Higo Blog

Aso Restaraunt Review (along with other restaraunt recommendations outside of Aso)

I know that this is really late to start, but I am going to start posting about places where I enjoy eating in my corner of Aso, near the Aso/Oita border, and maybe some other joints in Kumamoto that I like.

Tashiroya- for the bombass Okonomiyaki
Let's start off with a place that my friend and predecessor, Mr. Harvey Haynes, first took me to when I first arrived in Ubuyama two years ago. Located to the left of Aso Jinja (if you are facing the temple) is the small, unpretentious okinomiyakiya known as "Tashiroya". This place makes the best okonomiyaki in Aso hands down, and is my personal favorite in Kumamoto.

You can see Mr. Tashiro in the window and who I assume is his wife in the background.

It can be hard to get a seat, and sometimes they run out of ingredients on busy days. My favorite combination is pork and cheese (butaniku and cheese). If you like taiyaki, then this place is definetely for you. Many children drop by this store after work.

*note, and this is true: The best okonomiyaki restaraunts always are a little, or maybe more than a little, dingy and tend to attract cockroaches. This is just a fact of life. The grease from the skillet atomizes and works its way into the enviroment of the shop at a molecular level, so these places become more and more sticky with time. Eating at a clean okonomiyaki joint doesn't necessarily mean that their okonomiyaki is going to suck, but then again it probably does.

Santouka- The Favorite of Many Aso JETs

Located near Tashiroya, just 50 feet away is the famous Santouka (the kanji reading "mountain" "head" and "fire"). This izakaya makes wonderful food, but it is not my favorite because I think it's too expensive (they don't list prices on the menu) and its hard to drink and to find a way home. If I lived close by Santouka, I think that it might just be my favorite restaraunt. If you are here, try the college potatoes, nasu-age, and just point to a random kanji that you don't know and take a chance. That's my favorite way to learn kanji.

Yokayoka Tei- The Best Restaraunt In Northern Aso

Ascending Takimurozaka (from Ichinomiya in the direction of Oita) on the 57, you will come upon a yellow building near the base of the mountain on your right. This is my favorite restaraunt, Yokayokatei (maybe I put one too many yoka's in there...). Everything that they do is spectacular, including yakiniku, bibimba, steaks, hamburgs,

*note: the difference between hamburg and hamburgers is this: hamburg is generally served by itself and eaten with rice, whereas hamburgers are nestled in between a bun. Clearly stated, a hamburg is the Japanese term for "cooked hamburger patty". Hope that clears things up.

curry, tonkatsu, katsudon, and other dishes as well. My favorite night to go to Yokatei is on Wednesday because you can eat Viking

*note: Viking in Japan refers to "all you can eat" or "buffet". I think that this word lends itself to some interested imagery, such as a horned barbarian feasting on double-fisted legs of lamb or something.

yakiniku for 1,500 yen. Included in the deal are the drink bar

*note: drink bar = all you can drink access to the soda fountain/ beverage bar.

and the following are all you can eat:

curry (beef)
rice
spare ribs
chorizo (spicy and good, but not the type of chorizo from back in SoCal. this stuff ain't runny)
mild sausage
assorted cuts of beef including tongue, hormone, rose cut, calbee, and others
assorted cuts of pork
assorted cuts of chicken
vegetables including cabbage, carrots, and onions

The staff here are extremely friendly, and they have the capacity to seat large parties. I only wish I could have set up a party there once before I left...

Yokatei gets bonus points for having a 100 yen soft drink vending machine in the parking lot- the only other one that I know of is next to the 100 yen store in the Ozu Jusco and that one sells tall boys of Mountain Dew, but now I'm getting off topic. The vending machine is worth a stop alone on the way up.

To sum up, Yokayoka Tei gets my top spot because the management is nice, they are quick, they are very reasonably priced, they make great food, and they are open relatively late. Prices are equivalent to Joyfull prices, so you will feel stupid if you forget about this place and go to the Ichinomiya Joyfull instead.

Small restaraunt towards the top of Takimurozaka- I forget the name

When ascending Takimurozaka on the 57, you should get on the right hand side of the passing lane (you should do this anyways to pass those drivers that insist on going 30- there's always at least one of them!) and turn right when you see the first restaraunt past Yokayokatei. This place sells katsucurry, all sorts of ramen, gyouza, assorted Japanese food, and chahan. My favorite ramen here is the stamina (the term for garlic) ramen. They put so much garlic in the broth that it is spicy. As a courtesy to other patrons, they also bring out a stick of strong mint gum after you finish the bowl.

Kaguraen Sobaya- For Everything Soba Flavored

This place makes good soba, and has standard Japanese fare, including oyakodon, tempura, and many soba dishes and combinations. You can also make your own soba, but I prefer mine to be professionally crafted. I was forced to eat soba that some shogakkusei made, and tried to ignore the pockets of hidden dry clumps of flour hidden in the jaggedly cut, sorry excuse for noodles. I recommend the tempura/soba set, along with the complimentary soba-cha (soba tea). Afterwards treat yourself to soba flavored soft cream outside at the parking lot stand. This place is in Namino, just before Ubuyama on the 57.

Big Rest Stop in Oita

About 10 minutes into Oita on the 57, you will see a big rest stop with a parking lot that can accomodate an entire convoy of kanko busses on the left. This place serves good chicken tempura (different from karage), but if you are strapped for cash I would go for the chahan. This fried rice is cheap, filling, and pretty good.

OUT OF ASO

In the city I recommend the following places:

American Food- Masa's
*note: this place has gotten expensive, but is the only place outside of Fukuoka that makes a good, big burger.
Indian Food- Nanak (weekdays are the cheapest time to eat here)
Mexican Food- Plaza Del Sol
Just to use the abundance of hot sauces- Freshness Burger
Okonomiyaki- The restaraunt (2nd story) on the corner of the Shimotori.

(as pointed to by Mark Fingerhut, with Matt sprinkling the aonori)
German food and a nice catalogue of beers- Oden
Chinese- the restaraunt on the 7th floor of Old Tsuruya, in the food court. I recommend the fried chicken.

Fukuoka Chain Restaraunts

Food in Fukuoka is outstanding, and luckily two chains are spreading throughout Kyushu. One is a yakiniku/ramen shop called Gofu (the kanji for "5" and "wind"). Their ramen is excellent, especially with the fried garlic topping (their tonkotsu broth is awesome), and the yakiniku is also good.

Pictured here is the Charsiu Ramen Set, complete with Charsiu Rice. It was outstanding. This picture was from Oita, but I know of two locations in Kumamoto. One is at the Higashi Bypass, near Super Autobacs, and the other is In Yamaga.

My other favorite chain from Fukuoka is called Ichiban Doori (Number One Chicken). This izakaya style restaraunt specializes in, you guessed it, chicken and it does chicken very very well. I recommend any of the kushiyaki (skewered food), the chicken karage with green onion sauce, and the potato mochi. Find a designated driver, because you will definetely want to drink beer if you go. Located on the oppposite side of the McDonalds in Ozu (but more towards the direction of Kumamoto City on the 57).

It Blew, Really Hard

Sailing opportunities in Japan have proved elusive, and so I jumped at the chance to go this Saturday in Sasebo, Nagasaki. The weather was beautiful as we pulled into Huis Ten Bosch- a Dutch-themed theme park/marina. I know almost nothing about the theme park because we stayed on the boat for the whole time, but this was what I wanted to do anyways. Heck, I always have Solvang the next time I go back to Santa Barbara...

I was shocked to see that the boat that we were going to race was none other than a Catalina 34- just like the one that we took out on occasion at the O.C.C. School of Sailing and Seamanship after work. Stepping on that boat was like stepping off the docks and back in to Newport Harbor after a two year hiatus.

The Stasha, a well maintained Catalina 34 from Nagasaki.

I met some really cool Japanese sailing enthusiasts and was surprised to learn that sailing is really an international language that transcends other linguistic and cultural barriers like Esperanto only wishes that it could. I was aware that the language of sailing is international, but it proved to be a rosetta stone that made my ability to discuss technical issues in Japanese to a degree which I had before that point only aspired to achieve.

