Kyushu

Saturday, May 24, 2008

For once I have a single morning free to do as I please and you can thank your lucky stars I'm finally writing about something interesting!

Golden week - a time when there are so many national holidays all at once, the week turns into a golden vacation of one day off after another. I took 3 vacation days and took an 11 day trip! I love it (^^)v

This year I took some friends as we camped all over the beautiful island of Kyushu. We drove my tiny K-car all the way there and back and didn't kill ourselves on the way!

The navigator

The driver

The innocent bystandard

The fake hot springs in Beppu! They're naturally hot but not naturally blue. It cost $4 just to look at this place and we couldn't even go in! Granted, it probably would have naturally burned all of our skin leaving us stripped and tinted blue.

So we decided to get our money's worth in pictures.

Our second night camping! It was a beautiful place to pop tent and the weather was always on our side the entire trip! It rained for only two days both of which we had made no plans to go hiking or site seeing. The first day we stayed inside a museum all day and the second was the last day of our trip which consisted of us driving home! Score :)

Helicopter ride to see the inside of a magnificent LIVE crater in the mountains of Aso.

Said crater. We later hiked up an inactive one which was probably one of the best hikes I've ever been on. And it was amazingly beautiful. Something right out of Lord of the Rings. Pictures could never come close to describing it's beauty.

Kumamoto Castle or something such thing. I can't ever remember names :P But it was a magnificent castle anyway.

Then as we were driving through the mountains, we saw REAL volcanic activity. This was just on the side of the road! We couldn't believe our eyes. It was smoking all over and it smelled like rotten eggs. That's a sure sign that there is a hot spring near by. Directly in front of us is a tiny rest stop that had park benches to relax on (in the middle of nowhere) but it was all roped off. The entire thing was corroded and rotting. Turns out, the hot volcanic spring waters got a little out of control and bubbled over making the entire place unsafe. It was awesome!

Heat rash: 0 Nina: 1

I was driving so much and the sun was so intense at times that I started developing heat rash. I decided to break down and buy these expensive gloves that I see lot's of women wearing here in Japan. They look kinda weird, huh! But I LOVE them! I didn't really want to wear them but I wanted heat rash even less. Once I put them on, I didn't stop wearing them for the rest of the trip. They are so damn cool!!!

One of the many waterfalls on one of the many hikes we went on. Worth every moment of exhaustion :)

We later made it to the southern island of Yakushima. Not too many people make it that far. It was pretty isolated but one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. The trees were lush and green.

Something straight out of a movie. Oh wait, what does this sign say? Mononoke no hime no mori? The Princess Mononoke Forest? That's right folks. I was there. And it was awesome.

We later got to soak in this $1 onsen. Natural. Unmanned. Throw your coin in a box and get naked on the beach. Bathe in all the glory of naturally heated water right on the edge of the Pacific Ocean as the sun sets to create the perfect end to the most perfect trip I've taken.