Up another mountain

Today (John’s Mum’s birthday) started as another hot and humid day.  We went for a walk around an area recommended to us by Catherine.  It consists of several streets of quaint shops with a lovely ‘old Japan’ atmosphere as well as some interesting modern buildings and shops.

Even the shop dummies are polite!!

Never mind what the sign says

We then went over to the ‘Wakuwaku za: Historical Culture Experience Facility” which is a small museum showing some Japanese culture and history with a bit of fun thrown in.  There are kimonos to try on, films and diplays featuring aspects of Kumamoto, and – most intriguingly – a virtual goldfish pond.  When visitors step on the ‘pond’, ripples form and the fish swim away from the intruding feet.  I have no idea how this works, but it was fun to stomp around on it.  We had a good look around and had a bit of fun being silly tourists.

John-san

Travelling in style!

We were feeling a bit hot and bedraggled by then, so we went back to the hotel to freshen up and have a rest before heading out to meet Catherine for our afternoon scooter ride.  We went up into the mountains, stopping at a shrine along the way, then to the cave where Miyamoto Musashi wrote The book of five rings.  It was a great ride up the mountain, with some terrific views. 

Golden rice fields

 After visiting the cave and admiring the little statues dotted across the hillside, we sat and had a cup of tea from Catherine’s thermos.  A very pleasant afternoon – up until then!

Statue on the hillside

...and his well-dressed friend

Boys on the left, girls on the right!

When we got on the scooters to come back down the mountain, the rain began to fall and didn’t stop.  We had to take great care as it was a very windy road.  Fortunately there was not too much other traffic around and we made it back in one piece.  We were soaked through, so we took all of our wet clothes and put them through the washer and drier.

We phoned Catherine as she offered to help us with John’s scooter issue.  We’d been a bit concerned about the possibility of a breakdown, but she spoke to the mechanic who assured her that the scooter will make the distance and we don’t need to worry about it.  So we’ll continue as planned and keep our fingers crossed.  I’ve added the word “mechanic” and the phrase “something is wrong with the scooter” to my word bank just in case.

Next on the agenda was dinner.  We found a nice little restaurant in the mall.   This one had a machine for selecting meals.  Money goes in the slot, the correct button is pressed for the choice of dinner and the machine spits out the relevant tickets and change.  The staff then take the stub of the ticket to the kitchen and the meals are delivered, with a polite bow, in no time at all.

We were too early for our planned meeting with Catherine at Starbucks for coffee, so we had a browse around the Don Quijote store (a variety discount chain that can be found throughout Japan) and then went back to the hotel until it was time to go.  Catherine has booked us in to accommodation in Matsushima, so now all we have to do is find it.  Another challenge!  I had asked her earlier in the day how to say ‘insect repellant’ in Japanese, so she kindly bought some for me on her way to Starbucks, as well as some nice Japanese sweet treats for us to have along the way. 

Catherine and Kathryn

We said our last farewell to Catherine and thanked her for all her help and hospitality.  She made our stay in Kumamoto much easier and more interesting that it would otherwise have been.

Did we mention how safe it is in Japan?  John just discovered that his scooter keys were missing, so he went down to see if he’d left them in the scooter.  His scooter has been sitting outside the hotel for about six hours with the keys hanging out the seat lock on the side!  Would it still have been there if he’d done this in Australia.  I think not!!

We’re off to Matsushima in the morning, leaving behind such shops as Glass Wonder (bar), Beauty Snack, Rebirth (hairdresser), Happy Munchies, Bag Lady Wisely and Foot Stamp (hairdresser).

Maybe no internet now until Nagasaki (Saturday), so bye for now!

Art appreciation in Kumamoto

Another hot and humid day in Kumamoto.

We started the day with a visit to a motorcycle mechanic in the hope that John’s scooter just needed the belt replaced.  Firstly we were told that they couldn’t do anything until Friday, but when we explained that we were only here for one more day and still had a long journey to make, the mechanic said he’d have a quick look.  Unfortunately, the problem is more that the belt, so the mechanic called Mr Tanaka at the rental office and asked what he should do.  As it would entail quite a big repair job, and we should be able to squeeze quite a bit of distance from the scooter in its current state, Mr Tanaka said to continue the journey and ring him again if it turns into a bigger problem.  The mechanic put the bike back together, added some ‘super oil’ additive and suggested that John should ride at a reasonable speed which is no problem for us!  When I went to the counter to pay, they indicated that there would be no charge – after spending 45 minutes taking the scooter apart and reassembling it!!  We were truly amazed and I pulled out all of my best Japanese gratitude words.

