Mia Pizza - Kumamoto

If there is one thing that Kumamoto isn’t short of, it’s great places to eat. Tonight, we checked out a local pizza place that is located dangerously close to our home. Mia Pizza is based in a road-side trailer near Route 3 of Kumamoto (address: 6-11 Minamitsuboimachi, Chuo Ward, Kumamoto.) From the road it doesn’t look like much, but as you approach, you can see the seating area behind that beckons you into its cosy folds. Made from plastic walled gazebos, the seating area is decked in outdoor benches, thick blankets and a kerosene heater that makes the 10-seater grotto a comfortable diner.

Trained in Italy, the owner produces pizzas of a professional, authentic standard – just like a real Italian pizzeria; expect perhaps that these delectable concoctions are smothered in twice as much cheese as you get in Italy. There are nine set options to choose from, as well as lunchtime sandwich options and side orders. Sasha picked the number one recommended flavour – Porcini. The topping was so buttery it was like a Cream of Mushroom tinned soup had been poured on top of it. The mushrooms were more than mere slices – thick, meaty wedges adorned the pizza, nestled in a bed of delicately puckering cheese.

For me, the second favourite of recommended dishes – Shrimp and Tomato-Basil. Delicious. Sizable prawns surrounded by a generous helping of cherry tomatoes (which I’ve been missing from my frequent diet as quality tomatoes are fairly pricey here.) Lashings of basil leaves swimming in the oily cheese, which lay more than 5mm thick on the pizza. Of the dough, I can say nothing but praise – the base was as thin as a proper Italian pizza should be, but ballooning and spongy round the outside, with the underside of the pizza made even more yummy with the slight charring from the oven (or am I the only one who likes my pizza a little bit burnt underneath? Love it.)

What a treat! We’ve been looking forward to our pizza outing for weeks now. Price wise, we both had the medium size (1,400 Yen per pizza) and in my opinion the size was more than sufficient. A smaller size is available for 800 Yen and a large size (feeding 2-3 people – or one very hungry Celia) for 2,000 Yen. Other flavours available – Bismarck, Margarita, Shrimp and Avocado, 4 Cheeses, Piccante, Pepperoni, and finally, Yuzu and Chicken (which is the next on my hit-list.) Can’t wait for our next visit to Mia Pizza! If you want to visit their Facebook page… https://www.facebook.com/mia.pizza.jp

Kumamoto Castle

Konbanwa (good evening) from me in Kumamoto, where I’ve had a busy day off work filled with cleaning, cooking, visiting the market, etc. It’s gone 8 in the evening, and I’ve finally sat down to start the main task of the day – blogging. A woman’s work is never done, so they say.

On our last day off, we visited the Kumamoto Castle. This landmark is what Kumamoto is best known for, and it’s a popular tourist spot for both Japanese and foreign visitors. Anyone who visits Kumamoto heads straight for the castle – it’s a large attraction and we can even see it from our kitchen window. With our ‘Welcome to Kumamoto’ pack when we registered as residents here, there was a booklet of local sites with free or discounted rates, so we didn’t need to pay the 500 Yen entrance fee (less than £3 so a bargain at any rate.)

In 1467 the Ideta clan established fortifications in the area, and by 1588 what stood on the grounds was the earliest incarnation of Kumamoto Castle. In the early 1600’s the castle was greatly expanded, and was transformed to include 49 turrets, 18 turret gates and 29 smaller gates. Six different clans have controlled the castle since 1467. The castle is well known for its signature curved stone walls, known as musha-gaeshi, as well as wooden overhangs, which were designed to prevent attackers from penetrating the castle. The rocks are dark in colour which adds to the overall environment of the place - Kumamoto castle is big, black and imposing.

During the Seinan Rebellion of 1877, the main tower and main part of the castle were destroyed in a fire, the cause of which remains unknown. The main tower was rebuilt in 1960, and in 1998 there were extensive restoration works done on the castle, reinforcing the keep with concrete. The Iidamaru Five-Storied Tower was rebuilt in 2005, and in 2008 the Honmaru Goten Palace O-Hiroma Main Hall was rebuilt too.

