Hot springs, monkeys and volcanoes

A friend and I utilized another wonderful national holiday by taking a day off and going to Kyushu, the island east of Shikoku, for four days. After a long succession of bus, train, and ferry rides, we landed in Beppu which The Lonely Planet dubs "the Las Vegas of Japan." It does not bear this title because of a high number of casinos or even pachinko parlors; no, it earns its title (rightly so) because of the commercialization of its hot springs. The bizarre city is built right on top of a hotbed for geothermal activity and looks like it is on fire. There is steam constantly pouring out of the street-vents, buildings, and of course the hot-springs which are scattered around the city, each one transformed into an adventure with various themes and admission rates. Some have demons and dragons, others have evolved into zoos and crocodile parks (who knew that a little hot water could be so profitable?)



We ended up going to one of the "hells" that featured giant lily pads and boiling eggs, but more memorable were the bus loads of Chinese tourists who kept grabbing us for photographs because they were so shocked that I was in shorts (or was it our funny hair and height?).




Unlike the tacky feel of Beppu, our ryokan (Japanese-style hotel) was wonderful and cozy and the tatami room used for tea during the day transformed into a sleeping room with futons while we were down at dinner. After the pre-dinner bathing in the onsens, we dressed in yukatas for an absolute feast and didn't change out of them until after breakfast (rice, miso soup, and more fish) the next day.



We then chose to venture outside of the tourist madness for our onsensing (which the city is also known for) to a mud onsen that was completely run-down and had this sign posted out front :

With a sign like this, we were obviously curious and so we paid the high admission fee which led us to a series of clay-like mud baths primarily occupied by old naked men. I think that we were just as surprised to see them as they were to see us as we tried to duck in and out of the pools with only our little washcloths for cover.

(Although strictly prohibited, we snuck a picture of one of the muddy pools since nobody was in it)

We decided to forgo the sand and other various onsens (one is enough!) and ventured to the monkey park built to contain the hoards of monkeys. I thought that the park would consist of a monkey here, a monkey there, maybe one safely up in a tree. No no, there were literally thousands of monkeys zipping around our legs, especially since we arrived just in time for feeding time.




Another two bus rides led us to Aso, which is in the middle of Kyushu and is completely different from Shikoku with a dry and barren landscape except for the giant crater 128 km around which contains two little towns and several volcanoes in the middle. We stayed in a great little hostel for two nights and met a slew of very nice international travelers, including a JET (they are everywhere!) who we snagged for our hike the next day. The weather was bizarrely perfect and we were able to go up and around the volcanoes and surrounding mountains, including the main crater, Naka-dake, which is "the largest active caldera in the world."






After about five hours of hiking, we headed down and as we came around the final corner we noticed things were a bit different. Instead of the hoards of bused-in tourists, there was just a single flashing light going off next to the volcano and a van full of workers signaling us over. It was only then that we noticed the steam was now billowing much higher out of the crater and that the sulfur smell had become overwhelming. The meaning of those announcements that were blasting throughout the mountains as we hiked finally became clear and we ran just as fast as we could over to the men and tried to act "What's going on? Is it going to erupt??" They thought this was just hilarious and mimicked us without any answers. Linguistically defeated once again, we continued down the mountain where they eventually reopened the crater, crisis averted.
Veronica and our wild volcano (it seemed a bit more severe at the time)


Twelve hours of travel later and I was back in my little city. Overall, it was a great trip. Every meal was way above average (like all Japanese food seems to be) and we met more than a few wonderful people who truly went out of their way to assist in our travels.