Our helpful and generous mechanics

We took the scooters back to the hotel then set off on foot for the Traditional Crafts centre.  We saw some beautifully crafted furniture, jewellery, carvings etc.   In one room was a group of men making woven items.  An 84 year old gentleman gave us each a woven bell.  One was already made and the other he whipped up on the spot.

Making baskets

After the crafts centre, we made our way over to the castle gate to meet our new-found Aussie friend who had organised tickets for the Impressionists Exhibition being held at the Kumamoto Art Museum. 

Another view of Kumamoto Castle

When planning the trip I hadn’t included seeing some Renoir and Monet paintings, but that’s just what we did! We then arranged to meet Catherine and her Japanese husband for dinner and went back to the hotel for a rest and shower.

Catherine outside the Kumamoto Art Museum

Catherine and her husband took us to a Mexican restaurant which was right next door to the Italian Tomato where we dined last night. We had some lovely food, a few drinks and a very convivial evening. Catherine is going to see if she can arrange some accommodation for us in Matsushima, our next stop after Kumamoto.

Where we didn't eat!

Flaming dessert at the Mexican Restaurant

They walked back to the hotel with us and showed us some gorgeous islands that they recommend we visit on our next trip to Japan. I must admit that I wouldn’t be surprised if there was another trip in the future! We really love it here and there’s still so much to see!

Enough for one day – and so to bed!! Oyasumi nasai.

Castle in Kumamoto

Another great (though somewhat short) ride today!

But first – the things I forgot to mention yesterday.  When we were in Kurokawa, we passed a couple of young women with green things on sticks.  When we got closer, we saw that they were green (unpeeled) fresh cucumbers.  An interesting idea, but not one that I could see catching on at home!  We also decided to try something different for ourselves.  There is a Japanese sweet called dango, made from glutinous rice.  They come on sticks, with 4 spherical sweets per stick.  There were several varieties so we bought 2 different ones to compare.  One was covered with a sweet sticky sauce and the other with a dried unidentified powder.  The sweets are rather chewy and bland.  We’re pleased that we tried them but we won’t be seeking them out again!  The final oversight from yesterday was the I had my first ever drink of sake.  I never quite got around to it on our last visit, so I bought a cute little bottle from the souvenir shop at Mt Aso.  I’ll drink the sake and keep the bottle as a memento.  It has a picture of Kuma-mon, the Kumamoto Prefecture mascot, sitting in an onsen with a towel on his head.  The sake blew the top of my skull off and I can well understand why we’ve seen Japanese men staggering out of bars with rubbery knees at night.

The Australian family that we met last night were amazed that we’re travelling with about 6 kilograms of luggage each.  They had a couple of enormous suitcases which must have been a real pain to lug around.  We farewelled them and the friendly, helpful hostel proprietors and headed off for Kumamoto.

Thanks to John’s prior planning, we avoided the main highway and chose a route that gave us more picture postcard views of quaint villages, rice paddies and vegetable fields.

On the road to Kumamoto

Macabre scarecrows!

The road occasionally went through villages where it narrowed to a single lane, which made me pull in my elbows and knees, before widening again on the other side.  This smaller road took us almost all the way to Kumamoto City so we only had a small amount of city driving before we found our hotel.  We were grateful for this as it was quite hot and humid when we reached the city.

As it was too early to check in, we left the scooters and our luggage at the hotel and went to the Tourist Office to ask about how to find a scooter mechanic.  We’ve been given a possible location on a map so we’ll try that tomorrow.  We then went for a walk in the shopping arcade and had a lovely lunch before heading off to visit Kumamoto Castle.

Kumamoto Castle

View from the top of the main castle building

A budding photographer and his Daddy

The castle is a reconstruction, as the original met the same fate as many other Japanese castles (i.e. it burnt down!).  But it is still a beautiful castle and we enjoyed our visit.  The view of the city from the top was quite impressive.  We met a group of giggling school girls and took photos of each other. 

