Another long weekend has passed here in Japan, and so once again I find myself at work trying not to pass out from several days worth of hangover.
Instead of going with the big group to Hiroshima for the sake fest (though I hear from Aaron there was much fun, craziness and even more nakedness there – some of which I have seen on video) I decided to go to Kagoshima with Nicole while the weather was still awesome.
We set off Friday night and decided to spend the night in Kumamoto city instead of driving all the way to Kagoshima in one go. There we found an awesome Mexican place, an interesting (tho mostly empty) trance club, and were accosted by guys mistaking us for snack girls. We were even ‘discouraged’ (because the Japanese hardly refuse anything) service at a hotel because they seemed to think we were `on the job`. Ah yes, I do sooo love having Slavic features.
The next morning we drove the rest of the way to Kagoshima. Kagoshima is a beautiful mixture of jungle, volcanic vegetation and geology, ocean and mountains so there was much oooh-ing and aahhhh-ing. We pulled into Kagoshima city pretty early and thus our real adventures began.
Summary of Kagoshima city events:
-Went to a mixed (guy/girl) outdoor onsen under a volcano and next to the sea, which was the most amazing thing ever. Apart from having some weird old dude take copious “stealth” pictures of us from a distance, and then finally working the courage up to just boldly ask us if we would take a picture with him. He seriously took like a hundred shots. The guys he was with were getting annoyed too coz at one point he was supposed to be taking a picture of them but was clearly aiming only at us.
-On the way back from the volcano island we were adopted by some Japanese people who drove us around the volcano and paid for our ferry back to mainland – being a gaijin does have perks as well as pitfalls.
-Found a Bali restaurant with food so good that I had to restrain myself from an embarrassing emotional display.
-Were mistaken (again!) for snack girls but this time it worked in our favour because we were led to a kickass club with the best hard house I have heard in Japan. Seriously good stuff (I was even grinding my teeth in reflex).
-Slept in an internet café where (no joke) Nicole was molested by having her boob felt up as she slept. She claimed she didn`t react fast enough coz she thought it was me messing with her! I`m glad that my friends think I am prone to molestation….
-We finally left Kagoshima city on Sunday morning with again no sleep and a wicked hangover, and the city gave us a final kick in the nuts – we paid a ridiculous amount for parking only to find out as we were leaving that it was Sunday and so we could have left the parking garage without paying anything at all.
We were in a bit of a bad mood at this point but it was a new day and we were now driving along the coast towards the Kamikaze museum in the mountainous city of Chiran. Kamikaze pilots had been trained at and took off from Chiran during WWII and so there is a `peace museum` there in their honour. There was nothing in English there though, and we kept getting strange looks from the Japanese people around us and I think it`s probably because the whole Kamikaze thing was a bit glorified. It was definitely interesting to see though.
Afterwards, we drove down the mountain and back to the coast to the city of Ibusuki. There we took a sand bath, which consists of getting buried in hot, volcanic sand to sweat out toxins and relax muscles. It felt good to sweat out all the crap in my body though I did get a bit burned by the sand. It was now getting later though, and we ran out of ideas as to what we wanted to do next. We had been planning to camp that night but didn`t know where. Finally we just decided to keep driving.
We headed towards a mountain we had seen earlier that looked a bit like a large boob. We drove around it looking for a beach but ended up finding an old, narrow road that kept leading us deeper into the underbrush. Suddenly we found ourselves staring into a tiny, pitch-black tunnel that looked like something out of a horror movie. Around us was nothing but jungle, and no other way out. I couldn’t back up because the road was too narrow so there was nowhere to go but in. I have to admit, as we entered it and drove through with no end or natural light in sight I started to panic a bit. Nicole was just fascinated but I wanted to go back. If the car had stopped working we would have been in total darkness. I knew we had to keep going though and so I drove on. Soon there were weird gaps in the tunnel covered with trees and the condition of the tunnel kept getting worse and worse (and my breathing more and more irregular). It also seemed as if the tunnel was going down, which was surely not a good sign I thought. For all we knew it could have been a mining shaft! Nicole was still calm but I was thinking of all the worst case scenarios and cursing her for having made me go that far! Finally, after what seemed like hours (but was more like 5 or 10 minutes) we saw shafts of light and emerged back into the jungle. I was shaking. I can`t really do the experience justice – it was honestly weird and scary as hell.
We did find a beach eventually though, but the sand was a volcanic black and we no longer felt like swimming. We got back into the car and decided to head for the other coast. It got dark quickly and we found ourselves driving along one of the most scenic coastlines I have ever seen in the light of the full moon. We had no idea where we were though or where we would sleep and the road was narrow with few options to turn off it. We drove for a long time. It seemed as if we were in a weird time warp or trapped in some alternate universe. I felt like I had taken drugs or something. Eventually though, we saw a sign for Kagoshima city and just decided to head back to it so that we could find the expressway home. We slept that night in the car in front of a service station. For some reason it got really cold and so it was one of the worst sleeps ever! Monday morning, on the drive back I almost passed out from the total exhaustion but somehow we made it back in one piece. I thank the strawberry mochi.
Nicole safely on the plane, I went home to sleep but alas, it was not to be. Suddenly an insistent knock sounded at the door and I heard loud singing. The gang was back from Hiroshima. I opened the door to a drunk Aaron and Shawna, as well as some Nagasaki people, and they insisted I join them for drinks. I did. Today as I sit here at work feeling all kinds of ill, I must say I am regretting it a bit….but ah well!
