Saga to Kumamoto (stay)

 22Apr~6May2023 Around Kyushu in 2 weeks - day 4

Still in Saga, we will visit Saga balloon museum.

And then drive 1hr 40 mins to Kumamoto for one of the premier Castles in Japan.

Comfort Hotel Saga

It's really value for money, we paid under S$40/pax and they even provided breakfast,

even though it was simple and nice.

Checked out after breakfast. It was still raining.

Luckily we were visiting an indoor place in the morning.

Saga balloon museum opens at 10am, we were right there just as they opened the doors.

Saga holds the hot air balloon festival every year in November. As we could not visit the festival,

we visited the museum to have a taste of what's it's like during the festival.

Have to try out the Hot air balloon simulator

And lucky me managed to grab a free gatcha ball!

We always have time for some shopping

It was too early to have lunch.

We ate some snacks at the souvenir shop and bought drinks to drink along the way.

As we avoided the toll on google map, we were directed to cut through

the mountains to get to our next destination, Kumamoto Castle

Then, we passed by this attraction on ナルシストの丘, Narcissist hill,

with a large kannon statue

And saw this beautiful sea of clouds

We know we have arrived in Kumamoto city when we see the city tram

It had been raining since morning, but luckily the rain was not heavy.

Firstly, we headed to Josaien shopping street to have lunch.

Some of the shops will close around 3pm, we gotta hurry.

We found Amakusa Kaimaru at 1pm and they requested that we finish in one hour.. haha

After lunch, it was time to head to the Castle

800yen for the entrance fee to Kumamoto Castle, one of the three premier castles in Japan.

We can still see the damage from the 2016 earthquake

New paths have been built to bring us into the castle grounds

That's the famous gingko tree of the Kumamoto castle

Heading into the castle next.

There were 6 floors and 1 basement, but on the outside, we could only see 6 levels.

We saw the sea of clouds again.

Starting to rain again when we were about to leave

Damages again

Heading to check-in at hotel next

Arrived at Dormy Inn Kumamoto

We parked the car into a lift.

Out tatami room

Welcome drink

We have missed the cheese tart at Tenjin.

The other branch of Baked cheese tart is at Sakura Machi Kumamoto.

Hurry in case they were sold out again.

Hooray!! We bought so much!

Dinner venue - Katsuretsu Tei Shinshigai

for yummy tonkatsu 👍

It's within walking distance from Dormy Inn.

Get a number at the counter and then wait at the side for turn to be called.

It's not only yummy, the portion is big too. We can even top up rice and cabbage if not enough.

We went for the hotspring at 13th floor.

There's supposed to be free ramen at level 1 at 9pm and free beer at level 13. We could also have yakult drink by 9pm, but we missed it all. 😛