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I just got back from 5 days in Kyushu. My friend, Lisa and I went to Fukuoka, Iizuka, Beppu, Mt. Aso, Kumamoto city, Nagasaki, and back to Fukuoka. We were lucky enough to stay 2 nights with my JTE's parents, who live in Iizuka. They were very kind to us, and saved us a lot of money. Lisa and I were driven to Beppu, Mt. Aso, and Kumamoto, plus the Ito's paid for most of our meals and entrance fees. The Ito's speak virtually no English, but Lisa and I were able to understand and communicate with them fairly easily. (It was an ego boost for me. Maybe my Japanese isn't that bad.) We flew into Fukuoka on Wednesday afternoon. Mrs. Ito met us at the airport and took us to a famous temple where students go to pray before entrance exams. The weather was gorgeous, and the temple was very beautiful. There were many interesting shops that sold amazaki (sweet, non-alcoholic sake with rice floaties), ume (plum) tea, red-bean manju, and pottery. What impressed me the most that first day, was how Kyushu people dressed. I live just north of Tokyo, and the women have a certain fashion style. It gets pretty cold in the winter, and still is chilly now, in April. But even during the winter, many women and girls wear short skirts and no pantyhose or tights. Along with the short skirts, the girls like to wear boots with thick (~3 inch) soles, which are really noisy and seems difficult to walk in. But in Kyushu, the people were just the opposite. I saw very few skirts, and if I did, they usually were long. I thought most of the people were overdressed for the weather. But at least they had sensible shoes. Most people wore sneakers, especially the VANS style. Another thing I noticed is that the children aren't as shy. Maybe it was the fact that we met the children in touristy spots, or outside of school, or while they were on vacation, but something must have been a factor. Children would stare at us, say hi to us, wave to us, etc. Around my town, I am lucky if a small child doesn't cry when he or she sees me waving at him or her. But in Kyushu, I was an attraction. It can't be that the children aren't as shy as they are in the Kanto plain. Granted, Kyushu is more international in some respects than the Kanto plain (Dutch, Portuguese, Chinese, and Korean traders, missionaries, etc. set up camp in Kyushu throughout history.) Anyway, lets get back to business. The second day, the Ito's drove us to Beppu, a famous hot spa town. The weather was misty, which really gave Oita-ken the feeling of Scotland (or so my friend who's been to Scotland said). There were rolling hills, some forested, some grassy. (For you geologists out there- I saw a lot of rhyolite porphery.) We could tell when we were almost at Beppu, because the air began to smell like sulfur, and the populated areas looked like they were on fire. This was all due to the volcanic activity beneath Beppu. It's such a tourist spot because of all the hot springs. This is the mecca of onsens in Japan. We spent our time in Beppu, visiting two famous jigoku, the Ocean Hell, and the Mountain Hell. (Jigoku means hell.) The ocean hell was really neat. The hot spring was a beautiful shade of blue, hence the ocean name. It is due to the mineral content of the water. There was also a tomato soup-colored hot spring, also deriving its color from the minerals. Both were very beautiful and very hot. Inside the gift shop, I found onsen powder, so I could make my bath water that beautiful blue color. I could also buy eggs that had been boiled in the jigoku. I didn't buy either, because my skin doesn't take kindly to true onsens, especially if there is a high sulfur content. The yama jigoku wasn't so awe-inspiring, it was awful. There was a Hell, but it was more steam than water. To make up for this, the main attraction was a small zoo. A small zoo with tiny cages and pitiful animals. Some of the animals seemed quite content, but some looked sick and lonely. There was one elephant, one lion, and one chimpanzee. Each was in a small cage, and seemed discontent. The lion smelled bad, and was very thin. There was also a lone hippo in a very small pool. He seemed ok, but I am sure that his pool was too small for him. The monkey cages were really small and dirty. There were too many in some of the cages. After the hells, we went to an onsen, then had lunch, and went back to Iizuka. For dinner, the Itos took us o a yakiniku restaurant. Dining at this restaurant, was a one famous baseball player for the Hiroshima pro baseball league. Lisa asked him for his autograph. He gladly gave it, and even came back to our table with an autographed baseball! Sorry, but I don't remember his name. Valerie Straayer |