[Sunday, April 8th, 2018]
My 2 weeks at Beppu passed by in the blink of an eye. Before I knew it, school starts tomorrow! In less than 12 hours, I will officially become a Ritsumeikan APU university student! Therefore, to mark our last day of freedom, Richard and I, along with our senpai / friend Daniel, went on a round-day trip to Aso, Kumamoto. Here is a short recap of our trip today.We set out at 8:11 sharp and took the 50 Bus to Kamegawa Station. From there, we got on a train to Oita Station and then towards Aso.
About Aso and Mount. Aso
阿蘇市 Aso-shi is a city located in 熊本県 Kumamoto-ken prefecture in Japan. Mount. Aso 阿蘇山, Aso-san, is the largest active volcano in Japan, and consists of 5 peaks Mount. Neko, Taka, Naka, Eboshi, and Kishima. There is a crater to theWest side, which can be accessible by road that tourists can come to sight-see occasional emission of smoke and eruptions. We were thrilled by this and knew this was the place we had to go! In addition, time and financial-wise, it fits well with our day-trip plan to return to Beppu and take the last bus home.
From Oita to Aso
One of the many things I love about Japan is transportations (trains to be specific) ! They are so simple, yet so beautifully designed. It took around 3 hours from Oita to Aso, but the ride was really pleasant. We got a good rest and enjoyed the passing-by scenery. By the time we got there, it was already 12PM or so. By then we got a bit hungry, so during the mini bus to Mount. Aso, we nibbled our onigiri.
On top of the mountain
Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you view it), the volcano was active today! Meaning, we weren't able to go down the crater and observe the volcano (the staff were damn serious -they stuck up flyers literally everywhere, even in the WC, saying “YOU CAN’T GO TO THE CRATER TODAY). So instead, we saw the ASO SUPER RING, which was a 3D show portraying the history and changes of Aso-san through-out the years. It was really cool to see how they put up the show which such vivid sound and visual effects, but at the same time, amusing, to see how over-dramatic(-ish) script-writers could be. (sorry no photography allowed so.... please come and see it yourself lol)
After that we went came across a mini art/photography exhibition of Aso-san done by a Japanese photographer. There were many marvelous photographs, but what caught our eyes were these exquisite “curtains". They were as if transparent, but on them imprinted patterns of Sakura trees, or Cloudy sky, or vast fields, etc.We fooled around a bit with the pictures as if they were “double - exposure". The results turned out pretty well to be honest !
After the show, we visited the souvenir shop and was trapped in the Kumamon Maze - Kumamon figures Kumamon purse Kumamon cookies, literally, Kumamon everywhere !! (But then again this was in Kumamoto Prefecture so i guess the Kumamon-craze is a normal thing). We ended up buying some “Printed cookies" for our fellow Batch members and RAs. They all seemed to love it 嬉しかった.
As we had lots of time to spare, the 3 of us ended up walking on the way back. 30 minutes later, we derailed the main road onto a smaller path that looked suspicious. It was too steep and tiring to take pics (┛✧Д✧))┛彡┻━┻ While waiting to regain our strengths, we casually decided to sit down and had an on-the-spot picnic. Main course: Onigiri. Dessert: Lynch’s Chocolate.
Some of the pics we took along the way back:
📷
Time to head back home
So this sums up my first road trip here in Japan. I thought it would take me quite a while to get used to Beppu's and APU's rhythm before deciding to pack my bags and leave for a day.
Yet i did it. Immediately after just 2 weeks.
Well i suppose there are the goods and the bads to it.
“If you don't do it now, you might never got the chance to do it”. Sometimes the most spontaneous decisions are the most worth-while ones. The sheer thought of getting on a train, having no clue where it might take us, what we might be doing, excites me. And after today's trip, i can confirm it once more. Had there been detailed planning on the agenda, there might be chances of postpones in order to best fit the schedule. Therefore, there's no certainty if the plan will be executed or not.
Language barrier. 2 weeks is still a comparatively short amount of time to go somewhere off-the-map by yourselves. We were really lucky to have Daniel accompanied us, he helped with directions, which train to get on, off; when does the next train arrives, how many time have we got left, etc. Had it not been for him, we might have missed a bus or two lmao (so thank you Daniel). Nonetheless, I felt like to an extent we (or just me), were relying on him too much. Maybe given a chance, we could try asking for help using our own proficiency in communication (whether through speech or gestures).
Financial-budget. Traveling can be quite expensive, mainly covering up the transportation fees. Money-wise, I would say i was too rapid in my decision of the tip today, so for the next feel week imma be locking myself up in AP House ಥ﹏ಥ; [Regardless, traveling is a form of learning. And if you're investing into education through exposure or experience, then spending an extra 10,000円 or 2 is still worth the consideration].
But for now....
I have Japanese AA Period 1 on Monday ...
Que sera~