Horsin' around in Kumamoto

Night view of Kumamoto Castle from our guesthouse on the hillside. (Photo by Joe)

From Mt. Aso, we headed to Kumamoto, home to what is generally considered to be the finest castle in Japan after Himeji. Unlike Himeji, Kumamoto-jo is a reconstruction, since it burned in 1877 during a rebellion by samurai warriors. The castle did, however, withstand the attacks by the rebel army and "proved its worth as an impregnable castle."


The plum blossoms were beginning to bloom while we were there, sending splashes of pink and white across the muted winter landscape.

A sign on the grounds informed me that "The stone foundations with their unique sloping lines and curves and their massive impenetrability are famous throughout the nation as the 'walls that repel enemies'."

The stone walls definitely were impressive and higher than the ones we've seen at other castles. It seemed impossible to imagine scaling these behemoths.

One interesting feature of Kumomoto is the built-in slots for dropping stones or other weapons on attackers, as well as the covers that can be pulled down over the windows.

The museum inside was nicely done and well labeled in English. I particularly liked the miniature models of the castle and grounds, and this illustration showing a cross section of the castle's interior.

Besides the castle, we also paid a visit to Suizenji Jojuen Garden. The interesting aspect of this garden is that it was built to represent the 53 Stations of the Tokaido Road, the old road that linked Tokyo and Kyoto. It even has a miniature Mt. Fuji.

You can imagine what this looks like when everything turns green.

While in Kumamoto, we made a point of trying the area's specialty dishes, including some tasty garlic ramen, lotus root stuffed with spicy Japanese mustard (karashi renkon) and raw horse meat (basashi).

Yes, we ate raw horse meat. I didn't even know you could do that before moving to Japan. It made me think of the time when I was maybe 13 and I went to Florida to visit my Nana on spring break. During the visit I asked her if we could eat at McDonald's. Her disgusted response: "Ah, it's all horse meat!"

Basashi and karashi renkon

The Japanese aren't so turned off by that idea, though, and in fact the stuff is considered a delicacy, because it was a little pricey. Surprisingly, the horse meat didn't have a very strong taste of any kind. It really just reminded me of tuna sushi, but chewier. I feel like I should have felt guilty about trying this, but truthfully I did not. I just tried not to think about it.

The karashi renkon was good but that mustard was seriously spicy. It kinda makes its way up through your sinuses 'til you feel like your brain is burning. But I liked it!

And now I have been up the Aso!

Soon after we first arrived in Japan, I remember buying a bottle of mineral water from a vending machine. The label featured a photo of a mountain and the slogan "Straight from the Aso." Joe and I got a good chuckle out of that... Mineral water. Straight from the Aso. HAR HAR HAR HAR!

Turns out "the Aso" is a very famous mountain in Japan, or rather a volcano (just like Mt. Fuji). And not just any volcano, either — one of the world's largest active volcanoes. The springs that flow from Mt. Aso are so exceedingly pure that people dip containers straight into the springs and take the water home for drinking and cooking. Hence the slogan on the water bottle.

Mt. Aso as seen during our bus ride to the ropeway station.

The caldera of "Aso-san", as it is called by the Japanese, measures 15.5 miles in diameter and is actually home to a small town. Within Aso's caldera are several other volcanic peaks, the highest of which is Nakadake. Nakadake remains active today and continuously emits gases and occasionally erupts. Tourists can ride a ropeway up to the top of Mt. Aso and peer into the crater, which is filled with a vibrant turquoise-colored lake that looks like this:

Photo swiped from Wikipedia

This is of course what we were hoping to see when we went to Aso after leaving Beppu, but we were not so lucky. The weather was pretty lousy when we arrived at Aso. It was very cold, cloudy and drizzly in spots. We took the ropeway to the top only to discover the entire peak was encased in thick fog.

Walkway leading to the crater

Many signs were posted around the area warning visitors that the volcano spews sulfur dioxide gases that can shock the respiratory system and cause life threatening physical reactions from those with asthma, bronchitis or a heart condition. Visitors were advised to carry wet tissues to cover their nose and mouth if they felt any "abnormalities".

Inside the ropeway building were some maps with lights at various points around the rim. The lights would go on when the gases became dangerously strong over certain points.