We entered through the Akazuno Gate, which faces north-east. It’s believed in Japan that evil spirts come from the north-east, and so traditionally this door was kept shut to stop the evil spirits getting in (but we got in anyway, haha!) First impression inside the castle grounds was of the wide pathways and edges of green space everywhere. It’s certainly not a cramped abode! The entrance was up a small hill, and on a grassy patch there were some trees overlooking the city below. Many of the trees were thick with moss and grass which was growing out of the branches, and the grass on the ground was paved with moss too, giving a very ethereal and magical feel to the place.

There are 13 of the original buildings in the castle grounds that survived the fire, and the first we saw was the Hira Turret of the castle. In the turrets is where they would store weapons and military supplies, and they were used as stations for soldiers during time of unrest. We walked through the cherry blossom garden where the blossoms are just coming into flower. It’s still a few weeks until the traditional time for cherry blossoms, but the few that were scattered around the castle added some colour to the stony fort.

The original castle had six turrets that were five stories tall, and the replica of the Iidamaru turret was an interesting part of our visit. We had to remove our shoes inside the structure, and everywhere there were signs not to touch the walls. It looked like they had been made using traditional methods – the wooden beams were hand carved, and the walls looked ready to crumble at your touch. The turret windows opened out over the castle moat, with slanted walls as each floor shrunk in size. It was beautifully constructed and a highlight of the visit.

At the foot of the castle we sat for a while and watched the people in traditional dress pose for photographs with tourists. The men were dressed as samurai and had weapons to go with their armour. Later there was a short display in front of the castle – more of a dance routine than an example of sword-play, but the Japanese visitors seemed to like it.

Inside the main keep of Kumamoto Castle it was a six story climb to the top, but with several of the floors set out like a museum to display old artefacts, documents and photographs of the castle. From the top, even though it was a foggy day, we had a good view of Kumamoto city. It’s easy to forget that Kumamoto is a city rather than a town. The area we live in is so personal and quaint, and even in the centre of the city, you can find your way around quite easily. But Kumamoto spreads for miles, housing almost a million people. From the top of the castle, you can see the mist-covered hills on the horizon, and all the hundreds and thousands of buildings in-between.

So that’s our visit to Kumamoto Castle! When I have people come to visit, this will be the first place in my city I recommend they visit, and with my ‘Welcome to Kumamoto’ pass I’ll certainly be going again! I’d like to go when all the blossoms are out to see them flood the trees with colour, and with the castle being less than a 20 minute walk from my house, I could even squeeze in a visit before work one day! That’s all from me – sayonara. Oh, and to finish off – in tribute to pancake day – a pancake in the shape of Kumamoto Castle, with some shakily drawn Hiragana underneath spelling out Kumamoto: くまもと

Kon'nichiwa from Kumamoto

Kon'nichiwa from Kumamoto – what a busy bee I’ve been! Time has simply flown by and, just like that, I haven’t blogged in the last two months. Crazy! So what have I been up to? Well, late December and most of January were taken up in a whirlwind of travel. During a five week period, I took 10 flights. TEN flights! I can tell you honestly that I hope I won’t be airborne again for at least six months’ time! So what did this manic travel include? Well, over the Christmas period we left Tokyo for a 5 day trip to Kumamoto in Kyushu (the Southern island of Japan) in order for Sasha to meet his future employees and for us to go apartment hunting. This we duly did, and found a lovely apartment ready for us to move into in January. Then back to Tokyo (flights 1 and 2).

We had a few days in Tokyo to pack everything up, clean our teeny tiny little room, and bid farewell to the bustling metropolis that is the capital of Nippon. Overall impression of Tokyo? Well, as far as big cities go, it wasn’t too bad. True, I was not a fan of the subway system (nor with having a daily relationship with it!) or the crowds of people, sky scrapers and flashing neon lights. But there were some areas that were pleasant enough, and for the most part Tokyo was clean, its inhabitants friendly, and my overall experience – none too bad.

I flew back to London via Beijing (flights 3 and 4) and after a few days in another capital city, went on to Guernsey (flight 5). A week at home, then back to the UK (flight 6), a whistle-stop day trip to Bath for some last-chance catching up with friends before my return to the orient. We flew from London to Fukuoka airport, via Shanghai (flights 7 and 8) on January 10th. We arrived to Fukuoka late in the evening and spent the night there at a nearby hotel, and the next day got the bus to Kumamoto, our new home. Arriving too late to move in that day, we spent another night in a hotel (the Green Rich Hotel near Sasha’s work where we had stayed in December).

The next day, a mad flurry of activity as we moved into the new apartment (COMPLETELY bare of furniture) and had to go to Nitori (basically the Japanese Ikea) and buy some essential – like a futon, so we actually had somewhere to sleep that night! Feeling like we were finally settling in, we’d been in Kumamoto for less than a week when I was jet-setting again, for a two week training course in Tokyo (flights 9 and 10). Golly, golly gosh – what a busy month. So as you can tell, I’m now extremely pleased to be back in Kumamoto and just getting on with life!

Furniture wise, the place is starting to look a bit more padded out. Aside from the futon (which we have on the floor without a frame, and while it’s firm we find it rather comfortable) we also as of this week have a dining table to go with our four chairs (all second hand). No microwave or oven yet but we have a double ring gas stove with mini grill, a small fridge-freezer and a giant rice cooker that could have a jolly good go at feeding the five thousand. I’ve been putting my amateur DIY skills to use by utilizing all the cardboard boxes we acquired in moving by making furniture out of cardboard. We have a shoe rack, two bedside tables, and today I finished a small bookcase. All I need to do now is figure out how to make a sofa out of cardboard…

Last week, after getting back from my training session, I started work and am pleased to be getting into a routine. I’m working at a private language school similar to the one I worked at in China. I’ll be working from 1 – 9 on weekdays and 10 – 6 on weekends, teaching 50 minute English classes to kids aged 4 – 14, with no more than 6 kids per class. It’s a brand new school, with the opening ceremony this weekend. So at the moment – no students, no classes, no demos, just lots and lots of prep time! Over the past few days I’ve made hundreds of flashcards (without a guillotine so I have grooves and bruises on my hands from excessive use of scissors) and decorated the classrooms. I’m the only native teacher, and there are just two part-time Japanese teachers at the school. It’s small and personal, and the school owner is friendly and very accommodating. I think I’m going to enjoy my work a lot, and of course, a fifteen minute walk to work is roughly a million times better than spending 2 hours of my day on the subway in Tokyo!

That’s all for now – just a brief one to let you know that I haven’t disappeared; I’ve just been super busy and very much without the internet. But fingers crossed we’ll be sorting out Wifi in the next few days, and then I can blog to my heart’s content! Toodle pip for now – sayonara!

Hakone

Ohayō Gozaimasu! It’s almost Christmas (or at least, it was when I was writing this!) and despite the lights at the station and the festive-themed drinks advertised at Starbucks, I’m not feeling very Christmassy. It’s going to be a bit of an odd one this year – now that we’ve finished work, we’ll be taking a few days down in Kumamoto, the city where we’ll be living next year. The holiday will be mostly logistical – finding an apartment, meeting new colleagues, discovering the area etc. Plus given the fact that we’ll be flying back to Tokyo on the 25th, Christmas has been postponed. We’ll do something special on the 26th / 27th (mainly watching the whole Raymond Briggs collection) and then family celebrations when we get back to the UK at the end of the year. So yeah, that’s the plan for the next few weeks.


Now back to my belated blogs. A few weeks ago, we took a weekend trip to Hakone. The city is in the Kanagawa prefecture (the same prefecture I live in) and is about an hour and a half from central Tokyo. We set off early in the morning, and after several train changes we arrived at Miyanoshita. It was quite surreal, stepping off the crowded little carriage onto a deserted platform, and glancing around to see yourself surrounded by forest. The station was charming, and the sea of dried leaves that had collected on the tracks gave it an abandoned feel. Crossing the tracks we walked out of the gate, the attendant not checking anyone’s tickets. We had purchased the Hakone Free Pass ticket – a two day pass for just under 900 Yen that gave us free travel on all Hakone transport.

Down a steep hill we found a town without much to it. There were a few swanky hotels, and aside from the main road running through the centre, that was it. We looked around for somewhere quiet to eat our packed lunch and stumbled upon the Hakone Shrine. Set into the hills and overlooking a sweeping valley thick with forest, it was very picturesque. It was the last week of November, and the trees were such brilliant colours it’s almost impossible to describe them. Autumnal colours filled my camera lens – crimson, burgundy, auburn, ginger, amber, canary, olive and khaki. It was like the hillside was on fire, a polka-dot array of hues merging together. Aside from the sheer range of colours, the overwhelmingly stunning appearance of the Japanese Maple leaves is enough to draw photographers far and wide to the region.

We took a winding route back towards the train station down lanes still damp with the last rain. The train tracks rumbled overhead as the convoy of little compartments passed in a flurry of crisp leaves and rustling foliage. On our travels through the quiet pathways, we found a small clearing that was completely overgrown, thick with brambles and weeds. Sticking out of the wilderness were two wooden plaques, the lumber badly cracked with the signs leaning at uncanny angles, like tombstones in an ancient graveyard. They informed us that this pitiful plot was the site of the ‘000 Library’, founded in the late 1800’s by pioneer Japanologist Basil Hall Chamberlain, and destroyed by a fire in 1945. Chamberlain was from England, and went to Japan after suffering a nervous breakdown from working in a London bank. He taught at the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy in Tokyo, but is better known for his work at the Tokyo Imperial University, where he gained his reputation as a student of Japanese language and literature. He wrote several books, but none more popular than his informal encyclopaedia called Things Japanese. The library, situated next to the swanky Fujiya Hotel (which existed in Chamberlains day and was apparently where he stayed for most of his time in Japan) was basically his personal book collection, but judging by the plot of land it’s supposed to have been situated on, it must have been a rather small assortment.

Going back to the train station, we climbed up the steep hill which starts on Tokai road. Near the top, we stopped off at a little café we had seen on the way down, drawn to it not only by the lure of hot beverages, but of a hot foot bath. This part of Japan is famous for its onsen (hot springs) and this little café had pools of clear water, several inches deep, underneath the long dining-hall style table. Patrons order their food and drink inside, then find a space at the table as they wait to be served. The water was very warm indeed – naturally hot – and it was a delicious feeling. Coupled with a tall glass of hot, sweet Yuzu tea (Yuzu being a Japanese fruit that is like a cross between a lemon and a grapefruit) it was a lovely way to relax after our walk.

Mid-afternoon and back onto the train, and a few stops down the line we arrived at Gora. This little town was much nicer than the previous one – we didn’t see much of it but at least it was more than one main road! Gora was just the stop-off point for us to change to a local bus, but as it was still not too late in the day we decided to look around. Walking up a very steep hill, we passed a beer vending machine – the first we’d seen in Japan, though of course we expected to see them all over the place. Interesting to note that it was actually located outside an off-license. At the top of the hill we found ourselves at the entrance of the Gora Park, and as entrance was free with our Hakone Free Pass, we elected to look around. The trees looked magnificent in the early-evening light, and all the more colourful for the glow illuminating them. We went into the greenhouses, which boasted all kinds of flowers and plants (as well as pineapples growing on the ground) and also had a quick look at the Craft House – an art shop where you can also pay for classes to try your hand at glass blowing, flower arranging and pottery.

Our final leg of travel for the day - a bus up to Sengokuhara. Again, another delightful little town – just a shame that we couldn’t stay for longer. Something that made us laugh – even in this tiny little town, we managed to find two Lawson’s convenience stores, just a stone’s throw from each other. With a population of just over 4,000 people, it was a nice little town, though obviously geared at tourism. There were lots of things to do there, including plenty of museums: The Little Prince and Saint-Exupéry Museum, Hakone Venetian Glass Museum, the Lalique Museum and the Pola Museum of Art. Sadly we didn’t have time to visit any of these, as we were far too busy enjoying our onsen!


