126: Nagoya, Hiroshima & Unzen’s Steamy Wonders
I left Nagoya yesterday and went straight to Unzen thanks to the miraculous Japanese Rail & Bus system. The town is small and the smelliest place ever due to the sulphur rich hot steams coming through every crack in the ground.. Water bubbles through the ground and some mini geysier is right in town.
Nagoya
Nagoya was really just a night stay in the end and I decided to skip the Orchid Garden in Nagoya which I was rather keen to see in the morning but leaving first thing in the morning meant I could get to Unzen the same day rather than having a stopover in Nagasaki.
Why the hurry? My Japan Rail Pass runs out on the 12th of this Month and by then I need to be back in Kansai Area (Kyoto, Nara, Osaka.. that stretch). Once I am there I can get a special Kansai Pass for relatively little money to get to some of the places in Kansai that I want to see. The drawback is that the pass does not include the Shinkansen Trains so its really only useful for short distances but that’s exacly what I need it for…
Back to Nagoya, I stayed the night in “Sauna and Capsule”, a fabulous Onsen Capsule Hotel that was recommended in the Lonely Planet. It had a massive spa area with several pools of different water temperatures, a swimming pool with water massage streams, a Sauna plus some good relaxation area with personal TV, games, a restaurant etc but the big Spa was the best part of it. Sadly no internet access though but there was one opposite the hotel (which charged plenty of money)
Hiroshima
I did not have time to stop here (get off the train and explore I mean) but the train stopped in Hiroshima for a minute or two and it was a pretty weird feeling knowing that an A-Bomb exploded here some 61 years ago yet everything seemed to be “back to normal”. They have an A-Bomb dome over the site where the bomb exploded and a museum etc which probably would have been good to visit but I was on the way to the south… Still stopping in Hiroshima was very strange just for the though of being at a place where the bomb went off.. even if it was just for a minute or two..
A note on Japanese Trains & Busses
On a lighter note, Japan Transport is pretty amazing I have to say, not only do the trains whisk you through half the country within a few hours (The Shinkansen that I took goes at about 285km/h (180mph)), all the trains and busses I took sofar were pretty much spot on with the time table and Travel Information (if you manage to speak to someone that understands english) can tell you every connection including when to get connecting local busses to destinations that are not covered by Rail.. If only it were that easy in Europe 😉
Unzen
So I’m in Unzen right now in the south of Japan, the Shimbara Peninsula to be precise.
Somewhere on the web it sais about Unzen:
“Unzen is a large complex volcano made of several adjacent and overlapping lava domes. The volcano covers much of the Shimabara Peninsula and is east of the city of Nagasaki.”
I had to change trains in Hakata and then get on a bus in Shinjuku to get to Unzen. All connections were withing 30 minutes max and the trip went rather nicely.
I arrived in Unzen yesterday around 3pm and had time to walk around the town after I checked into Kaseay Ryokan where I have a Japanese Style room. Japanese Rooms are cheaper than Western Style rooms and just as comforable so why not.. The Ryokan has a small hotspring spa in teh basement which is fed by the hotsprings from around the town (the water smells a little but odd but not like rotten eggs 😉 The owners of the place are simply wonderful. Going out of their way to give advice and help whereever possible. They even gave me some bananas and an apple when I asked where I could buy them (I wanted some food for my hiking trip the next day). They also helped with the onward travel times for bus/boat/train (to get to Aso) and called up for a reservation for my stay in Aso. Excellent Place!
Unzen, to me its a nice little town, quiet at the moment but I can see the place is able to cope with lots of tourists judging by the hotels. The area around Unzen is mountenous with 4 or 5 volcanoes in the walking vincinity, one of which is currently vaguely active (you can see fumes coming out of the top) and one (Mt Fugen) erupted around 1991 after 200 years of inactivity causing plenty of devastation.
