Kumamoto

We started the day by going over to Kumamoto Castle. On the way there I got some pictures of interesting things. Here's a wood carving inside a road tunnel, which really classed it up. The fact that the tunnel didn't smell of urine also helped elevate it above car tunnels back home.

 Here's a pair of tanuki, letting it all hang out.

 This little baby tanuki is all wrapped up.

 Shop signs.

 Here's the photos at Kumaoto Castle.

 Large portions of the castle were damaged in an earthquake in 2016. There's an ongoing restoration project.

 There was a central hub bustling with people and vendors. A stark contrast to the rest of the city, which was basically like a ghost town. New Year's is the biggest holiday of the year, after all.

 Here's Kato shrine. There was a truly overwhelming number of people coming to do the new year's shrine visit.

 In the middle there you can see Higomaru, the castle mascot of the restoration project.

Here's the fancy Kumamoto manhole cover.

 Here's a little vendor's alley.

 There were some neat Japanese things on sale.

 This is Kumamoto's Suizenji Park. A pretty unique space with exotic-looking trees and rolling hills covered in yellow grass that you're not allowed to walk on.

 For dinner we went to a restaurant specializing in chicken. Here's a raw oyako-don. It's like an oyako-don, but the egg and chicken are both raw. It was very different from the cooked kind.

 Sizzling chicken thigh.

Here's a tray of horse sashimi. Horse meat is a Kumamoto specialty.

 And this is just a salad, but it sure was good. I miss being able to eat salad frequently.