Yufuin and Beppu Part 3
Here is the long awaited finale to my award winning Parts 1 and 2 of the Yufuin and Beppu series...
After seeing the first two hells, I excited to see the next two. Just like the first two, once we got close enough, both were within walking distance of each other.
The initial sight of the blue hell grounds did not disappoint. We were greeted by a wonderful green lake, with gigantic lilly pads all over it. Off in the distance were huge clouds of steam, and there were bridges and wonderful plants everywhere. Off to the side were pictures showing children standing inside of the giant lilly pads.
The blue hell itself was very amazing. You could tell it was hot with the amount of steam pouring off of its surface. There was a basket with eggs inside being hard boiled lowered into the hell. Later we purchased some of the eggs, and a wonderful flan made from the eggs to try. They were very delicious, the flan especially whetted by sweet tooth's appetite.
There was also a greenhouse with many plants imported from the Amazon, including those giant lillypads. Just outside that greenhouse was another hot pool that was a deep reddish color.
Inside the shop I finally found a pilgrim hat and couldn't resist. I knew that I would be getting one and wearing it for the rest of the day.
After the blue hell, we proceeded over to the mud hell. It was great seeing the constant blubbering of mud creating concentric mud rings on top of the thick grayish substance. The smell was very strong as well, definitely a sulfuric odor.
After enjoying seeing the mud hell, we were off to try out a bit of mud onsening for ourselves. We went to a place called Hoyoland, which boasted natural mud onsens, a natural steam room, and a shower onsen. The first thing they told us when we got inside was that towels were not allowed, and neither was soap, presumably to protect the delicate muddy environment. After the standard rinsing procedure, Eric and I were ready to hit the onsen. What we quickly realized is that either we got special instructions, or no one else chose to heed them, because everyone else used towels to cover themselves up until they reached the onsen. There were several onsens inside of this complex. The mud onsens were a bit disappointing, because instead of the thick mud I had been expecting, there was merely a layer of muddy water below which was a layer of mud. People were rubbing the mud on themselves, something which I had a go at as well.
After enjoying everything Hoyoland had to offer, we rinsed and left to return to the ferry. Being very early, we decided to have dinner in Beppu. We ended up eating at a "Bikingu" a.k.a. Viking style restaurant. It was an all you can eat buffet, with all manner of raw meat available that you cook yourself on a gas grill set into the center of your table. It was delicious and filling. Afterwards the ferry ride went without any surprises, and I finally made it home around one a.m..
Current Events
Last weekend I went to Kobe and Hiroshima with Eric. It was a lot of fun, but unfortunately now I have 2 or 3 major trips which I still haven't finished writing about.
Last night was quite an adventure. I should have known not to try to cook my own food, but for some reason I forgot the troubles I had with my previous cooking experiences and attempted to make hot dogs. You'd think hot dogs are something that cannot be foiled by lack of correct ingredients, but alas such an assumption is flawed. It started in the supermarket with Bartek.
"We should make hot dogs" I exclaimed.
Okay... so now we have to buy condiments, hot dog buns, and the actual hot dogs. Well, Bartek already has ketchup, so we attempt to find some relish. It turns out the clerk we asked had never even heard of it, so we gave up on that idea and began our search for buns. I go to the bread section of the store and find two candidates. Unfortunately both breads are sweet, and that seems a little weird, so we settle on using hamburger buns. Now for the hot dogs. I remember seeing something that looked the correct size, so we went to that section of the store, and saw that indeed they were sausages. I like sausage, and Bartek does too, so with our ingredients in hand we left for Bartek's apartment to cook up a feast.
Usually I microwave hot dogs, so that was what I was planning to do with these. Upon taking off the outer wrapping however, we quickly realized these hot dogs were different from our home variety. Their "skin" is made of plastic. We decided to boil them to readiness instead. During the boiling process however, we noticed that the sausages didn't smell like normal sausages. Upon further inspection of the sausages' original wrapping, we realized that it said "Fish Sausage" in Japanese. Great, so now Japanese ingredients have foiled me once again, even in the simplest possible cooking scenario... hot dogs. In the end they turned out all right, but I wouldn't wish them upon anybody else.
Yufuin and Beppu Part 2
After meeting the Prime Minister of Japan, we were ready to continue our adventure. First on the list was seeing this warm lake. Only a five minute walk, the lake was well worth the effort of getting there. The scenery surrounding us was very beautiful. There were mountains surrounding us, and many trees whose leaves were changing into their fall colors. The lake had a layer of steam growing off of it, and there were pillars of steam off in the distance, presumably due to natural hot springs.
The lake had a path around it, on which we walked for about a quarter of the way around. There was a bridge as part of that path with one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen.
After seeing the lake, the three of us returned down the narrow street in search of a taxi. We ended up asking one of the many stores lining the streets to call us one. From Yufuin we made our way back to Beppu, and our first onsen.
The onsen that we ended up going to was great. It had several pools to soak in. They were separated by gender, some public and some private. The private ones required that you have two or more people though. Eric and I first scouted out our options, and settled on trying out one of the private onsens. The private onsen was great. It was a rocky pool open to the sky, and surrounded by high fences. It looked out onto a scenic vista of mountains over farmland. It was very hot, and very relaxing.
