August 24-25, 2009: Kyushu

August 24, 2009: Hakata, Kyushu

I arrived in Hakata Kyushu at 7:30pm or so. I’m staying at a hotel for a night (3000 yen, roughly $30) then heading to Ibusuki tomorrow morning.

August 25, 2009: Ibusuki, to Sakurajima (Kagoshima ken).

I’m in Ibusuki. The tip of Kyushu. Today I paid 900 yen to get buried in black volcanic sand and use the onsen unlimitedly. You put on a Yukata that they give you, walked outside by the beach, and get completely buried, with only your face sticking out, in the black volcanic sand/ash. The heat on my back was nice, but my feet were burning hot. I couldn’t help but wiggle my toes every once in a while. I was sweating for about 15 minutes before I couldn’t stand it anymore and pushed my way out. I can’t believe how many people go to get buried in hot black sand on a hot day. Even though I woke up before the sun rose and was tired, getting buried and taking a 25 minute dip in the onsen really rejuvenated me. I realized I have become so comfortable in Japan being naked (and hairy, since I haven’t shaven for about a month).

Then I hopped on another train and in about 1.5 hours I was in Kagoshima. From there I took a ferry to Sakurajima. Sakurajima has an active volcano in the center of the island and so people are not allowed close to it. It often spews out black ash and covers the entire town. I biked for about 3 hours around the town to see the volcano from different observation points and look at some of the monuments and beautiful scenery of huge volcanic rocks. I didn’t think I had enough time to encircle the entire island (which is said to take about 5 hours) so I went about half way around returned and went to the dinosaur park, which had a huge slide (and what I found out after I slid down was that it was covered in black ash) and the bird village (it was such a narrow road that the trees overwhelmed the sunlight and it was pretty dark and damp, and I could hear birds and bugs, but couldn’t see them: I was miserable through that part).

All I had for dinner that night was some blueberry drinkable yogurt. I had some yakisoba (noodles) during the day so I wasn’t hungry.

I was surprised to see so many palm trees in this part of the country. It’s like the Bahamas of Japan.