Buried Alive in Kyushu Province Japan

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M – When we started planning our round the world trip Japan was one of only three must-see countries for me. Beyond these (Japan, India and Namibia) I didn’t really care where we went as long as we saw different things. As such I was pretty excited on the ferry ride over from Korea to Japan. Our first few days in Kyushu Province in southern Japan have more than lived up to expectations. Already we have been buried in hot volcanic sand, ridden the bullet train, climbed an active volcano, visited an ancient samurai castle and witnessed a traveling Kappa’s performance and been invited to spend the night at his house in Tokyo. Apart from the weather being a little mixed it has been a great start to our Japan trip. We find we can gauge how much we are enjoying a place by the number of photos we want to share. Believe me I had to work hard to cut them down for this blog.

Japan has a reputation of being a pretty safe place to visit but we were a little shocked to be handed back Kate’s penknife on the boat 10 minutes before our journey actually finished! We weren’t quite sure why they bothered to take it off us in the first place. Customs too was a little odd. At first we were a little concerned by the questioning from the official, but then we realized he was merely interested in reading all the country stamps in our passports!

Safely in the country I then struggled to keep up with my train spotting wife as she made her way as quickly as possible from Fukuoko Ferry Terminal to Hakata train station to catch our first bullet train. Kate really does like trains, I can see a new anorak being bought for her next birthday … We had bought a 21 day Japanese Rail pass in Taiwan. These are very expensive at around $750 each but are priceless for travelling around Japan and pay for themselves after only a few journeys. The bullet train was bliss, in fact it was so smooth that I didn’t actually notice the first two stops and we nearly missed our destination.

Kumumoto is the crossroads for Kyushu Province and its Samurai played a key role in Japan’s history. At its center is an old wooden castle. Its huge stone foundations date back to the seventeenth century . The castle is pretty impressive and well worth a stop. It sits on a small rise in the valley and all approaches to the main building are made through alleyways. You can imagine in a battle the occupiers of the castle throwing arrows and stones down from the walls onto attackers as they tried to approach.

Next we headed (via bullet train and local train) to Ibusuki at the southernmost tip of mainland Japan. Ibusuki is a very small town famous for is volcanic sand baths. We were a little unsure about being buried up to our necks in hot sand but wanted to try it. The public onsen as Ibusuki , like most in Japan, is split into a male and a female part. The process is pretty simple. After paying you sent to your respective Onsen to strip completely and change into a Yukata (cotton dressing gown) before wandering outside to the beach. On the beach you are assigned a small hollow in the sand. After you have laid down they shovel warm black sand onto you. The sand is pleasantly warm, not overly hot and after 10-15 minutes you are ‘cooked ‘and free to return inside to your respective male/female baths. The baths have large hot pools, a sauna and several shower wash stations. You wash first before entering the baths – there were several shower stations in an open plan area (male/females separate) for showering (they supply shampoo, conditioner, razors, etc in all the baths). Once clean you are free to spend as long as you want enjoying the baths. However we found 30 minutes of dipping and resting was sufficient to tire you out. We enjoyed the process so much we did it again the following morning. I managed to sweat off nearly 3 pounds on my second visit. Only another 20 or so to go …

Ibusuki is a very small town without much accommodation. We stayed at the local Youth Hostel, across the road from the baths. The manager spoke decent English and although it’s pretty basic it is a fraction of the cost of the resort hotels . We paid 6,000¥ ($75) for two bunk beds in small dorm with which we had to ourselves versus the 30,000¥ ($350) the local resort wanted for a room with breakfast and dinner. We were pretty happy with our savings and spent a fair chunk of it on a blow out meal of a local specialty called Kurobuta Shabu-Shabu (Black Pork Hot Pot). The pork, which you cook in the vegetable broth, was superb and reminded us of the best thinly sliced bacon we had eaten back in the UK. The broth is then used so cook your noodles.

After Ibusuki we headed north to the center of Kyushu to Aso. Aso lies in the world’s largest Caldera. A Caldera is a collapsed area of land caused by the huge eruptions of many volcanos. Within the Aso valley lies the still active volcano of Nake-Dake. The weather had been a little mixed to date but we got very lucky with bright dry weather. We were able to make a 4 hour round trip hike (including picnic stop!) to the top of Nake-Dake peak and get great views down into the crater and the Aso Valley below.

That night we planned to reward ourselves with a high carb. noodle meal but our plans changed a little. A visiting announced that he was performing a traditional style of Japanese entertainment in the reception of our hostel at 7pm. He also added that it was accompanied by snacks and it was the custom for people to enjoy themselves and drink a little sake and beer with him. By about 7.30pm everyone was having too much fun for us to leave so our dinner plans were abandoned. The locals had brought beer, snacks, Shochu and Sake to enjoy during the performance and the hostel threw in some endaname (soy beans in their pod) and snacks. To the best of our understanding a is a traveling performer who entertains locals and removes bad spirits in return for their hospitality (in this instance his lodging). A great evening ended up with me joining a few of the locals to carry on the party at the house of a local artist.

In summary:

- I prefer Sake (rice wine 15%!A(MISSING)lc.) to Shochu (local sweet potato wine 15%!A(MISSING)lc.);

- Horse meat Sashimi dipped in Soy tastes just like beef carpaccio (i.e. great!);

- cheese sticks with some kind of Fish coating are one of the best beer snacks I have ever tasted!

And finally, we have been invited to stay for a night with our at his parents place in Tokyo and to partake in a picnic/party in his local park to enjoy the cherry blossoms. More on Japanese hospitality in our next blog but our experience so far is that it is truly amazing.

That night the heavens opened and our planned trip to the Onsens of a local town was written off due to the horizontal rain that persisted all day. When travelling for a long time you do get the odd day when you really can’t do much. We use these to take a bit of a rest, catch up o e-mails and blogging and do a bit of planning. As a result we decided we would make the 4 hour/450km trip north on the bullet train to Osaka the following day on the off-chance we could get tickets to see the last day of the Sumo tournament. In the worse case scenario Kate would get to ride another train …

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Comments

[Mum]

Have loved your recent blogs and definitely fancy a trip to Japan...and the Philippines ..and Myanmar and... Just have to get my hip done and then...who knows?!