Roving Japan

Day 14 Photoset

We survived the night! No bugs attacked us in the shed, and we weren’t hit by lightning!

The plan for the day was to walk about 20km into Oita, then find a shrine to camp in. The walk wasn’t too exciting, although there were a TON of huge black nightcrawlers on the sidewalk. I’ve never seen worms this big before. One was still very much alive, so I decided to use a stick and throw it back into the woods where it could live… and the darn thing JUMPED! I’ve never seen a worm jump before. It was kind of like a fish out of water. I thought it was interesting, Risa… not so much.

For lunch, we made it a point to find a Ringer Hut. These little restaurants are all over Kyushu, and although their name is strange (I think they are going for “Bell Tower” and they came up with Ringer Hut) the food was actually pretty good! We figured they were going to be a western style restaurant, but it turns out that Ringer Hut is a Kyushu fast food chain that specializes in Nagazaki Champon Ramen. They do a good job too! There is a Ringer Hut in San Jose if you’re interested. After lunch we kept our heads down and just powered into Oita.

We past our 20km goal, and realized we still had a ton of time, so we picked a couple of shrines further down the road, and walked to check them out for camping possibilities. The first shrine was super tiny, lots of mosquitoes, no water, and no toilets. It was still a possibility, but we wanted to check out the other shrine before we settled on a spot. At this point, my stomach was beginning to act up, and all I really wanted was for the shrine to have a pit toilet at least. So far on the trip, that wasn’t hard to find.

The second shrine was really nice, but no water or toilet again. The closest toilet and running water was going to be a convenience store about 15minutes walk away… Normally this would be fine, but I just wasn’t feeling 100%. So I tossed out the idea that we jump on a train for the last 20km to Beppu. Risa, who was in camping mode, instantly shifted into, “I can sleep in a bed” mode. This usually means she walks about 2x faster and she has no urge to use a bathroom until we arrive at the destination.

At this point, we had already walked about 25km, and it was about 5km to the closest station. But with Beppu as the goal, we managed to walk the last 5km no problems and we hopped on the next train to the onsen capital of Japan.

In the end, we walked about 30km, and took a train for 15km. We are now sleeping in a private room in the Beppu Guest House. Tomorrow we have to move to the dorm, and then after that… we aren’t sure yet. But regardless of where we sleep, we are planning on staying in Beppu for at least 4 days.

Day 2 Photoset

Today was much better than day 1. We left our camp at the shrine outside Kajiki around 6:30 and started down the road to Kirishima. We first followed hwy10 over a little hill, then left it for hwy471. 471 is a nice little walk. We spent the next few hours walking past farms and watching as every farmer in the area was out cutting down overgrown grass and bushes. Seriously, EVERYONE was out cutting grass. We think it might be some kind of special city beautification day.

Kirishima is a small town, not much to talk about there. We walked into the center then followed hwy60 north. The plan was to take a mid day break at an onsen, but when we arrived, the place was closed. Dang!

A ways further north we stopped at another great ramen place specializing in kurobuta (black pig) ramen. I posted the photo on the photostream. Since we were heading into the mountains we needed the energy.

Our idea was to follow the 60 until we can head east on the 2. From there, we would walk until we got the Ookawa campground. We needed to stock up on food, so at the last convenience store on the road we stopped to buy some dinner and breakfast. The nice ladies at the store gave us some free potato chips for our journey!

After following the 60 and making the turn on to the 2, we realized that there was no way we could make it to the campground today. The road was too steep for us and we had already walked like 15 miles. So we decided to stop and camp. We found a great little shrine off the highway that has decent toilets and some running water. I don’t know if the water is safe to drink, but its clean enough to use for a quick towel bath and face wash.

Tomorrow we have about 7 miles to the campground, then another 4 or 5 to Miyakonojo. Depending on the campground, we might stay there tomorrow, or push through to the city and find a hostel or something.

