I really needed a vacation. I didn't go anywhere during the winter - and it showed.
No longer was I the sparkling model of efficiency (my view). Now I was a borderline paranoid hypochondriac (everyone else's view). I started developing headaches and dizzy spells, and complained to anyone who would or wouldn't listen all about it. There's no way it could have been due to the blow to the head suffered a few chapters ago in the bike/car collision(s). It had to be stress.
On March 21, 1991 I was off work, though pundits might suggest that I've been 'off' for years.
Myself and Ashley, who may possibly be my girlfriend at this exact point in time, or perhaps not, rode our bicycles to the Nishinasuno-eki (eki means 'station') at about 6AM. We laughed at the cold and bitter gale that blew in our faces with such fury that we occasionally had to stop to walk our bikes--we knew that later in the day we'd be in the warm regions of Japan.
After traveling up to Kuroiso on the local JR (Japan Rail) line, we caught a shinkansen (bullet train) to Ueno-eki in Tokyo and then caught another bullet train west to Kyoto. To-kyo and Kyo-to. Notice how each city uses the same two words? Tokyo literally translates into 'Eastern Gate' and Kyoto into 'Gate to the East'. It's funny what sticks in your head for 20 years.
Arriving in Kyoto at noon (not including biking, it was a 525 kilometre trip... and that six-hours includes lots of time spent walking to tracks and waiting for trains and the local train ride north to catch the shinkansen) we quickly walked to a youth hostel and booked space for the evening. It wasn't my idea, but more whining on that later. It's time for whining of a different nature, about nature.
Ashley and I then went sight-seeing. She had a plan, and that's a good thing because I, due to an innate lack of direction, tend to go whichever way the wind blows.
We checked out a few temples, but by our third such tourist trap, it was quite evident that the weather was as cold as some of my girlfriends had occasionally been, though not as this particular moment.
I, by some quirk of luck, had a coat. Ashley, did not. Not wanting her to freeze to death, I gave her my coat which was gratefully accepted. Chivalry may not be dead, but I secretly wished it was.
Later that evening at the youth hostel, I had to try and sleep on a thread-bare futon with a skimpy blanket. I froze my muscular butt off. Even worse, to avoid hanky-panky, all male visitors had to sleep in a room separate from the women. How is this enjoyable?
But, like all of my adventures, the worst was yet to come.
The second day in Kyoto (March 22), it rained. Hard and cold. Here are some wet photos of KYOTO. Remember, only one of us had a coat, but I did still have a baseball cap. I insisted we go to a hotel (heck, I'm buying), but the Japanese-style one Ashley chose unfortunately had a hissing and flying cockroach in it that was, without exaggeration, the size of my foot (30-centimetres=12-inches or one perfect foot). That cockroach seemed to take great pleasure in dive bombing us.
Anyhow, screaming like little girls--which is fine for Ashley--we spent the night under the covers. No sex, but rather to protect ourselves from this refugee from a Godzilla film.
For our third day, we decided to try our luck in nearby Osaka, which had previously been lucky for me (HERE). It was drizzling rain, but was awfully cold. I was again without a coat--why didn't we go shopping for a coat??!!--and I was thinking how nice Ohtawara would be at this time of year. What was I thinking? March in Ohtawara would be the same as here.
Anyhow, here's a link back to the famous Osaka-jo castle - CASTLE.
Did I mention that neither Ashley or I had brought more than one set of warm clothes each? Dicey.
From Osaka, Ashley had us take a 9PM ferry boat ride to Kyushu. While waiting, we visited the absolutely stunning Osaka Aquarium. This is a must-see place - Here's a Video.
After getting useless information from many a Japanese person (probably tourists!), we finally were able to find the ferry's ticket office. While they didn't have any cabins available--apparently they are booked months in advance-- we were able to get economy class accommodations. It meant not having our own room, and we'd have to share it - something like a youth hostel, but we'd at least be together.
