On to Kyushu

On January 7, our last night in Matsue, we ate dinner at Kawa-Kyo, a tiny mother-and-daughter operated izakaya. The place has a small L-shaped counter that seats about 8 people, and looks like something from the 19th century. The mother and daughter work behind the counter, separated from customers by not only the counter itself, but also by old sake bottles and boxes, various ads and signs hanging from the ceiling, stacks of rice bowls, baskets, and an assortment of other stuff. Nearly everything they use to serve food seemed to be piled on the counter, and they do the cooking right there, on their side of the counter. The place was dark, and the bench we sat on was supplied with blankets if we needed them to cover our legs for warmth.

The two women were friendly and cheerful, and the daughter spoke reasonably good English. She rummaged through a stack of menus and eventually found food and drink menus printed in English. The place specialized in local delicacies, including bass baked in parchment paper, grilled eel over rice (which we ate), and tiny clams in a kind of stewed broth. They gave us the clams as a kind of appetizer, along with edamame (soy beans) in their pods. After we had eaten the clams, they took the broth back and used it in making us bowls of miso soup. The food was delicious, and the company was good. Although Matsue is a reasonably large city (maybe 150,000-200,000 people), we could well have been in any rural village on a wintry night in Japan. (C's note: We were sitting on the short side of the L-shaped counter against a wall. When we slid into our seats, I hoped no one would come in to sit in the seat next to us as we were pretty tight -- the counter in front, against the wall in back and against the wall to the side. Of course, halfway through the wonderful meal an elderly lady came in and took the seat on the end, effectively blocking us in (claustrophobia was at the edge of my mind). However, we finished the meal and conversation without any panic on my part and learned that we would not have to disturb the lady sitting next to us in order to depart. Low and behold, the "wall" next to us was in fact a small hidden door which allowed us to slide off our seats and out the door.)

The following morning we again had breakfast at the 9th-floor lakeview restaurant in our hotel, then took a taxi to the Matsue station to arrange our train trip south to Fukuoka, via Okayama. The southbound trip from Matsue to Okayama simply reversed our earlier trip north, and we then boarded the Shinkansen at Okayama for the journey to Fukuoka, on the island of Kyushu. This trip illustrated the amazing reliability of the Japanese train system; the agent at Matsue booked us on a train scheduled to arrive in Okayama (after a 2 ½ -hour trip) 8 minutes before our Shinkansen connection left for Fukuoka. This worried us just a bit, but we were standing on the platform waiting for the Shinkansen with time to spare—the rail network is truly amazing.

L. Hearn's house in Kumamoto

After arriving at the Hakata Station at Fukuoka, we walked to our nearby hotel, checked in, and left our bags. We then took a taxi to a local museum dedicated to life in Hakata over the past couple of centuries, including lots of photographs and some demonstrations of old arts and crafts—textile weaving and local handmade dolls. This morning we were up early for breakfast at the Hakata Park Hotel, then caught the JR for Kumamoto, another of the cities that were home to Lafcadio Hearn (Koizumi Yakumo). We arrived too early to check into our hotel (the interestingly named Dormy Inn), but they were happy to keep our bags while we went off in search of Koizumi’s house. It was an easy trip on the local tram system (the cars look like the old street cars that used to roam American streets, and still do in a few places, such as San Francisco). As he did in Matsue, Koizumi lived in Kumamoto for a time in a former Samurai house. In fact, the house is quite similar to the one he occupied in Matsue, and has interesting photographs and information about his time in the area. He taught in a school that later became Kumamoto University, before leaving to become a journalist in Kobe. At the house one of the staff members was a talkative, helpful woman who seemed to enjoy speaking English with us, and who pointed out some interesting features of the house, including the small shrine at which Koizumi “played” every day.

Matsumoto-jo

On the way from the tram to Koizumi’s home, C spotted a fabric shop in a covered arcade, and we spent a little time there choosing a selection of pieces of fabric of sorts unlikely to be available at home. Among other things, at the Koizumi house C found a flier for an interesting art exhibit at the Kumamoto Prefectural Museum of Art, so we got a taxi to take us there—beautiful painted scrolls from the 17th, 18th, & 19th centuries, as well as a special exhibit of various artifacts from the Samurai era. Our travels took us past Matsumoto-jo (the castle), which is enormous—one of the biggest we have seen in Japan. Although it dates from the early 17th century, the castle was largely destroyed by later wars, so the current buildings are mostly 19th-century reconstructions. For that reason, we enjoyed the view and C took a couple of pictures, but we chose not to go in.

You never know what you'll find in Japan, Mike and Joan, -- too bad it was closed.

Following a walk back to the arcade near Koizumi’s home, we found a noodle shop for a late lunch, then took a leisurely stroll back through the arcade (which is very large and stretched back nearly all the way to our hotel). In the process we had a look through both the Daiei and Hanshin department stores before returning to the hotel for check-in. Japan is nothing if not service-oriented, and we found, when we tried to reclaim our checked bags, that the hotel staff had already taken them to our room.

Tomorrow we’ll be off to Nagasaki, where we’ll no doubt see the various memorials associated with the atomic bombing of World War II, as well as sites associated with the early Dutch traders who, for a significant period before the Meiji Restoration, were the only Westerners with whom the Japanese dealt.