Name: Roslynn
Home:
See my complete profile
So our entourage was brought to this active volcano called Showa Shinsan. It's really quite small cos it popped out from the land in the last 100 years. We had a short meeting and then left on our own to settle our lunch. Rather than the growing mountain, the touristy shops gathered around the foot of the mountain is really the main focus of this trip. How did the international students here morph into pseudo Japanese and their consumption culture of buying souveneirs?? Is that all the tourist experience we can get???
Eleanor was quite pissed as she went to Lake Toya before and was so looking forward to seeing it again. So instead of having a leisurely lunch and souvenier shopping, we ventured back to the roads in hope of reaching Lake Toya. Unfortunately, it's much futher than we had thought and we gave up halfway. Even so, I managed to capture some beautiful autumn pictures...
After lunch, we were brought to another volcanic mountain of which we got to climb. I don't really know the name as I was quite confused by that time. It could be the same spurting Showa shinsan or it could be it's friendly neighbouring volcano, Usu mountain. It was extremely smelly due to the sulfur oozing out of the mountain but the smoke is interesting enough. It's not the first time I climbed a volcano so it did not get a high from all the smoke oozing from the cracks of the mountain. However, the view from the top shows a seaside town at the foot of this mountain on one side which was definitely a plus. Throughout the whole of this trip, there were several rest stops and we were always the last to get on the bus. Add to the fact that we were the only ones who conversed solely in Japanese, we really stood out from the crowd. Yes, I do wonder what all those international students were doing in Japan. To learn English???
The last stop was in Jouzankei, a hot spring town. So here's the chance for the ang mohs and etc to experience Japan's hot springs for as long as... 45minutes!! What a joke! There were definitely more than 30 pools and how to pool-hop in 45 minutes? Anyway, all this is not new to me and Eleanor as we had studied in Japan in the past and understood the importance of a leisurely soak in the wonder of the hot baths so we opted to take a walk around the area. There was a feet bath nearby which is just right for a 45 minutes soak. Here is a pic of me and Eleanor's feet in the 'ashi no yu' (i.e. feet bath). I was quite worried that there will be a Honkie feet smell wafting from the pool but luckily, there's no smell at all. It's really quite fun!! I was really very tired at the end of the day because of the 6hrs bus ride! But I had fun with my new friends so it's all right!| FreeCounter |
|---|