Happy schoolgirls visiting the castle from their nearby school

In the forecourt of the castle we found some wandering samurai who were there for the purpose of having photos taken with visitors.  So of course we succumbed. 

I wouldn't take on the guy on the right!

Or this one!

By the end of our visit we were feeling quite hot and bedraggled so we plodded back to the hotel for a shower and rest in the airconditioned room.

Then we were off for another walk around the area and dinner.  Italian tonight – at a restaurant called Italian Tomato.  A very nice meal which we partly walked off by window shopping for a while.  There are many bars in the vicinity of the hotel and some posters with pictures of very attractive young women on them so it looks like there’s lots of action for night owls.  We’re just watching an amusing (?) talent show on TV.

We phoned Catherine (who we met in Kurokawa) and will be meeting her to visit an art exhibition tomorrow, after we have – hopefully – got John’s scooter sounding healthy again.

A day in Kurokawa

We had a great time today at Kurokawa, an onsen town about 25 kilometres from Aso.  John’s scooter is struggling a bit at the moment, which we’ll deal with when we get to Kumamoto, so we decided not to stress it any more and caught the bus instead.  What a great move that was!  It gave us the opportunity to sit back and relax and see the amazing view along the way.  Our journey took us over the top of the caldera to a valley on the other side.  We passed several small villages with golden fields of rice and beautiful houses.

Once we’d arrived we made our way to the Tourist Office and promptly bumped into an Aussie!  She has lived in Japan for 16 years and is married to a Japanese man.  We had a great chat and she helped us choose which onsen to visit.  She lives in Kumamoto, so we have exchanged contact details and hope to join her for dinner when we are there.

We then found the onsen that she suggested and spent a lovely hour soaking in the hot tub in a gorgeous wooden building with sliding doors and windows overlooking the river.  Despite my attempts to do the right thing by getting out occasionally to cool off, I still felt very woozy when it was time to leave.  I almost fainted and had poor John wondering how he was going to deal with the problem with no way of communicating.  Fortunately, I came good and saved him the trouble.  Despite this unfortunate event, it was a lovely experience.  My neck which had been stiff and sore for the last few days did a lovely big crunch and has felt better ever since. 

Our private bath

Non-clergy free?

We spent the rest of the day walking around the beautiful little town, browsing through the shops and admiring the lovely buildings. 

The bottle shop

John enjoying his custard bun. 

So much so, that he went back for a second one!  Oink oink!

We bought two little dipping sauce dishes as a memento of our visit.  In true Japanese style, it was given to us wrapped in beautiful paper and decorated with a sticker and sprig of dried grain stalk.  It was very attractive, but will be thoroughly squashed by the time we get it home.

Phone box with trees growing on moss-covered roof

We caught the last bus back to Aso and picked up some prepacked dinners from the convenience store to ching at the hostel.  We spent another evening in the lounge, but this time on a stool at the breakfast bar instead of tied in painful knots on the tatami mat floor.  After meeting our first Australian on the trip this morning in Kurokawa, we just met another one in the hostel.  He is a young man from Perth who lives in Fukuoka where he teaches English.

I don't believe it - as I type, I just heard John talking to yet another Aussie!  None in a whole week, then three in a day!

Tonight is our last night here and we’re off to Kumamoto in the morning.

She'll be coming round the mountain on her scooter!

We started today with a visit to the Aso Shrine to see the annual ‘Yabusame’ festival which involves archers on horseback shooting at targets.

Aso Shrine

The event began with a Shinto ritual and then everyone lined the archery course to wait for the archers to begin the competition.  John noticed that something was going on behind us so we went to have a look.  A group of men were having a ‘kind-of’ sumo tournament.  They were just ordinary guys dressed in their ordinary clothes, but each had a strip of cloth, either red or white, tied in sumo wrestler style over the top of his trousers.  They had a great time pushing each other out of the ring.  Lots of laughs all round.

A little dog suitably dressed for the occasion

Japanese Mary Poppins??

The archery was great to watch.  The archers and their horses were elaborately fitted out and we were pleased that we’d found out about the festival.

