Aso Boy

Aso Boy!

This morning I didn't wake up until after 7am!!!!!!  That is the first time since my visit to Preston Hospital, so I think we can say this holiday is having the right effect.  I've completely lost my anxiety, nervousness etc etc and am not constantly thinking about the what ifs, in fact I barely have time to think about it at all, which is exactly what I needed, this holiday couldn't have come at a more perfect time (apart from the fact I can't eat everything I want or as much as I want to).

I very much enjoyed lying in today as well after waking up so late.  We didn't have anything planned for the morning so had a very relaxed morning, reading my book, then breakfast, a quick trip to the supermarket to stock up on staples and then some scrapbooking time.

Charming the locals. Again.

We then headed to the station, we were there a little too early (again!  I think the boys get so excited everyday about their railway journeys that they can't wait to get to the station!).  To overcome this, we decided to have lunch at the station rather than pick up a bento and ended up in a tonkatsu restaurant (deep fried breaded things) as my tummy seems to be settling down.  We had two meals shared between the three of us and very nice it was too.  I had ebi and pork katsu, whilst Matt had chicken and pork katsu, all washed down with barley rice, salad (cabbage), miso soup and pickles.  It went down very well.

Not clouds - emissions from Mt. Aso

We then got the 800 series Shinkansen to Kumamoto where we picked up the Aso Boy, another of these special trains.  This one has been specially decked out for children and has a carriage which is completely dedicated to them.  It has a shop, parent and child seats (i.e. one big seat and one small seat next to each other) and a ball pool and a library.  Such a shame Tom is a huge 7 years old!  This would have been perfect for him 4 years ago when we were last in Kyushu.  One of the Dorises actually stays in the ball pool area with the children, so you could just leave them there if you wish!  The balls were actually wooden balls, so I'm not sure I would like to be her - I saw her get attacked a couple of times through low flying balls!  The train also had wooden booths, sofas, and 2 wonderful panoramic cars (one at each end of the train) from which you could see 180 degrees as the driver's cab sits above the seating area.

In the panorama car. Driver directly above!

Because the train is geared towards kids, most normal rules are relaxed around them.  This meant that we hardly saw Tom the whole time we were on the train as he was wandering up and down the carriages, mainly heading to the ends so he could watch the tracks.

Aso Boy takes you into the Aso Caldera, within which there are a number of active volcanoes.  Now Matt and I visited here 10 years ago and went to the volcano head where you could lean over and see a bubbling pool of mud, water, magma etc etc.  It would have been fantastic to take Tom there too, however, the whole area has been closed off for the past 6 months due to high levels of poisonous gases. This means that without a car to go exploring in there isn't much to do in the area, so we got there, waited for the train to be made ready again and went back home again.  Today wasn't about the destination, but about the journey.

Parent-and-child seat

Tom once again spent the journey going up and down the train, enjoying himself, whilst we relaxed.  On arrival to Kumamoto we got the Sakura back to Hakata and then did a quick Skype call with Bob to wish him happy birthday for yesterday.  Next stop was a restaurant for tea (Nabeyaki udon for me, Katsudon for Matt and curry noodles for Tom).  We then walked back for baths and bed.  A quiet and relaxing day.