My Christmas holidays 1998-99 were full of adventures. There is so much to tell and laugh about that I had to cut it in half! Thus, the first part will be about my trip to southern island of Japan named Kyusyu and the second part, the week I spent in Osaka, second biggest city in Japan. Gilles Rey-mermet, with whom I traveled, took 10 films of wonderful pictures. Some of which will be placed beside corresponding parts of the story. