Japan 2023 Day 9: Takachiho Gorge

Hakata Baumstick. Never had it before. Woke up early. I had spent the night before booking buses for Takachiho on the Willer express website. Good thing I went early to the bus stop at Nishitetsu Tnejin although google maps told me that the bus stop was very near.

I was running around for 20 minutes looking for this Nishitetsu Tenjin bus stop no 6 when I realised that the bus stop I was looking for was not on the side of the road but on the 2nd floor of the Nishitetsu building! 

Waiting at the Nishitetsu bus stop. There were combinis at the bus stop and I got Lawson nuggets for a quick breakfast. Forgot to mention on big change is that you have to pay for plastic bags everywhere now. Good way to get rid of five 1 yen coins though. It was a nearly 4 hour bus ride to Takachiho bus centre from Fukuoka and it cost 4020 yen.

Not the first time I had done long distance bus. I did Tokyo to Nagoya using Willer before and it was very confortable and had a tv. The above picture is somewhere on the halfway point for a toilet break and for snacks from a konbini.

Kumamon goods from the bus stop konbini.

The bus had its own toilet and was rather comfortable. I was reading Duranki on the way and the art was great but story was boring. Bus has arrived at Takachiho after 4 hours!

Took me a while to figure out how to get to the Gorge because there were not obvious signs around the bus centre even with the sightseeing map.

I see the Takachiho shrine so definitely on the right path. Will do gorge first because I have limited time until I have to get on the return bus and the sun was pretty strong.

After 20 minutes of walking I am feeling close. Just had to walk down winding roads and hope I don't get hit by a car.

This looks promising.

I have a feeling I am not in Kansas anymore.

The views just gets better and better.

You can see the boat house in the picture. Unfortunately the wait time for the boathouse was 2 hours and no way I am waiting 2 hours. Looks like some people reserved from the website and I recommend you do that before going to Takachiho.

You can still walk along the gorge to enjoy the views.

Beautiful waterfall.

The first wow moment when you cannot believe what you are seeing.

Even the way the sun reflects on the waterfall and how green the momiji is is unreal. Can't imagine how it looks from down there.

There are plenty of stalls at Takachiho Gorge. I wanted some meat to eat but it was mostly sweets.

And somen noodles on the water slide just like in anime!

Koi in the pond.

Different angle of the gorge.

Too bad the area on the right is still under construction.

Gorge from a closer view.

Takachiho Gorge is amazing but Geibikei is better IMO especially because Takachiho Gorge is not that long compared to Geibikei.

I was hungry and went back towards Takachicho Shrine and saw this poor dog sleeping in the sun.

Next to the shrine entrance was this karaage shop called Oh My God. (you can see the katakana on top of the kanji) I vote this the best name for a karaage shop ever especially being in front of a shrine.

Godly karaage..... When in Japan always bring plastic bags for rubbish or give it back to the shop after you finish eating.

Time to explore the shrine!

There was someone doing archery next to the shrine!

I ended up walking 20 minutes to Aratate Shrine.

I think I got an amulet from this shrine and it was honour system put 500 yen in coin box.

Behind the Aratate shrine. 

Went back to bus centre and took a 3 hour plus bus to Kumamoto. Why Kumamoto and not Fukuoka? Because I wanted to save 1500 yen on the bus and take the shinkansen back to Hakata. Unfortunately because the bus was cheaper it also was not as comfortable.

I may have saved 1500 yen but it was not worth the suffering. Should have taken the same bus back to Fukuoka.

I had Hakata Ikkousha at Hakata station and it was underwhelming. FYI the name of the city is Fukuoka, the main station is Hakata and the ramen is called Hakata tonkotsu ramen when mean pork bone.

Takachiho is beautiful but the 8 hours just travelling is punishing. Learned my lesson to not skimp on buses! There are also plenty of areas in Takachiho that I did not get to like Kunimigaoka observatory. I think better to stay overnight at Takachiho and take one's time exploring. Ideally a car would be best because the attractions are quite far apart.

Japan 2023 Day 8: Berserk Exhibition in Fukuoka

Woke up next day to see Sakamoto Yuji and Koreeda on tv promoting Kaibutsu. The weird thing is that the trailer for the movie shown in cinema has the actors explaining the story. It feels like the producers are worried the general Japanese audience would not be excited for the movie if it were a normal trailer. You have some of the greatest talents in jdorama/movieland in this Kaibutsu, if your average Japanese cinemagoer can't get excited, then there is no hope. The Japanese government should sponsor me to fly back to Japan next month to watch the movie!

