Day 15 Photoset
There is an art festival happing in Beppu right now. Risa’s brother had mentioned something about it, so today we wanted to go check it out. There was an information booth at the train station, so we went back there to pick up a map and brochure.
The maps we have been getting in Beppu are all pretty bad. They all suffer from the “tourist map syndrom” which usually means they omit 75% of the roads and condense 5km stretches of highway. Basically, from a navigation standpoint, all our maps were worthless. This included the map to the different art exhibits. We found ourselves quickly ignoring the maps, and just walking around until we found something, then checking on the map to see where we were.
The art we saw was very… stundent-y? It was very “modern” and “experimental”… which generally means “makes no sense”. Like the dirty, yellow ramen bowls set up in a shrine. I guess we just didn’t get it? It was also clear that the navigation signs that were put up around the city were not designed by designers, because these signs made no sense. One sign at and intersection had arrows pointing down every street and had no labels. Basically, “you’re here, and you can go anywhere”. Thanks. That helps a lot.
At this point, we had pretty much given up on the art stuff. Not very interesting, and impossible to find, so we just walked. It was good that we did, because things finally got interesting!
We stumbled upon a little bakery that has been in Beppu since 1917. The place was small, but jammed packed with people. Since it was so popular we had to stop in, and we bought ourselves a couple fresh An-pans. I have to say, it was really good.
After the bakery, we rounded the corner and started heading back to the hotel. I saw a little old lady sitting near her window sill staring down at the road. As usual when I see someone looking at us, I said, “Konnichiwa!” and we continued on our way… for a few steps at least. The little lady yelled back. “Do you want to come up for a drink?” Not knowing if it was tea or sake, we took her up on her offer. Turns out, “drink” meant 7% alc. beer. Sweet!
She was super nice, although a bit strange. She lives alone but has 6 cats. By the time we arrived, she was on her third beer! She cooked us up a bit of food, gave us some beer, and we just chatted for about an hour. Back in the day, she was a dancer and a singer for something like 50 years. She even sang a bit for us. She also offered us the chance to stay with her… but we decided against it. Her house smelled a bit too much like cats and she might have been a little drunk. Either way, we had a fun time drinking and talking with her. We wanted to take a picture, but she said she wasn’t dressed for a photograph.
Our last stop of the day was at a Meiji era onsen. Just $1!
Tomorrow we are going to check out the Beppu “hells”.
