Recap: Beppu Adventures

Let's take a trip back in TIME to Tuesday.  Mary had to go into school and it was raining pretty hard, which kind of ruled out sightseeing (plus, I didn't particularly feel like getting excessively lost), so I mostly just hung around Mary's place, did some tax stuff, did some paperwork for Fulbright, read a little...it wasn't all that exciting.  BUT that afternoon Tatara-san picked me up so I could go talk to this guy she knows who "knows a lot about Shinto."  As it turned out...he wasn't actually a priest, but rather a guy who wanted to be a priest but instead became a martial artist and masseuse for reasons that aren't incredibly clear to me?  But he was interesting to talk to, and had some...unusual opinions.  I doubt I'll be able to use any of it in my research paper for the end of Fulbright, but it was still interesting and gave me more opportunities to practice my poker face.

Tuesday night Mary and I went to Gyoza Kaikan, which is a restaurant that sells gyoza (potstickers, for anyone who doesn't know the Japanese term), rice, and ramen.  And nobody in their right mind orders the ramen, because their potstickers are SO DELICIOUS OM NOM NOM.  I might have eaten there three times already.  It brings a whole new level of hole-in-the-wall to hole-in-the-wall, though.  Also, the lower level of the restaurant smells very strongly of...sweat-soaked dudes (the primary clientele), I guess.  It's kind of gross, but the food is great, so I don't really care.

Anyway!

Wednesday I woke up Way Too Early to hop on a train to Fukuoka where I was supposed to take a bus with Sara and Alyssa and some of their friends to Beppu.  (You can see Sara's post as well as some other pictures of Beppu here.)  Unfortunately, it snowed a microscopic amount the previous night, which meant that the entire city of Fukuoka ground to a halt in dread and all the buses out of the city stopped running.  ALL THE BUSES.  I'd like to point out that IT WASN'T EVEN SNOWING ANYMORE.

So instead we had to take a train, which was slightly more expensive but took less time, so all's well that ends pretty okay, I guess.

We met Alex in Beppu, where, stepping outside of the station, we got our first taste of the thing Beppu is famous for:

Onsen!

Yep, Beppu is home to some of Japan's most famous onsen!  Which was basically why we were there.

Also outside of the station was this:

...I...I have no words.

Take a moment to drink in this sight.

...I...what.  WHAT.  SHINY UNCLE????

Oh, yay, there are two demon children hanging off his cloak.

Oh, and they're naked.  And apparently boys.

WHAT.

THE.

FORK.

I don't even know whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat.

So then we went and got lunch at this restaurant with weirdly shaped spoons, but Shiny Uncle still haunted our thoughts.

So theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen we caught a shuttle bus up the mountain to the hotel we were staying at!

It was potentially the classiest hotel I have ever set foot in, not even kidding.  There were four of us staying in one room, but our room could have easily fit 6-8 people.  Also, the view:

Beppu!

We also got yukata to change into in our rooms.

Look at me, failing at pictures whoooo.

So then we went to...THE ONSEN.

The onsen was CRAZY INTENSE.  There were gender-segregated onsen and a gender-neutral onsen that you had to wear a swimsuit into, so we went into the gender-segregated one first.  It was sooooo niiiiice and also HUGE.  It was also an actual factual onsen, which meant that it smelled vaguely of sulfur, so I now understand what rotten eggs smell like.  Anyway, there were a bunch of different pools of varying hotness, and also a cold pool for when you felt like freezing all your skin off before burning it all off again.  There were also a bunch of little old ladies who were SUPER INTERESTED in us, but especially Sara because she is WHITE.  They were all petting her skin, which, I dunno, I'd definitely find that pretty uncomfortable, but Sara handled it very classily.

I have no idea what the boys were doing at the time, but it probably looked like this:

Continuing my glorious tradition of referencing Gurren Lagann every time I go to an onsen!

We also wound up hopping into the gender-neutral onsen later, although the gender-segregated one turned out to be nicer. It was nice being able to hang out with the guys, but wearing a swimsuit in an onsen just feels really weird to me.  It would be like bathing with a swimsuit on.  I don't think I'd mind a gender-neutral actual onsen (with nudity whooo) as long as nobody got weird at me (or weirder than usual, 'cause people are usually kind of weird at me in onsen). I guess swimsuit onsen are pretty okay if you're uncomfortable with being naked around other people, though.  Although then I'd have to wonder why you're bothering going to an onsen and not a heated pool, but WHATEVER.

Our dinner was a Crazy Intense Buffet at the hotel, which had everything you could ever possibly dream of eating in your life.  I ate SO MUCH FRUIT.  And it was all delicious.

