“ドアが閉まります,ご注意ください!” “The doors are closing. Please be careful!”

“Missed it by that much 🤏”
Maxwell Smart– Get Smart

That was the story of my day. Every train I tried to catch I missed and had to wait from 30 minutes to an hour for the next train. I suppose the Japanese didn’t consider the people lugging a suitcase upstairs and downstairs to get between points in their train timings.

I was moving between hotels and carrying all my luggage with me. Hakata to Kumamoto via Yanagawa. Famous for its canals, steamed eel, and some very traditional hand crafts.

This required hopping onto a very local train line, which I missed, dragging my bags up two flights of stairs. There was no elevator on the side of the road that the bus dropped me.

Yanagawa is often called the venice of Japan. I can’t compare since I haven’t been to venice but the canals are nice. All the flowers have bloomed, and there are some very strategic locations. However, all my photos have heads in them since the boat was full of tourists, and I couldn’t get a clean shot.

The boat sits very low in the water, and it has tiny, hard wooden seats. The ride goes for an hour, and for the first time this trip, the sun came out. I put on my hat only to be told to be careful of losing it to the wind. Becuase as well as being sunny, it was also windy. Too hot for my jacket and too windy to not have it. Our guide lost control a couple of times, and we slammed into the banks because of the wind.

“ドアが閉まります,ご注意ください!” “The doors are closing. Please be careful!”

We went under some very low bridges, and every couple of bridges our guide would start singing. The japanese passengers in the boat joined in as well.

I was sitting next to a Korean couple and the man spoke english and japanese. He spoke with me a couple of times and was very chatty in all three languages.

After the ride, I wandered around the area they dropped us off. I was determined to eat their famous steamed eel and went to Wakamatsuya, a popular restaurant, judging by the queue. The eel wasn’t bad, a slight fishy taste, but the sauce they put with it was quite nice.

I got the free shuttle back to the station and missed my second train connection by one slow elevator. It was a pain because the next train was 30 minutes later and had an exchange in Omuta 1hr after arrival.

My stop in omuta was unplanned, but I found more manhole covers and learnt a little about a dragon festival they hold in summer.

Eventually, I caught my train and got to Kumamoto after check-in. So, no waiting for once. Kumamoto has a famous mascot, Kumamon, and they have 100% cashed in on it. He’s everywhere. Like this cute mailbox and even in the lobby of my hotel.

My hotel was a trove of funny things. They were selling kumamoto castle shaped water bottles and had a large robot vacuum roaming around cleaning up.

In my room there were some other interesting finds. Obviously, earthquakes are something to worry about in Kumamoto because my room had a lantern, an emergency torch, and a sign slipped innocently between two regular hotel signs.

I had to wait till 6 to go to the restaurants around the hotel. I left about 6:15 and they still won’t open so I went further afield to a shopping street and ate at Coco Curry. I ordered my first salad this trip there.