Yufuin was amazing! We felt well and truly relaxed and very pampered. We took the famous (well in Japan) Yufuin no mori sightseeing train to Yufuin-it`s a vintage style train with wooden floors and people are so excited about it that the train stewardesses go around taking everyone`s picture and making them wear silly train hats for the photo! As soon as we arrived I took Darren for his first onsen (hot spring). Onsen are one of the things I miss most about Japan-I can`t describe how plunging yourself into water so hot an aaaaaah is forced out of you can be the most relaxing thing but it is amazing. And it`s a great place to let your worries disappear with the steam or talk about the future. Having bathed and feeling very clean we wandered about the sights of Yufuin including the lake which is so hot it steams in cold weather and a Chagall print museum. Our Japanese Ryokan (traditional inn) expereince started with b eing picked up in a car and having our two little bags taken immediatley to our room while we were welcomed with green tea and Japanese sweets (sticky mochi with sugar syrup-very, very sweet!). The lady at the inn who looked after us was so welcomingt and friendly she really put us at ease although I only know basic Japanese. Our room was very traditional with a low table and chairs and a tea set to make green tea. We went out for dinner and ended up in a restaurant who specialised in yam. I had chicken tempera with a side dish of cold yam gloop-not something I coulkd stomach. Darren had soba with hot yam which he thought was a big improvement on the cold gloop! After dinner we had an evening onsen in the inns outside bath. We watched the moon whilst drinking ice cold beer/ plum wine and sitting in a hot bath! When we returned to the inn we found that our futon had been put out for us in our room. The bedlinen was all white and the beds were so comfortable that we felt we were sleeping in fluffy clouds!

The next morning we went down to breakfast in our cotton kimono called yukata. When I had been to ryokan before people always wore these when in the inn and I had assured Darren that everyone would where theirs to breakfast-embarrassingly we were the only ones in yukata! The breakfast was amazing. There were at least ten dishes and then salad and egg pudding arrived and then hard boiled eggs boiled in the hot spring water and finally rice and miso soup. We haｄ little burners to cook our fish and we tried mentaiko (smoked cod roe) - not so bad! After breakfast we sampled the inn`s indoor bath and then set of for a walk in the countryside around Yufuin which took in a shrine　and another outdoor onsen with the most beautiful view of Yufu dake, Yufuin`s mountain. We just had time to stop for lunch before going back to Fukuoka and discovered a wonderful little organic vegetarian cafe/antique shop. When we got back to Fukuoka we stopped off at the 100 yen shop before meeting my oldcolleague Saku-sensei and his wife Akiko and her friend Mami for dinner at a Japanese pub. We had lots of dishes including squid ink paella and Korean kimchi pizza before heading off for three hours of karaoke with drink as much as you can! I had my fill of melon soda!

After getting to bed at 2 we got up at nine (late for us!) and walked to Momochihama - the beach area of Fukuoka to see Fukuoka Tower go to a robot museum. We were really lucky to be in time for a robot dance performance- the robot`s even break danced! In the afternoon we went to my friend Misuzu`s apartment to met her husband Yuji and baby Kosuke. She bought us the most beautiful cakes.Mine was pistachio and even had gold leaf on it. She also gave us a whole bag of satsuma`s which were lovely and sweet. Kosuke was extremely cute and Darren and I were facinated to find out that he sleeps on a baby futon not a cot! He looked adorable when he was fast asleep with his arms and legsa out of the blanket (it`s stillreally hot in Fukuoka-about 28 degrees). Koda-sensei had us for dinner and it was lovely spending time just hanging out with her and Yuka and chatting and eating. She had been to Kyoto whilst we were in Yufuin and bought so beautiful sweets for the tea ceremony so she cracked these open and made macha green tea for us. Macha is the type of green tea that they use in the tea ceremony.It is powdered and whisked us to a froth with a bamboo whisk.I had a go but wasn`t very good so Koda-sensei took over!

Yesterday we sent three small parcels of shopping back via sea mail with some help from Koda-sensei and then met my old pupil Eriko. She took us out into the countryside for an amazing soba meal.I had iced soba which you dip in delicious soy sauce.The main dish was accompanied by vegetables, horse mackeral,tofu, rice and soba cheese cake! She then drove us to my favourite beach called Futamigaura which has a beautiful shrine made from two huge rocks which sit in the sea. It was so hot I paddled int he sea to cool of my feet! We retunred to Fukuok and Eriko took us to Yusenti park-a traditional Japanese garden in the middle of the city. We had macha and more beautiful Japanese sweets and whilst we feasted on these delighful morsels mosquitos feasted on us. Darren was delighted to find he could also feed the koi carp in the garden and when we went right to the water`s edge our toes got nibbled by the greedy carp! We then went to meet another student Mai in Tenjin, the shopping district and whilst Darren caught up on the internet I shopped for Japanese incense in Mitsukoshi a major department store. At the moment in Fukuoka there is a Hello Kitty exhibition going on at the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum which Eriko,Mai and I went off to see (Darren drew the line and went off to see the permanenet collection). It was an exhibition almost entirely made up of kitty merchandise from 1970 until now and Eriko and Mai got very nostalgic when they saw things they had had a little girls. We just had time to see the permanent collection which was a wonderfulmix of art from all over Asia (including Dhurva Mistry) before heading for dinner with 5 more girlsI used to teach. We had a wonderful meal of Jaopanese dishes including sashimi and tofu (both of which I ate!!!) and had a great time catching up.I can`t believe how grown up they are and that 3 of them are now teaching English!

Today we are in Hiroshima but its late so our okonomiyaki adventrues will have to wait for the next installment!