An Onsen filled weekend in Kyushu

Last week we had another holiday on the Thursday, so Rob and I took the Friday off and went down to Kyushu for 4 days. We left Wednesday afternoon and got down to Oita-Ken and Nakatsu city by early evening. We spent the first night taking it easy and catching a movie at home. But right beside Jeffery’s house is the town hall and get this, they have a large ice skating rink in the winter. So we spent the evening ice skating while listening to an alternation soundtrack of Michael Bolton Christmas tunes and early 90’s rap. It was Rob’s first time ice skating and he pick it up pretty fast. We had a good time and it made me really wish I was placed in Oita instead of Kure for the winter, so I could go skating everyday. (Picture below: Jeffery, Rob and I at the skating rink in Yamakuni)

The next day, we went to Beppu-shi which is famous for their onsens (hot springs). What’s neat is as you drive into the town, on the mountain side you see pockets of steam rising from the whole mountain side due to the volcanic heated hot springs.

We wanted to visit the “9 hells or Jigoku” of Beppu which is basically different viewable onsen pools, but the weather was really bad. Instead, we walked around the town a bit and then went to an onsen up in the mountains. Beppu has a famous onsen which is submerges the bather in mud. The three of us decided to give the mud onsen a shot, even though it was pouring rain. (Picture below: Outdoor of the mud onsen, the male is the right side and the females are on the right, though almost none ventured out)

The outside of the pool is unisex, but we didn't get the pleasure of seeing a Swedish cheerleading team on vacation in Japan. It was cold outside because of the rain and very slippery because of the mud. The mud part was weird at first, actually it’s still weird now, because you basically bury yourself in the clumps of mud. The sensation is akin to crapping your pants, but once you get use to it, it’s actually not that bad. The mud is super warm and it was neat just to experience it once. The bath was nice, but the worst part was because the mud is heated by active volcanic areas, we ended up smelling like sulphur for the 2 days- which meant-if you’ve never had the experience- smelling like rotten eggs. (Picture below: A sign outside the onsen- not sure what primordial bestiality is, but I hope I don't have it.)

On Friday, we went into Kumamoto-Ken, which was where my old Japanese teacher from University is from. I always promised her I’ll visit Kumatmoto and I was looking forward to visiting the castle there, but we ended just going to a volcano instead. Mt. Aso is right in the middle of Kyushu and surprisingly, it’s the largest volcano in the world. At first I didn’t believe it, but after driving up the damn thing, it really is enormous. Once again, we were thwarted by the bad weather, as we were unable to take the cable car up to the top due to the cloudy weather and high sulphur levels. (Picture below: Near the top of Mt. Aso)

We ended up walking around the top of the mountain, which also had a nice lake in the middle with these huge horses roaming around. After going back down the mountain, we hit another hot spring which was entirely made from wood. The building and even inside the onsen, had huge blocks of carved wood adorning the tubs and fountains. It was a really nice onsen, and it was really good way to rest up after a long day. We had yaki-niku at the hot spring and then relaxed a bit before heading back into Hita-city and meeting up with a few JETs I knew from last time. (Picture below: From left to right: Phil, Jeffery, Me, Rob and Andy)

On Saturday, we went into Fukuoka city and wanted to catch the local sumo match, but the tickets were all sold out. We were also thinking of seeing a concert by this Japanese band, but it ended up being too much of a hassle to get to. It was also Jeffery’s birthday on Monday, so I spent the day roaming around the city and hitting all the local haunts that Jeffery likes to visit. Fukuoka is a pretty lively city, and it fun walking around and then catching dinner at this local pizza joint. It was the same one we went to last time and we had another good meal there.(Picture below: A large tengu statue in the middle of a shopping district)

At night, we met up with a few more people from Oita and went to this local bar/club. I had a good time just sitting at the bar and chatting and taking advantage of the $30 all you can drink. It was very laid back and I chatted with a few of the bartenders, one of which I was sure was not Japanese. I asked the bartender and he ended up being a Korean-Canadian from Alberta. All in all it was a good night and we ended up crashing at another Capsule hotel.

Japanese Factoid #38- I know we have massage chairs back home, but in Japan they have hundreds of models. One thing I always do when I go into Hiroshima city, is after walking around for the day, we stop off at the big electronics store and sample the different massage chairs to relax. They usually have 30 different types lined up and I would really love to be able to ship one of these home. They are free and get quite complex and elaborate, massaging pretty much your whole body. At the Onsen in Kumamoto, there was a few pay ones, so Rob and I sat down a got a 20 minute massage. (Picture below: Rows and rows of massage chairs)