Ibutama: Ibusuki Limited Express Train

Ibutama, the limited express train…half black and half white.

To promote tourism and their train system, Kyushu has created six gorgeous interior heritage trains that run as the limited express train in certain prefectures. Tickets for the limited express costs almost up to double the price of a regular local train, but it can help cut down on a lot of travel time.

Going to Ibusuki I had no idea that I actually chose a travel itinerary that included one of the heritage trains. The Ibutama.

Note: Souvenirs on the limited trains are not offered at the train stations or in town, only on the trains.

Inside was gorgeous wooden interior, and very cozy seating. The chairs were spacious and well cushioned, and it’s nice for the lone traveler because it can make singular seating easier. My favorite were the chairs stations looking out of the window (below). This is where I sat for my first ride heading into Ibusuki.

Seats of the Ibutama.

 

There’s also spacious bookshelf arm chairs & couches.

On the train there was a small counter gift shop/snack bar. They also bring the cart around offering a menu of refreshments (alcoholic and non, I would say try the purple beer) and limited edition souvenirs.

Ibutama’s nice wooden interior.

Speaking of souvenirs, don’t forget to get your free photo-opt! An attendant will come around with a hat and sign. Have your camera ready and just wave her over 🙂

Free souvenir photo-opt on the Ibutama train to Ibusuki.

Sand Bath: Ibusuki, Japan

Popular sand bath at Ibusuki, Japan.

Ibusuki City is located almost an hour train ride from Kagoshima, Kyushu. It’s been on my bucket list for the longest time as this past weekend I finally had the chance to get around to visiting a Sunaburo (aka. sand bath). It’s been a traditional cleansing treatment for the past 300 years, and recently has been working it’s way on promoting itself as one of the most unique experiences on Kyushu.

The weight and natural thermal heated sand is very effective to cleanse the body through perspiration, and improving circulation. The suggested time for a good sweat is at least 10 minutes, however, if it gets too hot they don’t recommend guests push themselves to continue.

Sunamushi Kaikan Saraku

A popular sand bath house in Ibusuki. From Ibusuki Station it’s either a 5 min taxi ride, or a nice scenic 15-20 minute walk along the beach. Walking along the beach can be interesting to see the steam rising from the sand…just by looking at it made my summer day feel hotter.

When entering the sand bath everyone strips down and heads out only wearing the robe provided by the bath house, carrying with them their towel and maybe any toiletries to wash off afterward ~ Camera included! On the beach, the attendant will have prepared a little body dip in the sand with a well defined derriere-grove! Now that’s detail!

At first the feeling of being “buried” made me a bit uneasy, because it’s not a common situation I come across on an occasional basis…not to mention that the feeling of “rising up from the ground” was pretty memorable. It’s probably the closest zombie experience I’ll ever have with my conscious still intact.

Sunamoshi Kaikan. The famous sand bath house in Ibusuki. Admission: ¥900

Sapporo Snow Festival

It’s one of the biggest festivals in Japan that happens in the first week of February and ends just before Valentine’s Day (Feb 5-11th). If you’re planning to go here it’s recommended to book everything at least 6 months (to a year) in advance. Things can get pretty pricey and accommodation can book up fast!

Sapporo Snow Festival

Also known as the Yuki Matsuri (Snow Festival in Japanese). There are tons of things going on as every town has its own festivities, so there’s no worries about always hanging around the city. In Sapporo City there are the iconic snow and ice sculptures located at 3 main sites: Tsudome, Odori, and Susukino.

Tsudome Site

Is the farthest site that requires busing from one of the train stations, and is more geared towards student sculptures. There’s a huge snow slide that you can line up to ride a donut down, but the line gets pretty long.

At Tsudome Site

Odori Site

Is the main street. It’s quite a long walk, and the snow & ice sculptures are phenomenal. While there may not seem like a lot of people walking during the day, the masses come out at night when everything is lit. The lighting really makes the sculptures come alive! There’s also a main stage with live performances, often of J-pop-wanabe rising groups.

Odori Site at night.

Susukino Site

Very close within walking distance of Odori. Here there are a lot of ice sculptures as well, but it’s easier to find food shops and restaurants here if you want to get out of the cold.