After getting our fill of the onsen, we met up with Cumi, and left to get something to eat. A short taxi ride later, and we were at a Japanese style ramen restaurant. I say Japanese style, because we sat on tatami next to a a very short table.
After eating we took off to see the hells or "jigoku". The ride through the mountains to our destination was amazing. There was so much variety in the scenery. We were dropped off near the first two hells we were planning on seeing. The geyser hell erupts every forty minutes, so we had to wait for fifteen minutes, but it was worth the wait.
The geyser lasted for about five minutes, and it was spectacular. It was loud, and there was a lot of steam. The amphitheater of seated people quickly got up and moved towards the eruption as soon as it began. Soon after, we made our way to the red hell, about a five minute walk away.
The red hell was amazing as well. The color was a dark orangish red. Steam was billowing off the surface of the small lake creating a gigantic hovering cloud. There was also a foot onsen, which drew cooled water from the red hell which we tried. The temperature of the hell was a balmy 80c degrees (176f).
Stay tuned for part III, where we visit the last two hells, and the final onsen.
Yufuin and Beppu Part 1
Last weekend I travelled to Yufuin and Beppu to experience the famous hells, and exotic onsens. We began our trip at 2pm on Saturday. Eric, Cumi, and I drove for about an hour until we reached the ferry terminal.
The interior of the ferry was very nice. It had a place to buy food and drinks, and many benches to sit down on. One thing that was very different from the ferries in Seattle, is that this ferry had a room with partitioned sleeping floors. Basically, you'd grab a spot on the floor, use one of the provided pillows, and rest. They had two televisions in the room if you wanted to watch T.V., but I talked and read a book on the way to Yufuin.
Once in Yufuin, we took both a train and a taxi to our final destination, which was a hotel that Cumi booked for us. It was very cozy, with two Japanese style tatami rooms, and futons for us to sleep on.
The next morning we woke up at around 7:30am... well, at least I did. Eric had earlier left to go jogging. It was very cold, and there was a thick fog preventing me from being able to see much from our room's windows. On Eric's return, he mentioned that there seemed to be an unusually high police presence. At 8:00am, we left for the main building to eat our provided traditional Japanese-style breakfast.
After breakfast, it was off to see the warm lake. Yufuin and Beppu are famous for their natural hot springs, and this lake was warmed by one such spring. The lake was very near to our hotel, if we had gone directly there, it would have been a ten minute walk. One our way to the lake, we walked by several policemen, and asked what was going on. They replied that the prime minister of Japan had been staying the night just a few blocks away, and that he would be talking a walk nearby. The three of us left to try and catch a glimpse of him.
After about an hour of waiting, Junichiro Koizumi finally made his appearance. He walked down the opposite side of the river whose bank we were positioned along, crossed over to our side, then came towards us. There was a large group of people surrounding the prime minister, and several news cameras and reporters. He eventually came down the line of people, and shook many people's hands (including mine)
And so concludes Part 1...
Sunset
Here are a couple pictures taken of the sunset from the 10th (highest) floor of my building
Past week
A lot has been going on the past week or two, from returning to the Matsuyama castle, to visiting a Jungle onsen, and even some pottery making. Around Halloween I went to a small party, where we dressed up in creative trash bags.
The return trip to the castle was really great. This time I was armed with a camera
and a battery. The castle is exactly how my imagination says a Japanese castle should look. It has the cool roof tiles, the curved roofs, and its built on a hill with Japanese gardens and trees around it.
The Okudogo jungle onsen (public bath) was really great. It was inside a giant greenhouse with trees growing amongst the many hot pools and weaving paths. There was even one pool that was outside overlooking a river towards a tree covered mountain. Afterwards the three of us ( Bartek, Yuki, and I ) ate an all-you-can-eat Japanese buffet. By the time the three of us got back, we were ready to pass out. Onsens really take it out of you!
The pottery making was a lot of fun. I painted a cup, formed a weird shaped bowl, and even had the opportunity to use a potters wheel. It was put on by the "Lions Club", and had a lot of press with video and photo cameras snatching media from every angle.
Cooking Difficulties
It is much more difficult to cook things here than I imagined it would be. My first attempt involved making penuche, a fudge which gets its flavor from the carmelization of the brown sugar used in the recipe. The ingredients seem very simple at first:
1 lb. (2 1/4 c.) firmly packed light brown sugar
3/4 c. milk
1/8 tsp. salt
2 1/2 tbsp. butter (stick butter)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 c. chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
Unfortunately brown sugar here is called black sugar, and it has a slightly different taste than the brown sugar in the US. Also, the milk here is generally 53%, instead of the 1% or 2% I use at home. Additionally, all of the measurements must be converted to their metric equivalents. In the end the penuche came out pretty well, although it tasted slightly different because of the difference in the sugar used. Mr. Tamai and I found some 3.5% milk to use which worked alright.
