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.
 

 Nagasaki has a fine situation, a long inlet from the sea providing a safe harbour and a protective surround of hills.  No wonder it appealed to the Portugese navigators exploring the world in the 16th century.  The Japanese built an artificial island, Dejima, to act as a trading centre and living space for them.  When they expelled the Portugese the Dutch became the only western nation tolerated as traders until Japan opened up to the wider world in the second half of the 19th century.

One of my reasons for visiting Nagasaki was its historical role in relations with the west.  For anyone from Scotland the name of Thomas Blake Glover from Fraserburgh rings out.  He's particularly associated with the development of Mitsubishi.  His home in Nagasaki is a national monument and the homes of other Europeans important in the modernisation of Japan have been relocated to what is called the Glover Garden which is a brilliant place to visit.

A European house in the Glover Garden

Glover's House

 

Kids sporting Glover era dresses

The other fascinating historical place to visit is the trading island of Dejima.  It's no longer an island but the entire complex has been restored as a museum.  There is so much to see and learn.  I hadn't known for example that Japan was the world's leading copper exporter in the 18th century.  I don't suppose many Zambian Copperbelt (ex)residents do know. 

General view of some Dejima buildings

 

 

 

 

Model of Dejima

The copper story

I don't know anything about the historical significance of the paddle steamer in the next picture.  It may not have any but I couldn't get any nearer to investigate.  But I liked its look.

The main reason for anyone to visit Nagasaki is of course its status as one of the only two cities to have been attacked with an atomic bomb.  You don't hear as much about it as you do of Hiroshima.  Roughly twice as many died in the Hiroshima bombing and it has the doubtful honour of having been the first so maybe that's the answer.

Like Hiroshima Nagasaki has its peace park which is maybe a little lower key. than Hiroshima's  That could be why I missed the tram stop and found myself wandering the long way round a baseball stadium then a football/rugby ground until I found the place.  Even then it was only part because a road runs between the commemorative area and the place which was the epicentre of the bombing.  Not that in the context of a nuclear explosion laying waste to 43 sq.miles such a distinction makes much sense.

Commemorative statue enjoining peace

 

 

The remains of a prison that stood there before the bombing

Peace fountain

Yesterday was ice-cream weather and I enjoyed a cone but today the weather was foul.  I went to the pictures.  Called The Amateur it was a reasonably enjoyable story about a CIA computer cryptology nerd whose wife is murdered in a terror attack.  He blackmails some top level CIA managers into facilitating his pursuit of the baddies by threatening to expose their own baddy activities.  It follows the sort of course you'd expect and you marvel throughout at what you can do with a smartphone and some everyday chemicals.

First port of call

I'd booked flights to Tokyo with the objective of arriving there early in the morning so that I could get onto a train and move to the South of the country.  That meant unfortunately that I was going to have to get a very early flight from Edinburgh.  They've mucked about a bit with the night bus services since you used to be able to get on a N22 in Leith walk and go straight to the airport.  You can't do that now.  You have to get one of the fewer and less frequent night buses up to town and transfer to the airport bus.

I also thought I'd better try and get some sleep since I'd be leaving the house in the middle of the night so I went to bed in the afternoon but I didn't sleep and ended up staring at the television until after two in the morning when I set off for the airport.

I didn't get any sleep on the journey either down to London or from London or Tokyo so by the time I got to Tokyo I was knackered.  The immigration was really busy but we surged quite quickly through it.  I had some trouble with the machines.  They've taken my photograph and my fingerprints twice before so I don't know why they wanted them again but they did.  My right index finger is a challenge to the machine.  I believe the reason for that is that I've been poking at keyboards and screens for over 60 years with that finger and that's probably worn off the indentations.

Anyway I got through and quickly on to Shinagawa and straight onto a shinkansen only two hours and nineteen minutes after landing.  Five sleepless hours later I was in Fukuoka.

Google took me to a point where it expected my hotel to be.  It wasn't there but a helpful receptionist from the hotel that was there walked me back a couple of streets to the right place.  I was really tired by then so I went to bed and slept for 5 hours.  I was supposed to be having a Japanese lesson online that evening but Momo was trapped in her office so I went back to bed.

