Winter Vacation 2016: Kurokawa, Japan (Part III)

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Thanks, and happy travels!

~Nomadic Madda

Winter Vacation 2016: Yufuin, Japan

The next morning, we pulled ourselves together and headed for brunch at Yoshizuka Unagiya (博多名代 吉塚うなぎ屋), which specializes in unagi (eel) dishes.  It was incredibly well seasoned and full of classically Japanese flavors.  The restaurant opens at 11AM, and while we couldn’t get a reservation, we were told that if we came and waited right when they opened, we could get a table.  When we arrived at 10:50, they were already open and had many tables seated!  We were able to get one right away at 11AM.

Eel and miso soup for breakfast. Really tasty!

Our bus to Yufuin left at 12:30, so we ended up timing things perfectly.  We had pre-purchased bus passes to use that allowed us to pre-reserve seats for all of our trips.  I highly recommend getting them, as they allow you to hop on and off the inner city buses as well all throughout the Northern Kyushu area!

What had been an overcast morning turned into a steady drizzle by the time we boarded out bus.  It made for a rather pretty ride though, creating rolling waves of mist and fog between mountain peaks.  I love the glimpses of traditional Japanese villages nestled into the crooks of mountains as well.

On the bus to Yufuin!

Winter Vacation 2016: Fukuoka, Japan

With winter camp finished, winter vacation periods for foreign English teachers have begun!  For the first part of my trip, I made a trip back to Japan.  Last year my friend Rory and I went to the Kansai region of Japan to visit the old capital city of Kyoto and the food mecca Osaka.  This year, J and I made a trip to the Kyushu island region where we experienced Japanese onsen (hot spring) culture.

Even though it was only 4 days, our trip took us to three different cities and dipped into three different prefectures: Fukuoka City in Fukuoka Prefecture, Yufuin in Oita Prefecture, and Kurokawa Onsen in Kumamoto Prefecture.

Our first stop in Fukuoka City reminded me so much of why I love Japan.  There’s something about the analog-esque feel of this country that I really love, from the bus stations to the cars on the streets to the local fashion.  You can frequently spot western influences throughout, though they seem as if they’ve been taken from 1970’s North America and England and have since grown into something uniquely Japanese.

After arriving at the airport, I quickly grabbed a (highly-anticipated) hot royal milk tea from the convenience store before we hopped our bus into the city.  Once downtown near Tenjin (天神), it was a short eight minute walk to our hotel where we were right on time for check-in.

On a local bus, heading downtown from the airport.

Somebody Time Me, I'm Heading to Korea

Traveling to South Korea from the United States is far more than "just a 13 hour flight".   I've traveled enough (both domestically and abroad) over the last few years to know you should always give yourself extra time between each leg of your journey.  However, the longer you travel, the more these unexpectedly add up.  I got up at 6:45AM on Tuesday, July 29th and was prepped for the following itinerary:

• Leave home in Cedarburg, Wisconsin at 7:45AM CST to make it to Mitchell Airport (35min)
• Catch flight from Milwaukee, Wisconsin at 10:30AM CST to Chicago, Illinois. (2h 45m)
• Sit at the O'Hare Airport for ~2 hours. (5h, and we haven't even left the US yet...)
• Catch the 12h 40m flight from Chicago, Illinois to Tokyo, Japan (17h 40m)
• Sit at the Narita Airport for ~1h 30m (19h)
• Catch the 3h flight from Tokyo, Japan to Seoul, South Korea (22h)
• Catch a bus from Incheon Airport to Daejeon, where I would connect with CJ. (24h)

So hypothetically this should only take me around 24 hours of traveling, right?  Wrong.  So very, very wrong.  Catching all of my connecting flights went over very smoothly.  However, I am neither graceful, fast-moving, nor collected when I am juggling a purse, a computer bag, a 65L backpack, a suitcase, and a second 75L hiking backpack zipped in a carrying case.

Packed and ready to go!