the Minshuku Jomon

I did not make reservations before leaving for the island. Perhaps dangerous or perhaps I was getting in the adventurous spirit of the island. I could always camp somewhere I figured, then I learned the nickname of this place. The island where it rains 35 days a month.

So I walked to one of the closer places to sleep called the Minshuku Jomon. This hideous creature is what greeted me at the door... My mind immediately flashed to the gimp from Pulp Fiction... You have to realize, I didn't make a reservation. I wasn't entirely sure I was walking into the correct place. The big sign out front said Jomon in Japanese, but half the things in this town are named Jomon after the famous Jomon Sugi tree... A small sign on the driveway said Family Restaurant in katakana and English but nowhere did I see a sign that read Minshuku Jomon. Walking in to a quiet, empty building and the first thing you see is someone wearing a black and gold mask scares the shit out of you.

Turns out it was Hide, the owners son, who was goofing around and didn't hear me come in. We exchanged names, he was Shokka, a famous Japanese villain and I was Superman, a famous American superhero. haha We had a good laugh.

The head chef at the Minshuku Jomon is a guy named Okanyi who took it upon himself to teach me the finer points of Japanese culture. Things like the Kanchou - sneak up behind them in an onsen. How to eat a fried flying fish - no, no, no superuman... And of course, what to say for delicious food - Shin ken ume!

These guys were instant friends. We ate breakfast at the local place. They took me for kakigori. Took me to the public bath and one of the local hot springs. Got me takoyaki to try. Organized my surprise hiking trip. Took me for coffee on the way back to the jetfoil.

I hope I get a chance to go back to Yakushima for no other reason than to drink more beer and shochu with these guys. Thanks fellas!

Leaving on a jetfoil to Yakushima

These suckers fly!

Hopped on a jetfoil named Toppy to get from Kagoshima to Yakushima Island, which is supposed to be a somewhat of an undiscovered tropical adventure island. I am planning on spending a couple days in a hostel and getting the lay of the land before taking an overnight trek to a mountain hut on the top of the volcano. The island is registered as a UNESCO World Heritage site to protect its unique flora and ancient Japanese cedars.

Kagoshima Festivals

So my friends are famous... I just thought they like to play the guitar and drink beer on the patio. They took me to a summer festival at the meat packers plant where they were the headlining band! We met up with one of their friends, Una, a local Okinawan guitar celebrity.

I knew I was in for good treatment when we arrived and the president of the plant immediately gave us as much shochu and beer as we could drink.

While my friends got ready to play, I looked for a good place to take pictures and videos. Lots of yatai stands selling beer and shochu and all kinds of pork products. They had roped off an area for the VIPs in the middle near the sound guy that would be perfect... So I decided to sneak in (if a 6 foot tall white guy can sneak anywhere) to the VIP area and take an unoccupied table near the front. One guy took a liking to my ability to speak Japanglish and said I had to meet someone, the "top guy" in Kagoshima. I wasn't sure what to make of it all, but OK... The man I was introduced to really is the "top guy" in the Kagoshima perfecture, the representative to the Japanese government for the whole perfecture. The equivalent of a congressman back home... A few shochu and kamupai later we were good buddies watching the show. This Japan place is crazy.



After the show we adjourned to the meat packers bar with the president for more drinks. And karaoke! The whole bar was singing and dancing. Our friend Hiromi arrived late to the festival and wasn't able to sing Nada So So; I was glad she got a chance to sing it at the bar.

Selling かき氷 (kakigōri)

I moved to the Moon Garam Masala Guest House in Sakurajima and the owners from Okinawa have adopted me. Riding in the back of the truck with the block of ice and guitar I get a personal tour of Sakurajima. The owners of the guest house, Funky Amamori and Jinko-chan, supplement their income during the summer selling kakigori. Back home we call them snow cones. They have an antique, cast-iron ice shaver that they toss in the back of the truck with a cooler full of ice and fruit syrups. They drive me around the island selling kakigori to fishermen and kids on the beach. I realize they are using me for the novelty of it. An American riding around in the back of a truck draws plenty of questions and stares... But for me it is a free open-air tour of the island complete with blue-Hawaii ice and guitar music when we stop. Plus it converts to free beer and dinner when we get back to the guesthouse because now I'm "staff". We stopped and did some fishing at dusk. I didn't catch a thing, but Jinko-chan caught enough for dinner!

Some photos from the day. The o-torii gate is 3 meters tall, 2 meters were buried in the eruption of 1914. Big eruption that connected the island with the mainland but they still talk about it like an island. Good view of the peak, usually obscured by clouds; you can barely see plumes of smoke. All the trees are the same size here... We also caught a poisonous puffer fish we had to throw back. They serve it in some of the fancy restaurant that are certified. Apparently it makes your mouth numb, I have yet to try it.

