This place is majestic and pictures and descriptions don`t do it justice. I sat in a park and just stared for about 2 hours. It is surrounded by five beautiful lakes. and smaller mountains all around. This is something you eed to experience firsthand. Check back in a couple days for my "Mt. Fuji celebartion dance" videos.
The photos are Kirishima Yaku National Park, eluding me, and me completely worn out continuing on my journey North.
9:55 Arrive at J-Hoppers Hostel. "Please tell me you have a room". "So sorry. We are booked for the night" It is Cherry blossom season and the tourisits are out in droves. I just can`t believe it. All I want to do is sleep. The guy helps me out and directs me to an internet cafe where you can sleep overnite. I`ll take it. The room is basically a closet. It has a computer. T.V. and a reclining leather seat that folds into a mock bed. There is a shred hot shower. I`ll take it. Although it is cramped, I am tired enough where i curl up in my sleeping bag and get about 5 hours sleep. I`ll take it. In the morning I shower and continue on. The plan is to stop in Himeji and see the castle before I stop in Kyoto.
The weather forcast for the day was rain, rain, rain, but when I woke up it cleared by noon. I walked through the city and it`s parks and looked out over the bay to Sakurajima, one of the most active volcanoes in the world. It used to be an island, but the last eruption was so big, it reconnected with the mainland. It smokes everyday covering parts of the island in ash and soot. In the afternoon I took the fairy over and hiked around. The entire island is built on these huge volcanic boulders. It was quite something.
This is my favorite city so far. It is a beautiful port city built on the very tip of Southern Japan. It has an excellent coastline, an enormous park with views overlooking the whole city, and of course, Sakurajima, which is and extremely active volcanoe, just of the coast. When I got to Kagoshima, it was supposed to rain for two days, vanquishing my hopes of seeing the volcanoe. It was Saturday night so I decided to go out. I ended up at the Speakeasy. A small bar filled with old Vinyl records, this place was cranking Led Zeppelin hits when I walked in. The bar patrons spoke decent English and the served Guiness. Could it get any better? Yeah. They turned off Led Zeppelin and replaced it with old videos of Creedence Clearwater Revival. I was in Heaven. Within 20 minutes I was belting out the lyrics to `I heard it through the Grapevine`. This city had me hooked.
From Kumamoto, I headed west for a day trip to Aso-San before heading into Beppu. Aso-San is the largest active volcanoe caldera in the world, which means it has a big mouth. However, after all the hype, I was hoping for lava flows and fireworks. None of that. The biggest danger here is the smell of rotten eggs.
On the bright side, there was a long, tall hike around the outside of the crater. Although your not supposed to hike it, I was tired of the Japanese rules and did the whole thing. Nothing but, Volacanic rock, ash, and snow the whole way. In the picture you can see the entire ridge I hiked up, followed by the path coming back down. Great Day.
From Hiroshima, I continued down to Kyushu, which is the name given for the section of Japan furthest to the South. I started in Kumamoto. This was a small, quaint city, with beautifully done gardens. It was nothing special, but it provided a much needed day of rest. Suezenji-Koen, pictured above, is one of Japan`s most popular gardens. It is much nicer in Springtime I`m told.
After a night of drinking Sake(A Japanese liqour) and Sapporo with some guys from my hostel, I got off to a slow start on day, but it was still a good one. I got to hike through the Fushiminri Shrines. The are five shrines set in the mountains. The paths between the shrines are lined with Thousands of Torri, which are the orange gates you see in the picture. It was awe inspiring. The view from the top was nice as well. Ironically enough, this shrine was built in dedication to Sake. What a way to work off my hangover.
I started at Kyomizu-Dera. This temple is a big Japanese tourist attraction, but it was still nice. Below the temple there is a small waterfall. Buhdists and fellow tourists believe these waters have restorative powers, so they wait in line to have a drink. I couldn`t help myself.
Next was Nanzen-Ji, which was by far my favorite temple in Kyoto. It had beautiful grounds to start. There was a large aqueduct built grounds to start. There was a large aqueduct built of red brick that was particularly nice. Inside the temple was a series of Zen rock gardens nice. Inside the temple was a series of Zen rock gardens. Finally, back behind the main temple(where most people don`t go)、there was a short hke up to a small shrine and tiny waterfall, which the buhhdists use to shower. It was very peaceful.More Pictures of Nanzen-Ji
I started off in a section called Shinjuku. At night it is a huge Red Light district catering only to Japanese clientele. During the day, it houses Shinjuku Gyoen Garden, which is beautiful.
Next, I was of to Ebisu. Just south of Shibuya, it has nice architecture and none of the crowds. Here, I visited the Sapporo museum(Sapporo is a fanous Japanese brewery) and sampled all of there four beers. I was surprised at how good there Black Beer(stout) was.
After two days on Ko Chang, I wanted something more reote. I headed to Koh Mak. There was almost nobody there. I read a book, got a traditional Thai Massage, and enjoy amazing sunsets and scenery. It was a great way to rest up before I took off for Japan. More Sunsets
This was my own little hammock right on the ocean with nobody else around. Paradise is found.
Ko Chang was fantastic. I stayed at the tree house lodge, the backpacker mecca of Ko Chang. It is just south of Lonely Beach, which is beautiful, but getting less lonely. I styed in a traditional bungalow, which consists of a roof, mattress, and bugnet. No screens on the windows and no fan. It was hot, sticky, and buggy, but I stayed two feet form the beach for 5 dollars. Not bad.
I met one of the coolest travellers so far. His name is Tigga. He is from England. He has been tavelling for over two years straight now and has no plans of stopping. He taught me backgammon, offered smokes, and opened up about some of the amazing things he has seen. Sometimes travelling is more about who you meet than what you see.
The Sunsets on Ko Chang were unreal. On lonely beach and on Koh Mak, which is another island I went, seemed like the should be on postcards.More Pictures
This place is cool. There is no other way to say it. It is mostly tourists, but here is the thing. IT IS ALL BACKPACKERS. There are no vacationers slappong on sunscreen and paying for service. Everywhere is cheap and everyone is freindly and ready to lend a helping hand. The first day we got there, we avoided the bridge toll by hiking across the shallow river with packs and all. We got to our place, went and checked out a cool cave and water hole and alled it a day.
Day 2- We rented 110cc motorbikes. I had not helmet, no insurance, and abolutely no idea what I was doing. That made it all the more fun. We cruised through the mountians at about 70 km/h(about 45 mph). Vang Vieng had these incredible peaks stick stright up out of the ground. They were beautiful
Day 3- This day was just out of contrl from the start. There is a river you can float down. It has a lot of bars, but even better, it has huge rope swings and zip lines the whole way down. Of course I managed to flopp from about 15 feet in the air leaving my whole torso screaming red for about an hour. Make sure to look at the videos from this section.More Pictures