Day 8, April 8th: Beppu and Yufuin

We were so tired this morning that we actually overslept!  Dennis had to knock on our door to wake us up for breakfast at 7:00. 

The Nogami Honkan Onsen provided us with a lavish Japanese breakfast.  There was a choice of Japanese or European.  It was a wonderful Japanese experience, but sitting on the floor was difficult for Mom's aching legs.  We requested a regular table for the following morning.

After breakfast, we walked about a block down the street to the famous Takegawara black sand onsen.  Mom and Dennis had said before our trip that they might be OK with doing this since they wouldn't have to remove all their clothes in front of everyone.

Unfortunately, there was a big, no-nonsense sign that said people taking high blood pressure medicine should not do the sand onsen.  We were very disappointed.  It would have to be just Art and me.

We caught the train from Beppu to Yufuin which is a popular hot spring resort town.

It was a short train ride to Yufuin.

I told mom that we have a lot of pansies in the states and that it's nothing extraordinary, but she insisted I take a photo of them.  In fact, she's gotten to like telling me what photos I should be taking.

Actually Yufuin was a bit of a disappointment.  There were long streets full of shops. I bought a little cloth hand towel because public Japanese bathrooms generally do not provide paper wipes or hand dryers.  Women carry their own small towels to wipe their hands.

We did grab a quick bowl of noodles here along with some rice balls.

It wasn't great, but it was quick, cheap and rather tasty.

We love soft serve!  We were trying to see  how many different flavors we could sample on this trip.  I think this is where Art tried soft serve with soy sauce.  Seriously!  That man will try anything once.

It had been a cold spring so cherry blossoms were delayed down south and we were treated to even more floral displays.

You can see Mt. Yufu in the background.

I think this is dogwood, but I'm not sure.

Dennis and Art were being good sports here.

This is Lake Kinrinko and the reason for this resort town.  It wasn't anything for us to write home about.  Oops!  But here I am blogging about it.

It was still fun to see what sort of things were being sold.

Returning to the Beppu Station, we got to try another hand onsen.  The water was very warm.

We returned to our Nogami Onsen ryokan (inn), put on our yukatas, and headed for the Takegawara black sand bath.  We were told to wear short little kimonos and lie down in little depressed sand beds.  Then sand was shoveled over us.  Four inches of warm sand on top of all of you can be a little heavy and I could understand why it might not be good for someone with high blood pressure.  After the 15 minute sand bath, we washed ourselves off and entered the regular warm water onsen which was quite nice.

I met a fellow, his son and daughter in the waiting room who struck up a conversation with me.  They were interested in the fact that I was from Hawaii and could speak a little Japanese.  I tried to encourage them to speak English, but they were hesitant.  It was a lot of fun learning about each other as I waited for Art.

After the sand onsen, we went back to our Nogami Ryokan.  Then Art picked up Dennis and they both went to the hotel water onsen.

Needless to say, Art came back looking red as a crab.

It was certainly an interesting day!

Day #16 Return to Hawaii

We're safely back in Hawaii and it's the weirdest feeling. We left Japan on Wednesday evening at 9:00 PM and returned to Hawaii on Wednesday morning at 8:40. Our Jalway flight was 6 hours and 20 minutes, arriving in Hawaii 20 minutes ahead of schedule.

I can hardly believe we were in Japan this morning... oh wait, it's actually yesterday morning.... oh never mind.

This was our last free Toyoko Inn breakfast. I wish I could eat like this every morning. This was the first morning they didn't serve rice balls. They served rice, just not musubi (flavored rice balls).

Tomorrow morning, I'm back to my usual oatmeal with cranberries.

After breakfast we talked to our son, Jon in New Mexico via Skype. Our daughter and granddaughter also called to wish us a safe flight. I had to smile when I heard Jon's parting words, "Talk to you again when you're state-side."

We left Toyoko Inn behind us and headed toward the train station. We had 6 carry-ons and 1 check-in luggage that we were pulling along. I kept counting our items at every stop. Thank goodness we had auntie to push mom.

Since we left Toyoko Inn at 9:45 AM and our train did not leave until noon, we had quite a bit of time to kill. Auntie was able to do some more "omiyage" (present) shopping with mom while we made use of the comfortable wheelchair.

Our next stop was to buy our bento (box lunch). There was such a huge selection we had the hardest time choosing. There were three kinds that I was ready to buy for myself. Not to worry... I controlled myself.

