127: South and Back Again – Part 1
At long last I found some internet access again which gives me a chance to briefly summarise where I have been during the last few days..
I have been rather rather busy during the last few days as I have almost been travelling through half of Japan 😀
I went from Unzen thought Shimbara Peninsula and Kumamoto to the Aso-San Volcanic Mountains, continued to the Hotspring Town of Beppo and then left the Kyushu District to travel to Hiroshima and Miyajima. From there I continued via Okayama to Shinjuku Peninsula where I visited Oboke and Iya Valley, a scenic mountaineous area with nice Gorges.
From Oboke I went to Takamatsu in the northern part of Shinjuku Peninsula where I am at the moment.
No chance I can write it all down in one go but to keep track of the events I will try..
On Sunday the 9th of April the I left the hotspring town of Unzen in Shimabara Peninsula (Kyushu District, just south of Nagasaki in the southern tip of mainland Japan) where I explored some steaming hot springs and did some hiking in the volcano mountains to get to Aso-San, another famous volcanic mountain area on the third largest of the main islands of Japan, Kyushu . I got the first bus at 07:25 from Unzen to Shimabara Port where I took a ferry (fast ferry took 30min) to Kumamoto Port and then by bus another 30 mins to Kumamoto. Here I had the cash withdrawl nightmare which ended in me exchanging some of my emergency money since I was very low on cash.
I planned to see the castle in Kumamoto which is one of the more famous ones but after the struggle to find a ATM I had too little time left and continued straight to Aso.
ASO-SAN
Aso-San is a large crater with a 128km circumfence! Inside this crater are villages, roads, train lines and several smaller volcanos/craters. Five of them are clustered in the center and this is the area around Aso. All volcanos/mountains are around 1400m/1500m high at the top so overall faily low altitude for climbing up there. Hiking is possible around two or three of the craters includnig the currently active Naka-Dake Volcano and I was looking forward to do this one-day hike up to Naka-Dake.
I arrived early enough around lunch time, went to the Tourist Information to get maps and hiking info etc and directions to the Youth Hostel.
Ah – Youth Hostel.. good point 🙂
Since the LP (LonelyPlanet Guide Book) recommended to pre-arrange accomodation for Aso I asked the owners of the Ryokan in Unzen to make a reservation for me.
There were four places listed in LP but only three were reasonably priced.
The owners called the place that I chose but it turned out the owner had died and the place was closed now. I asked if they could call up my second choice and they did but they did not get through. Instead they called the Tourist Information of Aso and they told them that the building had collapsed and it was being rebuild – oops!
So the last option then was to stay at the youth hostel which was a 20 min wak from the Station. Not a disaster really and the woman atthe Tourist Information in Aso showed me how to get there. Except.. she did not tell me that the place only opens at 16:30 so when I got there I stood nnfront of closed doors *grrr*
Well, I hang around there for a few minutes (what else could I do with my big backpack) and eventually an old lady came to the door and kindly let me in to dump my gear.
Since I had a few hours to kill I decided to go up to one of the Craters for a bit of sightseeing. I had to get a bus and cable car and paid a total of about 2000 yen *SCREAM* for the return trip. This was the most expenive fare I had sofar for getting to a tourist attraction!
Unzen was lovely sunny both days that I was there and even the day I left it was still nice in the morning. When I got to Aso-San it was overcast but not too cold but it looked like rain was possible so I was a bit worried about the next day.
Still I made my way up to the first crater..
(and thats when I got thrown out of the internet place since it closes at 6pm.. TBC)
Tags: Japan, RTW 2005/2006, Takamatsu
saschas
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