Susukino Site

Otaru Lantern Festival

This is a town outside of Sapporo, and it’s really nice because they had their own lantern festival going on. It’s quaint to walk around during the day and check out the snow sculptures they have, but it’s absolutely gorgeous at night!

Otaru Latern Festival. Lights on the river, as well as candle lit sculptures throughout the area.

While I’m I got stuck with an extra 3 hours to spare before my next train arrived. So, I figured I might as well stop by the Otaru Brewery! It’s along the river bank, so sitting inside there’s a great view of the river. The layout is a shiny old school brewery and everyone is dressed in German lederhosen.  They have food as well as special (monthy?) drink concoctions, which are actually pretty good.

Otaru Brewery

Okinawa Holiday

My first beach vacation getaway! And it couldn’t have come at a better time.

For this trip, we would spend the day in Okinawa, then the rest of our time would be spent on the beautiful islands of Ishigaki, Taketomi (day trip), and Iromote.

Ladies dressed in traditional Okinawa Kimonos.

 Naha, Okinawa Activities

We invested in a monorail day pass (¥600), which made it easier to get around to the attractions we wanted to see.

Shuri Castle 

A 15-20 min walk from Shuri Station, and easy to spot from the train windows.

This castle was rebuilt. To walk around the grounds was nice, and to enter the main house of the castle is ¥800.

Outside of Shuri Castle.

Entrance to the central castle.

View of the main castle from the observation deck.

Yes, we cheaped out and didn’t go in.

Pottery Village

From Asato Station, a 10 min walk to this pottery village. We walked down a street that was just full of pottery shops, with a variety that ranged from the traditional clay style, to color and glazed. It was really hard to resist shopping so early in the trip. 

Naha Pottery Village / Pottery District.

We walked into one shop that was having a sale that day. This shop’s pottery is acknowledged by the International Foreign Affairs Ministry for their quality and design…I apologize as I forgot to take a picture of the shop. But, in the photo above, this shop is right across from this shop that appears in my photo. 

At the end of the pottery district, it links to the Hewa Shopping Arcade. One of the many side-extensions filled with small shops, connecting to Koukusaidori International Street.

Hewa Shopping Arcade entrance, 

at the end of the Pottery Village.

Kokusaidori (International Street)

What use to be the biggest black market scene in Okinawa is now the main shopping district.

It extends over a few blocks, and it can easily be accessed by different monorail stations along the way. 

Kokusaidori (International Street)

Okinawa Must Try Foods

Shuri Soba– we went here for lunch after I happened to stumble upon a blog that recommended it.

This place is popular for it’s soba. The soup has been stewed for a long time with pork meat that melts in your mouth. There’s said to always be a line, luckily our wait was maybe around 20-30 minutes.

Shuri Soba, Naha Okinawa.

Well worth the wait. The pork was melt in your mouth goodness! The menu is limited for the small shop that they are, but there is also a chow-han (chow-fan)/ fried rice dish that looked delicious!

My mini(?!) bowl of Shuri Soba.

Taco Rice – Taco Rice, is popular in Okinawa. We happily found a Charlie’s Taco’s, along Kokusaidori. (Restaurant came highly recommended online)

Charlie’s Taco, for Taco Rice.

 Charlie’s Taco also has a “Lady’s Set”. Comes with a little bit of everything, including ice cream for dessert. Sadly guys, only women can order this…

Charlie’s Taco, Lady’s Set.

Habushu – venomous snake alcohol… The snake is not to be consumed, and it is recommend to sip this concoction, rather than chugging or pounding it back.

Okinawa Habushu – snake alcohol.

If the large habushu jars with snakes are too much for the wallet, the smaller and cheaper version can be found around ¥1280…but no snake. If alcohol isn’t appealing, there are plenty of other habu (snake) products to try, like a habu energy drink 🙂

To me, it tasted like very STRONG tequila…with a bit of cinnamon flavor. But, now I can say I tried Habushu \^.^/

Opted for the small, non-snake, Habushu.