Auntie commented that eating three big meals with rice a day for more than two weeks was going to have us all gaining weight. I weighed myself when I returned to Hawaii. It was incredible! I lost 4 pounds.

There are very few overweight people in Japan. I think it's because they don't eat a whole lot of fried, fatty foods. A lot of their diet is mostly seafood, vegetables and soybeans cooked in myriad imaginative ways.

Once on the train, I could see that the day had turned cloudy, dark and rainy. Since we would no longer be outside, we were quite comfortable.

The Shinkansen or bullet train has very spacious seats and tons of leg room. We really made use of our 2 week JR train pass. You can only buy this pass if you are a visitor to the country.

And then it was time to break out our bento lunches. Yummmm... I'm going to miss these. We have something like it in Hawaii but it's doesn't seem quite as wonderful.

Oh yes! The sisters really enjoyed it.

I wish I could fall asleep as easily as these two. It would make the time go a lot faster. Oh wait, maybe they're doing their zazen (meditation)?

Our friend, Sam had asked if we could change our train schedule to meet him in Shinazawa. It worked out perfectly. Otherwise, we'd have had to spend more time at the Osaka station buying things we had no more hands to carry with.

Sam treated us to some scrumptious dessert and coffee. I know he kept up with my blog but we couldn't help gushing over all the things we'd seen in his country. Sam had helped us immeasurably with making all our reservations for the Shinkansen and travel information inside Japan.

The two hours with Sam sped by and he led us to the train assistant who took us to our next boarding platform. Sam gave us omiyages of the most delectable rice crackers we've ever tasted. Oh yes, we already ate some. We're going to ration them in the next few days.

The Japanese really are so incredible creative with their rice crackers and mochi (glutinous rice). It doesn't sound amazingly delicious but trust me, it is!

Back on the train, auntie and mom had fun reading the magazines that Sam had brought for them.

Very quickly, we arrived at Narita Airport (outside Tokyo). We kept our fingers crossed that our three bulging suitcases had arrived safely. Not a problem. I'm so amazed at how efficient their system is... and economical. How do they do this?

We started walking toward the Jalways check-in counter on the far side of the airport. Art saw the long line of people and started to rush toward it. A uniformed woman came over to us when she saw the wheelchair. She said she would take care of us. I had to call Art back.

Good grief! She handled everything efficiently, with kindness and courtesy. They took care of our suitcases, attaching handicapped tags to them and collected mom's wheelchair, She was given an airline wheelchair to use.

The next thing the sisters absolutely wanted to do was to call their sister and brother to thank them and say their farewells. We used the Japanese phone cards we kept with us since we didn't have a cellphone.

Listening to them, Art and I felt wonderful that we were able to do this.

I met someone from the Big Island at the airport waiting area. She said she was blown away with the kindness and politeness of the Japanese people. We were, too. She left ruefully saying, "I guess we have to go back to reality now."

The other nice thing about Japan... no tipping. No kidding. They are polite and kind because it's the right thing to do, not because they might be paid more.

I wondered about that. We're from the Aloha State. We're friendly, too. Well, we found out that it's not necessarily so all the time.

The flight had several movies to choose from. We got to see Avatar again, It's Complicated and the Sherlock Holmes movie. The time really went by quickly.

Back in Honolulu, I saw that what the Big Island woman said could be true. I'd filled out the immigration paper for all of us as one family. The passport person said quite testily, "How are you related? Do you all live in one house?"

On the other hand, we had an airport assistant help us along taking us to the front of lines to lead us through the maze of returning from a foreign country quickly. He showed us that our luggage had even been already collected for us and he took us out to the curb where my cousin and brother were waiting for us. They could hardly believe all the things we were carrying with us. I have to admit it was pretty amazing that we didn't lose anything.

We got back safely to find out that the water main had broken down the street! We've been without water now for 8 hours. Arrrghhhh!

Looking back on this trip, it's hard to believe that we wondered if we should cancel it when mom hurt her knee the Saturday night before the Monday morning we were scheduled to leave.

Busy day tomorrow. I'd better get to bed. It's almost midnight! Thanks for coming along with us, everybody. It made it that much more special that we were able to share this experience.