Along the way to the rim we saw several concrete shelters in case of an eruption, though, as my friend Adam pointed out before our trip, one has to wonder if these bunkers wouldn't morph into massive broiler pans to roast the poor folks trapped inside on such an occasion.

Once we reached the rim, this was the view we got:

No pretty green lake for me. *tear*

We tried to walk along the rim toward Nakadake but it wasn't long before we were socked with strong waves of gas that quickly changed our minds. After purchasing a couple yellow sulfur rocks as souvenirs from an unmanned table, we scooted on back to the ropeway station where indeed the warning lights were lit up for the area where we'd just been walking. Not inclined to go back out for another lung-full of poisonous gas, we just caught the next ride back down the ropeway and said so long to stinky Aso.

The weirdest thing I have ever seen in Japan

Warning: Not Safe For Work.

I've seen a lot of weird things in Japan. I mean, you don't have to look far to find the weird side of Japan — it's half of all the media reports on Japan anyway. The Naked Man Festival, the peeing boy truck, the tanuki statues, it's a long list.

But this thing I saw in Beppu totally takes the cake. I mean, this was just so ... out there.

While touring the jigoku in Beppu, Joe and I stopped for lunch in a little ramen shop after leaving the hell with all the crocodiles. (This is, you'll recall, an area filled with tourist kitsch for the kids.) Emerging from the ramen shop, we were face to face with the suggestive mural pictured above.

Being a diligent reader of my Lonely Planet guidebook, I knew exactly what this was when I saw it: A sex museum. Yee-haw.

I figured it would be a lot of erotic paintings, sculptures and sexual artifacts and whatnot. Probably some portable penis shrines of the sort that get paraded around during Japanese fertility festivals. Whatever. But I was not prepared for what I would see inside. Oh, Japan, I should not underestimate you.

Joe and I forked over 700 yen each to the old woman manning the front counter, a large glass case filled with a wide variety of sex toys. No big surprise there. I was quite tickled by some of the merchandise, in fact.

That's really quite clever, isn't it?

Walking further in, we encountered some glass cases filled with wooden statues of phalluses and ceramic knick knacks "doing it."

Yeah, baby!

Um... Ow.

Not so weird yet right? Yeah somewhat strange, but this IS a sex museum after all, so what did we expect? Uh... Not this:

Taxidermic zebras making love against the back wall. This is where the tour takes a depraved turn. Carrying through the whole place were the squeaks and moans of a an over-excited Japanese girl in a porno playing in a theater off beyond the zebras. Appropriate background accompaniment, I suppose eh, sets the mood. Past more photographs of animals having sex, we came to this:

An animatronic orgy involving Snow White and the seven dwarfs, as well as Prince Charming and the Queen. You cannot make stuff like this up. That's Dopey in the left foreground playing with a large pair of knickers and other dwarfs looking on as one of them pleases Snow White, bare butt high in the air.

Yes, that's Grumpy on the right taking matters into his own hands, so to speak. Yes, the Queen has a dick for a nose. The worst part: when you hit a button on the outside of the exhibit, all of the characters would move. Dopey waved the underwear up and down, Grumpy flogged the dolphin, the others ducked around maneuvering for a good view of the action.

What can I say? HOLY CRAP.

The second story had more provocative interactive wax figures. One was a woman wearing a skirt that would blow up to reveal everything underneath when you hit a button. There was one of those movable claw carnival games filled with sex toys. And there was even an exhibit where you had to peek in through a small opening and hit a button. When I hit the button, a red light came on to reveal a topless woman sitting in her underwear and a split second later a sudden stream of water shot out from her underwear to hit the glass in front of my face. Made me jump.

Ah, Japan. Always an adventure.

Go to hell and back: Check!

The boiling waters of Beppu.

Valentine's Day this year was red hot. Positively steaming.

We headed south to Kyushu, Japan's southernmost main island, to the famous little town of Beppu. Beppu is famous for a couple things: 1) onsen, also known as hot spring public baths, and 2) its "burning hells."

Beppu is built upon numerous geothermal hot springs, which make the town a pretty steamy place. There are numerous hot springs for bathing in, and then there are the hot springs too hot to handle — those are the burning hells, known in Japanese as jigoku. They're just for looking, not bathing.