The calm the day before the storm.

Many of the boats filling the dock spaces were from all over the world, and I passed many foreigners. I was amused to have people tell me that "Your English is really good!" or to stare in disbelief as they heard me speak back to them in my native language. This happens quite frequently, but the density of gaijin increased the frequency of such encounters.

Fireworks

I learned that Huis Ten Bosch provides a nice facility as well as nightly entertainment (live bands, parties, and even a fireworks show) for free to attract foreign sailors. If you are planning on sailing to Japan, I would recommend looking up this place- kinda like Disneyland, but not at all when you stop to think about it (huh?).

I woke up early on Sunday, amped to be part of a crew racing in a club regatta as I felt the wind sweeping into the portholes. But something was wrong. I climbed on deck, greeted by the howling of halyards and rigging ripping through the gale force winds. The fenders grinded and squeaked against the creaking docks. Masts were swinging back and forth and small wavelets sloshed back and forth in the small, well protected harbor. White caps formed inside the small bay outside of the harbor- no small feet considering the fetch of the wind was quite short, truncated from the rest of the Pacific by an intercepting mass of land. And it was raining. Hard.

We ate breakfast, closed up the cabin, and headed home. I should have felt discouraged that my final chance to sail in Kyushu was cancelled due to TOO MUCH wind, of all possible things, but I was happy. I considered myself fortunate to share a weekend with many kind Japanese sailors with whom I was able to connect with and get back into some of what I left behind in Southern California. I just wish that I could have taken out a Lido 14, or some other small craft with those guys. With small sailboats, the more wind the better I say (which might just be my last words one day).

Rainy Weekend

This weekend I had to work, and so I missed the last hash with our group in Kumamoto. I hope it went well, and that you all had to swim through the brown dirtiness that is the Shirakawa River. It rained all weekend long, which was a good thing. I did more this weekend then I usually do on weekends with fair weather.

This is the elephant in front of Ubuyama Junior High School. I think it has a really nice ass, don't you? In a purely asthetic sense, that is...

The clouds descended on the mountans like fog. It is quite difficult to see when driving through clouds, because they are extremely dense (they refract and diffuse the light from your headlights, and bring darkness if you don't use your lights- your vision is damned both ways) and cause disorientation when they sweep across one's field of vision (often at high speeds). They can make familiar roads seem strange, dangerous, and alien. I only enjoy driving through the clouds if I am well rested and alert.

This picture was taken in Saganoseki (on the coastline of Oita-ken, not Saga-ken). I thought the storm had passed, but that night it poured with great vengeance and furious anger. If you do end up in Saganoseki for some reason, then stop at the beach and practice your rock skipping technique. My arm is still sore, and my record was a possible 13 skips across the still-as-a-lake waters of the sea.

Around Aso and Kuju

The view from the top of the caldera was unusually clear yesterday. In case you're up here, the rest stop on the 339 right before it T intersects with the 45 sells awesome takoyaki.

This waterfall can be found on the Oike pond hike, in Kuju. From Aso take the Yamanami highway (the 11) towards Beppu, and about 20 minutes after you pass Maki no To (the highest point on the Yamanami from which people start their ascent on Kuju), follow the signs towards Oike pond. The pheasants were out in the clear cut woods on the way there, an intense concentration of iridescent colors among the desolation.

I can't believe I screwed up so badly. I took so many good pictures at the Kuju Hana Koen, and then erased them all. I also highly suggest this place right now, as the summer flowers are in bloom. However, my favorite time to visit is in the Fall when the Cosmos are in bloom. To get there, take the Yamanami towards Beppu, and follow the 442 towards the flower park (take a right).

Guardians of the 442 Gosen

This one looks like the golden idol that Indiana Jones steals in the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark. It looks like he's not happy about something.

Something tells me that that isn't a hatchet used for chopping wood. Dude looks ready for battle.

Takachiho-kyou

Takachiho, located in Northern Miyazaki-ken, is a beautiful, mountanous area. I have heard that bears can still be found in the surrounding forest, but have yet to see one. Also the aincent Kagura dance, the dance that represents the creation of Nippon (including the part about luring Amaterasu out of hiding in a cave in Aso), is performed in an isolated pocket of country deep in the mountains around here, for more than 24 straight hours by a die hard group of people carrying on the traditions of old (if you are interested in learning about Kagura, the Kagura-en in Namino has a guided tour, performances, and a (very boring) instructional video that you can experience, and you can learn how to make your very own soba with your hands. on a serious note, the soba soft serve is kick ass here- coming from Kumamoto City you can find the Kagura-en off of the 57, just past Takimurozaka). This particular location is Takachiho-kyou, or Takachiho Gorge.

Takachiho Gorge is much different than Kikuchi Gorge. It's smaller, the geology is much different (made of columnar basalt, like the stuff in my former post about the Oita coastline and devil's postpile), and there are tons of salamanders to be found in some of the still ponds. It's so strange to see such an abundance of amphibians (and reptiles for that matter), whether they be frogs, toads, or salamanders. You just don't see too many of them in Southern California these days. If amphibians are truly dependable as indicator species (meaning that you can get an approximate idea of the condition of the environment based on their abundance and health), then Central Kyushu's watersheds are in extraordinary condition, especially in this day and age. As I type, I am listening to the din of the thousands of frogs that inhabit the rice field right next to my home, and am already dreading their sounds being replaced by human noise when I eventually move on from my patch of inaka.

Water is such an awesome subject to photograph. In the gorge, water seeps out of rock where ever it wants to. It weeps out where you would least expect it, such as out of the middle of a sheer cliff of solid basalt, or out of small spigots as if the Gods wanted to create subtle faucets just for the hell of it. By the way, this basalt came from the same eruption that formed Aso. Now that was an eruption of mass proportions! Mount Saint Helens, Pinatubo, and Vesuvius combined wouldn't even compare to the fury bestowed upon Aso by Vulcan (as far as I know Japan doesn't have a deity as specific or as powerful in regards to volcanism as Vulcan, from the Greek pantheon, or Pele, hailing from Hawaii).

Here you can see the columns of frozen basalt, and imagine the rising tubes of lava as they must have puched upwards through the earth, creating a seemingly impervious mass of solid rock. Water, slowly and patiently, wore away on the rock, and percolated into microfissures, slowly rubbing away with little visible effect for a long time, from the perspective of the small animals who were born, lived, and died, as well as their offspring and their offspring's offspring. The friction of water dragging itself, and debris, along the same path over time made a subtle cut into the foundation of the stone, which deepend with time. If you look at this from our own timeline, as opposed to a geological one, then it is indeed hard to see how this could happen. I think that everyone could benefit from applying the geological timescale perspective, that we look at works of nature, to socioeconomical issues, political issues, and environmental issues as well (but that's asking everyone a little too much I feel). Discounting the future is the trend of today, but eventually someone is going to have to pay the costs of the compouding interest rates applied to the credit which we so freely use.

The best views from Takachiho Gorge come from taking a row boat out on the river. 1,500 yen buys you 30 minutes on the water. There is one really challenging bend in the river where everyone piles up, as it channels into a deep, rapid curve that wreaks havoc on the hydrodynamics of the boat. Apart from this, you can easily make it up the river and back down in under 20 minutes if you have a basic knowledge of rowing. My favorite part of the excursion was taking the boat under the waterfalls- my Central Kyushu version of Bigfoot Rapids.

They also have a small koi pond full of... you guessed it... koi. I remember visiting a koi pond at a temple with my family when I was 5. It was then that my older brother Justin taught me something that I would always remember. He hawked a big green loogie, let it bungee down to the waiting mass of carp, and we watched as they started to hoover in the water in anticipation of the morsel even before it smacked into the water. A big fish eagerly sucked it up, and continued sucking the surface, asking for more. "Eeeeeewwww!" was how I displayed my genuine disgust/fascination. Shortly after, we were both trying our hardest to produce loogies for the vicious sucking maws of the ravenous koi until we ran out of phlegm and saliva. Ah, the joys of youth!

