This place had a ludicrous happy hour deal, essentially boiling down to $2 whisky highballs and lemon sours, sub-$2 for five grilled homemade gyoza, and just a wee bit over $2 for a draft beer.
Naturally they were as good as any gyoza I've had in my life.
Here is my Tabelog check-in
I've done a lot of castles in Japan, but after the 2016 earthquake, I really had no idea what to expect from Kumamoto-jo. The degree to which the restoration project has seemingly made the castle more accessible to the general public is really impressive.
You can tell something is up when you walk the massive sky bridge from the castle town to the structure itself. When you enter the castle, the amount of modern infrastructure present—from steel beams supporting the stonework to drywall and air conditioning—is a little overwhelming. All-in-all, it's a really cool 2-3 hour diversion, but prepare for a lot of walking!
Yoshoku is often mistaken for simply meaning "Western food" in Japan, but it's really it's own genre, with its own distinct vibe and standard menu. Walking into a great yoshoku place feels like entering an alternate Western history, if that makes any sense.
Anyway, this place has a great ハンバーグ(hamburger steak), which is not to be confused with a ハンバーガー(hamburger sandwich).
See my Tabelog check-in here.
Just booked our ferry tickets for the overnight, 27-hour boat ride from Kyushu to Okinawa for RubyKaigi. Can't wait to see everyone Tuesday night! aline-ferry.com
Taking ferries in Japan is an entertaining diversion, especially as an American who didn't grow up around islands. We really enjoyed this three hour excursion as we traveled from one onsen town in Shikoku (Matsuyama) to another one in Kyushu (Beppu).
Also fun was the random Suzume film propwork created to promote the port's appearance as the main character traveled to Ehime.
I get that Apple needed to switch to the cheaper TSMC process and that's the real reason they're launching the M4 now, but as someone who just paid $5000 for an M2 Vision Pro and an M3 MacBook Air, it feels pretty shitty that a thousand dollar iPad is so much faster.
The onsen hotel we're staying at is equipped with four of these bad boys and as long as I've got this chair in my life I'm not sure I'll have need for human touch ever again panasonic.jp/massage/p-db/EP-MA88M.html
Famed as the oldest onsen (hot springs) bath in Japan, it's relatively tiny and cramped by today's standards, but it was cool to check it off the bucket list. The little onsen town that's grown up around this main building were definitely worth a visit, especially if you're a fan of Studio Ghibli's "Spirited Away", as this onsen was apparently among their artistic inspirations.
If you go, I'd recommend staying where we did, at Dogokan (道後館) hotel.
