We bid farewell to Nagasaki after another really average breakfast involving mystery meat disguised as sausages and the runniest scrambled egg I have ever encountered, which given the lack of western cutlery, we were going to have to tackle with chop sticks – I opted for a teaspoon and then gave up altogether.
We descended once again to sea level and headed round the Shimabara peninsula, to try and find a hotel I had read about on the internet, which was on the sea front and renowned for its amazing crab restaurant. We followed the coast line for about 45 minutes past a number of promising looking lunch options and found the hotel exactly where is was supposed to be, but it was shutto! I should have known better, however the website made no mention of seasonal closing . After a quick walk round the very lovely little fishing port, we headed to what had looked like an interesting crab shack, but up the road. We were not disappointed.
(Apparently 3 crabs each is the right amount)
(She was right 3 was the perfect number)
It was the most amazing crab feast, served by a husband & wife team who run a restaurant attached to a fish shop and bar b q operation. A really great lunch, which more than made up for the disappointment of finding another proposed destination closed.
Well fed, we wandered on across an impressive causeway and into Shimabara, where we were in the van for a night. I picked this spot because it is close to the ferry port for the boat across the Ariake Sea to Kumamoto and the start of our return journey to Oita for the quarter finals. It also has a road of old Samurai houses, a castle and the potential for a room with a view.
Unfortunately the loos were even further away, you can just about spot the camper in this shot and I haven’t even got to the loo yet.
This made for an interesting 2am trot across the car park after a pint of Sapporo too late in the evening, but an amazing shot of the moon over the castle out building.
Quite by chance the sculptor, Seibo Kitamura, who created the Nagasaki Peace Memorial statue, is from Shimabara and the castle has an exhibition of his other work, which includes a delightful piece called the joyful girl, a copy of which was on a bridge in the town.
This reminds me so much of the many women we have met on this trip who have ended up giggling either with or at us.