Reflections On The Caldera

Finding Big Buddhas

In my neck of the woods of Japan, finding a statue of buddha is an everyday occourance. They are everywhere, and not all buddhas capture my eye. This one, in Taketa-shi, was remarkable.

It blows my mind that I have been living here for almost two years, and I still haven't found every spectacle within driving distance. I spend a good amount of time trying to find new wonderful places, and I am yet to come up dry. Frankly, I am worried that I won't get to see everything before I leave, so it's time to step up the pace of my expeditions.

Carved into a verticle cliff with two fierce companions at his flank, this Buddha looks ready to bring the pain with his upraised sword. The caves to the right of the carvings hold temples that are under repair. To get here from Kumamoto (it doesn't matter from where, as long as you get to the 57), take the 57 East towards Oita City and follow the signs to the Fukoji Temple Magaibutsu Stone Buddhas.

Oita's Niagara Falls

After visiting the Oka Castle Ruins (in Taketa) I stumbled upon a sign that lead me to "Oita's Niagara Falls".

I guess it is kind of reminiscent of Niagara, but I was disappointed that they built a bridge across the top that acts as a dam, preventing water from cascading down the full width of the falls. It doesn't seem like they even really needed to build it, in this specific spot anyhow. There is a perfectly serviceable bridge within view of this spot.

It's really sad how the Japanese often mold natural spots into things that detract from the over all beauty when they don't really need to. It is as if they need to put the stamp of man on nature, like a rancher brands his heard to make sure everyone knows that it's his. I'm not against putting a bridge over the river, but I just think they could have done it in a more tasteful manner.

The area along the falls protected by the dam allow me to crawl into a pocket carved into the limestone on the edge to get a view of the water streaming over. On a side note, there are tons of fish in the reservoir next to the falls. If I have time, I am coming back with my fishing equipment.

Touring Central Kyushu

My favorite thing to do in Kyushu is to drive. I love driving in rural Kyushu for the following reasons:
*having the roads all to myself
*cutting around curve after curve after curve
*the rush of adrenaline I get from a well executed pass
*the smell of mountain air rushing in from my fully open side windows
*driving those neglected roads that no one else deems worth their time
*pushing my trusty Civic "Formula" Hatchback to its limits and taking care of it in return
*slingshotting out of a curve, pressing on the gas through the exit
*not having to use the break at all, controlling everything with the gas peddle (I do wish that I had a manual transmission, though)
*finding my way by using my compass and intuition, and occasionnaly my Super Mapple Kyushu Edition
*knowing that the music that I am enjoying at any particular moment is almost *certainly the first time anyone has ever enjoyed that particular piece in that *specific area (and most likely the last).
*discovering places that even the locals don't know about or have forgotten.
*driving behind a skilled driver for a length of time and learning more about *driving by watching and imitating them.
*driving in adverse conditions with full confidence in my abilities and the abilities of my car
*experiencing a sustained runner's high while driving (Although I have never had one when I was running, go figure).
*achieving a meditative state through driving
*learning kanji and new vocabulary from the roadside
*finding good places to sit down and read, hike, or explore
*seeing how many alternative paths there are to any one location
*looking for a good photographic opportunity
*seeing how many kilometers I can put on the odometer
*only losing traction when I specifically intend to
*splashing through a big puddle, shooting up a wave or rooster tail
*driving fast through a long tunnel
*remembering the location of speed traps and making mental notes of where the cops might be waiting in ambush
*narrowly avoiding running over/ smacking into assorted wildlife (tanuki, weasels, foxes, rabbits, wild boars, birds, caterpillars, frogs, snakes, etc...)
*flashing the hazards for courteous, experienced drivers who let me pass

These pictures were taken today, with the exception of the Roman Aqueduct, during a 4 and a half hour long drive around Aso. There are so many roads to explore around here, and just not enough time.

I found this aqueduct last Friday when driving the 8, south of Taketa (Oita-ken). It's strange finding works like these in the middle of nowhere.

This is Shiraito-taki, or in English, "white thread waterfall". In Nishihara, way off the main roads I came across this stunning waterfall. Kyushu is full of beautiful waterfalls, and I often come across them on my wanderings.

This old road is in Ubuyama-mura, and I only just discovered it today! I remember hearing people talk about it, and can only say for certain that 1. it is very old, and 2. this was the road that people used to get from Ubuyama to either/or Kumamoto City and into Oita before the 57 was built. Despite being overgrown with vegetation and covered with humus, you can feel and occasionally see how well built this cobblestone road really is. Time to do some research.

This purple pitcher plant was waiting by the side of the old road. They tend to grow in loosely spread groups, under the shade of the forest.

This X-shaped suspension bridge would really look better painted red, don't you think. It reminds me of Racer X from Speed Racer for some reason (this is in Nishihara too)?

View Full of Aso on the 45

Click the image to see a larger version.

This is my most recent attempt at a panoramic collage. I live ten minutes from this beautiful vantage point, perched along the Yamanami Highway in Northern Aso. People say that these mountains look like a sleeping Buddha. The Eastern (in the left of the picture) peaks of Neko-dake are the head, and the feet point to the South.

You can tell by looking around that this is a special place. If you imagine what must have happened on a geological timeframe to create the largest caldera in the world (the towns of Ichinomiya and Aso below in the valley lie in this caldera), and what forces must have erected the proud mountains in the middle it sends shivers down your spine. If you are interested in geology, seismology, or fields related to these I think that you would enjoy visiting Japan, bust especially Aso-gun in Kumamoto-ken.

I really like this picture, so I included a larger version below that I layered differently. A tip on photographing around Aso- the air is much clearer the day after it rains hard, like the day that I took these shots.

Kyushu Hitching Pics

Hitching at night time was difficult. I would not want to pick up someone who looked like this, but surprisingly people almost always stopped for us regardless of the time or the place. If you get stuck out in the country at night, though, you may have to set up camp.

This is my hitching partner, Mr. Jamie Mackay of Georgia. For some unknown reason, I prefer to introduce him as "James" (no one ever calls him that) to Japanese people.

When we saw that the sun was going down in Fukuoka, we knew that it was time to hit the road. Hitching out of big cities isn't easy, but we did it.

This guy picked us up around Hakata, and drove us to Karatsu. Whenever we would bring up a city in Kyushu or southern Honshu that we had visited, he would always say "Oooh, the girls in (name of city) are beautiful." and then name off the price of how much an "oral massage" costs there. He was a nice guy, but he complained of being hard on cash. Of course you're gonna be low on funds if you skip work to play pachinko and go to Soapland every weekend!

This is Mr. Tanaka of Karatsu. He picked us up as we were walking down a road in Saga toward Nagasaki. I was able to have a really deep conversation with him, and he told me to consider him my Japanese father and then told me to tell my real father hello.

On the ferry from Taira-machi (on the southern peninsula of Nagasaki) to Nagasu (about an hour North of Kumamoto City), this girl and her mother started asking if I had a sister at Daiichi High School. I was confused because I thought they were talking about Merin at first, but it turns out that I look like her good friend's brother. It's funny because I teach her classmates through the Virtual High School program (and another one of the students was convinced that I was a member of her favorite Japanese R and B/Hip hop group "Da Pump" until I spoke in English to her).

We got stuck in a random town in Southern Saga late at night on a road with no traffic and so we had to find a low key place to camp. We settled on a small cluster of trees next to some tea fields, and started getting paranoid that we had been spotted when some cars seemed to stop right next to our tent and idle for a length of time.

There And Back

These past 5 days are stretched across my mind like a speedo straining to cover a bulging German tourist. Yes, I'm back safe from hitchhiking, and it was a great experience. However, three full days of rushing around getting picked up by kind strangers were enough for us. I will write more on this later.