Day #12 It's Saturday, We Must Be In Okayama

Art told us yesterday that today would be a busy one and he wasn't kidding. We got up at 6:00 and had breakfast at 7:00. We were out the door soon after to catch a taxi to the Korakuen Garden in Okayama.

Korakuen is the 3rd of three of the most beautiful gardens in Japan and is a cultural heritage site. It was begun in 1687 on the orders of Tsunamasa Ikeda, a Japanese feudal lord.

The sisters were eager to see the beauty they had read about.

That's Okayama castle in the background. Auntie loves castles so Art planned out several castles just for her.

We thought it might be good for mom to get a little exercise since it was such a beautiful day. Cold! But almost sunny. Auntie helped mom through the garden.

While I stayed below with mom, Art and Auntie climbed the hill to the lookout. What are the chances I'll be as strong as her when I'm almost 80?
We saw a grove a cherry trees and ... well... I don't have words to describe the feeling.

Here's a bride and groom having a photo taken.

Between Art and me, we took 761 photos today. It took me over an hour just to look at them.

There were clouds of cherry blossoms waiting for the sun.

Every so often the sun would peak through to give the blossoms even more life.

I know we took a WHOLE lot of photos but I love every one of them.

If it wasn't too cold for mom, we could have stayed there forever.

Okayama castle was built 400 years ago by Lord Hideie Ukita. It was destroyed during the war and rebuilt. Auntie and Art went up to the top while I kept mom company under the cherry blossom tree. The sun did shine on us most of the time to give us some wonderful warmth.

When Art and Auntie rejoined us, we spent more time under the cherry tree. Mom said when anyone is under a cherry tree they somehow look even more beautiful. Well there you have it! That's why Art is looking particularly lovely.

The blue skies added a much nicer contrast to our blossoms.

Those holes in the castle wall were to shoot guns, bows and arrows out of.

When the sun suddenly decided to stay a while Art and I just had to go back to the cherry blossom grove to take more photos. Mom and Auntie looked like they needed some rest so we told them they could choose a beverage.

Hmmm... Mom chose amazake for the both of them. That's warm, sweet sake. Ummm... the bowl was pretty big. They LOVED it! While we were gone, Auntie said she loved it so much she would have loved to have had another bowl. She said it's weak sake... so not to worry. This is now their new favorite instead of doboroku.

While they were having their bowl of amazake to warm them up, we went to the cherry blossom grove. A crowd of people had come to sit under the trees to eat their lunch. This is called Hanami (flower watching).

I wished we could have done the same but Auntie and Mom would have needed several more bowls of amazake to keep them warm.

We went back to the train station, had lunch of Korean bi bim bop and took a train to Kurashiki. Auntie is also an artist and loves paintings. Art planned this trip to the famous Ohara Art Museum for auntie and mom.

Art and I have already seen quite a few art museums around the world. Therefore, at the last minute we decided to send the sisters to see the art collections with a docent while we explored Kurashiki.

It was the best decision! The weather turned suddenly very warm. We could hardly believe it. Art and I walked around Kurashiki. It used to be a storage area is the olden days and still retained that old Japan charm.

The canal was used to transport goods.

And yes! There were more cherry trees to admire and take another 100 photos of.

The day was so warm that Art and I were able to sneak in a soft, creamy, wonderful, scrumptious, smooth soft serve. Mmmm.... We felt a little guilty having this without the sisters but, well... they had their amazake by themselves so we deserved this.

A heron walked by us. It was such an elegant bird.

We returned to the Ohara Museum to pick up the sisters. They were so excited with all they'd seen. They felt sorry for us that we had missed seeing the beautiful paintings. Actually, we visited the museum store down the street and saw the highlights of the museum's collection.

I swear he gets prettier by the minute. He's going to kill me if and when he sees this post.

We saw several girls dressed in kimonos walking among the cherry trees. I have no idea why. I think there's some kind of festival going on there.

We decided to have a huge dinner at one of the train station restaurants. We didn't leave any leftovers. Every bite was wooonderful!

What a day! It was perhaps a little cool but as far as I'm concerned it was perfection. What a day! What a day! So much beauty to hold in our memories. We had so many cloudy days at the beginning of our trip that it made today even more special.

Tomorrow, we leave Okayama and move on to Himeji where we will see the Himeji castle. It's going to be an EARLY and full day. Oh nuts! It's past midnight again. I'm going to bed now.

I love having you all come along with us. I've been telling the sisters about your comments and they are loving it!