Uchiko or the incarnation of kindness

The next day, we had to plan things to do on our own, since our friends were working. Our original plan was to go to Beppu for the day, but the ferry takes 3 hours in each direction and since we had to pass through there anyway to go to Fukuoka, our next stop, we decided to stay in the area and at our friends' advice, go to Uchiko.

Uchiko is 25 minutes away by train, and there is a train every hour, so we took our time in the morning, especially since it was snowing so hard. Talia asked for a snow day, to which Rony replied, "Sure, we can be outside in the snow all day!" Not what Talia meant...

We took our train tickets, not without saying hello to Kei's friend who works at the train station (see previous post) and went to see this small town. We didn't expect much, but from what we were told, it's a cute little town with traditional streets and a few attractions there. It was perfect for us.

On the train, we took a few pictures of the beautiful surroundings: Everything was covered with snow.

Since it's a small, local train, the controller asked us where we were from and what we were doing. So we explained that we liked the view and we took a few pictures. So he told us that there is a nice castle we will soon pass and that we should take a photo. He explained which side of the train we will see it on so we were prepared and could take that photo:

And he also offered to take a picture of us:

We keep being amazed by the people here. In the most remote places we have incredible experiences and we're surprised by their kindness.

After saying goodbye to our nice guide/controller, we started walking toward the main street. We received a free map of the town at the station, with explanations in English, and we were off.

Just off topic for a moment, we'd like to say that the tourism office in Japan is great: Most of the places we've been to have explanations in English, every little town has some information in English about the places to go and how to get there. And if that's not enough, everybody is very helpful when you ask for directions. Even if they don't know a word of English.

On our way to the main road, an old couple in a car started to ask us if we need help. We knew more or less where we were going, but the couple insisted on helping us and pulled over. We'd like to reiterate that it was snowing. They got out of the car and asked us where we were from, what we wanted to see and looked at our map. Of course all this in Japanese. They started to tell us where to go and how to get there, and then they just offered to give us a lift to the closest attraction, the Kabuki theatre.

Good Samaritans: the old lady help us find the kabuki theatre

They were incredibly sweet and kind. We've never seen anything like this. Maybe it was because there was no one there, especially Western tourists. The city looked empty of residents and visitors alike. But we liked it. We could enjoy the place as if it was our own, and we could appreciate the music that was playing in the street: We first thought it was coming from a car or a house, but they have speakers set up all along the street and music like in a theme park was playing all the time.

And in a way we felt like we were in a theme park, with all the typical and traditional houses, the small stores, and the mountain view.

We arrived to our first attraction, the Kabuki theatre. We first thought it was closed, but after looking around for opening hours signs and fares, a lady came at the counter, probably surprised to have visitors, and told us that there was a combo ticket for the theatre, the Commerce and Domestic Life museum and for the wax museum. All this for 390 yen (instead of 300 for the kabuki alone). So we took it. We planned on seeing them anyway.

The Kabuki theater

After we took our shoes off, the nice lady at the counter gave us a private tour of the place, mainly in Japanese but with sign language subtitles so we could understand. She then offered us to come on stage, ware kabuki jackets and take a couple of photos, which we did:

Kabuki is, by default, dramatic.

We stayed a bit longer alone and toured around the place. It's a small theatre, but it looked very nice. We could have seen a show there, but we wouldn't understand anything.

Once we were out, the lady insisted on taking a picture of us in front of the theatre:

And she explained to us how to get to the next attraction, even if we already had a clear map of the city. We then departed as if we were good friends who came to visit her. We really started to like this place.

The next stop was the Commerce and Domestic Life Museum. You can't miss the entrance of this museum when you see this:

That scene is displayed on the street, you can't miss it

Creepy!

The whole place was a old pharmacy transformed to museum and in each room there were dolls like those that started to talk when you were entering the room. We saw worse in New Caledonia with the dolls in the prison cells, so Talia wasn't too afraid of them (and didn't have nightmares at night). (Unless that's what the kicking and screaming was...)

It was quite interesting and after seeing so many people... sorry - dolls - eating, we were ready for lunch. We found a nice Japanese restaurant there which has a cool Japanese garden:

And the lunch was delicious!

Our next stop, and last on our combined ticket, was the wax museum. For a small town museum it was very well done: Explanations in English, interactive computer screens, movies, and small displays explaining the wax making process.

And a cute little girl with her family ran everywhere excited by everything there:

At last we arrived to the last highlight: The shrine and sleeping Buddha at the end of the main street.

We went back to the train station, followed by the theme park/children songs music (we even heard "Yonatan Hakatan" in Japanese!!!)  On our way home, we bought a few groceries from the supermarket, so we could prepare dinner for our hosts.

And this is what we prepared:

Shakshuka

Shakshuka, cause Talia missed it a lot. It's an Israeli dish based on tomatoes and eggs on top. Actually it was the first time we've prepared it. When we say "we" we mean "Rony prepared it and Talia couldn't stop drooling just at the thought of eating homecooked food." But we digress.

Quiche

Quiche, because we both missed it. And it is French, so it can't be bad :)  And our famous salad.

You should have heard the "wooow!" and "waaah!" and "sugoi!" ("cool" in Japanese) we heard while we were preparing them :)

And for dessert, we had the famous pancakes made by Talia.

It was our way to say thank you to our hosts, for the wonderful time we had together. We hope to see them again, here or there.

Kampai! Saying goodbye to our friends with some sake

We were sad to leave them all, humans and pets alike, but we are glad we had the chance to know them and have a good time together.

Photos can be found at the end of the album:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=611372&id=906005363&l=c1c7224165