Mount Aso, Japan

Went to visit one of Japan’s still active volcanoes, Mt. Aso.  Aso is really famous for farming and for its milk. Most of the milk provided in Kyushu comes from Aso. There’s bottles of milk and milk products for sale, including cheese, cheese cakes and soft cream. Living next to a volcano the land is VERY fertile for farming. The vegetables were not only HUGE, but the same price as what I would find in my regular grocery store. It was very cheap, and sadly my camera could not justify the size properly in my photos.

Mt. Aso, Japan

Mt. Aso

It took us about 20 minutes by car to get up to Mt. Aso’s crater. Still being active, smoke can sometimes be seen leaking out from the magma that’s inside the volcano. After arriving at the parking area there’s a Mt. Aso Museum, along with cafes and other rest-stop shops. Many people were heading out towards the green pasture, there’s a choice of either walking around or going for a horseback ride.

 Walking around Mt. Aso.

 

The view from the small hill area reminded me of this horse ranch I use to work at in Golden. Nice, green and peaceful.

 

The sky was a bit hazy, but we weren’t sure if it was just the weather. If fog was coming in, or the mere fact that this was farm territory, and there were a few farms burning  bundles of shrubs somewhere. But then off in the distance I did notice smoke coming out from one of Mt. Aso’s craters, so I was wondering if that might have contributed to the reason?

Smoke from Mt. Aso’s crater.

 

Aso Farmland

Not sure how to describe this. It’s like a theme park, but then again…not. There’s a petting zoo here, spa, onsen, and a huge family-fun obstacle course that’s built into what seems to be like a crater. This would be a blast if I had kids, and I could watch them run through 36 different obstacles. Aside from that, many of the obstacles were not meant for tall people :(.

I was more intrigued by the design of their “buildings”. While the main house of Aso Farm was nothing special, the hotel rooms and other activity rooms were built in an igloo/hut style. The exterior reminded me of Star Wars, Luke Skywalker’s home town house… but inside – especially the hotels, looked like you stepped into Lord of the Ring’s Hobbiton. And Bilbo Baggins is…somewhere…

 Aso Farmland “igloo/hut” buildings.

 

 Sanrio hut in Aso Farmland.

Inside one of Aso’s huts, this one is a mushroom farm, and customers can detach the mushrooms they want from the vases they’re growing from. Other huts would sell other things, like herbs & essential oils, etc. There’s a farm market here, where vegetables are huge and cheap. Milk and cheese are also quite cheap as well and they range from locally made, to imported.

Mushroom shop inside 
one of Aso Farmland’s hut.

Mushrooms growing from a small vase, 

in the mushroom farm hut.

Stocking up on cheese!!

Shiseido Cafe

Spending some good times with a friend who also managed to get a job in Tokyo. After dragging him into XXI for some girly-shopping, we were trying to decide where to go for tea when my friend suggested Shiseido’s Cafe. I never knew until my friend told me that the Shiseido beauty and cosmetic line first started off as a cafe. Walking through Ginza we came up to a nice, deep red building, and the entire building was Shiseido, but dedicated to…food?!

Shiseido

Ground level was a snack shop, filled with cookies and slices of treats for omiyage (souvenirs) that Japanese people often love buying. On the third floor is the Cafe Salon, a tea room. While the upper level floors were high class restaurants. Super quiet and classy that it could make anyone “unfitting”, feel “unfit”.

 Shiseido Cookie & Snack shop.

Shiseido Cafe, Ginza

This cafe is popular and had a bit of a wait. We were shown to our table by a manager and a waitress who pulled and pushed our chairs in to seat us. Even at the most classiest restaurant in Vancouver I’ve never had my chair pushed in for me, and here we are, at a posh-cafe getting 5-star treatment!

  

Shiseido Salon De Cafe

The atmosphere was simple, classical and elegant. The walls were a simple deep-red color and was accented by the cream curtains and furniture. Waitresses were dressed like maids, but it was the classical, traditional French-maid uniform allowing females to retain their dignity and respectability. We could see this in their posture, how they presented themselves, and the fact that they could use their normal voice without a baby-pitch. This was a proper maid-cafe, done right.
None of the perverted, cosplay mumbo-jumbo where men attempt to fulfill some grotesque fantasy, and girls sadly play along because it’s a job that puts them through school.

