Drive Up and Down the Mountains

From Katsuura, where we had a fabulous tuna lunch at a shokudo near to the first market, it’s a quick 20 minutes car ride up the mountain into Kumano Nachi Taisha, one of the three holy shrines in the Kumano region and part of the UNESCO World Heritage site. It’s an enjoyable drive with the many twists and turns through the narrow roads lined with beautiful cherry blossoms, with the small town right underneath the temple offered the perfect spot to park, rest and shop before we made a small hike up to the temples.

Lantau Road Trip

"Cows!" we exclaimed at the first sight of wild cows wandering on the road along the southern coast of Lantau. And we felt the urge to stop the car and take hundreds of pictures of them enjoying their lunch on the curb-side pasture. Of course, our enthusiasm soon died down as roving cows became a more common scene than say, taxis passing by.

Travelling afar for breakfast

We took our new toy out for a spin on the last day of Easter long weekend and found ourselves in this unfamiliar neighborhood of Luk Keng Village at the north-eastern tip of Hong Kong early in the morning. It was a very pleasant drive actually with the clear sky and all (we finally got a moonroof! Woohoo!), and only took us slightly less than an hour from where we live, with the last bit though a picturesque two-lane road past the Tai Po country parks along the reservoirs and coastline with a bit of twists and turns until we almost reach the Hong Kong-China border at this rural village with far more visitors than residents on weekends and public holidays.

Abalone Cuisine at Karatsu

After spending 2 nights in Hiroshima, we began the second half of our journey with a road trip across Saga Prefecture in the western part of Kyushu. We took up our rental car early enough in the morning at our starting point of Fukuoka so we managed to reach our first stop, the coastal town of Karatsu right on time for lunch. And we dropped by this roadside diner-style restaurant called Uomata, a place recommended by our friend C whom we had dinner with at Hiroshima just the night before.