The archers lining up to receive the blessing from the priest

It also gave me a great opportunity to listen to lots of Japanese language spoken in real-life situations.  I found that I was picking out many bits and pieces of conversation which gave me a confidence boost.  Unfortunately I missed an interesting moment due to a call of nature.  One of the archers misfired and his arrow (which has a rubber stopper on the end) hit a photographer smack in the middle of the forehead.  He fell on his back but then got up and smiled.  He'll probably have a nice bruise by tomorrow, but no great harm was done.  I'll have to time my pitstops better in future.

Mother and baby at the Shrine

As our main plan for today was to visit the Mt Aso volcano, we left the festival and headed up the mountain.  The view was really amazing.  The whole of the Aso area is a giant caldera with a circumference of about 120 kilometres.  There are several peaks within the caldera, but the main one is Nakadake which is the steaming crater visited by most tourists.

Nakadake belching noxious gas

Unfortunately, when we got to the parking lot at the base of the chair lift, we found that the chair lift was not operating due to dangerous gas emissions from the crater.  There is a toll road which allows visitors to go up to a higher car park, but this also closed soon after we arrived.  We were still able to take some photos from afar and ate our late lunch while taking in the fabulous views.

Young lady enjoying the view

We enjoyed the ride back down the mountain and stopped several times to gaze at the view.

Another volcanic peak - a 'classic' volcano shape!

Back at the hostel we had a rest and then ventured into the local supermarket to see what we could find to make for dinner.  We both feel a bit noodled-out and fancied something a bit more familiar.  The supermarket had more fish than I’ve ever seen in one place, so we bought crumbed fish and a few vegetables.  The fresh fruit was very expensive, but we lashed out on one giant apple which we’ll share.  At the upper end of the price scale was a rockmelon which had a 1280 yen ($17.00) price tag!  The kitchen in the hostel is fantastic so we enjoyed cooking our own meal for the first time in a week.


After dinner we took a stroll through the local area which is always an interesting thing to do.  We enjoy looking at people’s houses and businesses.  We spent the rest of the evening sitting in the tatami mat lounge area and I’ve now come to the conclusion that I’m not cut out for sitting on the floor!
Tomorrow we’re off to Kurokawa, a nearby onsen town.  After my efforts sitting on the floor tonight, I’ll probably be needing a good soak in the onsen!

A fabulous ride to Mt Aso

We left Oita this morning to head for Mt Aso where we will be staying for the next three nights.  Aso is the largest active volcano in Japan.  Having been somewhat disconcerted by staying in a town with steam blasting out of every nook and cranny, we now have to try to get some sleep knowing that there is an active volcano next door!  I’ve been assured that volcanoes, unlike earthquakes and tsunamis, give plenty of warning before they do their thing.

Today’s ride was really terrific.  Once we had left the city behind, we rode through the mountains and beautiful valleys, passing rivers, little villages and rice and vegetable fields along the way.

Kate admiring the view

Rice in the valley

The road went from being a wide well-maintained highway to a narrow little pot-holed track – just how we pictured rural Japan to be.  We stopped in the city of Takeda for lunch and I think we caused quite a stir!  We started off by shopping in the supermarket for our lunches – a bento boxed lunch for John and a sushi pack for me, with some cheese, fruit, juice and an individually wrapped carrot to top it all off.  John ‘chinged’ his lunch in the supermarket’s microwave.  [“Ching” is a recent Japanese verb meaning to cook in the microwave]. 

Only in Japan!

Bento and sushi

 
The other customers in the shop were quite intrigued to see a couple of westerners wandering through their shop.  We went outside to find somewhere to sit and eat, and discovered that we’d probably found the best spot in Takeda.

Shop in Takeda

Shrine in Takeda

We were next to an old ruined castle and a shrine, were there were seats, bins and toilets, as well as an interesting area to explore.  After we’d eaten and had a good look around the castle area, we took a stroll through the town.  I had a little chat in Japanese with a lady who was surprised that we weren’t with a tour group - an uncommon occurrence outside of the big cities.

Stone carvings in Takeda

The next stage of the journey was quite steep and very winding so we had to ride with extra care.  We arrived at the Aso Backpackers a little early  but were able to go in and make a cup of tea while we waited for reception to open.  We met a couple from Spain who are travelling around by train.  It makes us realise how much better it is to have our own transport to drop into any little place that we fancy and not rely on train routes.


