Category: Travel

That’s the ferry we took to Osaka. The company is Sunflower and the ship is the Murasaki. We boarded around 6pm yesterday, and arrived in Osaka about 13 hours later.

The ferry was modern and well-appointed, with a restaurant, shop and all sorts of conveniences like baths, pet runs, and areas to relax. Since it’s an overnight cruise it also includes guest rooms, and functions basically as a hotel on the water.

That was our room. It was small but comfortable, and it contained a bathroom with shower as well (the left door). The entire room was a demonstration of efficiency, with all the usual room conveniences packed into a compact space.

We’d wanted to take a ferry in Japan for years, but until recently it was challenge to book them from overseas. Even now although we booked out room moments after the bookings opened (three months ago), almost all rooms were already sold out. Yesterday was an extremely popular day for cruising, and the ferry was sold-out and very full.

Dinner and breakfast were buffets, and dinner in particular was excellent! Neither were included in the room charge, but were inexpensive by American standards. There were also vending machines all over the ship, and areas with microwaves and kettles if you wanted to prepare ramen or heat something.

Since it got dark right after we boarded and stayed dark until just before we arrived, the lack of a window in our room wasn’t a big deal. I had been apprehensive about seasickness and couldn’t take medicine due to drug interactions but as it turned out it was a nonissue, and neither Kristin nor myself had any queasiness whatsoever.

The entire experience was great, and relaxing, and we can’t wait to do it again!

Now we’re in Osaka for a couple of days. We’ve got nothing planned except for exploring and shopping. Our hotel room is gigantic, has real flowers in the vases, and has a bathroom with a heated floor and incredible view. In short, too fancy for a rogue like me.

I think we’ll be comfortable here for a couple of nights 🙂

Speaking of which we went to see the lights of the Dotombori district this evening. We’ve seen it before, but you can’t go to Osaka without a quick visit (like Times Square in NYC). I’ll return to the vicinity tomorrow for some otaku shopping while KLS braves the mazelike Osaka station area to visit the mega department stores.

It was snowing when I headed out for a McBreakfast this morning. Let’s skip over the fact that I’d paid $$$ for the high-end hotel breakfast and enjoy the nice photo of the street outside the hotel. It was snowing as I walked, and it only got worse as I sat inside and ate.

Kristin incidentally was enjoying the high-end hotel breakfast we’d paid for two of. She said the lemon jelly was particularly good!

The ryokan we stayed in was lovely, with a very cozy room and nice hot baths. But it’s time to move on once again and after we checked out we headed for a nature park I’d discovered when we arrived a couple of days ago: Takasakiyama Natural Zoo.

Let’s cut right to the chase: this is a place with 760 wild – no cages or fences – monkeys. They live on the mountain and come down for food and to eat look at tourists.

They mostly ignored us and groomed themselves or squabbled or just ran around. They were everywhere, and it felt like half of them were babies. I was amazed how close they came to us, almost as if they didn’t even see us.

They’re Japanese macaques, and they were fairly small, with the biggest only being about as big as a medium sized dog. We were told not to make eye contact or try to touch them since if you do they might kill you jump on you!

They were cute little buggers, with expressive and wizened faces. I think the one above looks a bit like Jim.

And this baby – not much bigger than a kitten – looks like my uncle John.

It was cold on the mountain but we hardly noticed so entranced we were by the army of mankillers monkeys hopping around. But, as it does, the existential dread associated with all monkey exposure eventually overcame us so we fled the mountain and sought refuge in a giant aquarium across the street.

This place – Umitamago (‘sea egg’) was great! It had many different species on display in beautiful tanks, and interesting shows including a demonstration of archerfish and an electric eel:

Japan does aquariums-as-art well, and while that was hardly the focus of this one many displays were mesmerizing like this sardine school:

Or this cutlass fish that just floated vertically and nearly motionless:

And of course the jellyfish:

It was super busy, which again surprised me since it’s winter, but I suppose the very cold air outside today drove everyone indoors.

That room looked like it was in a spaceship or exotic submarine. The architecture of the entire building was unusual.

The walrus show was good, and mostly based around the beast making noises I never knew walruses could make (like whistling).

And the dolphin show was a crowd pleaser and included Japanese dolphins I’d not seen before. Overall the aquarium was fun, and perhaps the best I’ve been to in Japan.

As I write this I’m in the boarding area about to board this ferry. We’ll sleep on this tonight, and wake up in Osaka! Tomorrow I’ll tell you all about it 🙂

We continued our tour of the hells (jigoku) today, starting with one that featured bubbling mud pools.

This place shared a car park with one we visited yesterday but they were so different! Called ‘Monk Hell’, the pools in this one were fascinating to watch due to the intricate patterns made in the mud by the escaping steam.

We both enjoyed this one a lot, having never seen anything like it before. They also had a footbath which – since we were early – hadn’t yet become inundated by tourists so KLS had a little soak:

We don’t know what the citrus were for…

The next hell, ‘Kamado Hell’ has two pools of unusually light blue water. This one is called ‘Furnace Hell’ since it has the hottest water at just under 100 Celsius.

The blue is caused by minerals in the water and apparently can change with the weather! This hell was extremely popular, possibly since they sold hot food.

A lot of the hells talk about the therapeutic effects of their steam/heat/water and this one even let you suck directly from the nose of an oni (demon) to breath in the steam 🙂

We had to catch a bus to get to the last two hells, and this one is called ‘Blood Hell’ due to the redness of the mud.

If you look toward the back of the water you’ll see it gets darker. This is where the depth dramatically increases to more than 30m, from which the hot water emerges.

This hell was very nicely presented, and had a massive souvenir shop. I think this was my favourite since it was pretty and not as inundated with tourists as some of the others.

The final hell – ‘Tornado Hell’ – was right next door. It’s by far the smallest of the seven, and consists of a single geyser which erupts about every half hour. We sat with a crowd of others and waited, and I’d say it was worth it even considering the cold.

The cap placed over the geyser was to limit the height and the announcer said it would exceed 30 m if unrestrained! Neither of us had seen a geyser before so this was fun.

And thus ends the tour of the seven Beppu hells. If you’re wondering about the term, it’s because historically the heat and bubbling mud reminded the people (in those days) of Hell and the term stuck.

After the hells we caught a bus into Beppu city and walked along the beach a little. Most shops were closed due to it being New Years, but we found a swan sunning herself.

Our goal was Beppu Tower, a TV tower built in the middle of the city back in the 1950s. It strongly resembled Nagano tower which we went up last year.

The tower was well maintained and inexpensive and the views were good. Can you see the swan on the beach in the above photo?

There was a sign advertising a stamp rally of 20 towers all around Japan. To my amusement I’d been up about half of them already. Wouldn’t be fun to complete that stamp rally?

Before returning to the onsen area where we are staying, we made sure to pick up some seasickness medicine just in case. More on that later…

Dinner was steamed food (veggies, noodles and potstickers) at a restaurant that used the hot spring steam for cooking. Part of the experience was ‘cooking’ yourself and the above pic shows KLS lowering the baskets of food into the infernal steam. The food was delicious; Do this if you ever visit Beppu!