Wally Nes’ Blog

Nono, it’s a real thing. Not something I made up because the week was so great.OK, the week was also great. Which is another reason why I don’t mind keeping it as a title.

I’ll start with the beginning shall I? Most great writers won’t . . . but I’m not a great writer so screw them.
Actually, I’ll start before the beginning. Because I can.

One week before the Golden Week (DUN DUN Duuuuuuuuuuuh)

I hit my head.
Hard
I hit my head so hard I now have 10 Concussions on my list of injuries. Or maybe less, it’s kinda hard to recollect something that induces memory loss. YEEH 10, worthy of celebration don’t ya think?
A cerebral concussion is the after effects of a severe brain shake up. Similar to a contuision of the brain. It’s effects include memory loss, impaired coordination, easily exhausted, nausia(yeeh, not to sure how that works), headaches (Ohhhhh, the headaches) and many many more.
One other worthy of specific mention is a drop in awareness of . . . stuff.

So I went to work the next day. I had woken up feeling mostly fine and I wasn’t really aware of . . . . stuff. So all seemed to be right. And a day which is right includes going to work. At least, it does in fridays.
I . . . . mostly remember friday. I remember it mostly for the mistake of going to work. Friday was not a good day for me.

Insert 4 days of low light, low sound and low every other stimuli.

Then the Golden Week was here.
I felt recovered. But I hadn’t really done anything, and you tend to feel fine untill you do stuff.
We had paid for the transportation to kyushu already and there would not be another chance to see this place so I gritted my teeth and went off to Fukuoka.

The plan was to go to Beppu (an onsen town) first. Sitting in Onsens is not what I consider strenuous activity, so I reckoned we could just stay put there if I didn’t feel up to anything else.
Then we’d be off to Yakushima
After that Sakurajima
1 day somewhere as of yet undecided
Kobe and work

I would arrive in Fukuoka at 06:00 with the nightbus. (Being dutch and betting on not having a concussion I had gone with the cheap-o option) and Raph would arrive somewhere around 13:00 at the airport. This gave me some time to lounge about Fukuoka, see a nice park and the canal district. Oh and nightbus sleep was interupted for a bridge.

Upon meeting up with Raph (after huggs and cuddles were exchanged) I soon found out I had gotten things backwards.

First we’d go to yakushima, then sakurajima and then beppu.

“We would?”
“Yes, we would. We changed schedules weeks ago”
“We did?”
“We did. BEFORE your concussion I might add”

But only barely before my concussion, so I felt within my right to get it backwards. Off to Kagoshima we went, to catch the early Hydrofoil to Yakushima.

Yakushima is hands down. One of the most amazingly beautifull places I’ve been. In the last 2 months a multiple groups of friends have seen Fraser Island, and unless that place has changed a great deal in the last 7 years. You’ve seen what I compare things to.

Oh, it didn’t look much when we got there. A small shipping port and a bus-time-table that didn’t take into consideration boats that arrive. We had to take a bus to our “Hotel”. We had booked a night in the Rider’s House, which came with the description “rough and ready”. What they meant was . . . well, it’s a biker’s hang out. I forgot to take pictures of the beds, but they had built a shelving system and people just slept on those. Shelf, walls on either side and a curtain to close the open bits. Rough and ready indeed.

It also meant it was full of nice people. We arrived, got assigned a shelf and asked what we wanted to see.

“Here’s two bikers, get on the back with them and enjoy.”

Eh? We got assigned 1 guide each and were ready for a roadtrip 6 minutes after walking in.

This was where I first got hit by the beauty of the island and it was only after a good 15 km or so that I remembered to take out my mobile and take some pictures. They didn’t come out too well, but I didn’t want to use my actual camera from the back of a motorcycle.

We were taken at first to a private little hideaway off the road on the west coast of the island. There grew a “tree” of some interrest. I put the tree in “s while actualy the a should be in “s. I’ll explain, or rather, I’ll let this explain. If someone would name this tree, we could get the wikipedia link to it put it appears that it can start independant shoots and incorperate other shoots into itself. That it does this with vertical shoots I can understand. But we saw horizontal ones aswell. Anyway, It kept us busy goofing around for a bit and presented some nice photographic oppertunities.

Next was one of the most famous waterfalls in Japan.

Oh no wait. Next was this. The bike broke down and we were out of luck. They arranged for a pick-up by a couple also staying in the Rider’s House who had rented a car who picked us up and took us back to the “Hotel” by ways of an onsen. Hmmmmm, onsen.

The next day was spent hiking in the woods of mononoke hime. For those of you that are familiar with that anime.
We start with a little stretching. Can’t go off hiking without stretching properly.

And the rest . . . well, just watch the pictures.

Later on that day we headed back to Kyushu. Had we not paid for some tickets already we would have cancelled all reservations and stayed on this island for the rest of the holiday. It was THAT GOOD.

Sakurajima was next on the schedule. We asume Sakurajima is named after all the sakuras that (once?) stood there. We know jima stood for the fact that it was once an island. Since the 18XX eruption of sakurajima (the vulcano, not the island) it is a rather misnomer. No island AND no sakura trees.

It is very pretty though. Though due to the tourist bus being quite stuffed already and us being a combination of lazy and sick . . . we head to an onsen instead of exploring the island. Very nice outdoo, mixed onsen. Where you have to wear a yukata while bathing. Very odd after the shared nudity of the past 8 months.

Next is Beppu. Beppu is famous for it’s Onsens. In a country that has shown us a considerable amount already, and some of them very good, this is something to look forward to. Not all Onsens in Beppu are suited for humans though.

The “Hells”, as they were called, were mostly good for 2 things. Smoke and stink. Of course, they had some practical use aswell. And of course there was a Zoo. Because . . . well, can’t have a place called “Hell” without a zoo right?
And what is Hell without Shin Chan.

Oh there was more. There was good food, better scenery I didn’t think to take pictures off, funny Japanese people, Funny us which I do have pictures of but I’m not showing you . But after Beppu, all that was left was going home.

As I write this now I have already spent 3 days at the office. My concussion was nearly over, but reading small print and working my brain did not have good results. If this ache is still here tomorrow I will definitely go see a doctor. Eugh. Slightly sad end to a truely marvelous Week.

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Professional sumo wrestlers are required to be 173 cm tall. Some aspiring sumo athletes have silicon implants added to the tops of their heads to reach the necessary height.

- Japanese National Health board on National Average Height

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 10th, 2008 at 10:23 pm and is filed under Personal, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.