Drive to 島原 Shimabara

Terrible wet, dreary day. Thank goodness, it's scheduled to be a day of driving. Picked up our GPS-equipped Nissan Note rental car and drove from Fukuoka to Shimabara, the western coast of Nagasaki Prefecture.

Surprisingly good ちゃんぽん champon at a highway rest stop. Champon is the signature dish of Nagasaki. Looks and tastes quite like our local san mee.

Mummy and Uncle can't wait to dig into the champon and takoyaki lunch!

Was still raining when we arrived at Shimabara. Couldn't really go sightseeing, so we just did some window shopping.

Then, we had Shimabara's traditional dish - guzoni - for dinner. Guzoni is a stew containing chicken, fish, clams, unagi (eel), vegetables, tofu, mochi, etc.

Our Guzoni set meal at the most famous guzoni restaurant in Shimabara - 姫松屋 Himematsu-ya.

Uncle so excited examining the items contained in the set that he didn't bother looking at the camera.

The restaurant overlooked the Shimabara Castle.