Kyushu in the wintertime... or: A tale of two onsen

It`s not really a tale of two onsen, it just sounded good.

Ok, I`m in Hiroshima after a good long vacation from a vacation. Get ready for a long post.

So I went to Osaka a few days ago, met Yuka and her friend Lisa, and saw the pretty fishes. That aquarium is very very nice. It`s huge, well put together, with fish and amphibious life from all over the world, and the most active group of marine mammals that I`ve ever seen. The otters were cleaning themselves and playing constantly, the seals and sea lions were going around as if they had caffeine in the water, and the dolphins were playing to the crowd like it was a 24 hour free tuna festival. The whale shark was quite amazing, as was the whole big tank. Schools of fish with their mouths open following the whale shark for protection; A huge manta ray gliding around like a plane; 3 Mola-Molas just awe-inspiring; huge spider crabs attacking the glass; rockhopper penguins (those who have been to the NE aquarium know how much I like them.. although you couldn`t hear the yelling at this one). All in all, a really cool aquarium. While in Osaka, I found out my companions had never been to an IMAX film, so we saw deep sea (seen it before, but don`t tell them =P), and rode the world`s largest ferris wheel. This was my first ferris wheel, but the girls were the ones freaking out when I shook the car. Very cool though, you could see all of Osaka harbour (very pretty with the setting sun, don`t worry, have a picture), and a good part of Osaka proper even though it was kinda cloudy.

Then Lisa left us, and Yuka and I took a shinkansen to Hakata, in Fukuoka.

Let me explain something before I go further. I know this trip hasn`t been immaculately planned (I think that only has one `m`), but I have been giving a great deal of though to where I eat, where I go, how I`m going to sleep, etc... However, for these three days, Yuka planned everything. I don`t really have maps of where I was, and I was much less aware of what I was doing before I was doing it, and that`s totally cool. Much thanks to her for everything, and don`t worry, when she comes to America (where she won`t need me as a translator since she`s so good at English), you all can meet her.

Anyways, that being said, I followed my personal tour guide/interpreter/food taster to our ryokan in Fukuoka. This place was a National Cultural Treasure, with an awesome onsen, a cool Japanese Garden (that I only heard about, didn`t actually see, but I`m positive it was cool), and a crazy nice traditional Japanese bedroom. Comfy, cozy, too bad we only stayed the night.

However, for food, hands down the best ramen I`ve EVER had. Referred to this place by the ryokan host, it was a tiny ramen house with broth made from pork bones (you`re lucky, I forgot the Japanese for it, so you don`t have to look it up... ton-something), and it changed my life. The taste lingered (and I brushed my teeth, thank you very much Sharms), and it was so flavorful and delicious that it was impossible not to remember it. I had a native with me though, so the banter was totally different. The menu was explained to me (Thank god, it was all in Japanese), and I got to play `identify that food` as the staff brought out tupperware to learn the english names of various veggies (`bean sprouts`), however, it was different to have a bunch of people talk about you without actually talking with you. I tried understanding, and it really wasn`t bad because I didn`t feel threatened or anything, but it was weird having a person go `this guy is american, this guy is a chef, etc...` (No offense Yuka, just spouting how it went). I got to chime in a whole lot though, so I guess I shouldn`t complain.

We went to a Gyoza shack too, very homey, crispy product, but not as mindblowing. Seemed like a popular pub place.

The next morning, we went to Aso by train. The trip involved a switchback (very cool bit of railway fun), and amazing views. Aso is a city in a large area created by a volcano (I keep forgetting that word too...think cities in a crater, surrounded by mountains, and with one huge volcano still active in the middle), and it is breathtaking. Seening smoke spew from this mountaintop kinda close to you while you sit on a bench in a small town waiting for the bus (which is even timely in small cities.. go figure) is beautiful. However, getting to the top is not possible all the time, so they constantly monitor the deadly gasses to figure out when all the Koreans (and the 5 other tourists) can gain access to the top. Yeah, not a huge amount of American presence here, but its ok.

Anyways, the gasses were bad the first day, so we went to the volcano museum, watched a movie about Aso in the 70s (complete with camera zooms, wonderful clothes, and the best soundtrack this side of a middle school filmstrip on ancient mayan civilization), and had some ice cream in the cold (again). We walked around the hills around the top of the volcano (the museum is near the top, and even has a live camera you can control to see the stupid tourists that ignore the warnings about asphyxiation), and it was beautiful.

And cold. So we went back to the hotel, and had a wonderful meal cooked by the staff. Sorry, I mean sliced by the staff and piled on a plate so we could cook it ourself. Nabemono-look it up. I am not even complaining, however, since it was more food than we could eat, and the quality was fantastic. We gourged ourselves (first meal in Japan I couldn`t finish), hit the onsen (which, being near the volcano, was actually natural mineral-rich water), and crossed our fingers that the summit could be reached the next day.

And it could, but I`ll start a new post to break it up.