Two days ago, we got back to Kumamoto, partied in the city (it was kind of cool because all of the gaijin that we saw were not our familiar locals. being incognito at home is interesting). The next day, we got back late to Aso and headed out to a music festival on the mountain. It was held at a huge clearing in the forest, and it was raining off and on. People had come from all over Japan and had set up a commune of tents, yurts, tee-pees, and other forms of mobile habitation. It was amazing seeing so many gaijin in Aso, along with Japanese hippies and little kids running around amid this strange environment full of the sounds of djembes, dijaradoos, jews harps, reggae music, and a shakuhachi (I only knew what it was thanks to Zachary Braverman's posts on the subject, and I had a feeling the old dude was good because his beautiful songs sounded like a floating/effortless/improvisational jam session).

I had a great time talking with the people at this festival. Everyone was friendly and it was easy to communicate with them in Japanese or English. The bands were pretty good too, and most of the people at the concert played at least one instrument well. This is the group of people that Taro would be partying with, if he were not married right now.

Last night was the second night that we camped over on the mountain. It had been raining the past couple of days (one of the reasons for truncating the hitchhiking trip), but last night a typhoon rolled over us. I was in my tent thinking about how great my tent was, how it had always been an extremely reliable piece of equipment, and that it only cost 2000 yen. Until last night, it performed flawlessly. However, the winds picked up, gusting across the camp ground, laying waste to our shanty town. The hippies got excited and started to pound on their drums, climaxing when the torrents poured down at their most furious. It blew my tent so hard that the support rods were slapping me in the face and feet. At times, the tent wrapped around me and I felt like I was returning to the womb. I compensated by placing my bag next to the rod that was punching me, and was able to fall asleep in the middle of a raging storm. I remember thinking that the sheets of rain that the wind was driving against my tent's rain cover was eerily similar to the turbulance portrayed in the Twilight Zone episode "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet"- you know- the one with the gremlin tearing apart the airplane wing and William Shatner! I sure do miss the old school episodes of The Twilight Zone). And then I woke up abruptly when the wind finally tore the cover off of my tent, exposing the windscreen (remember, water and wind can pass through a windscreen, but not a windshield) to the blowing downpour. The experience was similar to gunning through the hypothermic chop in a whaler when the hull smashes into a huge wave which is then blown directly into your face. SMACK! "Fuck this! I live close to here, and I want to sleep in a warm futon tonight!" was my immediate resolve. I woke up Jamie (who was still sleeping somehow), and we made a hasty retreat with some other friends back to his place, coming in from the cold. Many others decided to leave the grounds as well, and it was crazy witnessing the devistation amid the campsite. It seemed as if the fog of war had descended upon our hippie commune, and God was punishing the wicked hippies and gaijin. Most tents were clearly not made to cope with such adverse conditions and had collapsed. Only the yurt and teepees stood proudly, taking everything that the storm was throwing at them.

When we were driving back, I could not help but wonder how the other hitchhikers were faring. We were close to home, and so we just headed back to shelter when conditions got insane. Any hitchhikers caught in the middle of nowhere that might have been forced to camp will no doubt be feeling pretty wiped and soaked right about now. Traveling funk is inevitable, tolerable, and not necessarily a bad feeling, but soaked traveling funk does not sound like fun. Anyone picking up a soaked hitchhiker is indeed a kind soul, because that car packed with soggy gear and soggy gaijin is bound to smell like a wet sheep dog.

The Circuit
Day 1
1. Uchinomaki to Mashiki (thanks to the fireman who spoke super-thick Higo-ben
2. Mashiki to Fukuoka (thanks to the computer salesman and his two sons from Fukuoka, on their way back from a soccer game)
3. Tenjin to Karatsu (Walked 20 minutes towards Saga and got picked up by soapland enthusiast in fixed up black Odessey)
Crashed at Luke's house and met Joe. The "Joyfull incident".

Day 2
Started off from 3:00 at onsen near Karatsu.
4. Karatsu to Sasebo (thanks to the old painter)
5. Sasebo to Takeo (thanks to the two college dudes. Jun, maybe we'll make it out to Nagasaki or Fukuoka sometime!)
6. Takeo to Ureshima (thanks to the electrician who fixes security systems. thanks for offering to let us crash in your van for the night)
Set up tent near the expressway in Ureshima

Day 3
7. Ureshima to Omura (thanks to my Japanese dad, Mr. Tanaka, who lives in Karatsu. I dug your old integra- reminded me of my old legend.)
8. Omura to Nagasaki City (thanks to the bus driver driving the bus to pick up rent-a-car customers. Props for dropping us off right in front of the atomic bomb museum)
9. Nagasaki City to Ariake (we walked out of the city towards Unzen for half an hour in the rain, past the expressway entrance. a salesman, one Mr. Hamasaki, who was closing up his used car lot took pity on us, and told us he would take us to somewhere where we would get picked up, but then decided to drive an hour out of his way to get us to the ferry in Ariake. we had a very nice chat, and he was very embarrased to accept a 5 dollar bill as a memento of our ride together. Mr. Hamasaki called up the ferry, and got us to the last one bound for Kumamoto. While en route to Taida, a port 45 minutes North of the city, he called the ferry to make sure that we were all right! Thanks for helping us out with so much- you were by far the most awesome person that we met on the trip.)
Taida to Kumamoto city- train ride. There was no traffic heading towards the city.

Hitchhiking Kyushu

Jamie and I will be starting out on a 6 day hitchhiking trip from today, planning to reach all of the prefectures in Kyushu. Supposedly this is a friendly competition with several teams from all over Kyushu doing the same thing in order to raise money for charity, but I'm doing it because it sounds like a great way to spend Golden Week.

Packing list: Jansport backpack, toiletries, clothes, assorted tools and maps, camera, tent and sleeping bag, a towel

Expect another barrage of posts when I return on the 5th of May. Until then, I don't think I will see many opportunities to get online. Over and out.

The Oita Coastline

Despite for all of the problems with this composite photo, I decided to post it. I know that the shot on the right was overexposed, and that all three of the pictures do not match up nicely (argueably I only need to use two of the photos, but what the heck), but I am learning from my mistakes. This is merely me experimenting with a new format, and any suggestions you may have dealing with a technical nature would be appreciated.

I found this post at luminous-landscapes.com especially helpful for explaining what the histogram function on cameras should be used for. Slowly I am learning how to properly use my camera.

Look at the tour boat in this picture. Okay, so the waves coming into the cove weren't so big, but this guy had mad boating skills. He took it almost all the way into the cave and didn't even need to fend off. He maintained a safe (but alarmingly close) distance from the basalt walls by only manipulating the throttle.

The really cool thing about this location is a mixture of the California land/seascape. The rugged coast, decorated with wind-sculpted pines remind me of the views of Monterey. The columns of frozen basalt conjure memories of visiting Yosemite's Devil's Postpile. It is places like this that make me feel most at home in Japan.

The ridge in the background is Elephant rock, but I think that the two submerged rocks in the foreground look like the head of an elephant. The islet to the left is the head. Its trunk snakes right and breaks the surface toward the open ocean.

Saga In Bloom

If you have read The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, then you will immediately notice that this picture is bursting with multilayered feminine symbolism. On a side note, I enjoyed reading The Da Vinci Code, but I didn't think it was as good as everyone said it was. For some reason I was expecting the cryptography to be roughly on par with Cryptonomicon. I had a hard time accepting that the "codes" were so easy to solve. I mean, it's not a very good code if I can come up with the answer on my own soon after I read it. Writing a riddle backwards??? I mean, I everyone knows that Da Vinci wrote backwards sometimes, but how could you not immediately recognize this? Especially if you have watched Buckaroo Banzai.

It's not that I don't think that an ultra secret society such as the Priory of Sion wouldn't use riddles to test the knowledge of others inducted into their ranks to preserve their secrets. I just think that they would ALSO use at least a 4096-bit encryption key to protect the comparatively easy riddles. And the cryptex just sounds like some glorified bicycle lock to me- something that would hack it in Da Vinci's time, but surely not today. Some crafty cutting could open that thing up no problem without cracking open the vile of vinegar.