The hotel, by the way, had potentially the weirdest floor layout I have ever seen in my life.  You would walk and walk and walk for what seemed like miles, up escalators and down escalators and through twisting passageways and past that weird arcade and by that weird cow statue and EVENTUALLY you would get to the entrance to the onsen at which point you would take an elevator up a floor and then walk up more stairs and down more stairs and through more twisting passageways and EVENTUALLY you would get to the changing room.  It was preeeeeeetty weird.  I have no idea how they had all that space.  It took us an insanely long time to get to dinner, because we had to walk and walk and walk and walk.

So after dinner we played Apples to Apples and I was terribly slaughtered but it was still fun, so oh well.  And then we went for one last dip in the onsen before bed.  The funny thing about onsen is that they are EXHAUSTING.  We were laughing because it was 10:30 at night and everyone was exhausted and all we had done all day was ride a train, sit in the onsen, and eat.  Well, and walk through the hotel, I guess.

The next morning!

Sara found the smallest possible cereal spoon.

Also, she makes great faces at 8 a.m.

Alyssa and Bruce squared off against each other at That Taiko Game!

Beppu was really foggy!

I had a really long ride to Osaka, so I bid everyone else goodbye at around 11 and headed to the station.

And then I did this:

...just kidding, I actually went to Osaka, but that will have to wait until next time!

Shimabara adventures

Greetings, from "balmy" Kyushu, where the temperature is approximately colder than is entirely comfortable!  I arrived on Friday night and told bad jokes at Mary and made her spew her tea everywhere.  It was exciting.

Saturday I was feeling a little bit under the weather, so we had a fairly quiet day in.  We did make a chocolate decadence cake though, which was sooooooooooooo tasty, and I attacked Mary with ponies, because I will shakubuku her like WHOA.

Today I was finally reunited with Alyssa, another Fulbrighter, who I haven't seen since orientation in September!  Alyssa is based out of Fukuoka and doing really cool research on pottery and also speaks the most gorgeous Japanese ever.  Whenever she opens her mouth a flock of angels flies out.  JAPANESE-SPEAKING angels.
Alyssa and Mary and I were kidnapped by Tatara-san and taken to Shimabara, which is waaaaaaaaaaaaay to heck and gone, but we drove along the Ariake Sea and it was BEAUTIFUL.  Unfortunately, I got carsick and pathetic on the way there, as I am prone to do.  But we stopped at a convenience store and I bought gum and then I wasn't as pathetic anymore.

Anyway, finally we arrived in Shimabara, where we went to a random hotel with attached restaurant.

And we had shabu shabu, which is where you dump a bunch of vegetables in boiling broth and then you take thin pieces of pork and swish them around in the broth (making a shabu shabu noise) and EAT THEM ALL OM NOM NOM.

And we also had nabe, which is where you throw a bunch of stuff in a pot until it is cooked and then EAT IT OM NOM NOM.

Also, the shabu shabu pot was adorable.

This was the view from the restaurant.

SEA.

As you can probably tell, though, the weather was kind of lame.

Mary and Tatara-san!

They are pals.

The decor was REALLY INTERESTING.  I am a fan of the tree-columns.

...look at me failing to take pictures of the food until after I have eaten all of it.

Zenzai for dessert!  OM NOM NOM.

Mary was enjoying her zenzai way too much.

...or maybe I was making dumb jokes at her.

YOU WILL NEVER KNOW.

This was the front of the hotel.  GORGEOUS.  They had a table that was basically a giant chunk of wood that had been varnished and had a castle wall carved along the top edge.  SO COOL.

Also, GORGEOUS SCENERY.

This is Mt. Unzen, which SUDDENLY EXPLODED 20 years ago and wiped out swaths of land with FIERY DEATH.  Fortunately, a nearby mountain protected most of the town from FIERY DEATH, so only about 40 people died.

Also, it is the cause of the worst volcano-related disaster in Japanese history?  Yup.

This rock is staring at you.

O.O

O.O

O.O

Then we went to a random park where they preserved a bunch of the houses which were hit by FIERY DEATH.

...yes, the ground is exactly where you think it is.

I would not want to be in that house while it was being hit by FIERY DEATH.

...because people will always throw money at things.

I don't even know.

So theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen we went to Shimabara Castle.

BAM, CASTLES.

Suddenly, we were attacked by NINJA and SAMURAI and A GUY DRESSED LIKE A EUROPEAN????

I really like the guy in the back with the spear.

P.S. I totally stole Mary's jacket and it doesn't fit me.

P.P.S. I always seem to steal Mary's clothes when I come over.  HMMMM.

