What did we do today????

So, due to some technical difficulties, I couldn’t finish my post from yesterday. I wanted to say what a great bar it was, how friendly it was and what great music they played. Very chilled and relaxing. We met a lovely Chinese man, and spent most of the evening chatting to him. It was his 24th birthday, his ‘English’ name was Grag, his Chinese nmae was Shang.

He told he was an actor in Shanghai, and that he had just finished as a lead in the Ibsen play, The lady from the sea.

He was very funny and chatty, and to be honest not what I would have thought someone from China would be. He explained that Shanghai is much freer and relaxed than the rest of China and this was why he liked living there. He give us his details and asked us to visit if we ever went there. He spoke so enthusiasticaly about his home city, that it was quite infectve and we were very interested in China as a destination, than we had ever been before.

I love this aspect of travel, having your misconceptions and stereotypes smashed. I think Pete may have been a bit tipsy, as we travelled home by taxi, unheard of. The barman walked us down the stairs and shook our hands as we left, we genuinely hadn’t drunk that much!!!!

We had an early start the next day, for a trip to a volcano. It should have been at 9 and then suddenly it was changed to 7.30am, which seemed very early. That said, it was only a few minutes away for the pick up.

We get some provisions from Lawsons, this is originally an American company from Ohio, but is now a Japanese company. They also have 7 11’s. but they are very similar and just sell basic things.

I am now quite addicted to the egg sandwiche, the Tamago Sando. Japanese sandwiches are called ‘sandos’ and are quite different from sandwiches, due to the bread used having a higher milk and butter content.

The milky/buttery bread is called shokupan, it is much softer and chewier than Western bread, so it is really great with egg mayonnaise – using the tangier Japanese mayonnaise.

Another sandwich I am particularly liking is the peanut butter ones, which are more like peanut cream, stamped with a peanut logo on the bread.

They are all crustless, which is why you dont find many Japanese people with curly hair!

Anyway, enough about sandwiches, which I have never posted as I eat them too quickly! We found Hedy, our guide, she said look for the flag wth Hello Kitty, so it was quite easy. She was nice and by the end we had warmed to her, but she was quite nervous. Most of the other passengers were Chinese, although we did talk for some time with someone who was a medical student from Paris who could speak, fluent English, Spanish, Japanese and some Korean, and obviously French. I am still just operating as a mime artist here!

Hedy spoke at considerable length in Chinese and then when she got to English, she would just say a couple of sentences, read from her phone in a faltering manner, which didn’t give us any clue as to what we were doing. It was very much a mystery tour.

Our first stop was at a shrine. I can quite honestly say, I have no idea what it was called, not where it was exactly, beyond the fact is some way away from where we set off.

So… we have to go up an unfeasible incline to a shrine, that had no information anywhere about, that we had been told nothing about and had no idea of it’s relevance. I sweated up the 80 steps in the heat, thinking that it would be some golden shrine, which was unique in the area. It wasn’t and I don’t know why we went there, but it was free!!

A highlight was stopping at some rather swish services.

This is the Kumamon bear mascot for the region, created in 2010 to boost tourism. Akthough there are wild bears in Japan , there are none in this region, which was a bit disappointing, as the woodland was so dense, I fully expected to see one.

On route to the next place, which I can say with hand on heart, I had no idea where we were going. It felt like we had joined a completely different trip. Hedy shared a menu with the passengers.

I don’t know if you can enlarge this, or if it is too blurry, but the menu was dire! Horse meat sashimi, etc, Not only did we not want to eat at the restaurant, we didn’t want to be in a restaurant where people were digging into pony’s.

The coach passengers, trotted after Hedy, to eat the local delicacy. The area is famed for its horse meat, particulary basashi, thinly sliced raw horse meat, yum yum not!

It is said that the practice of eating horse meat in the region started when there were food shortages. It seemed so odd that on the one hand they were advertising horse rides and then on the other they were cooking them.

As well as the restaurant that served horse meat etc, there was also an Indian restaurant. We headed to that, we had vegetable curry, tarka dahl and naan breads. It seemed a strange place to have an Indian restuarant but it was so, so welcome!

We had been brought to this stop as it edged the Aso grasslands, a vast and hsitoric landscape , known for it’s unique ecosystem and biodiversity, with over 600 species of rare plants and insects.

Initially we couldn’t go as it was chucking it down, but eventually we were able to, which I was glad of.

What I did know about the trip was that we would be visiting an active volcano. How exciting!!! Not only active but the crater is the largest in the world, measuring 18 km one direction and 24km the other direction.

As there had been some volcanic activity on the 1st July it was closed. But to counteract our disappointment, the bus driver took us pass some that had become extinct but were very photogenic.

Hedy said that the bus driver had a suprise for us, to make us for not seeing the volcano. We were very ecited when she said that we would be stopping to see sheep made out of cheese. What a technical marvel! In the searing hat that cheese could withstand the heat to be sculpted into sheep.

Anyway when we got there, nothing was made from cheese, but it was a topiary ‘heaven’. As far as the eye could see there were animals shaped out of bushes. All very badly!

I don’t know how they thought this would compensate for not seeing the volcano. I don’t know if I was being too negative! I did get to have a wee, so it wasn’t all bad!

Our final stop was to the Kurakawa Onsens. Onsens are natural hot springs in Japan, renowned for their mineral-rich waters and relaxing, therapeutic qualities. They are an integral part of Japanese culture and are distinguished from regular public baths (sento).

They are normally single sex, naked. Call me old fashioned but that didn’t float my boat. The towels are the size of postage stamps! However, there are options for a private onsen. We gor one for £10.50 for an hour, with free towels. So my modesty was maintained!