Day #7, April 7th: Beppu

We got up at 6:00 this time and got down to the first floor of Toyoko Inn for their breakfast.  Two years ago, their breakfasts were just tea, coffee, rice balls, miso soup and pickled vegetables.  We were delighted to find they were now offering a whole lot more.

There was a long line already forming for breakfast.

I really like having miso soup for breakfast and I quickly got used to having the rice balls.

Funny thing... even having rice or noodles with each meal, I actually lost 4 pounds during the trip.

Nobody had trouble finishing their meal.

We were out the door by 7:30 for our Shinkansen bullet trains bound for Beppu.  We asked for help from the train staff because of mom's wheelchair.

They were fabulous!  Train staff met us at each station and made sure we made the correct transfer.

This is important because we had to catch four trains.  Sendai to Tokyo to Shin Osaka to Kokura to Beppu.

I really loved this sign on the train.  How much clearer can you get?  Then again, what about the night?  Perhaps they thought NO SMOKING would seem a bit too harsh.

Japanese style squat toilets on solid ground is tricky enough, but put it on a step up on a moving train with handholds to keep you in place and you've got a challenge.

I managed... but only just.

We bought these box lunches in Sendai which was a good thing because we didn't have much transfer times to allow us to buy lunches anywhere else.

I LOVE these bento boxes!!!  In the middle row, extreme right is a pickled baby eggplant.  It was really yummy!  I even brought a package of them back with us.

After passing through a huge Sendai blizzard, sunnier skies appeared. 

Mom hoped it would be a lot warmer down south where we were headed.

We just loved the very solicitous and polite help we got at all the train stops.

I wonder how often they get to use this contraption.

We arrived in Beppu on the island of Kyushu at 5:21.  We were pretty tired after 10 hours of travel time.

This is a hand onsen (hot spring).  The water was very warm.

We love to take photos of the manhole covers in Japan.  They are all unique to each city.

Dinner was in a hole-in-the-wall restaurant.  Noodles.  Not very good.  I think we were spoiled in Tokyo and Sendai.

The Nogami Onsen was the best pick in the Lonely Planet travel guide.

It's a little tired with age, but was quite comfortable.  The furoba (bath tub) was deep and Dennis thought the water was also from the onsen since it was extremely hot and bubbled when it came out.

You are supposed to soap and wash yourself while sitting on the stool and then soak in the tub.  You do NOT enter the tub with a dirty body.

This hotel/onsen is also close to the sand onsen that Art wanted to try.

The futons were laid out for us before bedtime.

We were able to reserve times to go into the onsen.  This was the onsen that Dennis and Art went into.  I didn't bring a camera with me to the onsen that Mom and I reserved.

Art said their onsen was very nice.  Mom and I nearly got burned in ours before I noticed the cold water pipe.

The air temperature was pretty cold so we were chilled while washing ourselves and then the water was so hot we ended up looking like lobsters when we came out.

The onsen provided yukatas (cotton kimonos) for us to wear to bed.  They're not all that easy to sleep in, but it's fun.

I took a photo of Art, but he doesn't want me to post it.  He doesn't think lavender is quite his color.

As you can see, Dennis and Art have energy to spare.  Here they are doing the laundry and you can see what the time is on the wall.

It was quite an exhausting day!

Day #6, April 6: Sendai

Our breakfast this morning were the gifts of fruit from Sam and Keiko the night before and they were perfect!

We called Mom's sister in Sendai to let her know we would be on our way.

The doorman hailed a taxi for us and he took us to the Ebisu Station where we caught the JR train for Sendai.

It still amazes us how the trains can arrive exactly when they are scheduled.

Uncle and Auntie greeted us at the station.

Auntie took Mom and me with her to their house while Uncle accompanied Art and Dennis to the Toyoko Inn hotel and drove them back to their house to join us.

It's always such a joy to see the sisters reunited.

Auntie and Uncle had bought a huge collection of different kinds of yummy rice balls and burgers for lunch.

My cousin, Masako stopped by to introduce us to her new baby boy.  He is such a cutie!

Auntie showed us all the work that had been done to repair their home.  There had been a lot of cracks in the walls and foundation due to the earthquake last year.  Luckily, because they live on higher ground, the tsunami did not reach them.

After lunch, a hired taxi came to take us to see what the tsunami devastation had left.  You could still see metal railings bent over by the tsunami.

The drive took us to a small hill where a shrine had been created.

From this hill, it was still incomprehensible to know that all these homes and people had been destroyed or swept out to sea.

From the hill we could see the extent of the tsunami devastation.  Auntie showed us places where salt water were still left in area depressions.  The winds on this hill were so fierce that it made it hard to walk.

Mountains of debris are still left waiting for a place to put them.

We also saw a lot of destroyed cars in a sort of auto graveyards.

We were then driven back to the Toyoko Inn in the city center of Sendai.  It's a businessman's hotel that we really like.  It's more reasonable and provides you with a clean place to stay with Internet access.

Yes, it's quite small, but really does give you everything you need including pajamas, refrigerator, tea, toothbrush, slippers, and a free breakfast.