OK, getting back on track: The roses (the symbol of Mary Magdeline, or the wife of Jesus Christ according to the book) are arranged in a pentagram (again, according to the book Venus, originally Aphrodite- the goddess of femininity- draws a perfect pentacle across the night sky every four years which the aincent Greeks decided to commemorate with the Olympics). But since this is Japan, Amaterasu is shining away in the center for good measure. There is so much feminine power in this picture that merely looking at it might cause some women to ovulate!

"Kono hana wa shiteiru. Shiteiru?" (I know this flower. Do you know it?")
"Mmmmm, nandesuka?" (No, what is it?)
"Shiran."

The reason I didn't understand was because the name of the flower (shiran is a truncated version of shiranai) is the same as "I don't know.". Gotta love the Japanese language.

I think these are called wisteria in English for some reason. Anyhow, many people have erected trellises and structures to accomodate these hanging blossoms. As far as I can tell, there are two varieties: purple and white. The purple are in full bloom, but the white will most likely be at their best in another week.

The other flower that is spectacular right now is the tsusuji blossom. These generally look like leafy shrubberies with red, pink, purple, and white blossoms. I didn't take any pictures of them because I think they look better in person.

Nanohana

This post is for Uncle Rocky, who requested me to put up some pictures of nanohana. Merin sent me this first picture, which I think was taken somewhere in Kansai. The fields of nanohana evoke memories of mustard back home.

However, the best views of nanohana I have encountered have been down in Kagoshima, during the Nanohana Marathon. In the next picture, you can really see how vibrant this flower really is. Keep in mind that this picture was taken indoors under scant flourescent lighting.

This is Akari-chan, one of my pre-school students. She reminds me of Merin because she is usually serious and stubborn on occasion. Only recently has she started smiling and laughing frequently. She is also really good at traditional Japanese dance, at only 5 years old.

Kannon no Taki

Located North of Saga-shi and Yamato-shi in Saga Prefecture is the picturesque village of Nanayama. This place is almost as country as Ubuyama, but more beautiful.

The local river cascades down seven waterfalls, and was believed to have healing powers. From what I gathered, a woman who was favored by Hideyoshi was stricken with blindness. After she came to Kannon no Taki (the waterfall of Kannon) and splashed some of the water on her eyes, she could see again.

This waterfall is Kannon no Taki. I like how many of the sites in Japan where miracles are said to have occoured usually just involve Nature and Humans. God or Gods are credited with the miracles, and many times, memorials and statues are erected in their honor in such a way that they blend in with the environment. What you don't see is the "Jesus in a tortilla/tree branch/window reflection/etc" attractions (at least in Kyushu). I never understood why people would want to spend time looking at these quasi-amusing anomolies. How exactly do those qualify as miracles? All I know is that I often feel invigorated after communing with nature if nothing else.

Right now, all of the plants in Kyushu are growing at a phenominal rate and everything is green. It was strange to see some red momiji (maple) scattered around the forest. I didn't expect to see them change color until the Fall.

If you are around Saga though, try and hit the natural areas including the beach, the waterfalls, and the jinjas. They really are spectacular. It seems strange to me that I had such a hard time finding things to do and places to see the Friday before I headed out to the Fatherland (that's where my Grandfather's family is from). If all else fails, you can go watch movies at the Aeon Cinemas.

This is the waterfall where I spotted a long, venemous looking snake. It had the head of a pit-viper, so I let it be.

Colors Of Spring

I love all of the seasons in Japan. Summer is great because Ubuyama is up in the mountains, and so we escape the oppressive heat that brings gallons of sweat trickling down the faces of those who live in the city. Summer also means going to the beach, and trying to avoid the jellyfish (kujira).

Fall is great because the heat and the humidity gradually decrease into the most comfortable zone of the whole year. The Cosmos flowers come into full bloom at the Higothai Koen and Kuju Hana Koen, and young couples flock to all of the makeout points around Aso. Also, areas that are densely packed with deciduous plants turn amazing colors (my favorite area during this time is Kikuchi Gorge). Towards the end of Fall it starts to get cold, and so the kotatsu table is dusted off and perpetually switched on.

Winter is very cold, but it means that I can go snowboarding again, and practice driving in the snow. During these cold months I cook things that are hot and warm the body from the inside out. This past winter I was able to tweak my nabe to new heigths of deliciousness, with new layers of flavor.

Spring means Hanami, and also means that I can return to wearing shorts and short sleeved shirts. This is my favorite time of year, because life returns to Aso. The insects pupate, hatch, and otherwise appear again, and so I pull out the flyswatter and keep the pesticide ready to put the hurt on any centipede unlucky enough to find its way into my home. The days last longer, and everyone is in a good mood and ready to enjoy the good weather.

The three flowers that mean spring to me in Kyushu would have to be sakura (cherry blossoms), daffodils, and nanohana (rapeseed flower). Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of nanohana, so you will just have to take my word for it- they are beautiful. The fields of nanohana are reminiscent of the fields of mustard back home, but the stalks are thicker and more of a luscious green, and the flowers are larger and make the yellow of the mustard look muted in comparison.

I don't consider myself a "plant person", and any plant that I have ever cared for in my house has died or come very close to it. However, seeing these vibrant flowers and feeling the change of the seasons has made me develop an interest in flowers. You can't know what I'm talking about unless you have experienced it, and my descriptions will probably sound overly sentimental. Well, maybe pictures will convey what my clumsy verbage can not.

The sakura is percieved by many as a metaphor for the fleeting nature of life (if you have taken any classes on Japanese culture or even watched television programs on the Discovery Channel, specifically ones on Ukiyo-E, then this should sound familiar), but I just like to look at them and to sit underneath the sakura as they flutter down around me. These blossoms last only about 2 weeks, and many times strong winds and rains can expedite the process. If you are planning on coming to Japan, I would recommend coming during Hanami season if possible. Trust me, it's worth it.

Around the same time that the sakura come into full bloom (mankai), the nanohana and daffodils show off their yellow petals. I like this picture because the daffodils behind the barbed wire is symbolic. I don't know what exact symbol it is but trust me, there's some symbolism to be found here.

One night I drove up to my house at night, and my headlights cast the sakura in an interesting lumination. Hanami held at night time are equally as fun as the ones at day, and lend an interesting perspective on flower viewing. Last year, my friends made me drink a whole bottle of shochu, and I lost two bouts of Sumo to two drunk salarymen whom I had never met before that night. I learned that it's a good idea to grab for the underwear and apply the atomic wedgie instead of trying to grapple conventionally. They consider it a loss if even one of your knees touches the ground!

My house is flanked by two beautiful sakura trees, and are perfectly placed for barbecues in the parking lot.

One of the trees in front of my house.

This picture was taken at Aso Jinja in Ichinomiya. There are many beautiful sakura on the grounds of this famous shrine.

More sakura from Aso Jinja.

Animal Mimics And An Ample Supply Of Venison

These animal-plants, sitting along the side of the Yamanami in Ubuyama, remind me of the work of Edward Scissorhands. They sit alone, with a small shack to the right, a pen full of mangy deer to the left, and the Aso mountain range in the distance. I have no idea if the person who maintains these sells them, or if they are just someone's privately owned topiary garden.

I thought this (what do you call these things? I'll just use the word...) sculpture was pretty skillfully trimmed. I want to come back here on a night when the full moon is out and take more pictures.

Though these deer are not the primest of specimens, at least they're not as dirty or mean as the deer in Nara. They are most definetely not afraid of people because just like in Nara, people buy bags of sembei (rice crackers, that are sold for 100 yen) to feed them.

Dunno why, but visiting this crappy petting zoo made me want to eat venison. I think its because I know that the small pen that these deer are kept in has probably made their flesh nice and tender...

This Weekend's Drive Pictures

"You live where? How many people live in your village? What do you do out there?": These are the three questions that people always seem to ask when they first meet me. The answers are:

1. Ubuyama
2. Under 2000 people and falling
3. Many things, but I really enjoy driving.

Here are a few pics that I shot over the weekend while driving. The views around here are spectacular and the variety of driving conditions and roads are as varied as you can get.