 Cheesecake with Grapefruit sorbet,

with rose designed cream and berry sauce.

 

 

Pricing is expensive, starting at ¥900 for tea (a pure blend of Shiseido tea), and desserts stretched into the double digits. We ordered their “House Cake”, or cake set. For ¥1500, we got a choice between 3 different desserts of the day and their pure blend of tea or coffee. Everything tasted great!

Cream custard wrapped in taro paste, 

with Grapefruit sorbet & glazed fig. 

A day with a good friend, deep-intellectual conversations, shopping (at awesome prices = bonus); followed by a good tea time, then later, dinner. This was a wonderful day! Thank you Sam!

Dr. Kiss Fish

Over the weekend I did a day trip out to Yufuin to check out this place called “Dr. Kiss Fish”. Fish that exfoliate and eat dead skin cells off your feet, leaving it clean and smooth like a baby’s bottom. There’s another place in Hakone, that also has these Dr. Fish, but it was fun to go to it again.
This was my second time to Yufuin. The first time was last December for my birthday, but I wish I knew about this place then because the company would have been better. In comparison, the weather was rainy for both times, but the warm fall temperatures made it better.

Dr. Fish Shop, Yufuin

Dr. Kiss Fish

Entering the shop I first paid for my amount of time, removed my shoes and rinsed my feet. There were 3 wooden pools of fish of various sizes. Everyone sat together and migrated accordingly to their timer.

Dr. Fish Shop, Yufuin

The first pool was had the baby “Dr. Kiss Fish”. Their nibbles are gentle and have a tingling vibration which makes it a hilarious, tickling sensation. Don’t forget to spread the toes so they can get into those spaces, and try to keep them open! I was asked a couple times if I was okay because I had to hide my face from bursting into laughter.

Baby Dr. Fish

The second pool had “medium” sized Dr. Kiss Fish. Their nibbles were gentle but it had a bit of an electric shock to it. A more stronger tingle than the baby fish, and somewhat ticklish.

Medium Dr. Fish.

The third pool had the adult size version of the Dr. Kiss Fish! The surprising size of them were enough to make kids cry and adults exclaim in horror, ‘SCARY!!!’ When I first looked at them…I wasn’t even so sure if I wanted to stick my feet in. But it wasn’t so bad. They’re still very gentle, but their nibbles feel like someone with long nails gently scratching the surface of my skin. It was still scary to watch though.

Adult Dr. Kiss Fish!! 

Just don’t look…

Skin Exfoliating Fish at home!

Some of the Dr. Kiss Fish were held in tanks and advertised for sale starting at ¥3,000. As an omiyage (souvenir), you could take home your own fish and exfoliate at home. I’m not sure of the feeding protocol, but I’m sure that exfoliating while feeding it daily isn’t a bad thing ;).

Dr. Fish for home!

Kumomoto Castle

Kumomoto Castle is one of the many castles that can be found around Japan. It brought back so many memories from the younger years, when I was really crazy about the Samurai culture and Japanese castles. It felt like I was backpacking all over again.
Located in front of the Kumomoto Museum, we managed to go and take a look a few hours before the castle’s closing time. Admission was ¥500/adult, and feel free to ask for an English map when entering.

Me in Japanese armor.

Kumomoto Main Towers

Long ago this area was destroyed by a fire, and the towers they have now were rebuilt to replicate the castle’s exterior. Inside, there were historical Japanese artifacts all encased or behind glass. Artifacts ranged from the samurai period, and as we moved up artifacts became more modern until the great world wars.

Kumomoto Castle Main Towers.

Even though at times, after seeing so many castles they all start to look the same. Then again, I find that many castles have a different design or technique to call it their own. For example, to prevent ninjas from climbing some castle walls and stone base have a steep, concave design.
Kumomoto Castle I’ve found, while at times steep, has spikes protruding where the tower meets the stone base.

Spikes below the castle.

While inside the castle, it’s prohibited to take pictures of majority of the historical contents. I say this because I found out that they don’t mind people taking picture of the historical toilet room. I’m actually very impressed with how nice it looks, and oldest (probably the first) urinal I’ve ever seen.

