Woop and Wob here, ready to continue our adventures in Kumamoto!

We started our day with a very simple breakfast: mixed sandwiches and green tea from 7-Eleven! As you can see, food is very easy to come by in Japan. It’s cheap and delicious too!

Mix sandwich and green tea

After breakfast, we walked around the neighborhood and stumbled upon a quiet temple. It is close to impossible to find an empty temple like this in Tokyo. We’re so glad we were able to take in such a peaceful morning!

Temple at Kumamoto

While walking around, we stumbled upon a cute construction sign. It says “Gambarou, Kumamoto”, which means, “Let’s do our best, Kumamoto”. This is the phrase that was spread throughout Kumamoto after the severe earthquake several years ago that destroyed Kumamoto castle. Kumamoto has been recovering, but it will take many more years to restore the castle. We’re doing our part by coming to Kumamoto and stimulating the economy. :)

Even construction signs are cute in Japan!

After walking around the neighborhood, we got ready to go to our next stop: Kumamoto Station.

Kumamoto Station

Luckily for us, our hotel had a shuttle bus that went directly from the hotel to the station. How convenient! In addition, the bus had a lot of Kumamon decorations!

Kumamon was also in the passenger seat! How cute!

Everywhere we look, there was Kumamon!

At the station, we shopped around and took a picture of the station Kumamon. Soon after, we went to the shopping arcade at the center of town via tram. The tram was very old fashioned, but convenient.

Kumamon welcomed us to the station.

Arcade/UFO

At the shopping arcade, we went to an Amuse arcade, which had UFO catchers. Of course, we couldn’t resist, but luckily for us, we found a machine that was about to win.

The goal of the game was to move the crane on top of the star shaped hole in the paper in order to rip the paper in half. Once the paper rips in two, the bottom platform falls and the prize falls down. We were lucky to have the paper almost ripped already, so it only took a few attempts to get our new Pikachu friend!

The Pikachu was too big to fall, so we had to ask someone to help retrieve it for us.

Lunch: Kumamoto Ramen at Ajisen Ramen!

For lunch, we decided to have Kumamoto ramen at Ajisen. We were so hungry, so we ordered a deluxe set, which included fried rice, all for about 1500 yen (~$13). Ajisen Ramen is actually a global chain now, so you can enjoy Kumamoto ramen all around the world. Here’s the NY branch website: https://www.ajisenramennyc.com/

Our set consisted of the main ramen dish, with a side of fried rice and salad! Delicious!

After a late lunch, we decided to return to our hotel and rest for the next day in Kumamoto!

Stay tuned for Day 7 of our trip where we go out to see Japanese fireflies!!

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