On this trip I'm going to meet up with Keita who was my AirB&B host in Kanazawa two years ago.  I'm travelling there on a public holiday so thought it wise to book a train seat in advance and booked online.  The app I was using promised a QR code in a day or two.  Meantime Keita had booked a lunch.  Unfortunately my arrival time was after the lunch booking time and that couldn't be changed apparently.  So I needed to change my train.  I didn't fancy my chances of doing that online.  I would in any case need physical tickets to travel so set out to obtain them from a machine in the station.  The instructions had seemed quite daunting but it turned out to be easier than I'd anticipated.

Next step was to queue up at the counter.  When I got served I was immediately told I was in the wrong place.  My ticket was a JR West ticket and this was the JR East counter.  The queue at JR West was longer but they had a take a ticket and a seat system.  I had ticket 276 and customer 250 was being dealt with so it was a fair wait. 

I told my tale and the guy started talking about money.  I said that I bought the ticket online then I thought maybe he needs to be sure that I ddin't pick this ticket up in the street so I pulled out the receipt that had been printed alongside the ticket.  This didn't seem to satisfy him but then a supervisory person came along whose English was a lot better than my Japanese and everything got sorted out.

Time for tourism now.  I set off to check out what was billed as old Hakata.  When I left the subway station I discovered that I couldn't see anything through the camera.  Tourism without pictures not being desirable I retained Google's services to find a camera shop.  This entailed going back to the station and following the little blue dot.  It took me to a spot where I could see no camera shop. I was outside a department store so I popped in and asked if they knew the shop.  It's on the fifth floor they said.

The very cheery and helpful chap in the shop analysed the problem pretty swiftly and cured it by screwing up a bit of paper and rubbing it over the gold contacts on both the camera body and on the lens.

I abandoned old Hakata for the moment and since there was a bookshop in the store went there in search of a book that I knew someone whose Youtube video lessons I occasionally see had written.  What do I need with another Japanese textbook you ask.  You're right of course.  They didn't have it.  Neither did the one further along the road but the one on the sixth floor of the bus terminal did.  

Next I took to the subway again and fetched up at a rather pleasant big park, Ohori Park, where I just sat about in the warm sunshine people watching.  Everyone there, young and old, strolling, picnicking, kicking a ball, navigating the lake in a pedallo relaxed and at peace.  Why can't the world's assorted dictators, warmongers, terrorists etc get with that vibe?  I'll never understand.

Pedallo in the park

Back at the hotel I switched on the telly to see what if anything I could understand.  Nothing really and everything was dross until I discovered the World Team Trophy Figure Skating competition was being beamed in from Tokyo featuring several of the people whose skating I'd enjoyed at the recent competition in Boston.  That was great.  

One of the tourist leaflets I'd browsed through recommended a trip to Nokonoshima so I went on Fiday.  It started with a forty five minute bus trip through Fukuoka that was interesting in itself.  Then the short ferry ride and a trip up to the top of the island in an overcrowded bus hanging desperately onto a strap while some strapping teenager lounged in one of the old codgers' seats.

It was an odd place.  A fine spacious park with lovely views out to sea and back to the mainland.  There are a number of retaurants and shops, plenty of picnic opportunities, barbecue facilities and a pleasant set of holiday rental villas.  There were lots of school parties enjoying a day out. The oddity really was the municipal flowerbededness of it  Everywhere lovingly planted and cared for beds of tulips, daffs, azaleas and other Spring flowers.  They change the displays with the seasons.

Flower bed heaven

On my last full day in Fukuoka/Hakata I got back to checking out Old Hakata or at least the temple strewn part of it.  It's extraordinary how these ancient buildings are sprinkled in amongst skyscrapers and parking lots.  Some of the buildings that look like temples are actually people's houses. 

A street of elegance

 

Gracious temple garden

 

 

Couldn't get near this pagoda for modernity

The long running saga of roof repairs is reaching its terminal stage with scaffolding now up on the last blocks, including mine.  Mind you it may take a little while for the presence of roofers to succeed that of scaffolders.

It's amazing what can be done with scaffolding and it's even more amazing what can be done with pianos, as has been illustrated often by Pianodrome.  I was at a show in their Granton warehouse last night.  The  Strawmoddie Theatre Company presented a superb production of Peter Schaffer's Amadeus. 