Kagoshima

I arrived in Kagoshima late and I was worried that the ferry to take me to Sakurajima would be closed for the night. To my surprise there was a fireworks festival that night at the port! Instead of being closed the port was covered with thousands of people. The ferry was running all night, so I sat down to enjoy the show. The fireworks shattered my eardrums again. Big fireworks. And close. These people know how to put on a show.

The Sakurajima YH turned out to be a little boring and the hot spring onsen was under repair so I switched to the Cafe and Guest House Garammasala. Not boring, this place... The couple that own the place are delightful. We sit on the patio in the evenings and watch the fireworks shows (there is a small show on Sakurajima every night this month) and drink some beer and listen to some Okinawan guitar.

Sakurajima used to be an island but they had a huge eruption here, (biggest in the world in the 20th century they tell me) that connected the island with the mainland. They had another big eruption in the `40s and nothing major since then. I thought it was funny that they built the youth hostel above the Kyoto University Observation Station. Nothing like sleeping on an active volcano...


Random collection of photos I took here... I really like how the photo of Sakurajima turned out. Monks in the Tenmonkan area asking for money by not moving for an hour at a time and ringing a little bell once every couple seconds. Experimenting with some long exposure night photos. Kids playing with these gigantic beetles the size of mice. Apparently they keep them as pets here... New friends at an artist collective.

Onsen

The hot springs are famous throughout Japan and they are everywhere. So Id like to share some of my onsen experiences so far...

First, there are some rules you must follow when soaking in an onsen. Most of these rules I knew before I left, some I have learned along the way.

1. You must wash yourself before entering the public hot springs. Makes sense. Nobody wants to be soaking in the grime and filth of other people. You have to realize that the Japanese are a bit Mysophobic, they take their shoes off before coming in the house, restaurants give wet hand towels to use before dining... In short, the Japanese are clean freaks. So washing before the onsen means scrubbing every square centimeter with a hand towel and full lather. A full 30 minutes of scrubbing is not unheard of.
   
2. Wash off all soap before entering the pool. Same as rule number one, public water must stay pristine.
   
3. Don't waste water. Keeping in mind rules 1 & 2, this one presents a bit of a challenge. Traditionally, the Japanese would fill one small tub at a time and dump it on their head, now there are shower heads. The showers are European style with the nozzle attached to a hose except there is an additional knob for switching between shower, off and faucet. Pretty simple except its written in Japanese and you are naked while trying to figure it out... The corollary to this rule is spraying people behind you. Unless they are your buddies, its not the most polite to spray your neighbors, so when you're washing your armpits you have to be especially careful not to miss with that upside down nozzle, or blam, you're neighbor gets a shot of water.
   
4. Check the temperature of the water first. This goes for both the onsen and for the showering area. Screaming like a little girl because you turned the wrong knob and blasted yourself with cold water is not the most polite thing to do. The onsen are just as dangerous. Usually there are multiple pools of various temperatures, some are wicked hot and some are ice cold (give your circulation a charge).
   
5. Male and female separate. Straight forward rule except sometimes there is not an English sign. Better to wait and see who goes in and out first, lest you want a scolding.
   

My first experience with the shared bathing was at the youth hostel. Pretty mellow place to learn how to use the faucets and double check your knowledge of the rules.

My first experience with a public onsen was at the Yamaga capsule hotel. Wasn't a big deal except I was surprised by half a dozen fellows with full body tattoos. Tattoos from ankle to wrist are generally associated with the Japanese mafia, the Yakuza. Now if you're already a little nervous about being naked with a bunch of Yakuza you double check your mental list of the rules first...

My next experience of consequence was at the Sakurajima onsen. The cleaning lady. Apparently, the grandmas who clean the onsen are exempt from the male/female rule. They clean without regard for who is using the showers and what they are doing. More than once the grandmas, the ones with permanently bent backs, started cleaning right next to where I was scrubbing away in pursuit of rule number 1. The same thing happens in public toilets, the grandmas think nothing of mopping the floor right next you to while you're busy. People with stage fright need not apply.

Most of the onsen are quiet and mellow. People are friendly and talkative. But some onsen are rowdy and loud. Jumping, splashing and the like. Kinda like a public swimming pool back home except its a bunch of naked men.Its kind of like a clean room. You got a dirty area, an ante room for changing, and a clean area.

Wish I could take photos, kind of funny to see a line of a dozen Japanese men all sitting on little stools washing themselves. Or snoozing in the onsen with a hand towel neatly folded into a square resting on their heads. But as you can guess, no cameras allowed.

