Mistui Greenland (Day 1 in Kumamoto)

Since we had a long weekend coming up (Monday's a national holiday), we made plans to get together and spend half the weekend in Kumamoto and half in Nagasaki.

Alex and I arrived in Kumamoto a little before lunch time and Erica came to meet us at the port. We hadn't really talked about what we'd do today....while on the ferry, there was a huge advertisment for 'Mistui Greenland', an amusement park in Kumamoto. It's somewhere Erica has been wanting to go for a while, Alex likes rides, and I do too..so we decided to head there from the port. It was weired that there be so few people there on a long weekend, but was great because we didn't have to wait in line to get on many of the rides!

Ultraman, everyone's favorite super hero (at least in Japan..!)

Going up a water ride.

How many amusement parks have a -30C room you can go in?...The short path is flanked on both sides by ice/snow covered walls. Fake polar bears and other creatures can be found along the way....I wonder if they've ever had someone get stuck in the room. That would suck, ne?

A little condensation happening on Erica's new glasses.

From the top of the ferris wheel

Alex and Erica moving as one...first forward,

then to the left... heheh

We rode a viking boat ride that swung from side to side. As the ride got higher and higher, all was good. But then, when the ride started to slow down...man oh man, I thought I was going to be sick. I love rides, the wilder the better! and have never gotten sick at an amusement park...but this ride really got to me. I think there was something wrong with it..

Erica suggested a slushy might help with the queaziness...

Japanese don't scream when they go on rides. For some reason, it just seems weird to have everyone be so quiet while on the roller coaster. But that didn't stop us from yelling at the top of our lungs..! We finished off with our favorite ride, Nio.

After feeling like we had taken as much beating as we could from the rides, we went to a much deserved onsen (hot spring). I love this particular onsen we went to, because there’s a wide variety of bath to choose from, and everything is spread out. While sitting in the bath, you can watch the water trickling over the wall from the window, it’s a very peaceful sight.

We met up with some of Erica’s friends at an Indian restaurant for dinner. Spending the day at the amusement park is really taxing, I didn’t realize just how tired I was till we finished our meal and I was unable to get up…!