(I had an abstract about the hotsprings and steam but it seems to have gone now so … Unzen Town has plenty of hot-springs and lots to smelly sulh\phur rich steam coming out over every possible crack in the ground it seems;-) Its breath-holding bad but wonderful too look at when the steam clouds come up through the ground. (pictures)) I visited the local mini-geysier area in town which has boiling water, steaming fumes and bubbling mid ponds. A big area and excellend to stroll around yet at times you need to hold your breath and quickly move on.. Did a little walk up to Mt. Yadake which is only about 940m high (Unzen is at arond 700m) so it was a little climbonly but the end of the first day in Unzen.
Got up early this morning for my proper hiking trip up the mountains. It was a little overcast but not long after I left the sky cleared and it wa lovely and sunny all day. It was relatively warm considering the hight I was at and only at the tops of the mountains which are all about 1300/1400 meters high I really needed my windproof jacket. Remember, its still spring time here… I reckon it was about 10-12C at the top and 16C further down.
The track was easy to walk in terms of finding the route (no alternatives other than the path I was on except for the routes to the different mountains. Some signs were Japanese Only but I managed with help of 2-3 maps, one in englisch with japanese names of the mountains next to the english name and two for better details of the routes..
First I went up Nito Pass fromUnzen, there is a Cable Car that takes you up quite a bit but it was a nice day and the climb did not seem too difficult to I walked up instead of taking teh cable car.
I first walked to Mt. Myoken which was nothing too exciting except for the view and having climbed to the top of the cablecar I was almost at the top of Mt Myoken .
Then on to Mt Kumini, the walk started pretty easy and I was little disappointed but as soon I reached Kumini there was a pretty steep climb and parts of the route included the use of some ropes.. It was a fun climb and I had a good rest at the top and chatted to a woman a bit who passed me on the way there (while I was taking some pictures). She lived nearby and said teh mountains were here “garden” and she climbed here quite often. She pulled out a book of plants and showed me some of the flowers that come out late April/May time..
Down Kumini and heading to Mt Fugen. I had to pretty much climb all the way down (it felt like) and then up again to the top of Fugen and it was quite tough though not as tricky to get up (just a long steep climb..)
Got the best view of the nearby Mt Heisei Shinzan which is a steaming pile of rubble (it looked like;-) and it looks like a proper volcano rather than mountain.
I was expecting to be able to see some lava flow in the bottom of one of the volcano but the area is currently off-limits for safety reasons. Still Wonderful area and a nice day for hiking. There were penty of birds around including some (eagles until confirmed otherwise) but little birds in the trees – though obviously there due to the many bird songs – were almost never visible.. A few times I saw some in the distance but sadly I had no binoculars so didnt get a very goodlook.
I walked back to Unzen around the other side of Mt Myoken which took another hour half or so. I had a little break at the hotel but then went out again (it was still early afternoon) I went for another walk around Oshidori-no-Ike Pond, a lake at the edge of Unzen. Its an artificial lake that contains (it seems judging by the colour of the water) hotspring water and I was surprised to see some wild ducks swimming in this water. Got a picture and need to looks up the species but the lake wa modestly pleasant to walk around and it took about an hour..
Pretty knackered now and getting ready to travel to Aso tomorrow..
Tags: Japan, RTW 2005/2006, Unzen
saschas
Hiroshima has been the first-rate city of the Chugoku Region for hundreds of years. After its depiction consequence the 16th century, Hiroshima Castle was the most formidable railing for miles. Today, Hiroshima is a spirited city and home to since a million inhabitants.
When the first atomic bomb was dropped over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, the city became close worldwide for this unenviable aberration. The corrupt power of the bomb was tremendous and obliterated nearly stuff within a 2 km area. lone of the few buildings that remained standing afterwards has been preserved; intimate today as the A-Bomb Dome, it is a monument to the bomb’s dreadful power.
read more…
http://quicktravelguide.org/destination/Japan/Hiroshima