trip from Tottori to Osaka retraced in large measure the route I'd taken to get to Tottori but this time I managed to take a couple of pictures of the lovely landscape through the train window.  Nearer Osaka of course it got more and more built up.

I had some time to fill before I could check in to my hotel so I pottered about a bit and found my bearings,  For some reason now forgotten I was not staying close to the main station.  I had to take a ride on the subway.  I did so and stopped on the way to the hotel for a meal.

Once checked in I ventured out to make sure of my route to the Expo grounds for the following day.  I didn't go all the way but it almost seemed like it given the amount of walking I had to do in the subway station to get to the correct line.  I had a wander around the skyscraper lined streets afterwards as dusk fell and some very pretty lights sparkled in the trees.

The next day accompanied by who knows how many thousands I set out for Yumeshima, the artificial island on which the Expo is being held.

There was a lot of hanging around and marching up and down fenced alleyways as though we were in a vast open-air airport security hall but eventually I got into the grounds and spent the rest of the day exploring the site.

The piece de resistance is undoubtedly The Grand Ring.  I walked all round it and under it and admired the structure, the views from it and its sheer beauty.  It's not without its critics of course for cost, doubtful sustainability etc etc.

 

I didn't go into many pavilions.  I didn't even see the British one.  The queues were too long, many required booking a time slot and so on.  There were a few shared pavilions in which smaller countries had in essence created a stand in which to show their wares.  My smaller countries Kenya and Zambia had done this and there was not a lot of queuing to see their stuff,

My absolute favourite pavilion from the outside, I never got in, was not even a country's.  It was Panasonic's.  It was covered in a web of coloured panels (plastic I imagine) that moved gently with the breeze.

And their staff had lovely outfits which you can just make out through the web in this picture.

There were various sorts of entertainment, notably traditional dancing like this from a Japanese group and others from other countries.  Because of the crowds it was difficult to get reasonable pictures.  Generally I got a couple of out of focus heads which I won't inflict on you.

All in all it was a day well spent.

I haven't flown off for a side trip to North Africa.  This is Tottori on the Sea of Japan side of the country.  It's famous for its sand dunes which are said to extend for 16 kilometres.  The tourist literature declares camel rides to be a thing but sitting on a camel to have your photo taken was all I saw.

I had my photo taken as I travelled up a chairlift from the sands by an automatic camera that asked me to smile and promised me a holiday memorial.  There it was on display at a stall as I dismounted but I didn't buy.  

The journey from Beppu to Tottori involved three trains.  My first change was another finely timed move between platforms that delivered me just in time to step aboard a bullet train.  It was the Japanese who invented just in time manufacturing after all.  From the bullet train that fairly whipped along I transferred to one that did a fair bit of hanging about to let oncoming trains past but that was all built into the timetable and we arrived on schedule.

That single track section was through very lovely countryside.  I enjoyed the views of fields and tree covered mountains.

When I set off to find my hotel assisted by Google I wondered why I was circumnavigating the station.  Fool that I am I was following the driving route not the walking route!!

The TV news in the evening of my arrival had an item about the theatre that I posted about a couple of days ago.  There was a show going on, some sort of comedy involving kids and adults, but they showed you the workings of the revolve and in the action someone was hoisted up on a trap.  It was a confirmation that that theatre is an important cultural spot.

I didn't fancy trudging down to the bottom and up the other side to stare at the sea and then trudge back again so I went up the chairlift I'd arrived on and set off to walk to the sand dunes visitor centre.  Unfortunately I went entirely the wrong way and found myself heading along a road called Pear Picking Street in the general direction of Kyoto.  I don't suppose I walked more than a mile, maybe two but I was happy to wait ten minutes at a bus stop and ride back into town.

Tottori didn't seem to have many other attractions centrally.  There was a pear museum I fancied visiting but it was in a town an hour or so away so having done a few bus circuits of the town I settled on a visit to the ruins of its castle.

That was worth doing.  The ruins are actually the stone foundations and walls.  The actual castle building was of wood and suffered from fires and so forth and was eventually demolished.  You can go up various flights of steps to different viewpoints and sit contemplating the town.

How they managed to build those stone walls in the 16th and 17th centuries is a mystery to me.  Shaping the corner stones on its own seems like a lifetime's work.

There's also a fine looking western style building called Jinpukaku but although you could get into the garden the house itself was fenced off sadly.

It was beautifully warm today with a pleasant breeze so I spent a lot of time sitting in the shade luxuriating in the weather and deciding against visiting the various museums on offer.

 

Here's the driver coming aboard after doing a little exercise routine on the platform to take charge of this two coach monster.  I think it was classed as a limited stop express.  It's true that there were a limited number of stops at which passengers could get on and off but there were at least as many stops at other stations where the purpose was to allow trains coming in the other direction to pass ours because outside stations the line was single track.

This was a more scenic journey and took me through some of the area I'd passed through with Kasumi the previous day.  It was a lovely trip but the train took its time.

I had to make one change for which the timetable gave me 3 minutes.  Hard to believe but my train rolled into Oita platform 6 at 15.08; I nipped down an escalator, along a corridor, up another escalator to platform 1, jumped into the waiting train and pulled out at 15.11. On to Beppu as scheduled.

