Hello from Kumamoto, at the mid point of our trip through Kyushu. The weather has been warm, except for one very rainy day in Yakushima where the tail of a typhoon caught us. Besides riding the trains furiously with our Kyushu JR pass, we have been walking a lot as well.
As soon as we landed after our short overnight flight from Singapore to Fukuoka, we took off for a look at the city. It was Saturday and we had bought a reduced day pass on the underground (subway) from the airport. The airport is 5 mins on the rails from town and our hotel was practically opposite the impressive JR Hakata station. So we dumped our bags, joined the saturday family crowds on the train, and later emerged at Ohori Ko-en where there was a running competition on. We had a good work-out with idyllic views of the lake and the mountains, our first introduction to the mountains of Kyushu. We proceeded to Tenjin, the heart of town where there is an enormous underground shopping mall. We preferred the overground covered mall, and had our first Japanese meal of ...what else..ramen, the specialty of the city.
Fortified, we continued our investigation of the area and when jet lag overtook us, we returned to the hotel to wait for check-in time, which is strictly observed at the Toyoko Inn where we are staying on all nights of our trip except for the 3 days on the island of Yakushima.
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