Once we settled in we had a bit of a rest then went out for dinner.  There are several restaurants in the vicinity that serve horse meat but we decided to give that a miss.  The restaurant we went to also had horsemeat and ‘stewed guts’ on the menu but we settled for the more familiar fare of rice, soup, gyouza (dumplings) and chicken.  The meal was delicious and although we didn’t really need to, we dropped in to Lawsons to buy an ice cream for dessert.


We finished the day off with laundry, reading and and early night – ready to take on the volcano and a festival at the Aso Shrine tomorrow.

Highway to Hell (and then to Heaven)

What a terrific day we had today!  The weather was glorious and we thoroughly enjoyed indulging in the delights of Beppu.

After a much-needed sleep-in, we set off to visit the ‘Hells’ which we would have seen yesterday if not for our malfunctioning camera.  Our first visit was to the Umi Jigoku (Sea Hell).  This is a beautiful and very hot blue lake with steam shooting out violently in a couple of places.  It is really very impressive!  The colour is apparently caused by the cobalt content of the water. 

Umi Jigoku

 A basket of eggs was in the process of being boiled in a basket suspended from a pole, but we didn’t see anyone remove them or add more in the whole time we were there, so we suspected that this might be a prop!  However, the hot springs and steam spouts are certainly used for cooking as they are extremely hot.

Very hard boiled egg, anyone?

We then went for a stroll around the neighbourhood, then back on the scooters to ride to the Chi No Ike Jigoku (Blood Pond Hell).  That wasn’t quite how it was translated on the sign, which said "Bloody Hell Pond", but that was the intention.

The steam is hiding the red colour so you'll have to believe me!

This lake is 78 degrees Celcius and is coloured a deep red due to the clay soil that the water and steam pass through.  It is sometimes used to dye cloth.

As interesting and unique as they were, we decided that two of the Hells would be enough for one day so we went back to the Tourist Office to enquire about onsens.  I was very keen to make sure that I didn’t leave Beppu without experiencing a hot spring bath which is Beppu’s main claim to fame – although we did hear that it also has a thriving sex industry! We don't have to try everything, do we!!??   We were given a map showing a couple of onsens which had ‘Family Baths’, which are private baths that can be rented by the hour. 


We found one and had a tricky conversation with the lady who operated the baths.  I caught one word out of ten that she said, but that wasn’t enough to understand, so she kindly took us through to the bath area and showed us.  All she was trying to say was that we should hang the little wooden tag outside the door while we used the bath and then return it to her when we had finished.

This was the 'Heaven' bit!

It was heavenly to sit in what was really a mini-swimming pool with hot spring water up to our necks.  We had to get out a few times to cool off and then get back in again, but it wasn’t as unbearably hot as I’d thought.  When we’d finished, my conversation was much more managable – she asked “How was it?” (my Japanese could cope with that) and I replied “It was great!”. 

Our next stop was supposed to be the beach where there are hot sand baths, but we got distracted by a huge book shop.  We wandered around there for a while and I SO wanted to buy some books to further my Japanese, but we don’t have a skerrick of spare room on the scooters, so any book-buying will have to wait till the end of the trip when we are in Osaka.

 

 

We then made it over the the sand baths, which were closed by then but we were able to see how they worked.  There are two big concrete-edged pits of sand which are filled at night with steaming hot water.  The water is then drained off and the staff spend their days burying people in the hot sand for the benefit of their health and well-being.  We went for a stroll along the water-front and then headed back to our hotel in Oita.

The waterfront at Beppu with the Sunflower Ferry getting ready to leave for Osaka

Dinner tonight was a lazy one as we were a bit late getting back.  We paid our first visit of the trip to a hamburger place, but I don’t feel too guilty as it was a Mos Burger which has really nice food.  I just had to find out why it was called Mos Burger and discovered it stands for ‘Mountain, Ocean, Sun’.  Of course it does!

We’re off to Mt Aso tomorrow for a 3-night stay at the Aso Backpackers hostel, so we’ve spent the rest of the evening sorting our gear to repack.  As I write, John is looking for a part of the bracket that he needs to attach our webcam to his helmet.  It’s looking tragically like he’s left it at home, but I have complete faith that he’ll solve this problem in a very logical and competent way.

