Thanksgiving trip to Kyushu 2022

 It's hard to believe but this is our 3rd Thanksgiving in Japan. We like to travel over Thanksgiving because the Fall has such good weather and it's not a holiday in Japan so it tends to be less crowded. This year we decide to visit the southern island of Kyushu.

We left Tuesday afternoon and took trains to the airport (2 hrs) then flew from Narita to Fukuoka (2 hr flight), arriving around 9pm. Our hotel was called Henn na Hotel (which means "strange" hotel in Japanese, but since I don't speak Japanese I didn't know that when I booked it...

When we arrived at the front desk we were greeted by two anamatronic dinosaurs who spoke fluent Japanese, welcomed us, and tried to help us check in. But as often happens when we travel it was not straightforward and eventually an actual person had to come out from behind the wall and help us get checked in.

 The next day we headed out into the rain walking to the rental car location. That went very smoothly and we had a very nice Toyota SUV to drive around (the system that works well for us to have me drive and have dad navigate). On our first stop we visited the ruins of Fukuoka Castle. One of the Gates is still standing and we had a very nice tour with Japanese ladies who seemed to be volunteers. One of them actually spoke a little English so we were able to get the gist of the tour. The Gate has 16 rooms and was originally used as a defensive stronghold where the Samurai could fire out of small openings and also drop large rock on anyone trying to scale up the side. 

Next to the castle ruins (in the middle of the city) is a huge park (Ohori Park) build around a lake. I read that this lake had been the castle mote at one time. There are islands, connected with bridges that allow you walk across the lake. We saw so many birds out there sitting on the wooded piles to dry their wings.

We next stopped at a Buddhist temple called Raizansennyoji in the mountains near Itoshima. The main reason I wanted to stop here was to view the beautiful grounds and fall leaves. It really was spectacular and it was the most crowded of any place we visited.

Our destination for the night was a place called Huis Ten Bosch (pronounced by the Japanese as "House ten boss"). It's a little hard to describe this place, but it was built to be like a "little Dutch town". There are private residences (with canals in between the houses) and a large "amusement type" park next to the houses and several very nice/fancy European hotels in and around the park. The whole area is referred to to a Huis Ten Bosch (like its own city designation).

It is conceived to be like Disneyland, where you can go to the park multiple days, stay at hotels right in the park, etc... We stayed at the JR Okuro hotel that was part of the development but not inside the park. (It was a 2 min walk from our hotel to the front gate of the park.) I had seen pictures of this place online, but when we pulled up and saw it in person both dad and I were surprised - like WOW! 

It was dark so we had no idea what the view from our room was like until the next morning when we opened the curtains!

The hotel was super NICE with huge rooms. They had an amazing buffet breakfast each morning (included) and a lovely onsen for hotel guests with both indoor and open air baths (separate for men and women). I went all three mornings to the onsen but dad never made it even once. As I mentioned, our balcony looked over the park so we could see the all the lights each night.

Thursday we drove from Huis Ten Bosch to Nagasaki (if you were to drive directly there it would take about an hour). But, we made several stops along the way.

Oshima Island is a just off the coast with a large bridge that connects it to the mainland. There is an observation tower on the island with great views looking out over the ocean. We also stopped by the beach and I felt the water. It's not warm.

We stopped by another view point and took this lovely picture. The drive to Nagasaki was filled with beautiful views!

Dad knew of a famous bridge in Nagasaki called Meganeboshi that has survived several floods and the atomic bomb. The reflection of the water makes it look like the bridge is a pair of glasses. I have to say - it's a really lovely spot! 

At first we couldn't see how the reflection looked like glasses, and then we walked down the path to the other side of the bridge and there is was - the view we had read about. There were several school girls doing funny poses in front of it when we first got there. 

In Nagasaki, just like in Hiroshima, there is a Peace Park with several sculptures/art to remember and commemorate the atomic bomb dropped in 1945. We arrived to visit the park and museum in the late afternoon around 3:30 - just in time to be there when many school field trips arrived. 

In the Peace Park I thought there was a unique feeling/spirit. Seeing the Japanese school kids filing past and learning the history added to this feeling. It's overwhelming in a way, and brought tears to my eyes.  Its a hard history for everyone (complicated and complex), and yet its so important to remember and learn from it.

We stayed until the museum closed at 5:30, which was just as the sun was setting. We then drove to the Slope Car station on Mt. Inasa (just outside of the city) and rode the Slope Car to the top to see the view of Nagasaki at night. It was sooooo beautiful! It just can't be captured with a picture.

