Ka-Go-Shi-Ma Dreaming...

Aiight so before new years, me and a few peeps headed down south for a bit of a road trip. Had a few days off after boxing day, so thought we'd make the best of it. If you didn't already know, road trips are good times.
Kagoshima is way south as far as Japan is concerned, and supposedly famous for an active volcano (Sakurajima) and kurobuta (black pork). Ok, so that doesn't sound like too much to get excited about. But it was less about the destination, and more about getting out of the city, on the road and seeing something new.
The A-Team consisted of myself, fernando, em and another friend, azusa. Azu's friend Mai-chan came through with the goods and supplied us with a sweet ride, the 'street five', as Mai-chan didn't need her wheels cos she was in the U.S. for the holidays. The Street Five did a superlative job, so much so that I want to get one for myself. During the trip we tried to keep the in-jokes to a minimum for Azusa's sake, but that was easier said than done (true that -> DOUBLE TRUE).
Here's a quick self shot of the crew en-route (l2r: em, fern, az, me):


Ok so we get's to Kagoshima safe and sound around twoish, but the weather was pretty rough so we just napped instead. It was good times. When I ask my students the question "so what do you do in your free time?" a lot of them respond with "sleep". "What are your hobbies?" - "Sleeping". "What do you do on your days off?" - "Sleep". My initial reaction was one of contempt at their inactivity and lack of imagination, but after stringing a few days together where a nanna nap was item number one on the afternoon agenda, I'm beginning to come around to their point of view. But I digress. Who needs sightseeing when you can nap, and/or play the coolest indoor game ever, light-globe-hangy-switchy-thing totem tennis?


Kagoshima's famed active volvano, Sakurajima, is on an island a short ferry ride from the city. It's a bit of a feisty one, the city regularly gets ash showers when it lets off a bit of steam. So we headed across to check it out and hopefully not get totally lava'd. The weather gods turned on a beautiful day for us, happy snaps below.

Fern getting his artisticness on with the black n white offguard shot:


Ferry ride across:


Gang in front of the volcano:


Cool views:


Me and emsy:


Silliness on a rock:


Team road trip:


We bought the street five across to the island on the ferry and did a nice little loop of the island checking various different spots, and on the way back we hit up an outdoor onsen. The onsen was amazing. Sitting in a natural hot spa overlooking ocean and mountain views was probably the highlight of the trip. Me and fern being totally hardcore also went for a quick dip in the sea before returning back to the onsen to defrost.

The hostel we stayed at was also pretty cool. In the unlikely event that you ever find yourself in Kagoshima needing a place to stay, head to the Nakazono Ryokan. Doesn't have a curfew like a lot of the hostels in Japan, plus the owner was an absolute legend. He walked us to the neighbourhood izakaya, and even supplied us all with a big glass of sho-chu from his own bottle, after proudly declaring he's been drinking the stuff everyday for the last forty years. Good on him I say. Also gave us heaps of maps and info on the local layout. It's super close to down town so transports not an issue, which was awesome cos we just walked into town for meals the couple of days we were there.

Here's a snap of the master:


There were a couple of germans also staying at the same place, so we teamed up with them for dinner. Trying to get into the 'traditionalness' of it all, we ordered up Kagoshima's version of basashi (raw horse meat) which was not bad, but in my opinion not a scratch on Kumamoto's.
Another local dish which is pretty popular in Japan is natto. I don't even really know what it is, reportedly it's fermented beans or something. But what I do know is that in my opinion it would come close to being the most disgusting food on the planet. Frauline (usrula) aptly came up with the nickname 'alien abortion' after she saw a bowl of the stuff. Sums it up really, it's absolutely feral. I've tried a minuscule portion of it twice and nearly dry reached both times. If you're ever in Japan do yourself a favour and stay away from the stuff. Here's a shot of Jorg the german's reaction after trying it:


Exactly.

More izakaya action:


Ok this won't mean much to those of you not in Japan, but we also found the fated brown lawson. Lawson is a massive chain of convenience stores (like 7/11), and their corporate colours are blue and white. But we found a brown one (NO WAY!) - I guess it's like the equivalent of coming across a green macca's sign? Anyway I thought it was a kodak moment:


Next move was to cut Kagoshima loose and head for the hills. We headed to Chiran, which has a well kept Samurai town and also a Kamikaze musuem. The musuem was pretty interesting, little bit chilling looking at the photo's of the lost pilots as most of them were just boys. What a waste.
After Chiran we drove down to the Satsuma peninsula, and came across lake Ikeda, which is the japanese equivalent of Loch Ness, monster inclusive. Meet Ishi, the local inhabitant of the lake. Apparently the local eels grow to be over two metres long. Big, yet still tasty. Found a cute little statue of said Ishi so did what we had too:


Feeling pretty good about chalking up another inanimate statue ride, we headed on down the road only to find this baby:


So then, of course:

Nearly brained myself when I slipped on the ascent, but hey, when you're as dangerous as I am, these are the risks you take...
We made it to pretty much the southern tip of Japan, and were rewarded with some stunning views.


We kept on moving and came to Ibusuki, which is famous for having hot sand. What do you do if you find hot sand? Bury yourself in it:


The japanese talk the sand onsen up a fair bit, personally I found it a little overated. It was ok, nothing to write home about though. My opinion may have been tainted by the fact that when I returned to the change rooms, I discovered that some theiving bastard had stolen my shoes. Bastard! Only in japan: you can leave your wallet untouched in a bar for hours, come back and it's still there, but be careful about leaving your $30 shoes from target in the change rooms. Humph! Ok so I was a little emotional when it happened but on the bright side a) never liked those shoes anyway and b) the sand bath place let me keep an awesome bright blue pair of thongs for my troubles. Score!

That's a wrap for the kagoshima mission december 2006. It was well worth it, having access to a car and being able to just go wherever we wanted was tops fun. Inspired me and fern to start planning road trips all over the place.

In other news, Operation 'Danger Guns' has begun. Watch this space: in two months you'll see the most skinniest rippedest palest guy ever!

Toon of the week:
Maybe Tomorrow, Stereophonics.

Stay safe tigers, talk to you soon,
Maxi.