The tiered amphitheatre made from old pianos had a grand piano at its centre.  The action took place around, on and below the grand and overflowed onto steps and into exits. From my front row seat I was never more than a couple of feet away from the actors, a vantage point that reveals all performance flaws.  There were none.  The acting really was terrific with Ben Blow (Salieri) and Caitlin Carter (Mozart) outstanding.  Costumes were gorgeous and Dug Campbell's sound magnificent in both its design and implementation.

The SNJO teamed up with Indian percussionist Trilok Gurtu in a concert of his music, some of it very jazzy and some not.  He can do wonders with a tin bucket of water.  Leaving that novelty to one side we had some fine solos from SNJO players. Konrad Wiszniewski seldom disappoints and provided a lovely melodious stretch of saxophone smoothness.  Somewhat surprisingly Tommy Smith showed us what a fine player he is with a similarly musical solo on his first time up but subsequently reverted to his favoured style of rapid racing up and down the instrument stretching it to its limits.  It's undeniably brilliant but not always a comfortable listen.

I spent a weekend with a bunch of slightly less accomplished saxophonists at Strathallan School where we have found refuge from the financial uplift that The Burn has found it necessary to implement.  lt's not a bad substitute, a little bit spartan and in bad weather moving around from one building to another as we had to would I fear advance from irksome to miserable.  But the musical activities were ample compensation.

They do good business in the holidays.  Apart from us there were around 100 from the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland, maybe the same number from Tennis Scotland and an American Football team from East Kilbride.

Because of that weekend I was unable to attend The RSNO's Friday concert in the Usher Hall but I was keen to hear Jess Gillam play Anna Clyne's sax concerto and the Shostakovich symphony that was also on the programme so I went up to Dundee where they were playing on the Thursday.  The concert was great and I'm glad I went  but the journey home left much to be desired.

From seeing a train pull away as I approached the platform to delays to subsequent trains and a rerouting of the train I eventually got on I didn't get to Waverley until half past midnight and just caught the last bus down to Elm Row.

When I had my lounge and hall redone last year I thinned out my bookcases and laid aside some Italian stuff from my time as a U3A group leader intending to offer it to a friend who was then running a U3A Italian class. Time passed without action until I bumped into Maureen and her husband at an NGS talk.  She's still running a class so the other day I popped along to her flat and passed the material on. Job done at last.

The NGS talk concerned was called The Villa Rusticus: Ancient Roman Villas and the Garden Ideal.  I had expected lots of slides showing the likes of Hadrian's villa and its policies but instead Dr Alley Marie Jordan focused much more on the philosohical ideas of the Romans in relation to their gardens and their way of life.  It was a lively and entertaing presentation that I enjoyed very much.  I don't expect I will ever read Alley Marie Jordan's book but she was such a enthusiastic and witty speaker that I think it deserves a shout out.  Classical Taste in the Architectural World of Thomas Jefferson.   If someone can persuade Trump to read it the world might be a better place.  For a squint at the writer try here.

Watching TV one evening I saw that well known historian Lucy Worsley presenting a programme about the persecution of witches in Scotland centred around events in East Lothian. She visited St Mary's church in Haddington during the programme which encouraged me to have a wee outing to Haddington the following day.  I took one of the more circuitous bus routes which I enjoyed and had a good potter around Haddington.  I didn't get into the church.  It was locked which churches didn't used to be but I had a good day and an excellent three course lunch plus a G&T for just under £20.  I don't think you will find that value in Edinburgh.

The BBC announced their limited coverage of the World Figure Skating Championships and I stuck it in my diary.  Then I discovered that the whole thing was being streamed live on Youtube.  I didn't watch it all by any means but I did see a lot and it was fabulous.  Apart from seeing Britain get its first world level medal since Torvill and Dean won Olympic gold in 1984 there was lots to enthuse about.  The women's figure skaing medalists Alysa Liu (gold) and Kaori Sakamoto (silver) I found particulary wonderful.  You can still see it all if you search Youtube.

 I enjoyed it so much and was so disappointed by the options and prices offered to me for the 2026 Winter Olympics that I promptly booked myself a week in Sheffield at the European Championships in January for very little money.  I hope to see our ice dancing pair Lewis Gibson and Lilah Fear come out on top.