beppu city, beppu youth hostel - free internet, old computer.

screw kumamoto, stink-town!! i got run off the castle premesis by a vindictive cop after 5 min. it was getting dark so i rolled to suizenji to the local youth hostel. the guy on the phone said "go straight", and so began an hour long search for a place essentially 3 blocks from the station. i know have a collection of maps people have drawn for me taking me to places i never intended on going to! when i rolled in i dumped my 100 pound pack and smiled with all my rage to the lazy fat guy who doesn't know "straight" from a hole in the ground. "do you have a resurvation?" - oh, the bastard still wasn't expecting me after a near continuous dialog from every street corner in the lower east side. "sigh- (work's so hard when you have to do it) that's difficult, i'll have to think about it." i waited 5 minutes while he figured out how to racially segregate 2 foreigners into a 2 person room already containing one japanese guy. i know this for sure - the japanese guy came in 5 min later to collect his things and move upstairs to join another single japanese guy in a 6 person suit. we had ramen and talked about all possible interpretations of the word "straight" - he had spent 45 min looking for the place too. the australian who shared the gaijin enclosure, formerly known as the foot smell storage room, stuttered about how well read he was until i fell asleep.

anyway, i rolled out of stink town on a stupid, expensive local train and transfered 3 times until i was in the shadow of aso-san, a still active and mildly impressive volcano. there was a famous cherry blossom park, but i was early by about a week! the elevation.. of course. i walked around the town, boasting both a post office and a vegatable market. having nothing to mail, i had a nice salad. i scored a japanese-y place to stay and watched lord of the rings dubbed into japanese on tv. i was very happy.

the next morning the FIRST car that passed me took me to aso city. the driver was a young guy going to see his kids for the first time in 6 months - sort of a rare situation in japan. i was thinking about taking a bus and a ropeway to look into the crater of the volcano, but it was threatening rain and i decided to screw the whole stink-prefecture!

i waited for only about 10 min before this wild guy picked me up and we FLEW down the road. his family were refugees from the japanese settlements in china and he spoke about 4 languages. he was working as the president of two brances of an engineering firm in both okayama and kumamoto - we were instant friends. he dropped me in takeda and i did my thing at the castle ruins. the samurai gaurds didn't mind at all and i sold 3 cds! when i packed out this couple gave me a lift to usuki - the same town as the last crazy engineer driver! i gave him a ring and he whisked me off to the sakura hot-spot. he had a meeting, but would find me later and we would join his old classmates for drinks and dinner! we did - it was fun and i got to crash at his place. the next day he insisted on driving me to beppu before returning to kumamoto. nice guy - hilarious too, you all should meet him. he even bought me mcdonalds when we arrived in beppu - right now very alive with a hotsprings festival! i just had a bath in one of beppu's many famous hot springs and i'm ready to go out and hit the town!