15 April 2025
Tomato sunset shrine
Kumamoto Shotengai walk
Tonight I walked around most of the central area of Kumamoto being blinded by the sun, before eventually eating a bowl of tomato soup.
The Shotengai here is quite long, goes around a corner and over a road or 2, is very wide, quite busy, but a bit shabby (bits of bitumen replacing the tiled floor). I estimate it to be similar in length to Matsuyama.
Kumamoto is a bigger city than Kagoshima, but less touristy, I think this means a lot more bars, because I saw hundreds, more photos of those on another night.
My walk eventually went beyond the covered shopping streets and arrived at a lantern and tree lined road that directed me to a strangely closed shrine. The photo into the sun was great.
Then, on day 18 of this trip, it was finally time to walk along a drain, and follow up the drain excitement with tomato soup.
Here is the street outside of my hotel. Kumamoto also has grass lined tram tracks. The trams themselves are an eclectic collection of every era of tram.
The start of the Shotengai, a grand entrance.
I like photos taken looking into the sun.
After turning the corner, it was time for section 2 of 3.
Now I need to form a gang immediately so that this cat teddy wizard creature is forced to try and stop us.
There is the castle, and some trams. I suspect I will see the castle the day after tomorrow.
The department stores are not as nice looking as the ones in Kagoshima, at least externally.
Final part of the 3 part Shotengai has a nice wooden decking floor.
Now I am beyond the relative safety of the covered shopping street gang exclusion zone.
Approaching the shrine... look how tall I am!
On the outer door of the shrine there was a big note about it being shut, so a photo into the sun through the gate is the best I can do.
Time to head down into the drain.
I did not follow the drain for too long, there were more trams to gawk at.
On the other side of the road from the main city area is this new looking quite large mall. I will go in and investigate for my dinner.
The basement did not disappoint, but I actually did not eat here even though I am well known for my love of food courts.
Instead, tomato soup based ramen with mystery meat took my fancy. With added oil. Not bad, meat might have been frog or rabbit.
Tomorrow I will complete a minor traverse, it is easy to get to so I do not have to get up ridiculously early.