Beppu is famous throughout Japan for its hot springs.  A number of them baptised "The Seven Hells" are its principal tourist attraction and of course that's what I was here to see.  It takes a few hours to go round them all and do them justice but the first one is so good that in my opinion the rest suffer.

That's primarily because of the beautiful grounds that Umi Jigoku occupies.  The pool of bright cobalt blue burning hot water and its rich red companion are in a delightful garden with water lily pond and flourishing tropical plants.

When I'd been round all seven I had lunch and a wee wander in an area where somewhat cooler but still hot spots act as onsen or public baths. I also found a lovely park and pottered about there for a while enjoying the sight of kids squirting water pistols at one another or practising baseball.

I spotted this family having a very organised picnic.  Or have they set up home?

That was yesterday which was a beautiful warm sunny blue sky day.  Today it's raining (supposed to clear up later) so I went off to a nearby onsen early and tried to follow the proper ritual of washing and then sitting immersed to the neck in hot and allegedly mineral rich water. Probably more relaxing if you're sure of not making some faux pas by doing the wrong thing with your mini towel or plastic basin.  I'll go again though.

Now I've caught up with the blog I'm just waiting for the sun.   

Nagasaki station is quiet compared to other main stations I've seen.  Fortunately, because I couln't make the ticket machine cough up tickets for the route I wanted and so had to join the queue at the ticket counter.  There was no queue and the assistant sorted me out forthwith.

I took what you might call a normal train with the remarkable name of "Section Rapid Seaside Liner" for a 20 minute trip and then transferred to this yellow vehicle belonging to the Shimabara Railway which took me on a slow multi-stop journey to Shimabara Port.

It wasn't quite as scenic a route as I'd expected, given the puffs I'd read abot the Shimabara Peninsula, but pleasant enough.  There were rice paddies to look at, hills far off, occasional snatches of sea and many lttle towns.

The ferry terminal was five minutes downhill from the station.  I had to wait about an hour so had a snack from a menu of which I could read every word thanks to it being written in katakana.  The pictures helped.

The ferry was comfortable and efficient and there were decent views of distant horizons. 

At the other end they laid on a shuttle bus that took us a good 20 minute drive into town to Kumamoto station.  My hotel was very close by and I spent what was left of the day doing very little.

Kumamoto has a famous castle so I went off to visit that next day.  It's set in large grounds and has been there since 1467.  It's been knocked about a bit, most recently by the 2016 earthquake and a lot of what you can see relates to the restoration work that has been going on and continues.  It was a really enjoyable visit.

After the castle I went to the also famous park, Suizenji Jojuen Garden.  It's been there not quite as long as the castle, having been established in 1632 by Hosokawa Tadatoshi, the local big man of the day.  It's lovely.  I spent a lot of time trying to get a prizewinning picture of a heron or even just a carp but no joy.

That pretty much filled in my daytime hours so I went off to eat before putting my feet up for the evening.  My practice generally is to have what the restaurants in stations and department stores and shopping arcades style set meals.  You get a dish, say chicken tempura, plus a bowl of rice, a couple of small bowls of vegetables and a bowl of miso soup.  It's quite filling and even when you add a beer it's very good value.  On this occasion I had a Korean dish of thinly sliced meat fried with onions and peppers, delish.  I finished off with a coffee and a slice of cake,  I had to go to a separate establishment for that of course.  The astonishing thing was it was almost the same price as the meal (minus the beer).

When I was in Kanazawa two years ago I met a friend of my Air B&B host.  She lives in Kumamoto so I'd arranged to meet her.  The following day she was planning to take me on a grand tour.  She turned up shortly after 8 a.m. wearing these admirable glistening shoes.

The rest of Kasumi looks like this.

So we set off.  First call was to see some wisteria at a shrine somewhere at the end of twisting miles of roads.  Lots of people manage to find it because they had a little army of old men armed with light sabres directing cars onto little carparks squeezed into the hillside.

Then it was off to a brilliant piece of history.  The Yachiyoza theatre was built in 1910 and thrived for many years but eventually went into decline but was rescued and restored and is in use today.  It's gorgeous.  It has a revolve running on wheels and rails from Krupps that is operated by four men  There are a number of traps that allow actors to rise from below, again operated by pure manpower.  Here are some pics

Then we had a swift tour around the lantern museum and a few other places in Yamaga before heading for Mount Aso the volcano.  You can drive all the way up to the crater which we did.
 

The thing that looks like a wartime relic is a place to take shelter should the volcano start throwing rocks about.

Next stop was a beautiful gorge where you can see in its walls the volcanic history of its creation.  You can also go boating but we didn't.

Then it was a couple of shrines before heading back to Kumamoto through an absolutely beautiful valley for some food.  This wasn't a cheapo set menu deal but a meal of an infinite number of small dishes most of which were delicious though I have never liked the skin on boiled milk and when that milk turns out to be soya milk my opinion does not waver.  But on the whole it was excellent as was the sake that washed it down.

Kasumi and I said goodbye with mutual hopes of meeting again sometime and I found my way to a tram stop to ride to my hotel.