Searching for Sushi in the Slow Lane - Days One & Two

Tuesday we were in Yatsushiro, Japan.  After yet another nice sail in, we took the shuttle bus into town.

Our original thought was to visit the Kumamoto Castle.  However it was an hour away by taxi and, due to a time constraint that I'll explain later, we opted to just walk around Yatsushiro.  The shuttle dropped us near the Yatsushiro Castle.

Our first objective was to find an ATM to get some Yen.  When we first visited Japan 14 years ago, we had difficulty finding an ATM that took American cards.  We finally found an ATM in a Seven Eleven that worked.  I had read that things had improved, but not so much.  One of the local greeters suggested that we use the ATM at the City Hall.  No luck there but we did come upon either a protest or a political rally.

We then walked down to the covered shopping street. 

We eventually found a bank but, again, no luck with the ATM.  Walking back to the castle, we passed a large grocery store with an ATM.  Guess what - no luck again!  Ultimately, I just exchanged some US dollars at an exchange at the Port.

Before returning to the ship, we did a quick visit to the castle which was basically a reconstruction from the original ruins.  Not very impressive.

The time constraint we had was a cooking class on the ship.  It was, appropriately, the Passport to Asia class.  The class was a bit of a disappointment in that it was short and we did very little actual prep or cooking.  But the Pad Thai we made was good!

The sail away from Yatsushiro included a local performance and a nice setting sun.

Wednesday our port of call was Naze (Amami Oshima Island).  Another nice sail-in greeted us with beautiful weather.  Temps were in the mid-60's in the afternoon and the sun was shining.

In the late morning, we took the shuttle bus into downtown Naze which dropped us at the Tourist Info Office.  We inquired about sushi restaurants and the locals suggested two.  The more highly recommended one was a bit of a walk so we opted to walk down the shopping street and head for the other one which was on the way back to the ship.

After once again doing a little browsing and no shopping, we made our way to the restaurant which, much to our chagrin, had a sign out indicating that it was closed for lunch that day.

And so, we decided to walk back to the ship for lunch.  We passed a nice park area whose main function was to serve as an emergency evacuation site.

                                        

Linda was a real trouper and raised her walking sticks in triumph when we made it back.

We enjoyed visiting Naze much more than Yatsushiro.  It just seemed to have more charm and the locals were very friendly.  We even had a woman stopped at a traffic light lower her window and ask us if we were enjoying her city. We enjoyed our slow walk.  The island is heavily forested but it comes with a warning to beware of the venomous Habu snake in the forest.  Just another reason to enjoy the slow lane on city streets.  

Tomorrow we will be in Naha Okinawa where we might defer our search for Sushi in favor of street foods by the market.

Peace and blessings,

Linda and Larry