Down the mountainside in one area of the city, eight of these hells bubble to the surface in a variety of colors. There's plenty of tourist kitsch surrounding these wonders of nature, but it was still worth the visit. Here's what we saw.

First up: Umi Jigoku (Sea Hell)

This pond of boiling turquoise water is about 656 feet deep (nearly 220 yards — think of that, well over two football fields in depth!). It was formed 1,200 years ago after a volcanic explosion.

A great deal of stinky steam poured off these hot springs. It smelled like sulfur. Not so pleasant but I didn't really mind.

As you can see, there's a basket of eggs boiling in the water. Perhaps the sulfuric water increases the eggy intensity? These hot spring boiled eggs are considered a specialty of the area, and they were sold in road side stands and even the train station.

Hot springs boiled eggs for 50 yen a piece (55 cents). I think they're covered in salt.

In sharp contrast to the Sea Hell was the nearby red hot spring. Not big enough to be one of the official eight jigoku, but pretty cool (and equally stinky).

Next up: Oniishibozu Jigoku. A.k.a. Oniishi Shaven Head Hell. So named because the hot gray mud that bubbles to the surface here resembles a bald monk's head, perfectly round and smooth and shiny.

These were cool. I stared for a long time. The mud all around the bubbles hardens into what looks like a ringed tree trunk made out of clay.

Number 3: Yama Jigoku (Mountain Hell)

Mainly a lot of steaming rocks. Penned up nearby were an unhappy hippo and icky looking monkey. Also a very sad elephant. And some flamingos that were attacking each other. Nothing like random zoo animals to make an instant kiddie attraction.

4.) Kamado Jigoku (Oven Hell)

If the unhappy hippo didn't cast enough of a touristy haze over the place, the next hell stepped it up a notch with a corny demon statue.

Kids not impressed by the unhappy hippo? Don't despair, they should really love this character and his giant...

BALLS!

Amusingly, the brochure left out those gems with a shot expertly photographed from the right angle.

The Oven Hell includes a large blue pond that changes color somewhat depending on the time of year, and some smaller ones filled with bubbling red water and brown mud.

Fifth up: Oniyama Jigoku (Demon Mountain Hell)

This Hell bubbled violently with waves splashing everywhere. Signs informed us that the force of the steam rising off this hell was strong enough to pull one and a half train cars, and indeed it was too steamy to photograph.

Supposedly all that steam creates an ideal environment for breeding crocodiles. There were dozens of crocodiles and alligators penned up nearby.

We even saw one with moss growing on its back.

That can't be good.

Number 6: Shiraike Jigoku, the White Pond Hell

According to the sign, the water is clear when it bubbles from the ground but over time it takes on a creamy white-blue hue. There were some fish tanks in a building next to the pond. They contained piranhas.

The last two hells were 1.5 miles away. There's a bus to take you there, but the next one wasn't due to arrive for another 40 minutes or so, so we decided to hoof it. Probably not the smartest decision we've ever made, as the sidewalk disappeared after the first five minutes. But, at least we got some nice views over the city and the ocean as we walked.

It was neat to see the spouts of steam dotting the city.

After a nice walk in close proximity to traffic we came to Number 7: Chinoike Jigoku the Blood Pond Hell, which is the oldest natural jigoku in Japan. It looked pretty much like the first red hot spring we saw, just bigger.

The red color comes from the red clay beneath, which dissolves in the water. The water is used as dye and is supposedly "good for skin diseases," though the sign didn't specify if that was for curing or causing them.

Last on the list was Tatsumaki Jigoku, the Water Spout Hell, an intermittent spring that shoots water every 25 minutes or so. It apparently spouts up to 65 feet, though the rocks built up over the top blocked the spray.

I could have done without all the hokey tourist melodrama — crocodiles! piranhas! blood! demons! — but I guess that's just par for the course at a site like this. I might have appreciated the lighthearted nature of it a little more if the animals weren't treated so shabbily. Still, the hot springs were intriguing. Worth the visit.

