just to pass the time: Golden week holiday 2011 Part 6 (Sasebo burger & Yanagawa Unagi)

Tuesday 28 June 2011

Golden week holiday 2011 Part 6 (Sasebo burger & Yanagawa Unagi)

1st May 2011 (Labour day in many countries, but in Japan, Labour Thanksgiving Day is celebrated on 23rd of November)

Today, the 3rd day of my holiday. We went to Sasebo (a city of Nagasaki). We planned to see the view of the islands from the many observatories. According to Chu, from the aerial view, there are 99 islands off the sea, so it's called the 99 islands or 九十九島. However, again we were not in luck, the fog was very thick that morning and from the observatory, the only thing we could see was whitish fog. There are around 8 platforms, but we covered four observatories only. After around 10 am, the fog subsided a bit and we finally got to see the view of the islands. So the lesson learned from this was in order to see the view, one must read the weather forecast first!

the islands view of Sasebo

the fog blocked the visibility

There are 8 observation platforms for the 99 islands

After that, we drove to Sasebo City Centre for the famous Sasebo burger. I had a pork burger, quite delicious. Then, we went to Arita to visit the ceramic market. However, the local touts have taken all the public parking lots and it was very expensive to park there, even the house owners in that area were opening up their house porch for rent. We decided not to be threaten by the touts and decided to go to Arita Porcelain Park instead.

The 'Big man' sasebo burger

my first Pork burger

Arita Ceramic Market

The entry to the park was free and there was a replica of Zwinger Palace. There were stalls selling ceramic wares also. There was a baking shop and the bread was very special, it contained alcohol. I ate one, and didn't know how to describe the taste, but it was not bad. There were also ceramic making classes and an old kiln. I bought お土産 (souvenir) here, and since me and Chu's total purchase was over 2000 yen, we got a chance for a lucky draw. The gift was a cigarette ashtray. Since it would be inconvenient for Chu to keep that ashtray, I got the ashtray instead. Now, it is sitting on my table becoming the cup holder to protect my table from being damaged by the moisture of the cold water and heat from the coffee.

a museum inside the Porcelain Park

the replica of a palace in the park

the antique kiln that potters used to make china ware

After that, we went to Yanagawa, Fukouka to have our dinner. Yanagawa is very famous with Unagi rice 鰻 (eel). We ordered a set of eel rice each. Each cost around 2000 yen, but it was very delicious, the juice of the eel sipped into the rice and every mouthful of rice was so flavourful. Worth every yen. Before the dinner, we walked around the Yanagawa canal, very beautiful view, they kept a very nice garden. After having a sumptuous meal, we went to Kumamoto and Chu stayed in my apartment, while Tee stayed in Jack apartment.