We were staying at the Fuji-Hakone Guest House (http://fujihakone.com/en/). On Trip Advisor it ranks #1 of B&Bs in Hakone-machi, a title that it well deserves. As it was a holiday weekend (resulting in extra charges) it was not the cheapest accommodation option, but well worth the price for the location and the service. The rooms were of the traditional Japanese style, with futon beds resting on padded tatami mats. Our room was simply decorated with a charming print of ninja’s scaling a castle wall, and on our bed we found yukata – the comfy robes people wear, especially when using an onsen.


The use of the indoor onsen (hot spring) was free with the room, and for 500 Yen you could book to use the outdoor onsen. The water comes from the nearby Owakudani Volcano. It is geothermally heated, and the onsen at the guesthouse contains minerals including sulfate, calcium, magnesium, and chloride and has a very strong acidity level with a pH of 2.9. The smell in the small, misty room is very overpowering, and coupled with the immense heat it is easy to become dizzy in the bathing room.

Because of the high acidity levels (and according to tradition) you can’t wear clothes or accessories in an onsen – they become easily corroded and colours fade in the water. Guests wanting to use the onsen book a timeslot to use the room privately for 30 minutes, but in public hot springs it’s communal, though usually gender divided. In Japan it has long been believed that use of a hot spring can alleviate certain ailments, such as muscle ache, stiffness in joints, bruises, sprains, intolerance to cold and many others besides.


Using the onsen was the part of the holiday I looked forward to most, and at first I was a little disappointed to discover I would only be able to use the hot spring for 30 minutes. However, having not used a natural hot spring before, I was soon to learn that 30 minutes in there would be more than sufficient – in fact, I began to feel I’d had enough after only 15 or 20 minutes. Before use, patrons must wash themselves, making sure to rinse off all soap and hair products so as not to pollute the spring water. The room was filled with whorls of steam, made all the more noticeable as the hot vapours clashed with the cold air outside. Stepping into the onsen, my foot was instantly enveloped in a tingly, fleetingly-painful sensation. I can’t remember the exact temperature of the water, but it was certainly very hot! Fresh water that was fed into the pool through the lion’s head spout was so hot that you couldn’t touch it directly until it had mixed with the cooler water. Rather than getting used to the temperature, I found that the water felt increasingly warmer and warmer – and as such the window that opened into a small walled garden was pulled back farther and farther. After 20 minutes (and feeling a little light-headed) I tentatively made my way out of the pool and back to the shower where I rinsed off the sulphuric smelling water. As for the healing qualities of the water, I can concur that after my hot spring experience I felt very relaxed, as did my muscles, and my skin felt very clean and smooth. We enjoyed the onsen so much that we got up early the next day to use it before breakfast. If I lived near an onsen, I would certainly make an effort to visit regularly in the hopes of long-term health benefits. The Japanese are such healthy people and they live to such a ripe old age – if they say the hot spring is good for you, I’m convinced it must be so!


One of the best things about the Fuji-Hakone Guest House was how helpful the service was, in a variety of ways. As Sengokuhara is quite a small town, we worried about finding somewhere good for dinner, but it turned out our fears were in vain. At the guest house, we were given a portfolio of local restaurants, complete with map, summaries, opening times and English menus. Amazing. There were several good restaurants listed, but we plumped for the Chinese ‘pot-sticker’ restaurant (pot-sticker being a strange mistranslation of dumplings.)


The China House restaurant (http://chinahouse.web.fc2.com/) specialised in dumplings which were a cross between the Chinese Jiǎozi and the Japanese Gyōza. I had the ‘corn pot sticker set’ which included six sweetcorn and meat dumplings, rice, miso soup and pickles (1,050 Yen) and Sasha had the ‘Chinese noodles set’ (1,250 Yen) which included four plain dumplings, rice, pickles and noodles (which were served in a soup with a generous helping of hearty slices of meat.) It was just a small, basic restaurant but with a warm, family feel. The waitress was jolly and even with being located sort of in the middle of nowhere, there were several families enjoying themselves in the restaurant. The prices were very reasonable and it was lovely to eat some Chinese food again – a wonderful surprise on our Hakone trip.