The castle had a collection of fascinating Hidden Christian artifacts,* including a bunch of statues of the Virgin Mary, which were disguised as statues of Kannon.  They also had these weird/terrifying/interesting stained glass windows which depicted people accused of being Christians being tortured by having boiling water poured over them and being burned to death and being drowned.  Not the prettiest sight.  The whole exhibit made me wish I knew more about Hidden Christians, so I'm probably going to check the Nanzan library for a book on the subject.

Views from the top of Shimabara Castle!

Silly fence, getting in the way of my view.

THE SEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEA.

Also, it was really cold.

So then we got back in the car and drove and drove and drove and I fell asleep, and then we stopped and got CLAMS for cooking later, and then we drove and drove and drove some more and got lost in a rice field and then drove and drove and drove and drove and drove and finally arrived back in Takeo.

Man, so much driving.

By the way, this is the chocolate decadence cake we made!  We gave some to Tatara-san (and I also gave her omiyage from Nagoya).

And now I am staring at Mary and wigging her out.

O.O

O.O

O.O

I'mwatchingyou,Mary.

So, yeah, that's what I've been up to!

*The Hidden Christians were people who refused to give up their faith even after the Tokugawa shogunate outlawed Christianity, and came up with all sort of interesting places to hide crosses and statues of Mary and Jesus.

Christmas and Boxing Day and...the day that comes after Boxing Day

Welp, I guess I better update you on my last few days in the STD capital of Japan.*

By the way, if you want to see my half of the blog-swap with Mary, it's over here.  And if you want to see Mary's blog about Christmas and Boxing Day, it's over here. WHOO.

ANYWAY.

Our Christmas was pretty laid back.  We opened presents, drank copious amounts of tea, and then hopped on a train over to Saga (the city, not the prefecture) where we had lunch with a bunch of Mary's ALT buddies.  SO MUCH HAM.  There was a white elephant gift exchange out of which I got a yearly planner and a calendar.  (I contributed a Totoro washcloth.)  Then we ate Mary's pumpkin pie (OM NOM NOM) and got on the train back to Takeo.

And then I made Mary watch Misfits, because I am all about Misfits.

Also, since I didn't have pictures of them before, here are the cups we got from Tatara-san!

TELL ME THIS IS NOT THE BEST CUP.

YOU ARE WRONG; IT IS THE BEST CUP.

Here's Mary's cup.  It doesn't have The Little Prince on it, so it's not as cool.

Mary had extra pie dough so she sprinkled it with cinnamon and sugar and maybe some other stuff I forget and then baked it and it tasted really good but probably clogs your arteries.

Mary's super tiny Christmas tree!

Also, you can totally see the Yubaaba cell phone strap I gave her hanging on it.

Anyway!  We also had Christmas cake that evening.

OM NOM NOM NOM.

The next morning we decided to make cinnamon rolls, which was exciting, because the cinnamon roll dough was more interested in being glue than dough.  So after thirty minutes of cajoling, begging, pleading, flouring, and punching, I finally managed to turn it into a semi-dough-like substance...only for it to turn back into glue after it rose.  AUGH.  So then there was some more negotiation and it finally decided that maybe it was in its best interest to at least somewhat resemble dough.

By the way, unbaked cinnamon rolls look GROSS.

But baked ones look delicious!

OM NOM NOM NOM.

So then we called up Tatara-san and said, "Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey, we have freshly baked, homemade cinnamon rolls for you mwahahahahaha."  And we thought we'd won this round, 'cause, seriously, there was no possible way she could give us anything back...and then she showed up with salmon for us.  I DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW SHE MANAGED THIS.  So much for our counterattack.

So then we went out and managed to somehow get lost in the mountains, but we didn't get eaten by bears, so it was all good.
I did, however, wind up tying Mary's scarf around my head (because it was COLD), which meant that I looked like a giant dork.

And then I made us dinner (with the salmon from Tatara-san) and we talked about Supremely Serious Things like werewolves and weremosquitoes.**

Today I just hopped on the train back to Nagoya, got really excited to see snow in Gifu, was mildly disappointed to discover that there wasn't really snow in Nagoya, was super excited that my Christmas package arrived from home (I am going to wear ALL MY SHAWLS AND SWEATERS AT ONCE; I will be so elegant), and now am definitely not counting down the hours until Nick arrives.***

I am totally not excited at all that I'll be kidnapping Nick and Miranda for the next few weeks. Not at all.  NOT AT ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL.

*Not even kidding, Saga Prefecture has the highest rate of STDs and shotgun weddings in Japan.  I would have visited an onsen, but I really don't want incurable strains of gonorrhea.  On the upside, there're no real worries about population decline!

**What do you mean "weremosquitoes" isn't a word, spell check?  DISCRIMINATION.

***27 1/2