Mt. Aso

We left early at 8.30am in a small, red Daiichi University bus with Kanashima-san. We drove for two hours to Mount Aso, through some beautiful valleys in the countryside. There's something very peaceful about acres and acres of green forests. Unfortunately when we got there it was belching out too much gas and we couldn't go up.

Instead we went for a walk around the plains and hills nearby. It was quite fun and I'm really beginning to appreciate nature. You so rarely get that sort of thing in England: it's so small that every inch is used for humans, especially near where I live. It's really nice to get away.

Afterwards we drove for another hour to Kurokawa ("black river") where we ate. It was possibly the best meal that I've had: I ate everything even the miso soup, which I don't normally like. It had suet dumplings in it that were lovely. We all sat around a pit of ash, with burning charcoal and some metal grills. We then each had a tray of two types of beef and some chicken which we cooked on top. We also had some raw horse meat which you dip into a little bowl of soy sauce, ginger and spring onions. It was quite nice. I also had three bowls of rice and some pickled things. Yum yum.

Then we retired to the onsen, in true Japanese style: naked. Obviously we had seperate baths for the boys and the girls, though they were next door to each other, which meant we spent a few minutes hurling water over the fence at them. It was a natural hot spring and so the water wasn't as hot as I had been expecting. It was warm, but I was looking forward to something more deeply soothing.

We drove on to a lake which looked wonderful in the sunset; there were even some noisy geese. We sat and had some cake and coffee, before heading home.

It was a lovely day out, and good to get away from Fukuoka again, though it was a shame to not be able to climb the mountain.