Auntie and uncle said we should unwind for a bit until dinner.  They came to pick us up at 5:00 to go to a French restaurant called Le Ciel Creme.

One of their highlights is the... believe it or not... bathroom!  There were mirrors lining two walls and the ceiling.  Art said it was quite disconcerting to use it.

Yes, the lobster was very delicious!  All the other entrees were out of this world as well!

Desserts came with little messages.  This one to my cousin, Norio's son said to try his best in soccer.  His dad was a great soccer champ.  I had not seen Norio in about 16 years.  Because he works in the business world, his English was now superlative and he could converse easily with Art and Dennis.  Norio gave us lots of helpful advice for our trip to Southern Japan.

Our scrumptious dessert said... oh right..... It's in English.  Our placemats were even personalized with names and a picture of a Hawaiian hula girl.  It made it all a very special night.

It was a cold night so instead of walking, Auntie and Uncle sent us back to the hotel in a taxi.  It was great because Sendai was a whole lot colder than Tokyo.   Mom used her sister's down coat during our stay there.

There were no cherry blossoms in Sendai, but we had a beautiful time.

Day #5, April 5th: Chidorigafuchi Imperial Palace Moat

 
It was another early wake up at 5:00.  Art and Dennis decided it would be a good time to get some laundry done since the machines would probably be open.

Then there was another re-examination of what we'd need to send back to Narita, what we'd be sending to Beppu (our stop after Sendai) and what we'd be carrying in our one suitcase.

I was able to make sure pre-arranged posts were going up on my blog.  It worked fine all the way until Blogger decided to make changes in their set-up.  Now nothing goes up until I manually publish.  Sheesh.... Anyway... back to the trip.

Art also had to constantly check the weather conditions so everything he planned would go smoothly and whether he had to switch to alternatives for bad weather.

We then took a walk in our Hiroo area near the New Sanno hotel to view more cherry blossoms.  The warmer weather was coaxing the blossoms to put forth their show.

The photos I've been posting have been taken by either me, Art or Dennis.  I know this was Dennis' photo.

A little before 1:00, our friend, Sam arrived.  He helped to send off two of our suitcases via Yamato takkyubin to Narita and two to Beppu.  You normally cannot store your bags with the takkyubin service for such a long length of time, but Sam had worked his magic so that we'd be able to travel with far fewer suitcases.  We then caught the train to Chidorigafuchi which is the moat outside the Imperial Palace...

and was totally blown away.  It was spectacular, and it wasn't even in full bloom quite yet.

There were a lot of people, but we could walk around with ease.  Sam told us that two days later it was so crowded that it was difficult to find a good place to view the blossoms.

The lane leading to the gate had gorgeous branches of cherry blossoms forming a floral canopy.

Just when you thought it couldn't get any better, Sam got us ice cream cones.

We kept trying to capture the incredible beauty of each blossom.  I never did manage to do it justice.

Mom enjoyed talking to the people at the Information table to learn more about the cherry blossoms.  I know they were happy to see her interest.

And yes, there were other flowers there too.  I loved the pattern on this iris.

We then traveled by train to the Gaienmai area where Sam and Keiko treated us to an amazing tofu dinner at a restaurant called Ume no Hana (Flower of the Plum).  Almost everything they served was created by some form of tofu.  It was fantastic!  We loved every single morsel.  We couldn't believe the sort of epicurean magic they could create with tofu!

When we returned home, Sam and Keiko had tangerines, strawberries and bananas for us.  We would have it for breakfast the next morning to the chagrin of the New Sanno's Emporium restaurant staff who thought we would be coming.

Day #4, April 4th: Asakusa

Woke up at 5:30, surprised to find bright, clear skies greeting us.  Those newspapers scattered across the room is to prevent us from tripping over the Internet connection cable.

My brother, Dennis' son, Barry's mother-in-law and family would be meeting us at Asakusa.  Mom felt it was important to pay our respects to her new granddaughter's family.

Asakusa's giant lantern had been pulled up and stored to protect it from the strong storm winds.

We were happily able to meet up with my new niece's mother, grandmother and sister as planned and could relate the latest news to them of Barry and Miho.

That tall tower is the Tokyo Sky Tree and is now the tallest tower in the world. 

That strange gold topped building is the Asahi Beer Hall.  That gold thing is supposed to be beer foam.

Miho's mother told us they wanted to take us for a ride on the famous Sumida river where we'd be able to see cherry blossoms along the river banks.

Miho's sister, Mizuho bought us these mochi wrapped in cherry blossom leaves with some green tea.  It was wonderful!

We landed at the Hamarikyu Gardens where we saw a huge stretch of rapeseed flowers in glorious profusion.  We would see these flowers everywhere we went in Japan.  Rapeseed is used to make oil.

We saw a brown eared bulbul which looked nothing like our bulbuls in Hawaii who like to eat our papayas.

More cherry trees!!!

Miho's family took us to a fancy restaurant called Satou that served the MOST tender steak morsels we've ever tasted!  It was incredible!

It was soon time to say goodbye.  We were so happy to meet Miho's family and hope we can see them in Hawaii someday.  Blooming cherry trees followed us on the way home.