This is a picture I shot on the Yamanami highway (also known as the 11) on my way down to Ichinomiya. This road has great views from the top of the caldera and snakes through the gentle rolling hills of Ubuyama, eventually taking you through Kokonoe, Kuju, Yufuin, and eventually Beppu.

A full moon rises among clouds scattered in the twilight. This was taken in Ichinomiya from the beginning of the Yamanami (it starts from the 57, near Aso shrine). I was late meeting a friend, otherwise I would have stopped to take some pictures of the beautiful night sky.

Ah, last night was one time where I was more than happy to drive well below the posted speed limit. I even turned the radar detector off for once. Why is it still snowing in March? I dunno, but it gave me a chance to use the chains that I bought at Autobacs (yes, Autobacs is a Japanese company). It was pitch-black when I started climbing the mountain road into Kuju and pulled off to the side, of the road. I had to work in a blizzard using the light on my cellphone to see what I was doing. I drove through the raging tempest on a road that was fully covered with snow, and didn't see one car for 45 minutes straight. The snow was so deep that mine were the only tracks visible on the road. The winds whipped the snow into dancing mini-hurricaines, and swishing around in snake-like movements. The snow seemed to move like a composite of tumbling sands and rising steam, riding the strong currents on the ground.

There's something really exhilarating about entrusting your safety to something which has time and time again pulled through for you whenever you needed it to. When all ends well, after you take that long relieved sigh, it was really worth it (but if all goes to hell, then your mood will probably turn sour and humiliation is likely to handed out in liberal portions). Last night, I strapped on my chains, and decided to meet up with everybody because had enough confidence in my car to see me through safely to the other side of the mountain. Driving was surreal. I can honestly say that I had a blast driving through those extreme conditions. On top of that, I had a blast playing drinking games inside a warm cabin on a cold and stormy night.

If it keeps on snowing, then I think I might take my snowboard up to Kuju pass next weekend! But I hope the weather gets warmer, because its hard to type when your fingers are stiff and numb.

It's Gonna Be A Bright, Bright Sunshiny Day

The rim of the largest caldera in the world, overlooking Aso-machi. If you look closely,
you can see steam rising from Aso-san. Sulphuric fumes released from the top of Aso kill a couple of people each year, mostly the old or sick. Recently Aso mountain has been acting a bit "sassy", and so sometimes you can't go up (depending on how the volcano has been feeling recently).

Lately the weather has warmed up considerably to the point where I can comfortably wear two layers of clothes in the mountains, and a shirt and shorts in the city! Bugs have begun to come out of hibernation and are slowly making a comeback. I can no longer use my whole kitchen as a giant refrigerator. The snow is disappearing slowly, although the shady sections of the roads remain slick and dangerous (last year, around this time, a friend of mine flipped his car on a warm, sunny afternoon and had to get driven to the airport so that he could make it up to Osaka to watch J5 perform). Hanami is just around the corner, and I think that I am finally getting over my cold (that I caught right when I came back from Korea). Its Monday and I'm exhausted already, but at least we have good weather.

Virus Update

I don't feel any better about the avian flu situation in Kyushu after reading this. Yesterday I was told that poultry farmers in Ubuyama are not allowed to sell eggs or any other chicken products until further notice. This morning, the officials inspected our chicken and came up with nothing, but Kokonoe is not very far away. Take a look at the map below:

(from the Daily Yomiuri Shimbun)

Man, that would really suck if I had to stay put in Ubuyama due to a quarantine. You never know- its not beyond the scope of probability, in fact, I predict that the Government is gonna start quarentining areas if people start getting scared, like they were about SARS last year.

Sick Irony

This year's SARS is Avian Flu. Last year, many JETs were unable to travel to Southeast Asia, and even Australia because everyone's Board Of Education was scared to death. I was barely able to slip out (turned off my cell phone because Joe warned me that his BOE had forced him and Jason to cancel their trip to Japan) with Justin and Nam to Thailand. Once there, I didn't once think about SARS, except when other people mentioned that the Secratary of Health (or some important Thai Guy in charge of the wellness of the Thai people) was offering something like 10 grand to the families of any person who died because they caught SARS in Thailand. Supposedly, really poor people were trying to get infected and come into Thailand to claim the reward...

Imagine my surprise right now. I just walked in, and on the front page of the Daily Yomiuri reads: "Avian flu hits bantams in Oita Pref." with a huge map with an X on it about 30 minutes drive from my house. I was just thinking at lunch "Hmmmm... Ubuyama has a lot of chickens, but Avian flu would never reach this far from Yamaguchi (which is located on the southern-most tip of the main island of Honshu, just North of Kyushu). Its too bad that some schools have made the teachers take over caring for the chickens, and that some have even killed all of theirs in order to be on the safe side. Ah, I better eat faster, it looks like Miki-chan is catching up to me...". And so, we will see how this affects Ubuyama. Luckily I don't live next to the chicken farm like my supervisor.

Kagoshima Part 2

The very next day after I got back from Korea, I made a trip with Kaori-Sensei and her friend Emiko down to Kagoshima. But first we stopped by the city to visit a shogakko student who was in the hospital.

Ryusei Nishida is a very good student who is liked by everyone. He's good at sports, and the girls like him because he's quite a charming little boy. After feeling a sudden and excruciating pain in his hip, he was admitted into the hospital, and they discovered a problem in his hip joint. They had to put three metal pins to hold together his fractured femur, and told him that he can't play sports or do P.E. until he is 20 years old. That means that from now (the 6th grade) until college, he can't do any sports of any kind. When we went to visit him, he was in high spirits as usual. Its just too sad to dwell on, however, Ryusei is a strong boy both mentally and physically and so he will still do well, even with his debilitating condition. If it had been any other student, I would be more concerned, but I know he will be O.K. We played a few games of babanuki (old maid), and then left with a black, cloudy feeling about the future.

The original plan was that we were all going to run in the Nonahana Marathon in Ibusuki, Kagoshima. However, both I and Ko-chan (Kaori's husband) came down with colds, so he stayed home and I went along just for fun. We went to sleep at about 10 P.M. and took off for Kagoshima at 2:30 A.M. (so that we wouldn't have to spend an extra night and extra money in a hotel). This was pretty rough, and I slept most of the way down. However, it must've been torture for the girls, who had to run. We arrived in Ibusuki at about 5:30 and slept in the car for an additional hour and a half.

There were 2 courses that people ran: the full marathon (42.195 K) and the 10K. About 10,000 people ran the full marathon and around 2,000 ran the 10K. People of all ages ran, some in really strange costumes such as square packages of pickled garlic, fish-men, faeries, and a giant Olive. There were so many people running that the people at the back of the queue were only able to start the race 10 minutes after the bang of the start.

It was inspirational watching those running the marathon. There were so many old people (50 and over) and people in the 70 year old age range were not uncommon. Made me feel like a wuss for dodging out due to a cold. There's nothing like healthy dose of good old fashioned shame to crank up the motivation. So I will be running the Saga Marathon on April 4th, most likely. Then again, maybe I'm not that ashamed of not running the race.

The atmosphere of the marathon was just like a matsuri. There were food booths, a magic show, a stage where I took pictures with Miss Ibusuki 2004, and lots of people in costumes walking around. The course was also spectacular. It was all flat and next to the beach, lined by bright yellow nanohana flowers (rape blossoms). If I'm around, I might have to run this marathon next year.

After they finished the marathon,

we headed over to the sunaburo onsen (hot sand bath). This place was located right on the beach, and the natural volcanic heat rose up steaming through the sand.

First, I observed the bilingual sign telling me how to take a sand bath, and warning not to stay in for too long, or I might become baked like a piroshky. Next, I changed into a yukata (thin cotton robe), and went down to the beach, right in front of a calm ocean. I layed down between a bunch of sand mounds from which only faces protruded. A young man came over with a shovel and started to mound steaming hot black volcanic sand on top of me and asked me if I was Korean (I simply laughed as an answer, so he was probably thinking something like "those crazy Koreans!"). I was slowly covered, and when it was complete, I was entombed in a sarcophagus.

