Silver Week Travels

So this week Akina and I took off for Kyushu. Japan just finished a 3 day holiday M-W stretch referred to as Silver Week (Golden Week happens in May every year...Silver Week had never happened before). Amongst the highlights:

• Leaving Wadayama at 11 pm, sleeping at a rest stop somewhere in Yamaguchi at around 4 am, getting up at 8 to drive down to Kumamoto and not getting to the castle until 1 pm. Traffic was a beast in Kyushu.


• Kumamoto Castle was average at best, but the ramen down there was amazing. Also had horse sashimi and a horse burger before going into a volcano-powered hot spring up in the mountains.


• Fukuoka was drizzly, but we made it to the Ramen Stadium at Canal City and had a couple different kinds of ramen...super packed


• Also went to Mariona City for outlet shopping and I came back with 2 pairs of shoes, a jacket, a shirt and some undies for about $100...not too shabby. Also, AKB48 was doing a concert there for some reason.


• Ate hormone nabe, which was actually delicious, in Fukuoka, followed by 2 bowls of ramen...all after 10 pm.


• Hit up a foreigner bar called FuBar and saw my buddy Joel for the first time in 7 years.


• Ordered the Ramen Walker - Kyushu Edition


• Swung by Hiroshima for some okonomiyaki on the way back, got back to Asago at about 11 pm.

Names of ramen places eaten at:

• Daikoku Ramen (no relation to Daikokuya in LA)


• Daimaru Ramen


• Murasaki Ramen (Ramen Stadium)


• Ichi Ryu Ramen (yatai)


• Taiho Ramen


• Gensuke Ramen (Ramen Stadium)


• some random rest stop in Kita Kyushu