B-day dinner at a Satsuma restaurant

I ate at a really neat local restaurant last night, a traditional Kagoshima restaurant, that they call satsuma. It was delicious. Little raw silver fish called kibinago that you dip in vinegar miso sauce. Bonito sashimi that is eaten will a self-prepared garlic, onion and roe sauce. Fried fish paste called satsuma age. Tsukemono. Raw peanuts soaked in water; they tasted like they were just starting to sprout. A purple and white jelly made from sweet potatoes for dessert. The highlight was kurobuta tonkatsu (pork ribs) from local black pigs that was so tender it would fall into the bowl from the slightest nudge of a chopstick. Amazing!

I had so much fun with them they gave me a hand towel with the resto name on it as a present. The owner told me, in her best English, to think of them every time I washed myself - I don't think it translated quite right...

The Red Bulls of Aso-san

The red bulls of Aso-san are slightly famous, no not for giving you wings. Although, this particular fellow took a liking to me and was following as I was walking the 15.3 km down the road to the hostel. He wouldn't stop staring at me so I mooed to him. Seemed like the thing to do. Well, he mooed back. Similar to many conversations I have had in Japanese I wasn't quite sure what I was saying nor did I understand the response.

The Aso-san valley is beautiful, similar to the valley of Buena Vista where you are surrounded by mountains. But in Aso-san you are surrounded by volcanoes. So my plan was to take the bus to the visitor center near the caldera and then hike the rest of the way up. Cut me some slack, it was 38 degC... Unfortunately, the caldera was closed due to high concentrations of poisonous gas. So I snapped a few pictures of Aso-san, ate an ice cream cone and tried to figure out what to do.

I was hoping to get some good exercise in, so I decided to follow a trail marked on my map to Mt Komezuka (which translates to upside-down rice bowl apparently). It involved walking down the road for a couple kilometers and then taking a trail that goes right by Komezuka and then ends near the hostel. Sounds perfect. Except I never found the trail because it was hidden under grass a meter tall. So I walked. And I walked. And I walked down this road for all 15.3 km of it. Did I mention it was 38 degC? Oi.

So maybe that's why the bull was so curious about me - he'd never seen a crazy American walking down the road talking to him before.

These pictures (and a conversation with a bull) are about all I have to show for a day spent on Aso-san. I did a sketch of the bull in my journal in honor of his support during my downhill suffering.

Yamaga Toro Matsuri

The town of Yamaga is obsessed with the lantern; it has its own museum, it is on the manhole covers, it is everywhere! The lanterns are made out of gold and silver paper by hand, each one taking three days to complete. The dance is said to commemorate a visit by the legendary Emperor Keiko when the villagers greeted them with one thousand torches. The tradition of lighting the streets has continued to the present day.

The first night is the fireworks display, it was amazing, and it lasted for an hour and a half! Yina forgot the mat so we spread out paper from a pamphlet to sit on, like a homeless person. The show reminded me of the E-days fireworks show at CSM from the days of old. Huge fireworks that are so close that your chest reverberates with the firing of every shell. And there were commercials. There was a pause every once in a while, a name would light up and the announcer would give the credit. Odd, but I actually enjoyed the moment to reset my brain and eyes before the next round of fireworks. All along the river, yatai stands were set up selling all kinds of food and beer. Yina bought me octopus on a stick and soba noodles. Delicious!

The second night was the dance of one thousand Yamaga Toro women. Imagine just after sunset, one thousand women dancing with lanterns on their heads and wearing white yukata. I couldn't imagine it either. But it was amazing to see them all dancing in unison to sound of traditional biwagaku music.

It was a wonderful experience to be in Yamaga during the annual Toro Festival. Just walking around the town, I felt like a celebrity, everyone wanted to know where I was from. Such a friendly small town. Thanks Yina for organizing such a great trip. Sugoi desu ne?












The music is absolutely addicting. I tried posting a video, let me know if it works or not.

Ramen noodle capital of the world

Today I am in Fukuoka, the ramen noodle capital of the world! Not at all like the ramen noodles I ate as a kid... I went to the Ramen Colosseum at canal city where they have eight or so different ramen restaurants each specializing in a different style of ramen noodles. For lack of knowledge about any of the different kinds of ramen, I chose Hakata, the local style.

I ordered the tonkatsu ramen which apparently is the classic version of the Hakata. A few pieces of thinly sliced pork in a buttery broth and dark strands of vegetables. And of course, draft beer, to wash it all down. Oishii!!

Now lets talk slurping for a moment. Slurping is how its done here. You don't use a spoon, you don't cut it with your chopsticks. You stick a wad in your mouth and slurp. Back home this is definitely not how it is done, but I pretended that I was eight years old and gave it a good slurp. Not as easy as it sounds, if you don't want to splash your cheeks with broth, that is. But in no time I was slurping with the best of them!