The evening after seeing the jigoku, Joe and I went to visit a really nice onsen at the Suginoi Palace. We had wanted to stay at this place, but at a minimum of $200 per night per person, it was obviously too expensive, so we opted to stay in a cheap business hotel instead and just visit its onsen for 1,000 yen ($11).

I was nervous about going. You can imagine that bathing in front of a bunch of other Japanese ladies didn't exactly fill my heart with feelings of calm and serenity. Especially not when I'd be the lone naked foreigner. Actually though, it turned out to be not a big deal at all. Here's how it worked.

The onsen provided me with a towel and wash cloth. After stripping down and stashing my belongings in a locker room, I entered the showering area where everybody was taking a shower seated on little plastic seats. There were partitions sectioning off each shower head. You're still in a big room with lots of other ladies showering, but it's sectioned off enough that you feel like you have your own little area. The onsen provided face wash, shampoo and soap, which even had a lovely limey scent since the Beppu area is famous for a kind of lime.

After showering, it's time to soak in the bath. Essentially it is like a giant swimming pool that is perhaps 3 feet deep and steaming hot. I tied my hair up so it wouldn't drag in the water (a faux pas) and set my washcloth on the ledge of the bath because you're not supposed to bring it in the bath with you and I didn't know where else to put it (by the time I got out, it had disappeared).

You can opt to bathe indoors or outdoors. I headed outside and wasted no time getting in as it was probably around 35 or 40 degrees outside. The onsen was designed with five tiers, with water from the higher steps pouring down to the lower steps. The Suginoi is situated high on the hillside overlooking the city, which made for a beautiful night view while we were in the bath.

Like this only at night with all the city lights. Photo of Suginoi stolen from the Net.

I hadn't expected to stay in the bath very long. I'd tried the public bath in our business hotel the previous evening and it was so hot that I got out after 10 minutes feeling a bit lightheaded. This was better though. Whenever I started to feel too hot, I just hoisted myself up onto the ledge and sat in the brisk winter air for a few minutes until I'd cooled down enough to get back in. Steam rolled off the smooth surface of the bath. The water came up to my chin.

At the front of the bath, on the lowest tier, the tiles were formed into reclining chairs with a wooden headrest. After a while, I snagged one of those and laid there for a very long time feeling so relaxed I was kind of half asleep. All the things that irritated me about Japan just melted away. Turns out bathing with a bunch of Japanese ladies filled me with calm and serenity after all.

Christmas in Tokyo

Statue of Liberty and the Rainbow Bridge

I saw the Statue of Liberty for the first time over Christmas last month. And I didn't even go to New York.

Nope, I was able to see a miniature replica of Lady Liberty on Tokyo Bay. Who needs the Big Apple when you can go to the Big Mikan? (Mikan is what they call clementine oranges here.)

Joe and I spent three days in Tokyo over Christmas last month. We got a real kick-ass deal from a travel agency by our house — round trip shinkansen (bullet train) tickets plus three nights in a business hotel including breakfast and metro subway passes for two days, all for 35,000 yen a piece. At today's exchange rate of 90 yen to the dollar, that works out to around $390 per person. To put that in perspective, a round trip shinkansen ticket alone from Hiroshima to Tokyo usually runs around 37,000 yen ($412). So it's like we got a deal on the shink tickets and then hotel, breakfast and subway passes for Free. Yeah! Hotels in Tokyo are expensive, so you can imagine how psyched we were to get this deal.

We didn't go into Tokyo with any grand itinerary. We mainly wanted to walk around and do some sightseeing and eat a lot of international food, which is exactly what we did.

Here's a little about what we saw:

— Christmas lights

Tokyo has tons of pretty Christmas lights, which really helped to brighten up our holiday. Some of the prettiest ones were in Midtown, just a short walk from our hotel in Akasaka.

These blue lights changed formation in a kind of light show.

Lights display hanging overhead between buildings.

— Ginza

Ginza is Tokyo's upscale shopping district. While I'm not the type to window shop or buy obscenely overpriced luxury clothes, I still wanted to see it just to see it.