The weight of the sand bearing down on my thorax brought to mind that old puritan man who's last words before being crushed to death with a huge pile of stones on his chest was "more weight" (what a badass!). The sand was heavy, pinning my whole body. This amplified the effects of the heat, which pierced straight through my flesh to my lungs and heart. Watching the rise and fall of the mound on my chest with each breath, I noticed that my heart beat was also visible, and the heat made it so that I could feel my pulse in my fingers and feet. This was one of those strange moments in which I felt completely in touch with my body, kinesthetically, spiritually, and physiologically speaking. After 10 minutes, the heat grew uncomfortable, and so I slowly emerged from my bed of earth, like a mummy come to life under the Egyptian dunes. If you happen to be in Ibusuki in the winter, or during a bout of cold weather, I highly recommend slapping down the 1,500 yen, for it is well worth it. However, during the Kagoshima summer, I think that this might prove to be an unpleasantly hot experience, but maybe not. It was 4:30 when we left, and there were still many people running the final 5k of the marathon. They had been running for 6 and a half hours, and I no longer regretted not running at all.

After the sunaburo, we made a trip down the Ibusuki Skyline. Like the Aso Skyline, this drive offers some excellent curvy roads to practice your mountain driving technique, and the view was breath taking. We drove into the sunset, with Kaimondake looming against a golden orange sky. I had previously climbed up Kaimondake, dubbed the Fujisan of Kyushu, six months ago so it was cool to see it from a different context. It was like looking at a Hokusai print in real life. I must say, if you have the chance to climb this beautiful extinct volcano, I highly recommend it (climbing this mountain was much more fun and offered a better view for me compared to Mt. Fuji).

That night we stayed at Eyouken Hotel, a Ryokan North of Kagoshima City.

This Ryokan boasted 3 onsens and was right on a beautiful river, filled with carp and minnow-like fish. If I ever go back, I will bring my fishing equipment or fashion a line and pole out of some stray bamboo and grass.

I went to the onsen once that night, and once the next morning. Both times I was completely alone, and had the massive pools to myself. It was a bit spooky and had a Purgatory-like ambiance because the rooms were filled with steam, so that you couldn't see anything past two feet in front of you. My morning onsen was awesome. To reach the baths, I had to walk outside in the bitter cold, on a stone bridge arching over a koi pond. Once inside, I showered off and walked slowly through the mist, entering the scalding-hot red-tinged opaque bathwater. My nerves screamed in out in that sharply specific cry that is about 30% pleasure and 70% pain. Large windows situated near the ivy draped vaulted ceiling let in an strong arctic draft, so my face was whipped by the cold while my body turned lobster red from the heat. I walked around the fog, and discovered a miniature landscape with giant statues of frogs, naked women, woodland creatures, and a fake stuffed crane. Had it not been for the heat, I would have stayed in that bath for the whole day, completely happy to have the place to myself.

The women didn't have as good of an experience. Their onsen, the rotenburo, was located outside, in plain view of any who happened to be strolling along on the adjacent bridge that spanned the river. Needless to say, they quickly hopped in and out and so we finished at the same time (girls always take a friggin long time in the bath, so taking my time is roughly equivalent to women hastily racing through the same actions).

The last thing that we did in Kagoshima, before leaving for Kumamoto, was go to eat Shirokuma (white bear, polar bear, or shaved ice, depending on the context. In my case it was the latter of the three) during coming of age day. It was cool seeing all of the 20 year old girls fully dressed in kimono as well as a few guys. Everyone was in a good mood, and had gone though lengths to look their best on this important day. If you have a kimono fetish, this is the day that you want to visit Japan on.

The Shirokuma was excellent. The ice was finely shaved and had a feather-light quality, not grainy or pebbly like the cheaper shaved ice that you get at the country fair. I got the one flavor that I had never seen before, despite skepticism and rude noises made by those who chose their flavor of Shirokuma with less skill. And it turned out to be the shit! It tasted better than theirs, and they kept asking for more. So remember, the chocolate Shirokuma kicks the most ass in the "pure flavor" Shirokuma category.

I must say that traveling with girls is a completely different experience than crusing with the guys. Instead of roughing it, we enjoy the comforts along the way. Instead of getting drunk and wrestling and getting angry and laughing at other's misfortunes, we get drunk, and play games, and have in depth conversations. Instead of saving money by eating food bought exclusively out of convenience stores, we eat frequently at good sit down restaraunts and nibble on delicacies famous to the region. Instead of doing stupid things that might get us into trouble, we relax and enjoy the views and other sensory input, taking on a more reflective role in contrast to a hyperactive one. Instead of covering our B.O. with deodorant, we bathe regularly and remain in a perpetual state of cleanliness. Ah, its good to hang out with the girls for a prolonged period every once in a while, allowing the body to heal from inevitable wounds and other miscellaneous damage that results from hanging out with the guys.

Places That I Enjoyed In Kagoshima:

1. The Kagoshima Suizokan (Aquarium). A top notch aquarium complete with some excellent specimens such as adult Pirarucu from the Amazon, a giant sturgeon, various gigantic rays (but no mantas), a tiny whale shark, and an electric eel of notable girth complete with analog voltmeter that displays the electric output during feeding time. Admission is 1,500 yen.

2. Sakurajima (Cherry Island). This volcanic island sits in the middle of Kagoshima Bay, and there is a youth hostel you can stay at for around 2,000 yen a night (this is super-cheap, and better than camping out during a hot and humid Kagoshima night, as I found out). The onsens on the island have red, muddy, sulfur-rich water that is said to be theraputic (but mostly it just feels good to soak in one after a long day). The ferry is also pretty cheap, and you can even take a car over to the other side (for about 1,500 yen, if I remember correctly).

3. Kaimon-Dake.

This mountain is a medium challenge to climb. Takes about 2.5 hours at a slow and steady pace to reach the top. The view is spectacular, both from the peak, and from a distance. It is free to climb if you enter through the town. Also, the beaches around this area are spectacular, with black sand. My only complaint is that just below the tideline, medium sized stones will crush your toes is you forget to pack the aqua socks (I didn't so I was O.K.).

4. Kagoshima City. This place is a lively, decent sized metropolitan area. I feel at home here for some reason, and find it more exciting than Kumamoto city. There are many historical sites to check out in and immediately around the city center. At night time, the red light district is really lively, and the girls flirt more agressively to drag prospective clients into their snack bars.

5. Unagi Mura. This place seems even more inaka than Ubuyama, because everyone seems to be at least 80 years old. Unagi (meaning "eel") is a small town located in the middle of a dead volcano, with a lake in the bottom of the caldera. I went to the local onsen (a tiny hut) with a hairy Portugese ALT, and it was a true life anthropological experience interacting with the native "small people". Dayamn pops, yeah we're foreigners, but staring at another man's wang is poor manners in any culture that I know of. Tend to your own unagi. Anyhow, this is a cool place to drop by and experience a deeper level of hidden culture.

There are so many cool places to check out in Kagoshima, and I have the feeling I will return once again.

I Love The Onsen

I have been going quite frequently as of late. Today, I went with Joe and Azumi to an onsen in Kikuchi.
Its too bad that onsens will never catch on in America. Sitting in the sauna helps to sweat out a hangover, and to get rid of all the toxins. You can smell a night's worth of booze leaking out of the pores, and it feels great. Sitting under a column of pounding water really drives into stiff muscles. I am lucky to live in Kumamoto, because I enjoy going to the onsen.
I also love to switch between the hot baths (or rooms) and the ice cold pool. It feels great to be uncomfortably hot, after soaking up heat for a while, and then to plunge your whole body under the cold blue shock of spring water. The marine mamalian response immediately kicks in, slowing down the heart rate, shutting the eyes closed tight, and locking a hastily drawn breath into frozen lungs. Your senses are heightened, and after sitting in the pool for a while, it starts to feel like your skin has a polar bear-thick layer of blubber underneath. Then when you return to the hot tub, the heat pierces through your body like acupuncture needles. I like to do this several times, and by the end, I am buzzing, a purer and gentler energy than Lipovitan.
The only thing that I don't really enjoy doing is going into the electrically charged water. Some people enjoy sitting next to electrodes and getting a mild electrical shock, but it just feels like an unpleasant stim-flex machine. It is fun to see your dumbass friends see what it feels like to put body parts of their choosing close to the plates.

