day 4: matsuge

Today we bid farewell to Kyushu with a last dip in the onsen, a final sprint up and down the ramp, and the purchase of the noisy car toy from the gift shop. We also visited with toby’s great grandparents one more time to take some photos and further discuss toby’s eyelashes, which are a hot topic here in japan, and are often pointed out in a loud, surprised whisper accompanied by the placing of hands, palms forward, fingers up, near the eyes. This always reminds me of the scary monster with eyes in his hands from pan’s labyrinth, which is probably not the effect they are going for. Anyway, we then buckled in to a van and headed to fukuoka. On the way, while trying to go through a toll booth, the electronic debit card failed to work, causing the van to screech to a halt inches before hitting the gates at the toll plaza. This had the fortuitous side effect of dislodging the ice cream shaped bubble wand that toby had thrown under the seat a few days earlier. So I, for one, was pleased that we did not just bust through the gates, exciting as that would have been. We really need that bubble wand. Upon arriving in fukuoka, we found that jon’s mom’s room smelled of old feet, so we headed out for dinner. It was raining and we were all tired and grumpy, but we ventured out to the yatai (food stalls next to the water) anyway. And it was a lucky choice. the ramen was awesome. So very, very awesome. Even toby thought so, which is good since it provided a little break from his current rice and seaweed addiction. And by the time we returned to the hotel, the foot smell was gone. That right there is the power of ramen.