Disco mannequins in Ginza

We poked our heads in a couple shops, including the brand new Abercrombie & Fitch that had just opened. My Japanese teacher had told me about this while we were planning the trip, telling me with astonishment that the men in this store were shirtless. So I wasn't entirely surprised to see middle-aged women lining the sidewalk waiting to get into the store, a skinny eight-story tall building. Hoping to find a cadre of chiseled, blonde-haired, blue-eyed Norwegian boys, I waited patiently to get in. No Norwegian boys in sight, unfortunately, though there was a shirtless Japanese guy with a six-pack getting his picture taken with customers. While this could have made a memorable souvenir, I had to take a pass due to the overpowering stink of Abercrombie's crappy cologne and duck out as quickly as I could. Oh well.

Lunch was German beer and sausages in a restaurant across the street from Abercrombie, where we were seated in our own private booth. It was in a cozy little room with a sliding wooden door carved with a design with spaces in it so you could have privacy yet still see through to the restaurant outside. This place was great, and I was tempted to spend all afternoon there drinking way too much beer.

— The Skyline

Not the chili. For incredible night views of the city we headed to the observation deck on the top floor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building (City Hall), which actually was next to the Keio Plaza Hotel, where we stayed after first landing in Japan. It felt like a lifetime since we'd arrived at the Keio, blurry eyed from jet lag and senses on overload in such a foreign place. The views from the top of the City Hall building were just as I remembered back then — buildings and lights that stretched out forever, as far as the eye could see.

There were several souvenir shops set up in the middle of the floor with lots of bright lights that reflected off the windows, obscuring the view. That was annoying. But then, I guess that's why the view at this particular building was free, whereas you'd have to shell out $10 or so at some other observation decks. So I really couldn't complain.

— Tokyo Tower and Roppongi

I suppose we couldn't have gone to Tokyo without paying a visit to the Eiffle-Tower-esque Tokyo Tower. We walked through Roppongi, the night club district, to get to it. Yep, it's a big tower. Now we've seen it. We didn't go up because we didn't want to pay.

On the streets of Roppongi there were a lot of Nigerian dudes wearing urban duds trying to get pedestrians to go into certain clubs. It was a strange place, very un-Japan-like.

— Shrines

We hit a couple of the obligatory big shrines and temples in Tokyo, the Meiji Jingu Shrine, which sits on a wooded 175-acre complex, and Sensouji, Tokyo's oldest Buddhist temple. These were pleasant places, though nothing drastically different from many of the other shrines and temples we've seen throughout Japan.

Sensouji in Asakusa

I did enjoy browsing the shops lining the street up to Sensouji even if they were filled with a lot of the standard tourist kitsch. The hanging decorations reminded me of Charlotte's hotel room in the movie Lost in Translation.

— Harajuku

Ah, Harajuku. This area of the city is known as the favorite hangout for teenage cosplayers who like to dress up like anime characters. A bunch of them were hanging out near the entrance to the Meiji Jingu Shrine in what amounted to a giant Hot Topic convention.

Interesting outfits. I'm sure if I were 19 and Japanese with money burning a hole in my pocket, I'd probably get into this.

— Akihabara

The over-the-top fashion continued in Akihabara, the electronics district known for its maid cafes.

Akihabara

There were many maids handing out advertisements as we walked along, most covering their outfits with puffy winter coats. I asked one if it would be OK to photograph her and was surprised when she said no. After that I tried to covertly snap pictures of a few other maids on the street, but it was really difficult to get a clear shot as night set in. As soon as a maid spotted my camera she would turn her back or hide her face. It seems that photographs are normally limited only to those who pay for the privilege.

Maids on the street corner

Joe and I finally settled on a maid cafe advertised by a maid with an English sign. It turned out to be a very small, brightly lit room filled with super cheap tables and chairs arranged too close together, cheap linoleum covering the walls and a shelving unit full of electronics and sound equipment set right out in the open. The maids were young and not very pretty. Looked like they were probably just out of high school, not much if any makeup, and they were all wearing cheap black and white maid costumes that looked like they'd been sold out of a bag at a Halloween shop — and not the sexy kind either. These outfits covered all skin from their knees to their neck. This surprised me because I'd assumed the appeal of these places was sexual. Isn't the whole reason guys go to these cafes to get an eyeful of a girl in a short skirt, sexy heels and fishnet stockings? It seemed we'd unwittingly selected the unsexy maid cafe.

