Traveling Solo

I really do love traveling with friends, but sometimes, it's a nice change of pace to travel solo. In my case, as someone who likes to sit down and sketch, likes to wander and explore, likes to lie on the grass and just stare up at the sky and such, sometimes it's just best that I travel alone.

And with that, I've been using my free time to put together little solo trips to places that most people wouldn't go to but that I'm interested in. The first of these trips, which took place 2 weeks ago, was to Yamaga and Yatsushiro in the Kumamoto prefecture.

For this entry, I'll just cover Kao-machi which is located 20 minutes by bus from Yamaga which is 40-50 minutes by bus from Kumamoto city...which was 2 hours by bus from the Tenjin bus center...which is 1 hour by bus from Iizuka.

Shin-Iizuka Station at 6 AM

Hours later, at Kao-machi.
The buses come around here once every hour or two - the museum was 1 km. away from the "~~Museum-mae" stop. RURAL! but...nice.

A museum on tombs and burial mounds. Interesting, right?

But nonetheless designed by Mr. Tadao Ando so I figured I'd check it out.

Nearby, there was a dome-construction restaurant and souvenir shop.


Very pleasant spaces to be in. The curry was tasty, too.

One of the great things about being in these really small towns is that it's just so much easier to start up a conversation with people. I didn't actually start a conversation, but when I asked one of the staff - another thing about being in these far away places is that everyone seems to be over the age of 70 - when the next bus comes, she spoke with the manager and said that he could take me back into town since he had some business there. Sweet!!

More on the friendliness of people in small towns:

A bus driver who gave me some info about places to see and offered to show me around other places in Kumamoto should I ever visit again.

The same type of snacks and tea I'm usually greeted with when coming to an elementary school for the first time - these, though, were given to me at the train station in Hinagu, south of Yatsushiro.

I'm sticking to the small towns.