Trip to Kyushu (Day 3)

On the third day, we ventured to Nagasaki.

I didn't have much time to do planning so we just went with the flow.

On the list in Nagasaki is definitely the Atomic Bomb Museum to learn more about the tragedy.

We bought a day pass to travel around.

At the tram station.

The train pass and map of the area.

First stop was the Peace Park.

The only picture I have of the fountain as there were alot of tourists when we were there.

One of the statues in the park.

Peace Statue

It's quite ironic that it was a really sad tragedy but so many people at the park are not there to understand or remember/learn from the past event. 

They were there just to take pictures and show people that they were there before. 

Hypocenter of the atomic bomb.

The atomic bomb that landed in Nagasaki.

We visited the atomic bomb museum too. As we rented the audio guide, we spent quite abit of time in the museum. It was pretty solemn in the museum as they showed the build up to the actual bombing.  

After the museum, we went to visit the Chinatown. Read up somewhere that it was one of the oldest Chinatown in Japan. Was expecting alot when we went there but was quite disappointed as there was nothing much except for eateries and 1 or 2 souvenir shops. 

The restaurants there were pretty pricey as well. 

Entrance to Chinatown in Nagasaki.

We settled our lunch in Chinatown then walked over to the Megane bridge (spectacles bridge).

What's special about the bridge is probably the heart shaped stone on the wall! It was not hard to spot as there were many people waiting to take pictures with it. If you look clearly, it actually says 'I Love '. So if someone stands under the heart sign, it would say 'I Love (the person standing there)'. Quite cute I must say.

Spot the heart shaped stone on the wall.

Mentaiko Prawn crackers.

It was a nice trip down to Nagasaki. The only bad thing was the weather. IT WAS REALLY COLD.

We were not expecting the weather to be like that. Ended up buying warm clothing from Uniqlo. I am usually able to withstand cold but this time it was horrible. 

Ippudo Instant Ramen!

Back to the ramen craze! This time it's Ippudo's instant ramen. 

Love the packaging! 

Final Product.

Cooked this ramen following the instructions given in the booklet.

1. Heat up the soup packet by soaking it in hot water.

2. Boil 300cc of hot water and mix it with the soup packet.

3. Cook the noodles (duration depending on the firmness of the noodles that you prefer).

4. Add the noodles to the soup.

5. Add the additional condiments.

The brown packet contains seaweed in some kind of seasoning. I preferred the soup without the additional condiments but Chee Wee preferred it with everything inside! It also contains more stuff than the Ichiran ramen one. 

I got it from Tokyo Hands (in Tokyo) the first time.
The second time was from Fukuoka airport's duty free shop after passing immigration.

Bring home Ichiran Instant Ramen!

I brought my favourite Ichiran instant ramen home from my recent trip to Japan! 

There were 3 different kinds: soup, dry and cold noodles. 

This is the soup one. According to instructions, I am supposed to cook the noodles for 2 minutes in boiling water before making the soup. One step that I think should be improved on is to change the water after cooking the noodles. Cook the soup separately and pour it onto the noodles. Mine was too thick because of the starch from the noodles. It tasted great nevertheless. 

I will add more water than instructed as I find that I am lacking soup. The noodles was really good. 

Chee wee loved it too! Did not have time to get any sliced pork so we made do with roasted chicken :x 

This version is also the Ten Jin special I think. Will try the dry and cold noodles soon! 

Hope they taste as good!

The soup version.

Comes with 6 packets of noodles and 3 packets of soup sachets.

The soup essence.

How to cook your ramen.

Finished product!

Already feeling hungry looking at the noodles :(

This is the dry version. It is actually pretty tasty too!

1 packet of sauce with 1 packet of noodles.

This is the cold version! Interesting flavour I must say. 

It is totally different from the normal ramen. It tastes more Thai than Japanese. 

Not something that I like :X 

Hope to be able to try more of these ramen!

Trip to Kyushu (Day 2)

We headed toYufuin the very next day. 

It was about a 2 hour journey to get there and all we did was sleep.

On the train to Yufuin.

Overall outlook of the Yufuin Area.

Yufuin Train station.

There is a tourist information center in the train station.

Mt Yufu behind covered by clouds.

This is so pretty and creative! Great gift!

The miniatures.

I wanted to get one of those cardboard artwork but they are pretty expensive so I didn't.

They found this uncle selling some sort of squid/cuttlefish along the street and according to them, it was super good! So good that even though the shelf life was really short, they still bought quite a few packets home. They even finished 1 packet while walking. The uncle mending the stall was also really friendly and generous. 

View of Mt Yufu from the main walking street.

Really good croquette. The chilli shrimp flavoured one was pretty interesting. Tasted alittle like chilli crab sauce.

Selfie with Mt Yufu.

Another shot of Mt Yufu!

This main street leads us to Lake Kirinko. It was supposedly a 30 minute walk to the lake from the train station but because of all the shops along the street, it took us almost 2.5 hours! Lots to see and eat. There is  very famous cake in Yufuin called the B-speak roll that I saw on almost every page with information on Yufuin. We bought the cake and tried it on the spot. Because it was so highly raved, we had very high expectations. We found it alright only, nothing much to wow about other than that it was really fresh and the cake was really soft. We also couldn't buy it back to Singapore because it had a shelf life of only 2 days.

View along the way.

At the B-speak roll shop

Prices of the cake that comes in 2 flavours. Original and chocolate.

Our B-Speak roll! 

Totoro shop along the way! The whole shop is selling stuff related to the cartoon and also cartoon from the same writer.

A cute car on display outside a shop selling glass items I think.

Kirinko Lake

Lunch was at a random restaurant at the lake and the shop only served soba and udon.

Soba!

As we paid for our meal and was about to leave the shop, they gave us each a small snack that we had no idea what it was. It was slightly warm and smelt sweet. It looked kinda like a bun. It was DELICIOUS! The filling was red bean and the skin was crispy and sweet. The filling was also really fragrant. We wanted to return to the shop to purchase more but our Japanese language was limited so we decided against it. As we walked down the road, we walked past the shop selling it! Of course all of us bought afew boxes home.

Don't be deceived by this brown, round thing.

SO SO SO SO SO GOOD! 

It has to be toasted before eating to obtain the same crispy texture. Without toasting, it's not as good.
Along the way back, we headed over to the Yufuin Floral Village. It's a pretty small place but it's quite pretty inside. Entry is free. There are shops inside and also some cute animals.

with mummy dearest.

more flowers along the way.

There is a free foot bath at the shop opposite the train station. 

Of course you will need a towel to dry your feet!

After spending the day at Yufuin, we took the train back to Hakata.

Night view outside Hakata Station.

That was the end of day 2 in Kyushu!