Finally, last bus...
So we can hopefully stop complaining about them. It did cost us about half the price of the Japan Rail pass (which gets you the much more comfortable bullet train), so there's that, but if you have the money it would be worth weighing up how uncomfortable the buses can be. Enough on that, after enduring the bus, we touched down in Nagasaki, and checked in to Casa Blanca Guesthouse - grand enough, though we were up on the fifth floor with no elevator, and not much craic to be had (a theme we're now realising has happened throughout our Japan journey).
Still, we wanted to see what Nagasaki was about, so off we ventured into the Chinatown area nearby.
With our time to Japan soon coming to an end, we absolutely made sure we revisited a few of our favourites along the way, and Ichiran ramen (above) is an absolute staple of our time here. Fukuoka, where we close out our trip, is the birthplace of Tonkotsu ramen too...
All throughout the Japan the dogs are a incredibly cutesy/preened to perfection, and there are these shops selling ready made fashion statements at extraordinary prices. Questionable how ethical they are, but this little guy took a shining to us, so he makes it into the blog ^.
The next day, we decided we'd check out the memorials to the A-bomb dropped on Nagasaki - again no pictures allowed in the museum. The memorial park which had this very grand statue, with its right hand raised to symbolise the threat of nuclear weapons dropped from above, and the left hand is pointed outwards to symbolise the path to world peace.
That just about covers Nagasaki. It was nice to see, but is a little bit less tourist-y than Hiroshima, and thus a little less....developed.
We grabbed one more Mister Donut on our way to our last (note: LAST) bus, to head to Fukuoka for our last two days.
Central Fukuoka looked pretty nice (and a bit more lively than Nagasaki), but as we made our trek to our hostel Guest House Hokorobi we realised it was miiiiles out. This left us in a bit of a pickle, as we made it to our last day with no money to our names other than the metro fare needed for the airport. The minimum you can take out at an ATM in Japan is €80, so we decided against venturing back into the city. Our hostel was full of weirdos which didn't help matters.
We did, however, walk to Fukuoka tower, which made for a pretty impressive view against the night skyline. And that was our last act before getting ourselves ready for another country, as the next day we made it to the airport with our our last Yen (~20c to spare). Next stop is South Korea. Japan was absolutely unreal, a great experience, however backpacking through it ain't the easiest. It'd be more suited to a trip with a bit of a higher budget than we had - the vibe/energy is also quite...serious, or at least we found. Maybe we got a bit unlucky, but looking back, none of the hostels we stayed in were much craic, and all very expensive.
That would be majorly looking at the negatives though, overall it was fantastic, the food, people, and things to do were all amazing. We loved it. Just wish it wasn't so expensive.
Big love,
Dani & Stu.
So we can hopefully stop complaining about them. It did cost us about half the price of the Japan Rail pass (which gets you the much more comfortable bullet train), so there's that, but if you have the money it would be worth weighing up how uncomfortable the buses can be. Enough on that, after enduring the bus, we touched down in Nagasaki, and checked in to Casa Blanca Guesthouse - grand enough, though we were up on the fifth floor with no elevator, and not much craic to be had (a theme we're now realising has happened throughout our Japan journey).
Still, we wanted to see what Nagasaki was about, so off we ventured into the Chinatown area nearby.
Pretty much nothing. And it was pretty dead. Starting to question whether it was a good idea to come down this far. Still, on we went, and some friendly locals told us everything was happening out on the coastline of the city, as a ship festival was on. Can't say either of us are fans of ship festivals, but it didn't seem like there was much else going on, so on we went (again).
It actually made for a decent day out, the sun was shining, though the fascination with the military crew on the boats went over our heads, but the locals seemed all about it. What didn't go over our heads though (note: our = Dani's), was the dancing competition they had on stage as part of the festivities. The older kids knew what they were at, but the six year olds spinning around in circles when not knowing what to do stole the show.
We thought it might be best to get a couple of drinks (Dani found some prosecco), and chill out in the park taking it all in.
With our time to Japan soon coming to an end, we absolutely made sure we revisited a few of our favourites along the way, and Ichiran ramen (above) is an absolute staple of our time here. Fukuoka, where we close out our trip, is the birthplace of Tonkotsu ramen too...
All throughout the Japan the dogs are a incredibly cutesy/preened to perfection, and there are these shops selling ready made fashion statements at extraordinary prices. Questionable how ethical they are, but this little guy took a shining to us, so he makes it into the blog ^.
The next day, we decided we'd check out the memorials to the A-bomb dropped on Nagasaki - again no pictures allowed in the museum. The memorial park which had this very grand statue, with its right hand raised to symbolise the threat of nuclear weapons dropped from above, and the left hand is pointed outwards to symbolise the path to world peace.
That just about covers Nagasaki. It was nice to see, but is a little bit less tourist-y than Hiroshima, and thus a little less....developed.
We grabbed one more Mister Donut on our way to our last (note: LAST) bus, to head to Fukuoka for our last two days.
Central Fukuoka looked pretty nice (and a bit more lively than Nagasaki), but as we made our trek to our hostel Guest House Hokorobi we realised it was miiiiles out. This left us in a bit of a pickle, as we made it to our last day with no money to our names other than the metro fare needed for the airport. The minimum you can take out at an ATM in Japan is €80, so we decided against venturing back into the city. Our hostel was full of weirdos which didn't help matters.
That would be majorly looking at the negatives though, overall it was fantastic, the food, people, and things to do were all amazing. We loved it. Just wish it wasn't so expensive.
Big love,
Dani & Stu.
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