Bye for now - we're not sure about the Internet access for the next few nights, so don't worry if you don't hear from us.  The typhoon is far away, we're very safe and having a ball!

Happy feet ... and a couple of calamities

We arrived in Beppu at about 7.00am – not a very good time for tourists to land in an unfamiliar place!  Keeping an eye out for the Tourist Information Office, we rode to Hell.  Or more specifically, the ‘jigoku’, commonly known as the Hells, which are hot springs of the “viewing, not bathing” type.  In the carpark, we had our first disaster for the day, when we discovered that the camera wasn’t working.  We made a bigger effort to find the Tourist Information Office as we had a chance there of asking where we could buy a memory card for the camera as John thought that the card was the problem.  As we rode into the car park, we saw a woman kneel down at a grate in the road, spread newspaper on the ground, and retrieve something that she’d cooked in the steam!  Well – that’s something you don’t see every day!!

In the Tourist Office were very pleased to find two very nice staff members who spoke excellent English.  They told us where we could find a memory card and invited us to use the free foot bath area as the electrical shop doesn’t open until 10.00am.  There were two foot baths – a steam bath and a hot spring bath.  We tried both and they felt SO good!!

Then came the second disaster.  When we had parked the scooters, John had engaged the little key lock cover which protects the lock from rain, dust and thieves, using a little device on the end of the ignition key.  John didn’t have one of these little doo-dads on his key, so he used mine instead.  When we got back to the scooters, my lock cover released, but John’s didn’t – which, we assumed in hindsight, is why he didn’t have the little gadget on his key!  He started dismantling the front of the scooter, but quickly realised that he wasn’t going to be able to do it with our little convenience store tools that we bought in Osaka.  He went back in to the Tourist Office and the helpful man took it all in hand and called a mechanic friend.  The friend came, loaded up the scooter in the back of his ute, and said he’d be back about noon.  John rode my scooter to the shop to collect the memory card, which, as he had thought, solved the camera problem.  We really didn’t want to be visiting such a unique place without a camera.

After that, we went for a stroll around the area using the walking trail map from the office and found it all very interesting.   There is steam rising up out of the ground all over the town and the locals put it to good use including for cooking.  Several houses had steamer ovens outside with steam constantly flowing through them.  All they do is pop in a basket of food, put the lid on and leave it to steam.

Steam ovens

Cooking lunch in the steamers at the Tourism Office

Our Tourist Office friend then took us up to the road to a little restaurant and helped us to order an early lunch, then left us there while he went back to his duties.

Lunch cooked in a more traditional way

A Beppu street scene (umbrella to keep off sun, not rain!)

Just as we were finishing lunch, he came back to say that the scooter was back and fixed.  Bless him and all his family, neighbours and friends!!  We paid the man for the repair and resumed our sightseeing.  It’s very disconcerting seeing steam rising from the grates in the road, but very fascinating too.

This narrow street is two-way, but the locals just

drive carefully and give way to each other.

It can't be seen in the photo, but steam rises from the grate in the road

We decided to defer the Hells until tomorrow as we still wanted to see a bit more of the area around the Tourist Office and we still had the ride to Oita, the neighbouring city, where we’ll be staying for the next two nights.

A lovely building in Beppu

We were quite worn out by the excitement (??) of the day, so we rode to Oita, checked into the hotel and took it easy for the rest of the afternoon.

The hotel is near the station, so we knew that we’d find a good range of eateries.  We chose one that had an array of those plastic sample dishes that the Japanese do so well.  They make it so easy to choose a meal as you can see just what you’re getting.  We both had ramen noodle soup with rice and different accompaniments and the whole experience was delightful.  Oh, except for the man a couple of tables away who was smoking.  That’s something that is still quite acceptable in Japan.

On the way back from the hotel, a friendly (and probably a little tipsy) man called out “Konbanwa” (Good evening), so I gave him back my best “Konbanwa”.  I don’t think they see too many westeners in these parts.  Our Tourist Office friend said that the tourist numbers are dramatically down since the tsunami and nuclear issue, but we feel perfectly safe here in Kyushu.

After Skype sessions with Erin and then with John’s parents, we hit the sack ready for more adventures tomorrow.

Oh - I forgot to mention that when we checked in to the hotel, we thought that I'd lost John's passport, but all is well.  It was just hiding.