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.