Kaijuu's Blog

Whee! After a pop festival, three days of hanging around in the south and a day at the beach, we're back in Osaka for the home stretch.
On Saturday, Niels, Michel, Shi Zen, Anna, Rik and I went to Kobe to visit the a-nation concert mentioned earlier. The weather forecast mentioned an 80% chance of rain, but apparently, we were spared, as the umbrellas we brought along were rarely opened. Another fun thing was the tickets we had; not only a designated area, but also a designated place, and everyone stuck to their place. Brilliant.
The concert itself was awesome. It started a little slow, some bands and acts I didn't know and was glad to not knowing them as well. ;) They had no real act, other than dictated by their handlers. However, as soon as Hitomi hit the stage, things went a lot better. From then on, the acts were really playing with the audience, and the mood was set for the rest of the evening.
Koda Kumi, DJ Ozma, Mihimaru GT, Ai Otsuka and of course the closing concert of Ayumi Hamasaki were just one big happening and really great to see. It was also very clear that while Koda Kumi and DJ Ozma are big stars in the Avex-constellation, Ayumi Hamasaki is the cream of the crop. Fireworks, some sort of mini-train through the audience and a superb light show marked her status.

Prices for food and drink were reasonable as well; 150 yen for a bottle of water, 350 yen for a beer and 500 yen for food. You try and get a bottle of water for 1 euro and a portion of food to fill your stomach for 3,50 euro on a festival like Dance Valley!
We got back to Kobe station fairly quickly, and got home around 23:00. No pictures of a-nation though; members of the staff were watching the audience. ;)

Heading south
The next day we got up really early to catch the first Shinkansen to Hakata, where we changed trains to Kagoshima.
Kagoshima is one of the southern-most cities of Japan's four main islands, and is quite famous for its still working volcano; Sakurajima. You can visit the island by ferry, which we did, and soak in one of the onsen located on the island.
We went to Furusato Onsen; a public bath near the sea. Because the site doubles as a shrine for some dragon god, you can't go into the bath near the sea naked, but a yukata is provided to those who visit the bath. The water was very nice; slightly under 40 degrees.

The next day we departed for Nagasaki. I overslept, so I arrived there a little bit later than I intended, but since I alread visited the city twice, I knew what I wanted to do; watch the sun set from Inasa-yama, and watching the lights come on in Nagasaki. So until then, René and I visited Dejima in the afternoon, now restored to a point where they started to charge admission for it.
The site's worth it though; it's entertaining enough to last you at least two hours.
Around 17:30, we hopped on the street car to the stop closest to the rope way (still a 1.1km walk), got up and watched the sun set. Really nice.

While we were there, a thunderstorm started to rear its ugly head over the other mountain (Nagasaki lies wedged in the valley between two mountains), and I got some lightning on one of my pictures as a stroke of luck. :)
After a very good dinner in a Chinese restaurant, we decided to make it an early night and went to bed.

Yufuin
Niels, René and I wanted to go to Yufuin, to see what's there and visit an onsen, of which Yufuin should have an ample supply of. But alas, things went somewhat pearshaped, as Niels and René missed the Kamome to Tosu due to traffic, and as a result would arrive in Yufuin almost 2.5 hours later than intended, so they decided to forego and hop on the train to Hakata and back to Osaka.
I made it to Yufuin though, had a nice ride in the Yufuin no Mori, a special diesel train, riding only on the line between Tosu and Beppu. I was lucky to have a seat in the front of the train, which allowed me to have a beautiful view of what lies ahead.
As soon as I have time (probably when I return home again, and have my workstation at hand), I'll post some pictures.
Upon arrival in Yufuin, I stumbled across a foot onsen on the platform itself; free to use for everyone. I had a chat with some locals and all would be peachy if I hadn't left my PDA in the Yufuin no Mori. By the time I discovered that, my train to Oitsu was one minute from leaving, so I ran out to the station master, explained the whole thing, and while my train left, he made a phonecall to Beppu to check if they found it earlier.
Fortunately, this still is Japan and so they did, and all I had to do is go to Beppu, go to the station master there and fetch my PDA.

Unfortunately, I had to take two Local trains to get to Beppu, and since I already missed one, it took me just under three hours to get there. As an added bonus, none of the staff spoke English, so I had some trouble in making clear who I was and why I was there, but I got there eventually.
Once I was reunited with my PDA, I finally got on the train to Shin-Osaka again, and got home just after 23:00.

A day at the beach
That evening, René suggested we'd go to Shirahama to visit the beach and a local onsen. It turned out that the onsen was closed for that day, but we had a fun time at the beach.
I played beach volleyball with some local guys and girls and René went swimming. Back in Osaka, we went for dinner at a barbeque restaurant. Excellent food, without it costing you an arm and a leg. Damn, I love this country.

Today, as the end of our holiday draws near, I'm going to ship home some stuff I bought, and I intend to go to the cinema tonight, to see Tales of Earthsea.

Cheers, K.

Ohh, Tales of Earthsea is already running? Very curious how much you'll like it, and if the son can indeed follow in his fathers footsteps.
Hopefully this film will make it to Europe.