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Waking up in a real bed was a nice
change. Kyoko even made us breakfast. What a sweetie! It
would have been nice to just relax there for another day but I was really
running out of days in which to finish my trip. I reluctantly bid
the Saita's goodbye and set out on a rather gloomy, wet day.
I drove through Fukuoka and headed towards Kumamoto on Route
3. Once again I felt like I was wrapped in plastic from head to toe
(because I was!). I was reminded of my ride from Sapporo to Otaru on day
5 of my trip. The weather was similar and I had also been riding
beneath an overhead expressway trying to keep from getting wetter than I
had to. After 100km or so, I arrived in Kumamoto and headed straight
for the castle. Fortunately, the rain had let up by this time.
)
Kumamoto Castle is very large and impressive despite the fact that most of
the buildings were reconstructed in the 1960's. The museum inside
was very well done and -- bonus -- most of the displays were marked in
English. No question -- museums are more interesting when one understands
what one is seeing! The museum also contained pictures of virtually
all the castles in Japan and I discovered that, though I had seen many, I
still hadn't even seen half of them. Besides the normal feudal Japan
era historical events, Kumamoto Castle is notable for being the site of the samurai's
last stand against the Meiji government in 1877. A siege that took
55 days for the government forces to win.
Kumamoto Castle
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I didn't have time to go towards
Nagasaki or Miyazaki so I headed towards Mt. Aso in the center of
Kyushu. On the way, I stopped at a ramen shop for a taste of
Kyushu-style (tonkotsu) ramen. The soup stock consists of an
almost creamy pork stock. It hit the spot on that wet day.
Mt. Aso and environs is the site of a huge volcanic
caldera measuring 20km across in many places. There are several
volcanic cones including one that is still active (Mt. Nakadake). )
Supposedly
it is the only place in the world where you can look into an active
volcanic crater from its own rim. At the museum halfway up the
mountain one could control a little mobile camera and look around inside
the volcano. The misty/foggy weather prevented me from seeing
anything on camera but the museum had a good overview of the area and its
history. I finished climbing the mountain road with its many
switchbacks up to the bottom of the ropeway to find the toll road
continuing to the top had been closed due to the weather. Mt. Aso
wasn't going to give me a glimpse inside on this day. I was
surprised to find a couple of cows standing idly in the parking lot so I
took their picture before I made my retreat.
The rest of the day was spent winding my way through Oita
Prefecture and, finally, to Beppu which is located on the eastern coast of
Kyushu. For whatever reason I encountered several traffic jams on
Routes 57 and 10 and didn't get into town until 8:00PM. Although the
rain wasn't continuous, the threat of precipitation was constant so I had
made a reservation at the Beppu Youth Hostel earlier in the day.
Before going to the youth hostel, I stopped at a yaki-niku (Korean
bbq) place for a dinner of bibimba (Japanese for pibim-bbap
-- a Korean dish where rice is mixed with various vegetables and
meat). Beppu is a famous onsen (hot spring) resort town and the YH
itself had onsen water piped in. Since it was a highly trafficked
town, the YH was fairly large and basic with guest volume a primary
concern. It wasn't as crowded as the Sapporo House had been but my
room accommodated eight people in four bunk beds. The bath itself
was on the upper end for Japanese youth hostels. I found it second
only to Dochuan in Sendai. It was too late to see any of Beppu's
famous sites such as the various steaming "hells" and many types
of hot springs. The rest of the night was quickly eaten up by
reading the guidebooks and making plans for the next day.
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