How bad could it be? I figured we'd get a futon and blanket to use on a gymnasium-sized floor. Mope. Here on the HMS Bounty II, we (us and a gaggle of Nihonjin) were let to a holding pen that was about 40 per cent smaller than the average-size junior high school classroom (where each class of mine had 25-30 students).
On the floor, 48 blankets were placed - six rows of eight blankies. Each blanket was four-feet long and one-foot wide. When Ashley and I put our traveling luggage down, there wasn't much room left at all. It was a 15-hour voyage.
I won't delve into the fact that there were seven additional rooms jut like ours - all with their own stand-up video game coin-ops right outside the room where the door never closed. Heck, Ashley and I were lucky... there were about 50 more people who were unable to find a 'space' in the rooms and had to sit/flop on chairs next to the door that led to the outside deck... and for some reason, that door was also open more often than not.
I no longer had to wonder how 5000 people can drown in Bangladesh when a ferry capsizes.
The next morning's weather was, at least, nice and sunny. Still, it was no small comfort to me to have to experience this hellish nightmare. Yup. Don't pay the ferry man, until he gets you to the other side.
At least this boat-hell was an appropriate passage to Beppu. The town of Beppu is known for its numerous hells - hot steaming pools and geysers made of unearthly colours that would seem highly reminiscent of Hell had anyone actually been there and described it to the Japanese Tourist Board.
My first day in Hell was warm and pleasant, though our second day there consisted of a steady rain. Check out Pix of BEPPU taken from a 1930's photo album I picked up at a 'garage sale' in Utsunomiya, the capital of Tochigi-ken. THIS photo is one I have of a nice red Hell - red from the heavy iron content in the water.
The day after that, we traveled to Miyazaki, home to a 36-metre high Peace Tower that was built in 1940, a year before Japan's attack on the U.S. protectorate of Hawaii. It was raining in Miyazaki. A lot. Mere words can not even begin to describe how hard and cold the rain was. WET PHOTO. This the only photo I have or found worth taking of this place.
The following day, we ventured to Kagoshima. While it wasn't raining (yet), it was very grey and overcast. the clouds obscured a magnificent volcano that guide book says is there. Maybe the gods had thought I had left the city, but the sun came out for a few minutes allowing me to snap a few photos to prove it really existed. Did you know that photographs taken directly of the sun the sun don't come out very well?
Here are some KAGOSHIMA PIX from that old photo album plus a few I took.
Our penultimate stop was Nagasaki. I was disappointed. I mean I knew that the city had the crap bombed out of it by an atomic bomb back in 1945, but I expected to see some cool buildings there rebuilt in the old style framed by the dull grey skies. Instead, I got buildings that looked a lot like they were based on American design. To make matters worse, for a city that once glowed with nuclear radiation, this very hilly city made walking a bitch. And, it was still cold enough that Ashley and I had to continue wearing our 'warm' clothes - still damp and now onto our eighth day).
It rained again the next day, but we did spend time checking out the atomic bomb museum. Man. Never again should we ever use an atomic or nuclear weapon. Horrible stuff, but definitely worth the visit.
Here are the only photos I have of NAGASAKI thanks to a house fire.
On the tenth day, it was time for us to head back home to Tochigi-ken. It was drizzling when we left, but when we arrived back at our bicycles in Nishinasuno-eki, it was raining harder that it had all trip. It was also 10C colder.
Oh yeah, on the two trips west and back, Mt. Fuji was obscured by clouds. Japan's tallest and most-famous mountain and I haven't seen it in nine months, even though it's supposed to be visible from the Nasu Mountain north of Ohtawara. It's just always been raining or snowing or fogging.
Oh well. At least I had fun, and more importantly, not only did I get to see a lot of great sights, I finally got to change my clothes.
What kills me is that it's not even the rainy season yet. Yeesh.
Somewhere building an ark,
Andrew Joseph
Today's title: The Doors. "There is the known and the unknown, and in between are the doors."
