Foremans' Travel: April 9 - A Volcano, Hot Springs, and a 'Public' Bath

What can you see out the windows of the bus? Right.

Summary: Finally a great day. We drove in heavy fog to the top of Mt Aso with full expectation that we would see no farther than the end of our arms. We have a great driver, by the way. Just as we pulled into the parking lot for the cable car lift to the volcano, the fog lifted. We are so lucky. Our guide, Mirei, is working so very hard to keep all of our spirits up. There are 34 of us and we seem to be on the same route as another bus with AJT, so sometimes we are 70 tourists converging.

Today turns out to be quite wonderful with a clear, if cold, view of the volcano, interesting hot springs, ending with a traditional Japanese hot springs public bath in a delightful hotel. No photos of our group nude hot bath experience. Can I use the word astonishing yet?

Rice Cup Volcano. Long myth.

Aso National Park contains five volcanoes (1 active, 1 dormant, and 3 dead) in an area of about 73,000 hectares. (Poppa says and acre contains 2.47 hectares, so please figure that out for me.) The last eruption was in 1958. All the way up the winding road we can't even see a foot out of the bus window. We all cheered as we entered the parking lot and it cleared so we could see the cable car and all the way up. Lucky us. The trip description said we were going up the 'ropeway' and I personally heaved a sigh of relief to see that it was a most modern and sturdy cable car.

Garden around hot spring

From the volcano we drove along the Yamanami Highway, which Mirei calls the Fung Sui Highway, to get down to the celebrated hot spring resort of Beppu. Along the way we pass an old volcano cone sticking up in the valley called the rice bowl crater and she tell another story about another fairy who fills the crater with rice. The highway was a toll road for 35 years and is now paid for, so the fee is lower. The soft curves and Japanese style landscaping would make Olmstead jealous. We are left to wonder if it is the result of a few master planners designing from the travelers perspective, or many individuals just doing what they know to be beautiful.

Mini Old Faithful spring.
We waited for it... hmmmm. Wait for it....

We stopped for lunch and continued driving to the Hot Springs. The area has about 120,000 residents and a million visitors each year who come for the social and health benefits of the bath resorts. We break the drive with stops at a couple outstanding gardens and hot springs: The Bloodthorn Spring, an aquarium and garden, and a geyser. Had a hot conversation with the Aussie and English members of the bus gang over how to pronounce geyser. (Mirei was stumped by it almost completely, but the UK bunch wanted it to sound like our American slang name for an old man.) "Geezer - Gayzer - Geezer - guyzer". That entertained us as we sat waiting for a squirt of hot water and steam.

Some food takes a little more getting used to. See the fish eyes.

Remember this hotel name: Suginoi Hotel, Beppu, Oita Prefecture. Put it on your wish list. We approached our first experience with the Japanese traditional hot bath with fear and trepidation. I'm NOT going to bathe naked with a bunch of strangers! Mirei had given us instructions but we surely heard her wrong. Check in, settle in room, put on Kimono just so with right flap under left, (we had some question about whether she said to keep on our under garments or not) tie the obi just so, socks or no socks, and on and on. We all four appeared dressed almost as instructed and other than Dick being about foot taller than his outfit (and everyone else around us), we looked like everyone else walking around. We made out way to the baths, boys going one way and us girls another.

Yes, there's the locker for your kimono and everything else, yes, shower here and use this special hand towel to cover vital parts if you feel the need. Step slowly into this hot water pool that begins indoors and continues outside. On Japanese speaking woman explains the shower area but otherwise nobody pays attention to us. We begin to get comfortable. There's a young mother with her adorable naked child about four years old. There are a couple old women (oops. Bite my tongue).

Keeping just our heads above water, we loll around in the first pool, then make our way out to the edge to overlook the city at twilight. We use the wooden bars at the water surface to rest our heads so we can stretch out and float away all stress. Lovely. We finish in a couple round barrel style tubs. An hour later we re-dress in our kimono outfits, meet Steve and Dick where we left our slippers, and off to the most extravagant buffet we have ever seen…ever! Everyone is dressed the same, even the little children. What a hoot. Things are really looking up.