Change of Plans

When I bought a Kindle Fire, I intended to be a normal user. No rooting and no fiddling with operating systems or bootloaders.

Chinese Plum Blossoms

I finally had a chance to revisit Kumamoto Castle (熊本城) while the Chinese plum (梅) trees were in bloom. Most Japanese strongly prefer cherry blossoms (桜) which bloom later, but Katie and I both prefer Chinese plum.

Kusamakura Spa

Katie and I went to the recently reopened Kusamakura spa (草枕温泉) in Tensui (天水町).

Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum

Katie and I visited the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum (長崎原爆資料館) over the weekend. The museum is in Nagasaki City (長崎市) where the second bomb was dropped.

The "Naked Man" Festival of Nagasu

Katie and I went to the nearby town of Nagasu (長洲町) for a New Year’s festival with a name that means “scrambling for a target” (的ばかい). All the English speakers were calling it “The Naked Man Festival.”

The participants weren’t actually naked, they were wearing traditional underwear (褌). The target they scrambled for was a bale of straw, apparently an archery target, and they fought each other to pull out handfuls of straw before jumping in the ocean.

Kumamoto Castle

Kumamoto Castle (熊本城) is the first actual castle I've been to.

New Year's in Kumamoto, Japan