Cycled the Shimanami Kaido, and Yamaguchi, Saga, Nagasaki etc.

[rbjhan]

Back up to the Old Mitsubishi building, went inside and climbed up to level 2.
WOW


This was outside the gate, towards the lift.


Glover Garden is my favourite place in Nagasaki.

 

[rbjhan]

Final stop of the day!

Nagasaki City Hall Observation Deck
Clearly not too many people know about this place...


The view was really not bad




So the top 3 night views in Japan (officially designated) are:
Mt Hakodate, Nagasaki (Mt Inasa) and Kobe (Mt Maya).
I haven't been to Kobe yet but the other two are indeed very nice, even though the Nagasaki photos were not from Mt Inasa.

 

[rbjhan]

Back to Hilton, hey it's 9pm, so I made it to the public bath.
It is on level 6, same as my room - the big blank space there is the bath and gym.




Hilton had posted two staff at the entrance, probably why the hours were so limited.
(Most business hotels can manage with zero....)
So what do they do? Hand you the towels, plus assign lockers. I was so confused, why was this necessary?
Then I remembered this was Hilton...likely many of their guests have never been to a Japanese bath - they are there to answer any questions probably.

The bath was nothing fancy, just like any other business hotel, but it did the job.

Back to my room, Friday 10pm, time for one of my favourite tv programs!
NHK's "Document 72 Hours", highly recommended! NHK World has some available with English subtitles and voiceover.

 

[rbjhan]

The Japanese have this fascination of "Top 3", they have so many different rankings of Top 3 something....
Of course there are also the top 3 bridges!
Nihonbashi in Tokyo, Kintaikyo in Yamaguchi which I visited earlier, and Menagebashi in Nagasaki.

This one really didn't look like much though!


Not quite sure I get it either....


So many bridges on this river!

 

[rbjhan]

Next up is one of the Top 3 Chinatown in Japan
Nagasaki Shinchi Chukagai (The other two are in Kobe and Yokohama)


The area between Chinatown and Meganebashi seems to be the major shopping district in Nagasaki.


They were queueing for a famous Chawamushi restaurant, at 11am!


I went to this place...


Ah yes, another work by Kuma Kengo!
So this was a Nagasaki Castella shop. Castella is a local variety of honey sponge cake, how did it become a Nagasaki specialty? I have no idea
Since I was here already, bought some as souvenirs.

 

[rbjhan]

Back onto the train.
Found some interesting seats on the Ltd Exp from Takeo onsen to Hakata....I wonder why no one was sitting here...No this was not the green car.


Arrived at my home in Fukuoka. 3pm is the offcial check in time and this was 2.30pm. I knew better than to ask for early check in and whine when got told no, when in Rome...

Put my bag in the self serve locker room and went for lunch.
Found a Gyutan place in the shopping centre across the street.


Back to the hotel.
Nishitetsu Croom Hotel Hakata Gion Kushida Jinja Mae (what an impossible name! Hated it so much when I was filling out the t-q-bin form )

The room came with washing machine and microwave! (only the type I booked)


Also a mini kitchen


It's a bit on the small side.
But honestly after my London hotel I will never complain about sizes again


Window was frosted on the bottom half as there were some low buildings outside....Hilton Nagasaki needs to learn this trick!

 

[rbjhan]

Booked a hairdresser for 4pm.
I got a haircut plus 15 mins head massage for 7000 Yen, and that's the weekend price.
The service was so much better than anything I could find at home as well....As soon as I sat down he gave me a cushion (to rest your hands on it while playing with the phone)...some gauze like fabric was placed on the face during shampooing to prevent water and products getting on...etc.
**They also offer English translation service for an additional fee.

I chatted with the stylist, he's maybe too prefessional wanted to know what's the most popular style in Melbourne...how would I know such a thing.....told him how much things would cost here instead.
He was quite shocked when I said a bottle of water from vending machines is about 400 Yen

How‘s the haircut? I liked it very much. Problem is, he spent 30 mins blow drying, plus used the iron...I'm not sure I can re-produce that at home!