Historical Japanese toilet room.

At the top of the Main Tower is a look out. This was when I found out that my friend was terrified of heights. As I poked my head out to take a picture while talking, I soon realized that she wasn’t with me at all… (O.O)… I turned around and found her hugging one of the wooden center frames.

View from Kumomoto Castle Main Tower.

 

Kumomoto Castle Samurai

Around the castle there are actors dressed up in one of the many traditional samurai outfits and speaking in the very old-Japanese language. It was pretty cool, but at the same time the summer heat and humidity of Japan made me wonder how they’re really doing underneath all that armor.

Kumomoto Food

On my day trip to Kumomoto I really wanted to try the iconic signature foods, as I do with every place I go to. It’s the touristy thing to do, I can’t visit and NOT try it.

Ikinari Dango

Kumomoto is really popular for Ikinari Dango. “Ikinari” means suddenly, and “Dango” means dumpling. When you bit into it you suddenly get this burst of sweet potato or red bean filling. Where we stopped by they were grilling the Ikinari Dango, which made it so much more crispy-yummy!

Ikinari Dango. Original style.

I also got an Ikinari Ten (いきなり天）which is a fried fish cake, wrapped around a sweet potato and deep fried all together. “Ten” is short for “Tenpura”, which is considered the fish cake part. It was SO good!

Ikinari Ten 

 

Kumomoto Ramen

Compared to Hakata ramen, Kumomoto ramen is ranked next in line. The noodles are thicker than Hakata ramen, and there is no such thing as “kadaema” (second helping)…(O.O) Toto, I’m not in Fukuoka anymore…

We happened to pass by 黒龍紅ラメん (Kuro Ryū Beni Ramen). Ranked #1 by Yahoo! for their tonkotsu ramen (pork soup base). Usually I don’t like tonkotsu ramen, because I’ve had bad experiences with it before and it usually involved the smell of it. At first I was very adamant about not eating tonkotsu, and the shop owner was happy to make me a shou (salt) base ramen.

Shou Ramen.

My friend ordered his recommended tonkotsu specialty, and he encouraged me to try one spoonful of her soup. It looked good, so I decided to give it a shot…
It tasted SO GOOD!! I was impressed! I really wanted to exchange my bowl for it. Instead, I hurriedly finished off my bowl and ordered a bowl of his tonkotsu ramen! He was so happy to convert one more person in this world to tonkotsu ramen.

Tonkatsu Ramen

Kumomoto Museum: Ghibli Exhibit

In spite of the typhoon weather the past couple of days, we managed to head out to Kumomoto for the last day of the Ghibli Exhibit. Kumomoto Museum is right next to Kumomoto Castle, which made it perfect and convenient for my one day trip! ^^

Kumomoto Museum

 

Ghibli Exhibit

Sketches from popular Ghibli films, to comics and series that I’ve never seen before. The sketches were really nice, and some of the details in pencil were astounding! It was a winding exhibit and at the end was a picture with Totoro!

Totoro picture area.

Picture with Totoro

There was a huge picture of Totoro stretched across the floor. With a line that wound around corner, after corner. Along the walls of the picture area was covered with little round stickers, all of them had drawings from kids. Some were Totoro (especially the dust sprites), other Ghibli characters and other Japanese characters (Ie. Am-pan Man).

Picture with Totoro area.

Pictures were free, and everyone needed to have their own personal camera. Everyone of all ages were having fun, sprawling themselves on the floor. Sadly, I forgot my digital camera – but thank god for smart phones! Good enough for me! 😀

Picture with Totoro/on Totoro.

Outside of the exhibit, people also had the choice of taking their picture with Ponyo. People got to hold little buckets with a little Ponyo in them for the photo.

Picture with Ponyo.

Ghibli Souvenir Shop

As we finished our tour we decided to check out the Ghibli souvenir stand. It was so busy, and so difficult to not go crazy with my wallet. I really love Ghibli, as did many of the other attendees. Everyone was shoulder to shoulder and the most popular of Ghibli anime merchandise went flying off the shelves. Luckily, I plan to be going to the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo fairly shortly, so I was okay to pass on many of the items this time.

Ghibli Souvenir Shop.