Day Four – Kurume, Chiba

It becomes like clockwork after a few days. Wake up early (to guarantee I won’t wake up after check out time), plan the day ahead, shower, moisturise, hairstyle, quick breakfast, quick cigarette, and down to the lobby. This day went exactly like that, and let’s say every day from now on will be the same (unless I say otherwise).

I had decided a few days earlier that I was going to make the most of my JR Pass and see a friend living in Chiba. Although the trains were free, this was not such an easy feat. I looked it up on the Norikaeannai application for iPhone, and it quoted me 7 hours. Damn. Oh well.

Standing at Hakata station, trying to figure out what to do with the remaining 3 hours I had in the region, I decided to toss up – whether to try to find another historic location and take some photos, or – rush over to Kurume to try to find the fabled Taiho Ramen.

Another (short) shinkansen ride later, I found myself in Kurume. I beelined to the coin lockers, only to find that I had no coins or anything small enough I could change into coins. The machine accepted ICOCA and PASMO cards also though, so I tried every card I had on hard (around 6 cards, mostly borrowed from others) to see how much credit was remaining. I’m sure if I combined all the amounts together, but … anyway, I went over to the little souvenir store, and even though the lady knew exactly what I wanted before I said anything at all, I bought some cigarettes so I wouldn’t seem like an… asshole.

So, having stowed my luggage away, I started walking. And exactly as stated in the recommendation by Rameniac.com, even though one would think that since I was in the countryside (again, not true, the place was very industrial and had all sorts of big franchises scattered around), that the restaurant would be close to the station. Oh God, it was not…

So I began the simple but long walk to Taiho Ramen, and as I walked the weather got hotter and hotter. I kept checking Google Maps to see how long I had left to walk – 2.5km, 2km, 1.5km. Really thirsty by this point, bought a Calpis Soda can and kept walking (while drinking, how very un-Japanese). Surprisingly, no one here seemed to find it strange that there was a foreigner walking down the main road of this fairly quiet town.

And then, when I saw the familiar corner (familiar as in, I StreetView-ed that shiz at some point), I turned left. It was still 11:20am, the store opened at 11:00am, I was aware that there could be lines which is why I was really trying to get there early. Finally, I turned the one last corner…

…to come face to face with a line so long, *insert dirty joke here*.

But seriously, 20 minutes after the store opened and that long a line!? Plus on top of that, this line wasn’t budging. With only 1 hour and 15 minutes to go until my departure time, I (unfortunately) decided not to line up. So with this tragic experience, I farewelled Kurume, home of Taiho Ramen, tweeting a bunch of expletives as I walked the 3.2km back to the station (whilst passing MANY taxis, I might add. When you’re stingy, you’re stingy.)

Having arrived at the station again, and feeling a bit dejected, I decided to hit up one of the gourmet areas in the station and try some other Kurume Ramen. So I tried Man’Ichi Gold Label, which I found out later is part of a large network of stores, with only one other Gold Label store in Nagasaki. Whilst I suppose it wasn’t as amazing (and as heart attack-inducing) as the ramen of Taiho would have been, it satisfied my need to have Kyushu-style ramen one more time. Let me guarantee you that one day, I will get into Taiho Ramen and it will be amazing. But sadly, that day may not happen during this trip…

After chowing down, I found the Coin Locker

***

Woke up in Tokyo, except it didn’t feel like Tokyo.

Let me explain. To me, Tokyo has a certain image. That image is best exemplified by the sights and sounds of Shibuya, right after you get out of the Hachiko exit. That is what Tokyo feels like to me.

For some reason, while I was dragging my ever-increasing luggage through Tokyo station, I didn’t feel like I was in Tokyo. There were crowds everywhere, so that was about right. Half the station was undergoing construction, also right. But somehow, it felt different.

Just an observation, though. Were you expecting me to tell you I’d woken up in the wrong city? I’m not that foolish!

I was hurrying through the station because Norikae-annai app said that there would only be 8 minutes between trains. I had finally gotten in the right direction, with just 2 minutes to spare, and then I found myself standing behind this old lady, talking to the stationmaster. I wanted to push past her and simply flash my JR Pass, but she had this cart that was blocking my way, so I couldn’t have passed her even if I wanted. After what felt like an age, she moved and I rushed through the exit so fast that the station master probably couldn’t even have checked my JR Pass if he wanted to.

Then at the elevator, again, another massive obstruction. I dragged my suitcase down the stairs instead.

When I got to the platform, the train was leaving. I was annoyed that I’d missed it, but there was another train in 5 minutes. (Who’s turning Japanese?) So I waited patiently, then boarded the train for the 26 minute ride to Tsudanuma.

I’ve always wanted to really see Chiba. My friend Ben, who is living there, insists that it’s boring and has nothing of note, but I always wanted to check it out – more or less to see how it differs from Tokyo despite being so close. When I got off the train at Tsudanuma and exited the station, for some reason, the sights and sounds felt like Tokyo (ironic, because it’s not). I dragged my luggage down the staircase, wondering why this station was not barrier-free (catering for the disabled with wheelchair access ramps, etc), and walked up the main road towards where I figured my hotel was.

Passing a corner, a sign for Toyoko Inn Tsudanuma caught my eye, so I turned and headed down this street. Lots and lots of neon, a lot of pink flashing lights. I came up to the hotel sign, and under it there was another sign saying “Strawberry Plaza”. It was then that I realised that all these flashing lights were advertising adult stores or similar. Yeah, I had found myself in the red-light district…

I was going to enter what I thought was my hotel, when a fairly small (and not at all in English, so… LOL for the foreigners) sign said something like “Please don’t try to enter here, Toyoko Inn patrons – please walk 150 metres around to the front entrance”. I wondered why they bothered to put the huge neon Toyoko Inn sign in this back street..

So I checked in, and quickly showered and changed. Stepped outside again into the significantly cooler weather, and walked back towards the station to find Ben. I sent him a message upon arriving at the station, only to find that he’d gone to the hotel. Hahaha…

So we met up and went on a hunt for food, walking through the nearby PARCO, just talking and catching up. At Ben’s recommendation, we ended up at a Chinese restaurant near my hotel (aka, we walked in a massive circle) and so we stepped in.

Generally, I’m quite dubious of Chinese food in Japan, for a variety of reasons. Even in Chinatowns in Japan, the food is very Japanese despite its being labelled as Chinese. But amazingly, this restaurant, which actually described its food as “Taiwanese”, was actually really good, despite being a tad salty. We perused the menu for quite a while, then called the lady over to order. Spoke a bit of chinese, ordered some dishes, let the lady compliment me on my Chinese. Wow, even the Chinese people living in this country are nice. (I joke, don’t kill me!)

After we finished eating, we headed to McDonalds so I could check out the McFlurry selection, because I was craving. Turns out there are no special McFlurrys released at the moment. How disappointing – so I had to get a simple Oreo one instead. Went to a LAWSON to get Ben a beer, then we sat down at this park adjacent to the station entrance, and just talked for hours.

Finally, it became time for Ben to get the last train out to his area, so I walked him to the station, then walked home. Browsed some of the convenience stores around my hotel, then finally decided to head back in and conk out.