Photoset Coming - Stay Tuned

Another tough night in the sleeping bags. This time it wasn’t because we were cold, it was because the space blankets have 2 problems. 1: they are REALLY good at keeping you warm, so we were actually quite hot. 2: They are very noisy. Every time we moved, I know everyone in the cabin wanted to kill us. Imagine trying to sleep while someone was crumpling a plastic grocery bag next to your head.

Around 5:30am people were up and leaving the top campground. We finally got out of there around 6:45, which was a little later than we had intended, but still gave us enough time to make it to the 2:10 bus at the trail head.

What a difference a little sun, and a downhill trail makes! The top level preservation area is really beautiful. The Joumon-sugi cedar tree is very impressive, and we got to see it with the morning sun and just a couple of other people around. With a fresh set of legs and sun shining, we finally got to really enjoy the hike. I definitely recommend tackling this trail in 2 days rather than trying to day trip it. The morning views are worth it. The only negative was when we discovered that the tripod attachment was gone. It was connected to the camera a couple days ago, so I don’t know what happened. So we basically have a useless tripod now.

Since we planned on heading out on a different trail, about an hour after hitting the railroad segment of the Joumon-sugi trail, we split off on a tangent to meet up with the main Mononoke trail.

I have to say, this little connection trail was maybe the best part of the hike. Very few people hike this part, so we were basically alone. We walked up on a couple of bucks, and saw some really cool rock formations. It really felt like we were in the forest from the movie Princess Mononoke. The connection trail lasted for a couple hours before we hit the main trail and the hundreds of tourists.

The main Mononoke trail isn’t as tough as the Jumon-sugi trail, but I still don’t understand how people were hiking with their sneakers. Their shoes were getting destroyed and it couldn’t have been comfortable.

The more we hiked among the tourists, the more my many hours of hiking with the 40lb backpack started to make me hate the people around me. Walking in tennis shoes and a fanny pack, with fresh hotel made lunches. I really began to get disgusted with them. How can you people REALLY appreciate the forest unless you punish yourselves like me?!

We made it to the bus stop at 2:00, just in time to be two of the last people on the 2:10 bus. Whew!

While walking back to camp, we passed a rental car place. A couple of people we met on the trail were talking about how renting a car for the day is the same price as taking the bus, so we decided that we would rent a car for tomorrow and drive around the island. It should be fun to visit all the main tourist spots without relying on a bus schedule. We plan to hit up a few waterfalls and maybe an Onsen.

Before returning to camp, we had to get some food. We wandered into an unassuming ramen place that was a little expensive at $10 for a bowl, but we were starving and this was the only option. Risa ordered the flying fish ramen, and I ordered the pork ramen. About 5 minutes later, we ate some of the most amazing ramen we’ve ever had. The pork literally melted in my mouth, and the flying fish cakes were really good too. The fishcakes were interesting looking since they were white, with a green center. The chef explained to us that it was his intention to make them look like little images of Yakushima island. If you are ever in Yakushima, you must eat at the first ramen place on the right after you cross the main bridge in Miyanoura. There are signs for “Kuroramen”. ITS AMAZING.

Last night was terrible. The temperature dropped down to about 48 degrees, which is 7 degrees to cold for our sleeping bags. The result was a very very cold night. We were up and out of there at first light (about 5:30am). Once we were back on our feet and walking, we warmed up pretty quickly and we could enjoy the morning on the island. We had to walk about 3km to get back to the port, but it was a nice walk, and seeing the early morning ocean is never a bad thing.

After that, it was pretty much a blur of buses. A 4 hour bus to Hakata, then a 2 hour layover which we used to eat the local specialty of Tonkotsu Ramen. Then another 4 hour bus ride to Kagoshima.

We arrived pretty late, but the “Little Asia Youth Hostel” was still happy to have us for the night. Unfortunately we are in separate dorms, and Risa is stuck sleeping on the floor of the girls dorm, but at least its warm and they have a shower!