After seeing pictures of the terrible, almost complete destruction of the city just a few minutes before in the museum, it was quite the contrast to see the city today, sprawling out through the narrow valley and down to the ocean. 

The next day we made a visit to Uragashira Repatriation Memorial Park. It's a very small museum and park dedicated to remembering the over 1 million Japanese citizens that came back to Japan from all over Asia and the world when WWII finally ended. The majority of the repatriated people were soldiers, but also women and children, laborers, and POWs, etc.. that were scattered by the war.  We learned at the museum what big undertaking it was to try and maintain order as so many people were flooding back into Japan with various illness and diseases and issues. The interim government (basically the US) wanted to control the process and also help people find their family members again. War is so sad and so disruptive to life!

Near Sasebo is a place called Kujukushima Pearl Sea Resort. The resort has cruises that take you through the tiny islands that dot the coast in that area. The name implies there are 99 islands, but the guild told us there are actually 208! They have two large ships that sail through the islands or you can take a pontoon boat with a smaller group. We opted for the small group pontoon boat cruise.

The day was sunny and clear with almost no wind. It was perfect to be out on the water! The water alternated between looking very blue and very green, but it was always clear up close. Very unique scenery!

 

There is also an observation spot (with a huge field of flowers) on one of the cliffs about the coast. I think I liked that view the most. 

After our cruise we had to try one of the famous Sasebo Burgers. They are all over town and to sell them you had to be part of the Sasebo Burger Association. A family in our Branch moved to Zama from Sasebo this summer and they told us how good the burgers are. It's basically a burger with and egg and piece of ham/bacon. It was good. I got the mini and that was a good choice! haha

We made it back to Huis Ten Bosch in time to recharge our phones and go to the Park. We purchased an  "after 3pm ticket" because we mainly wanted to see the Christmas lights. They had some rides (Virtual Reality rides where you wear the googles and it feels like you are on a roller coaster, or river rafting, or bungie jumping) We went on two rides and I was sick as a dog so we stopped.

Dad and I must be old people because after I got sick from the VR rides we tried one more VR activity. You go into a dark room (just the people in your group) and you each have some kind of stick/wand thing that you throw light light with and try to hit targets while loud music plays. The kids doing it all seemed to think it was very cool. We found out that at the end you pose for a picture. Then you can see your picture (and buy it if you want to) at the end. All of the other pics were of some pretty cool poses with the light sticks and doing actions and stuff. Here is the pic of dad and I (I completely missed standing in the right place, so you can only see my hand...)

Through out the evening there are several musical performances in various places in the Park. I wanted to see one with the drummers (looked like it might be Taiko drums) but the night we were there the drums were cancelled and they had instead an old teen idol performer. He was really into his performance and there were several people in the crowd who were too. Lots of middle aged ladies (and some men) doing actions and swaying to the music. It was not our thing, but we didn't want to be rude (it was in intimate venue and not a ton of people, so we stayed for the whole show)

Another performance I wanted to see was the Christmas dancing performance. It worked out perfectly that dad wanted to eat dinner and I did not, so I got a very cute Hot Chocolate and went to see the performance while dad got his food and ate inside the restaurant. It just cracks me up they way they incorporate "Japanese-ness" into the Christmas songs.

The lights (the main reason we went) were actually totally worth it. It's hard to describe, but it was music (classical and holiday) set to go in time with lights (one show was a water light show). As part of this whole Netherlands theme there is a full size replica of the Huis ten Bosch Palace (actual one is in The Hague). In the Palace garden (think of the grounds at Versailles) they had one of the main light shows. It was a beautiful show with so many different lights that came on and/or changed colors during the performance. It was also fun hearing the crowd go "ooooow and ahhhhh" at all the big moments! The European setting with the classical music - it was just magically!

For our last day (heading back towards Fukuoka) we visited Karatsu Castle, Mikaeri Falls, Udono Sekibutsugun (ancient carvings found in caves and rocks near this area), and the Warabino no Tanada terraced rice fields. (driving up the mountain to get to the lookout  for the rice fields was getting pretty scary for me. Super steep road, and very narrow)

We left on Sunday morning to return to the Kanto Plain. Parked next to our plane was this funny Pokemon painted plane. One thing we have noticed about flying in Japan - their politeness continues throughout all they do. The flight attendants bow before closing the airplane door and dad snapped this picture of the guys on the tarmac bowing to our plane as we pushed back. Awesome!