At any rate, our waitress was friendly enough and we ordered some coffee and cake. When she brought it to our table she set it down daintily and carefully added the cream and sugar to my coffee herself and stirred it. Then she informed us that we must chant a spell over the coffee to make it more delicious, and taught us how to do it. Together we said the spell with her while she motioned her fingers in the shape of a heart over the coffee.

Still tasted like coffee.

I was creeped out by the whole thing. I wanted to like it but I didn't. The atmosphere was all wrong — cramped and brightly lit with girls who didn't have the looks for the role. We finished our coffee and left. On the bright side, there was a really awesome kebab street vendor just outside where we got a cheap and delicious dinner.

— Shinjuku and Shibuya

Our seedy adventures continued in Shinjuku and Shibuya, the neon crazy areas famously featured in the movie Lost in Translation.

So many lighted shop signs line the streets in Shinjuku that the dead of night still looks like mid-afternoon. We went and just wandered around for a while. It is street after street after street that all look like this.

Some areas were a bit shady, and we passed some strip joints and one place with some rather...large... sex toys in the window display for all to admire.

Oh, and also this place:

Didn't see the inside. Apparently American honky tonk ladies aren't Joe's style.

We also passed several billboards for what appear to be male escorts. These appear to be the bad-ass pretty boys of Japan. Interested?

Here are some real life lookalikes:

In Shibuya we crossed the world's busiest intersection. It was very...busy.

— Tokyo National Museum

Tokyo has it's fair share of museums, but we chose to hit the National Museum, Tokyo's biggest and oldest. I'm usually not the type of person who enjoys going to museums, but I did like this one. Architecturally, it was absolutely beautiful, and the art and artifacts within also held my attention. I learned about samurai swords and armor, painted screens, kimono, lacquerware, etc. Beautiful.

— Gardens

Koishikawa Korakuen Garden

We hit a few gardens in Tokyo, including the East Garden of the Imperial Palace, the garden within the Meiji Jingu shrine complex and the Koishikawa Korakuen Garden next to Tokyo Dome. None were extraordinarily impressive, but then again December is not exactly the prime time to be admiring a Japanese garden. Unfortunately the visit to Koishikawa Korakuen was spoiled by the ungodly din pouring out of Tokyo Dome. It sounded like a giant pachinko parlor (their pinball gambling joints). In the spring, and minus the noise, I imagine Koishikawa would be quite pleasant.

— Other Stuff

So those are the highlights and here's a few more random things. Since it was Christmastime, shops everywhere were selling Christmas cakes, which are a big thing in Japan. Lovers get their darling a Christmas cake. They are small, beautifully decorated, and obscenely overpriced.

These cakes ran around 3,000 yen a piece (more than $30). Rather than shell out for a whole cake we just enjoyed a slice each at a coffee shop. I was hoping to see some deep discounts on these beauties the day after Christmas. Alas, by then they were nowhere in sight. I was not entirely surprised. There is an old saying in Japan that likens unmarried women to Christmas cake: After 25, nobody wants them. And sure enough, after the 25th, they were all gone.

Besides the Christmas cakes, we also saw a few shops selling cakes that looked like this:

I'm not sure what these things are but they certainly looked like a big loaf of bread with some sweet toppings. I am not sure if there was anything in the middle or not, but this being Japan, I would not be entirely surprised if they actually considered a plain hunk of bread with some ice cream on top a proper dessert. Joe and I have learned the rule in Japan that 99 percent of the time, sweets look much better than they taste. And so chances are if it looks like a hunk of bread... well, it ain't gonna be better than a hunk of bread.

Last but not least:

Ah, Ohio's own, right there in Tokyo. Did you know the first Wendy's opened in Columbus, Ohio? This was the first Wendy's I'd seen in Japan and it will likely be my last as I recently read an article that the Wendy's restaurants in Japan would be closing. *tear*

All in all, Tokyo was fun. Parts of it were disappointing, but other parts lived up to expectations quite well. My feet were squawking by the end — we did a ton of walking and just sightseeing. In that few days, we just scratched the surface though. If I get a chance to go back again, I'd like to spend more time ducking into Tokyo's little nooks and crannies, enjoying a few more drinks late at night, and delving a bit deeper.