The next morning (after an invigorating day-break onsen) we left the sleepy town of Sengokuhara and were travelling once more. A bus back down the winding hills to Gora, then we joined the queue for the funicular tram heading up to Sounzan. We went early to beat the crowds, and although I’ll admit the line behind us was much longer than the line in front of us, the tram was still packed. We chugged up the hill, stopping as several stations where a few people tried, mostly in vain, to get on the tram. Reaching Sounzan we were greeted by a dramatic view, which we enjoyed momentarily before getting back into the queue for the next part of the journey (all covered by the Hakone Free Pass.)


The cable car queue was fairly long, but worth it for the experience of floating high above the hills through the mountainous terrain. Once again we were treated to a majestic display of colours on the trees below, with a clear blue sky edging all our photographs. After the obligatory scenery shots, I was busily photographing my bottle of Koiwai coffee (my favourite brand of milky bottled coffee) when a passenger behind me gave an almighty gasp, and I turned around to sounds of much commotion. As we rose over the hill, Mount Fuji had come into perfect view, and all travellers on the cable car were scrabbling for the iPhones, iPads and cameras to capture the sight. It really did burst out of nowhere – remarkably so given the size of it – and the vista was a splendid thing to behold. I also made sure to take a good bird’s eye view shot of the scene below of ridges cut into the hills with steam billowing all around.

The valley at Owakudani is relentlessly simmering and belching our vapour, caused by a volcanic eruption that happened three thousand years ago. There are lava formations all over the place, and a winding pathway leads you through the geothermally heated waters to malodourous pools where eggs are boiled until the shells turn black. As is traditional for tourists, we bought a box and tentatively peeled back the chalky black shell to reveal… an egg. The taste was almost entirely unaltered, and the smoky hint I detected was probably just in my mind. Not really being a fan of boiled eggs in the first place, I wasn’t very impressed. However, the ethereal mist that came tumbling down dusty bleached rocks and pampas grass with the milky warm waters was something truly spectacular, and it looked very other-worldly.

After pootling around and taking lots more photos of Mount Fuji, we got back into the cable car queue and sailed down to Togendai, the last stop and the northern edge of Lake Ashi. After a mediocre and overpriced lunch at the only restaurant in the area, we hopped on board the Hakone Sightseeing Cruise. The boats are modelled after the seventeenth-century man-o’-war (a ship armed with cannons and propelled primarily by sails) and they looked equally charming and tacky at the same time. Over thirty minutes the boat crossed the lake, stopping first at Hakone-machi and then our stop, Moto-Hakone. We had a short rest at the lakeside before setting off on the Sukumo River Nature Trail.

The hike, which was steep in an uphill direction to begin with and then steep in a downhill direction after that, was a pleasantly quiet passageway through the dark forest, which got increasingly dark as the evening drew in. It probably would have been sensible to cut the walk short earlier than we did, as by the end we were treading carefully by the pitiful light of my mobile phone. When we did come to the end of the path, that was another mistake altogether – by this point along the road, the bus was already full and had no room for other passengers. When we had been waiting for 30 minutes or so in the cold and the dark, and the bus pulled up only to tell us ‘no room, wait for next bus’ we were furious. Thankfully, it seemed that the driver called the office and they put on another bus for as, as the bus that eventually did pull up to the stop (which was, by the way, in the middle of no-where) was completely empty. So we thawed out on the bus to the station, and after that caught trains for an hour and a bit until we were safely back in Shin-Yurigaoka.


What a trip! Hakone was delightful – even though it was a holiday and fairly busy at the tourist spots, we had a relaxing, peaceful time, thoroughly enjoying our onsen experience and our wonderful guesthouse. With so many museums in the area (some reasonably priced, some certainly not!) it’s an area that I could visit for a week without getting bored of the peace and quiet. As its quite out of the way, and my time in the Tokyo area is coming to a close, sadly I don’t foresee another visit for quite some time, but the area come highly recommended and it’s certainly worth the effort of getting there. Thinking back to being stranded on the side of that bloomin’ mountain in the cold, and how stressed and annoyed we were at the time, I’m happy to reflect that it didn’t mar the enjoyment of the holiday, and I will always look back on Hakone fondly. That’s all for now – sayonara!