...so the long week-end always equals a travelling opportunity in my mind. Headed out east to Oita-ken, 2 prefectures over from mine on the island. Now I`ve been to every prefecture except one on Kyushu. Have to say, they're all incredible picturesque and unique. I stayed with a fellow Vancouverite and all-round nice gal, Cindy, who had a car (luckily!) so we drove all over the place...hit the white beach and strolled the waves (the stretch of water between Kyushu and Shikoku), then dipped into a couple of hot hot onsens in BEPPU (hot spring capital of Japan!) Sneaking stark naked from the indoor tub to the outdoor one without anyone seeing was tricky! ;) We checked out pools of swirling, various coloured liquid and steam called "hells" (jikoku`s). So much volcanic activity in the area, there were a good 20 clouds of steam rising all over the city. Listened to some awesome live jazz in a house in the middle of the forest. The place was packed, and we were underdressed. But hey, we`re foreigners and can get away with lil slip-ups likes these.
The following night we sang and danced in an all-you-can-eat&drink (tabehodai&nomihodai) Beppu bar with `50 and `60`s American hit songs. The live band cracked me up. They even had an Elvis lookalike. A whole bottle of Whiskey for four of us, plus beer, and we were sloshed. Though it was a good idea to try our hand at karaoke afterwards, but god we suck at singing compared to most practiced Japanese!
The next day, Cindy and I worked off our hang-overs on a mountain in YUFUIN, a gorgeous sight-seeing spot tucked away west of Beppu. Kicked up all different colouredleaves and sat atop huge black volcanic boulders, dreaming of when all this was first formed.
...onsens, parking lots, masked dancing, volcanoes, traffic jams, gorges and waterfalls, smores, and fun...just some things delved into this past long week-end. So Sarah, the brave girl that she is, took it upon herself to drive us (with my travelling, stuff Peanut companion, a gift from a certain boy back home...) down to a tiny little town called Takachiho, southeast of Tosu in Miyazaki-ken, two prefectures over. There we met up with fellow genki ALT gals, Louise, Andrea, Tammy, and Amy. Our tentative plan? To see as much as possible for as cheap as possible! and it worked. we hiked (Peanut`s a real trooper) through the forest, alongside a bubbling river to reach a beautiful gorge, where we proceeded to plant ourselves in rickety boats with unmanageable paddles, and puttered around, trying to avoid the waterfalls and getting stuck in currents. We fed koi (carp) in a pond for good luck then made our way over to a shrine in a cave. The local myth tells the story of the sun goddess who entombed herself in the cave, making the world dark, until the dancing and jovial singing of the other gods tricked her into peeking out. They grabbed her, and all was good and sunny again. The creation of Japan revolves around this myth and cave. By the time we finished with the spirits, it was dark and we need to find a place to camp. We followed signs pointing to a possbile spot, and took aim. An Holater, after climbing up up up a very dark, very narrow, winding road saying "where the hell are we" and "this isn`t the way to the campground" the whole way, we arrive. it was a camping ground, it was still open (luckily, cuz it was midnight), and it was freakin cold! Our hands and feet were numb after two seconds in the chilling wind, since no one was really prepared for a cold camping trip. I pulled out the stove, my Costco soup, our rum and coke, and all was good. We huddled in our tents (poor Amy didn`t even have a sleeping bag!) and went to sleep. Well worth the trek up, as the next morning was simply gorgeous. The view panned from left to right of the sweeping volcanic range. We were inside the largest caulderon in the world! After a few quick pics, we quickly went to work getting ourselves off that damn mountain.
We hit downtown Takachiho, where the festival was raring to go. Saw a small parade with mini shrines and mini-kids carring them. Peanut wanted to take part, but alas, he is only a stuffed nut. not quite japanese enough. All the usual yummy food stalls were set up, so Amy and I dove for the chicken yakitori and then a banana, chocolate, ice cream crepe. In the evening, we went to the dancing performance, what Takachio is famous for. Masked characters came out to tell a story and ring bells as we sat on tatami mats in a beautiful theatre with our shoes off - and the show was only 500 yen! After a yummy pizza dinner, Amy and I played with two cute kittens that were hanging around our car as we pondered where to spend the night. Remember, this was supposed to be a budget trip. The wife of the pizza place owner came out and wondered where we were going to stay. "Well", one of us smartly replied, "we haven't really decided that yet" and looking at her watch, she said "follow me" and a bunch of other broken english. We drove together to a deserted backlot behind some random building in Takachiho and so, instead of spending 10,000 yen getting a tiny room in a hotel, we spend nothing and slept on the ground in semi-comfort in our tent with peanuts squashed in the middle, our guard for the night.
Monday morning, feeling as grimy as can be, we drove to our second onsen of the trip to get clean and warm. Onsens are wonderful and affordable. Only 400 yen to get naked :), shower, scrub yourself clean on a stool with soap/shampoo provided, slip into some hot hot water, cool down in some cold cold water, and generally relax. Sorry guys, this was an all-women affair, there`s another section for you to get naked together! (Peanuts had to venture on his own at this point.
The four of us then journeyed up to ASO-san, where five volcanic peaks awaited us. We took a cable car up to the top of the active one, Naka-dake and it was sure smoking! I looked down i awe at the huge green pool and constantly billowing smoke. It was crazy busy, what with crowds of japanese tourists arriving by the busload (just like at home), but it was worth it to stand atop a steaming volcano and think you`re on top of the world!