Tuesday 17 February
After breakfast in the room care of 7-11 and a quick visit to the local Tokyo Hands for those essentials you never knew you needed. In our case a new Global knife - so super sharp I cut myself opening the box - we head out of town north to Yanagawa.
About 40 kms north on the Ariake Sea -which is a coastal inlet - the guidebook highlighted the canals that run through town. In fact we were not disappointed and the town had a cuteness and given that are still in winter it was quite quiet.
We had a bowl of noodles in a tiny shop run by a lady of at least 70 and her daughter which was very wholesome. We then head off to be punted for 40 minutes by an equally old man around the canals of the town. Luckily as it is winter the punts are fitted with a heater and blankets which made the whole journey quite pleasant. Although it does turn out Calvin is not the world’s best sailor - mind you he cannot swim - although the water was about a foot deep !
Despite the warmth of the blankets we felt the need for a warming cup of tea and cake so headed to the Flowing River - a very Japanese style teashop with floral wall paper, and cups to match. However the tea and scones with fig jam were good.
Then back to Kumamoto a quick shop and a bath. Dinner is always a challenge in Japan with a vegetarian !!! After about 12 restaurants we found a Sri Lankan restaurant who could manage veggie !! Now how did a Sri Lankan end up here?
After breakfast in the room care of 7-11 and a quick visit to the local Tokyo Hands for those essentials you never knew you needed. In our case a new Global knife - so super sharp I cut myself opening the box - we head out of town north to Yanagawa.
About 40 kms north on the Ariake Sea -which is a coastal inlet - the guidebook highlighted the canals that run through town. In fact we were not disappointed and the town had a cuteness and given that are still in winter it was quite quiet.
We had a bowl of noodles in a tiny shop run by a lady of at least 70 and her daughter which was very wholesome. We then head off to be punted for 40 minutes by an equally old man around the canals of the town. Luckily as it is winter the punts are fitted with a heater and blankets which made the whole journey quite pleasant. Although it does turn out Calvin is not the world’s best sailor - mind you he cannot swim - although the water was about a foot deep !
Despite the warmth of the blankets we felt the need for a warming cup of tea and cake so headed to the Flowing River - a very Japanese style teashop with floral wall paper, and cups to match. However the tea and scones with fig jam were good.
Then back to Kumamoto a quick shop and a bath. Dinner is always a challenge in Japan with a vegetarian !!! After about 12 restaurants we found a Sri Lankan restaurant who could manage veggie !! Now how did a Sri Lankan end up here?