15-Jan-2023
So, yesterday was moving day... After a month in Fukuoka, it was time to head off.
Here are some odds and ends from the last few days in this comfortable city. It has proved a really, really great place to base ourselves, offering plenty to do, everything we've needed, and a non-touristy atmosphere:
Friday evening was foreshortened, you may remember. So yesterday morning was busy. Cooking up breakfast, cleaning, packing, showering...
Kind of sad to say goodbye to our little flat:
RAINING on our way to the station... Grrrrr...
But this was effectively Kyushu rail trip No. 9 (the third day of our Japan Rail pass), and here's our first train, all orange and jolly:
The scenery on the way to Haiki was very impressive. More of that quintessentially Japanese countryside -- mountains, tiny fields, tiny graveyards, curly-roofed houses -- all set off today by atmospherically low cloud:
We had lunch in Haiki. There's a CoCo Curry House not far from the station. We like them because you can customize the amount of rice you want, the strength of the curry, etc.
At Haiki we picked up the Seaside Liner, which runs along the side of Omura Bay, (that amazing bit of sea that's almost a lake):
Raining when we arrived in Nagasaki... Jeez, what's happened to the damn weather? Winters here are supposed to be DRY.
We popped into a nice little cafe to wait for our accommodation check-in time:
And finally, journey's end:
This place is a lot more spacious than our little Fukuoka pad, and has more cooking equipment.
But it turns out that on Saturday nights it's very noisy...
So today, we're a bit bushed. Three travel days, including one quite long one, and one with full baggage; and then a poor night's sleep...
But our neighbourhood is very interesting. It's Nagasaki's Chinatown, Japan's oldest such district. And coming up very shortly is the Nagasaki Lantern Festival, which marks Chinese New Year (generally not celebrated in Japan). It's certainly all very picturesque:
And Nagasaki has trams, which is always a plus:
Just got to crack this sleeping thing...