A Free Day At Oita's Sculpture Park

Yesterday I got to hitch along with the Middle School's fieldtrip to go look at pieces of artwork produced in Oita-ken. After watching a 30 minute video about some old dead Japanese dude of whom the premises were named after, we looked at his sculptures of people, monkeys, and cats (there were so many that Taro naturally came to mind) and took a short tour around the museum that was built in his honor. Then the kids were given a large 1.5x2 foot piece of paper and instructed to spend the next five hours painting anything that they wanted to in the vast grounds of the park surrounding the museum. This place was a nicely balanced microcosm, complete with mini-forest, a lawn with mini-rolling hills, a mini-mountain with a panaramic view, a mini-lake, and a mini-stream. The only thing that was missing, much to my dissapointment, were mini-people (but I guess that JHS students will do in a pinch). Anyways, scattered throughout the crafted landscape were sculptures created by students of Oita University. They ranged wildly in their degree of abstractness, size, and how they looked relative to the site upon which they came to spend the rest of their existance.

I asked the teachers what they were going to do during the whole day, and they all said "ah, I have to work" or something in that vein. To translate this I had to use tried and true refined scientific methods. I broke out my linguistic bunsen burner, along with the graduated cylinder, titration set, beakers of various girth, and Erlenmeyer flask to set about distilling the scant traces of hidden true meaning from the words that actually spewed forth from their maws. After processing the raw input and passing it through filters and amplifiers, the following was yielded: "I am going to shoot the breeze with all of the other teachers (and occasionally a student) while sitting in the shade of the gazeebo, drinking tea and smoking many cigarettes, keeping a loose eye on the kids to make sure that they don't commit any felonies, and eventually spend the rest of the time sleeping, texting on the mobile telephone, or when the boredom becomes too overpowering, breaking out the easil and paintbrush to show these kids what watercolor painting is all about." I chose to hike around, take pictures of the art, sketch stuff, and to read a couple more chapters of Quicksilver . All in all, not a bad day at the office.

Mental Block: This piece is the physical incarnation of my brain and its functions when I try too hard to have an honest conversation with most of the Japanese teachers with whom I work. I think that they experience something similar when I forget to mask what I really mean behind a couple of layers of opaque implication while at the same time slapping on some polite Japanese to give it a nice shiny gleen. Perhaps a precision expertly timed "bitchslap" can make them understand where mere words fail! Actions speak louder than words.

This frog was chillin' in a piece of "Art". The sculpture looked more like a giant kiln or old fashioned oven, made from adobe, but apparently it was a hit with the judges. However, unlike a lot of art out there it seems to have fulfilled more of a purpose than just sitting there as a lump of aesthetically pleasing dead weight (although most likely unintentionally). It is now a nice castle for a very small frog, so that he can look down upon all the other lesser frogs that make their homes under the rotting logs, in the pond, or huddled under the leaf litter! Bow down!

Over the day I completed this sketch with a student, doing a little at a time. it looks better from up close (you just have to take my word for it). Brought back countless memories of sketching stuff in class, throughout my career as a student. I remeber thinking "maybe one day these scribbles on my college ruled notebook paper will be worth some serious money...". Hahahahaha!

Mini-stream with mini-islands and probably some mini-giardia and mini-chollera.

Remains Of A Dream: This piece looks to be a Semi (Cicada) between the larval and adult stages, lying on it's back on top of a leaf. In my opinion, this Kafkaesque piece should have won the competition. What won instead? A long metal chrome tube painted red inside the bore, tied with steel cable to a chunk of granite upon which it rested! Uh, I think the judges had their berets on a little too tight during the competition.

Hiking Kuju

This is an insect that was found at the peak of Mount Kuju. It was about the size of a large grape, and has the general morphology of a tick. It moved very slowly and didn't seem bothered at all when picked up. As there were no visible animals at the top of the mountain other than people, their pets, and insects, and sparse vegetation, I am guessing that this monster tick eats volcanic rocks and dirt.

I hiked up the mountain with one of my elementary schools and their families on Saturday. The hike started at eight and ended at three. The sun was shining in the open blue sky, and a constant cold breeze chilled the sweat on my brow. It was such a nice day that there must have been about one thousand visitors hiking the trail on that day alone.My students went at their own pace, and so I was forced to climb from our check in point up to the top three times by three different groups! As soon as I descended (from the last rest point), newly arrived students would demand that I accompany them again!
Anyhow, this is my second "expedition" up Mount Kuju- the first one was much harder to complete, as I took a longer and steeper trail during deep winter in the snow- yes, it was dangerous, but a hike isn't worth doing if it doesn't have some elements of danger. The fact that if you break your leg, then you will either have to suck it up and crawl down, or freeze to death all alone, makes hiking more interesting!
Kuju is the tallest mountain in Kyushu (I think, maybe it's Neko-Dake), and is still volcanically active. The smell of "Io" (or sulphur) permeates the air up there, and the landscapes are fantastically varied and scaled. Truly a magnificent hike if you happen to be in the area! As soon as I get my ISDN connection up and running I will post a bunch of pix.

Beer + Horses + Drunk People = Fun

On my way driving to an English Camp on Saturday morning, I was surprised to hear Japanese drums. As I came around a curve, a saw a frightened horse bulldozing his handlers into the heavy traffic. He was clearly terrified by the streaming cars, the dancing participants, and the throbbing drums. I learned that they were preparing for the "Drunken Horse Festival" that I had missed last year, and that the main event would be on Monday. I spent the three day weekend working with the same 5th and 6th graders that I taught during the summer. It was great to see them want to use their english, and I think this batch has great potential. I taught Kaho-chan to do the proper Kung Foo pose while uttering "Tiger-style" in traditional Wu-Tang Clan style (Method Man would surely approve).

Anyhow, yesterday I decided fight my mind paralyzing fatigue, to witness the ensuing mayhem. From what I heard, this festival was started in order to honor the horses of Kumamoto for their part in facilitating a smashing victory on the Korean Peninsula(yet another reason why Koreans hate Japanese).
It didn't seem like the horses really liked the honor that was bestowed on them. I met up with a bunch of friends and co-workers, and we watched the latter half of the 65 or so horses and thousands of hapi-clad paraders dance, stumble, and thrash around spastically to the sounds of drums and loud hoarse chanting of the various MCs (one per horse). Horses and people alike lacked the equilibrium needed to avoid collisions. The horses were completely freaked, bucking on several occasions. I saw one horse charge to the side of a really small street packed past capacity. He swung around in an unsteady arc, and without warning smashed into the trapped crowd with several rapid kicks! Unbelievably, no one was injured.

About ten minutes later, I saw an ambulance streak by headed in the same direcion...
The parade was amazing and I stayed for three hours. I was rockin to the beat and rewarded with beer on many occasions (that I had to give away, since I had to drive home).

How was this matsuri started anyways? I can imagine a bunch of Kumamoto men saying: You know what we should do? Lets throw a party and watch what happens when we get the horses sloshed! I bet my horse can drink more than yours! etc.

I have found the best, most fun matsuris are the ones that blend danger, alcohol, and a riotous crowd in the proper measure. This matsuri ranks among the best that I have encountered so far.

Shiramizu

Located only 40 minutes away from my pad is this waterfall. There is a hidden ladder you can climb to access the fogotten campsite, complete with pitfalls, rusty danger signs, and the stench of rotting carcass (no joke). Brought back memories of Stand By Me.

Rimshot

Taken from the Milk Road, on the crest of the largest caldera in the world. In addition, this area boasts some of the best driving to be had in Japan, good clean air, and breath taking views.