Took train to Shin Osaka so I could catch the Shinkansen to Hakata station. One new change for Shinkansen is that people with oversized bags ie over 160cm must reserve their seats so that the bags are put at the back of the seats instead on the overhead sections. 160cm means the total length of the 3 dimensions of your bag.

The trailer for Creed 3 was Michael B Jordan saying how much he loved anime including Naruto.

Eating gyoza from 551 Horai. It is my tradition to buy something from the Shin Osaka store every time. I regret not buying the 551 Horai shirts from Uniqlo though because it is limited to Osaka and is cheap.

Off to Shinshin for lovely tonkotsu.

I am ready to eat real tonkotsu everyday for a week in Kyushu!

The main reason for the timing of my trip was the Berserk Exhibition in Fukuoka. The exhibition has been going around the country the past 2 years and was last in Sapporo. My problem was there was no official news of it being in Fukuoka 5 months before except for one website that said it would likely be coming to Fukuoka around April and May. 

Branded to enter the exhibition. I booked my trip for the first 3 weeks of March and it was only after the Berserk exhibition twitter confirmed the Fukuoka dates that I could start to contact friends to see if they could catch up.

I was staying in Tenjin and the exhibition was close by. You could not take pictures for most of the exhibit.

If there is one fictional character I hate, it is Griffith. I love Berserk. I could reread the manga and rewatch the animes again and again.

Prime 1 Zodd figure is amazing in real life. I have seen a lot of pictures but when he is in front of you, its something else. The writing says "unescapable death will come for you!"

I wish I had the money and the room to house these figures. "Death will come visit you"

Incredibly amazing. I wanted to see Prime 1 statues in Tokyo and google told me there were at Marui Shinjuku but obviously there are no longer there.

The Art of War figures.

Art of War for a long time was the only company making Berserk statues but their prices are just crazy.

Casca Prime 1. Before the shops at the end there was a video running with Miura sensei being interviewed. It was sad because there hasn't been any videos of him until this exhibition and now he is gone.

There was also a table where fans could draw and leave message and a did a quick sketch of guts and said I came from Australia for this and thanked Studio Gaga and Mori for continuing the manga.

I was getting emails from blogger last night telling me more than 10 posts have been put behind a warning for readers. This picture might end up getting a warning.

There was a scary set up of the eclipse with the 5 god hands and it was creepy as hell. Too bad pictures were not allowed and they have people watching.

You have no idea how many hours I have spent thinking about whether I should get this Prime1 Guts when it came out years ago but I never pulled the trigger. I have watched every youtube video of this statue.

Too late now but he is just amazing in person.

Skullknight statue. I think this was Art of War.

Giant Zodd that a lot of Berserk fans have seen online.

Prime1 Isidro. His face looks a bit weird. The Prime1 interpretation is different from the manga but Isidro doesn't look good. 

Prime1 Schierke looks better.

Nothing more peaceful than a village of Pucks.

Dragon slayer at the entrance of exhibit.

The t-shirts were crazy expensive. The Prime1 shirt on the left was the cheapest at 3000 yen but unfortunately the L size was more like an S so thanks for wasting my money Prime1! Get your bloody sizes right. The middle one is a long sleeve shirt 5500 yen and the Zodd t-shirt was 4400 yen.

Two acrylic dioramas. They were 3850 yen each.

Doranki, Berserk magnet a set of pins.  The Griffith pin had two images depending on your angle looking at it. Wished some of the goods weren't so crazy expensive especially the Vanquish collaboration stuff and 4950 yen Puck shirts. The entrance fee was already 1700 yen. Very expensive being a Berserk fan and I spent 26760 yen total.

When people think about Fukuoka, its the river, bridges and yatais (stalls).

Unfortunately I had broken the handle for my luggage bag. I tried super glue from Tokyu Hands but it was no use. Super glue can't hold up 30kg. I was always gung ho about carrying my luggage up stairs instead of looking for escalators or a lift. I guess the bag finally paid the price.

Went to Surugaya and was staring at Soviet Strike. I don't think its a good game but that is a good price. Didn't get anything in the end since I would be Fukuoka for a week.

Went to Yakitori Makotochan near my hotel for dinner.

They have an interesting order system where you have to write your order on a paper and give it to them. Fun for me and luckily the guy could read my writing. You can see at the background the grill where the guy is grilling the yakitoris. If you have seen Konya wa Konoji de S2, its the same style yakitori place.

I ordered tempura and this appeared. 

Yakitoris, torikawa and butabara (pork belly). I am so effing hungry right now and I just had lunch.

Went back to hotel, not this one pictured, read up on Takachiho and booked some buses.