Kyushu

This is the first chance that I've had to post an update because we've been travelling quite a bit and many small towns don't have internet available. This is what I've been up to. On the 11th we undertook our first backpacking trip into the mountains in central Kyushu, starting with a series buses which got progressively smaller until we were in a large van destined for a small village in the middle of nowhere. The scenery was breathtaking with huge stands of poker straight cedars covering the hill sides and ledges of rice fields leading down into valleys covered with small settlements and farms. We optomistically started our hike in the afternoon and after hitching a ride part of the way up, we started "hiking" for real. I say "hiking" because this treck can only be called "climbing" since it was so steep. In many places here there are mountain huts set up for hikers and we spent our first night in an amazing log cabin complete with solar panels, windmills, a composting toilet, blankets and running water! It was nicer than most cottages back home. The next two days were arduous to say it gently, as we climbed three peaks with our huge packs, and we emerged from the forest exhausted and soggy. Fortunately we didn't offend the mountain gods too much because we managed to hitch a ride the 20km or so down to the nearest town (in the back of a pickup truck). The views on the way down were amazing, but because it was raining I don't have any pictures.

On the 13th we took a train into the Aso caldera to stay in a small town at the foot of mount Aso. The caldera is a huge crater (24km across!) inside which are four or five more volcanoes around which complete towns and farms were established and the bottom of the crater is a patchwork of fields. As a reward for our bravery and perseverence, we spent all of yesterday soaking in onsen in Kurokawa, which is a village of 20 or so luxury ryoken (Japanese style hotels with outdoor onsen). Onsen are spas where the hot mineral water coming out of the ground from all the volcanic activity is harnessed to create luxury baths. You first sit on a little stool naked and soap up until you're squeaky clean then rinse off completely and slide into the super hot water to soak. Some baths were reddish from the iron, others were milky white, but all were outside in an idylic setting of rocks and trees and fountains... heaven!

I should be able to post some more in the next couple of days because we're going to a small town that has an internet cafe where I might be able to download some pictures. I want to write about some of the cool Japanese things we've seen, like the fake food, the vending machines ect... so keep checking. See ya later!