Experiment #2: Cream Cheese brownies
Not one to be deterred by the difficulties in making penuche, I decided to try for something bigger. Cream cheese brownies are supposed to be very rich and flavorfull. I haven't seen anything resembling brownies here, so I thought it would be a more exotic treat for my host family.
Here are the ingredients:
4 squares unsweetened chocolate
3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter
2-1/2 cups sugar
5 eggs
1-1/4 cups flour
1 8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened
So lets start with the first problem, finding the chocolate. My hostfamily is not familiar with unsweetened chocolate. Apparently its not very common here. Additionally, they wanted to know how much four squares is. I ended up having to draw what I thought the size of a square of chocolate was, and make do with whatever chocolate they ended up buying. The butter was easy to get. The sugar was slightly brownish. I thought it was brown sugar, but when I tasted it, it tasted more like the normal white variety so I gave it the "OK." Eggs and flour were easy to get, but then comes the cream cheese. Something called "cream cheese" is pretty common in Japanese grocery stores, but it is much thicker and harder to work with than the type that I am used to. If there was an achillies heel in this recipe, the cream cheese was it.
Everything seemed to be going fine with the recipe until I added the creamcheese layer to the top of the brownie mix I had made. The creamcheese just wouldn't get soft enough, so instead of two layers, I ended up sort of mixing the two layers together.
In the end, the brownies came out surprisingly well. The cream cheese parts were sort of like a brownie/custard mix, and my host family really enjoyed it. Mrs. Tamai enjoyed it so much that she will be making more on Thursday to share with her friends.
University Craziness
Last Friday, Bartek and I decided to have lunch with another German exchange student at the university across the street from ours. We attend Ehime University, and the other student goes to Matsuyama University. The other German exchange student whose name is Steffan (okay, thats probably not how it's spelled, but it sounds very similar), brought a few of his newly made Japanese friends to meet us, and we all had lunch at the Matsuyama University cafeteria. The food offered was essentially the same as at our university, but it provided good eats nonetheless.
After eating, we went outside and started talking about the differences between life in America and Japan among other things. Somehow towards the end of the conversation, we were invited to one of the student's ( Yuki ) economics classes, so of course Bartek and I went.
I thought that it was pretty weird that we were just going to randomly drop in on a university class, but decided that since so many other rules are bent for exchange students, this would probably be okay too. When we entered the room, there were already a few students there. Bartek and I went through the introduction routine we learned in survival class. Then all of the other Japanese students also introduced themselves. After each introduction everyone would clap, and then the next student would start. About two minutes after class was supposed to start, the teacher walks in clapping from the hallway, and doesn't even break his stride as he walks in. He asked me my name, and how to write it, and then introduced himself and asked everybody to sit.
I was unsure how this would go. I know very little Japanese still, and I figured that any lecture on economics in Japanese would leave me clueless and bored. My fears ended up being completely unfounded. Every five minutes, another student would walk in late, and the teacher didnt even blink. About twenty minutes into the class, somehow the topic changed from what was presumably economics, to how one of the students can do a good North Korean President
( Kim Jong-il ) imitation. While admittedly hilarious, I was a bit confused. Now all of the sudden the teacher was gathering his papers and preparing to leave. After asking a few times what he was doing, Yuki told me that he was getting his business cards to give to me and Bartek. I was very confused at this point, but the teacher just left the class, and returned about five minutes later to give us his business card, and then he left again. Apparently he had to be in Tokyo that night, and so class was cut short. Bartek and I were left trying to figure out the point of such a seemingly pointless class. The students were still in the classroom several minutes after the teacher left, and not only that, but more students were still trickling in. We asked what sort of work they were supposed to be doing, but all the answers pointed to the fact that there was no work to be done. I guess everyone was just socializing with each other at this point. So of course I whipped out my camera and decided to take a few pictures.
Everybody socializing... Yuki is in the blue sweater, third from the left.
Group photo! Our Kim Jong-il imitator is sitting down in the blue shirt.
And now a group picture with me in the middle.
So now we finally exit the classroom wondering what to do next. After some standing around, and some chatting, someone mentions that there is a Matsuyama University Museum. As we enter the museum, there are a few people sitting behind a desk near the front entrance. I ask if any of them can speak English and they all shake their heads. I was dissapointed, no English tour. We go upstairs and start to look around at the exhibits. After a few minutes of wandering around, a man comes upstairs, and I ask if he can give us a tour. He seems reluctant, but gives it a try anyways. He ended up giving a great tour, even if his english wasn't perfect. This man graduated from the university in 1969, and was able to explain most of the exhibits. He even let us sit in a set of chairs that belonged to the University President's office 80 years ago. He said that we were honored guests, and that we were the first to have sat in the chairs since the opening of the museum six years ago.
Three Matsuyama University students check out the three founders of their university.
The honored guests sit in their chairs :)After the tour of the museum, our guide led us outside to show us the pond which was still in place since the creation of the university. While we were talking with the man, another man toting a camera came out of nowhere and started taking our pictures.
The original university pond.I can only hope that my picture will be on both the Ehime University and Matsuyama University webpages. After a little more chatting with the Japanese students, our guide left us, and Bartek and I left to go our seperate ways.
