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Back in our hotel room, Neda chows down on a cup of noodle soup while reading her Kindle. This is our go-to quick-prep meal here in Japan. My personal favorite is the Big Curry Noodle Cup - I'm addicted to it! Everytime we stop for the evening, we make a pit-stop at the konbini and pick up a...

At Obama Marine Park, we stumble upon a long roofed structure... It's a 105 meter long foot bath called... Hot Foot 105 - of course! There's a little stand where you can rent a bucket and a towel The geothermally-heated water is piped in from the ground and it feels super hot when you first...

After lunch, we continue walking through the steamy city. More vendors, keeping their food warm by geothermal heat We head down to the shore, to Obama Marine Park. So funny seeing Obama everywhere, it almost seems like they are milking the relationship to the US President I just found out...

Not fog. The city is shrouded in steam on this cold spring day. It's like the entire place is sitting upon a lid covering a cauldron of boiling water. Steam escapes through vents and short chimney stacks set right on the sidewalk. It even seems like it billows out through open windows in the...

We decide to take another rest day to explore Obama. Because it's raining once again. :(

In this Japanese version of Turn Down Service, the maids come in and actually make the futons for you! So cool!!!

Most onsens in hotels are just swimming pools, fed by hot springs water piped up from the ground. However, the nicer establishments make their onsens look as natural as possible. Oooh, so fancy! Yes, I brought a camera into a public bath house... What could possibly go wrong? I figure if Neda...

Donning the yukata provided to us in preparation to take a dip in the hot pools Neda is not allowed into the onsen. Back when we first started our trip, she got a huge tattoo on the side of her ribcage to celebrate riding across Canada. But now we've discovered that tattoos are frowned upon in...

Near the top we find a resort: Unzen Hot Springs Onsen Resort This isn't fog anymore. We are enveloped in steam emanating from the ground. Hot, smelly sulfuric gases seep up from all around us and makes us gag as we walk around the boardwalk that the resort has put up around this hellish rocky...

Heading towards the peaks ahead in the distance As we get higher, fog obscures the way. Near the summit, 1500m above sea level, we stop to look at the clouds below us Road is one-way around the summit of Mount Unzen

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/404.html From Shimabara, we head towards our rest place for the evening, located on the west side of the peninsula. To get there, we have to drive over an active volcano: Mount Unzen! Heading towards Mount Unzen, and then onwards to Obama Yes...

Thanks for following along! The blog is horribly behind, about a couple of years. And we've still got more travels left in the tank, so I'm figuring at the rate I'm pumping out blog entries, there are years of stories left in the pipeline.:unsure: Just gotta find the time to go through the...

We are feeling right at home here! Minus the creepy mannequins, of course...

Some of the houses are open to the public as museums. Here are some pictures of Neda photobombing the nice Samurai families who live there: The warrior class was considered the elite of Japanese society, so their houses were better quality than the rest of the population These houses are...

These ferries are a real godsend. We'd be stuck in so much traffic if we weren't able to cross the waters. Just a scant 45 minutes later, we're in the port town of Taira in Nagasaki prefecture. All of the bikers deep in the hold of the ferry, checking out each others ride and waiting for the...

I am day-dreaming of all the gyozas I am going to eat tonight Leaving Kikuchi Park. This motorcyclist approaching us was getting his lean on! Nice! You know the weather is getting warmer when you see so many bikes out. We ride to the town of Nagasu at the edge of Ariake Bay. We can catch a...

The origins of the Cherry Blossom tree are quite contentious. Most people agree that they originally came from South Korea. But lately, China has also laid claim to the birth place of cherry blossoms. But the reality is that it was the Japanese that cultivated this historically unloved tree...

The main road takes us past a very pretty park, and it's full of cherry blossom trees. We have to stop here! More hanami scenes When Neda first told me about this "Cherry Blossom Festival" held in Japan, we thought that it was held at a specific time and place. It was only when we arrived...

We descend the mountain and head further west, back towards Kumamoto. Some kind of roadblock on our route. The sign is in Japanese and we don't know if the road is closed or not. There are hours listed... Neda pulls out her Google Translate app and aims the camera at the kanji characters...

Another day, we venture further out to find somewhere else to eat. Still so cloudy outside, you can't even see the mountains around us. Our host at the guest house tells us that there is a market in town where we could get some food. Over the last couple of days, we've gotten to know her a...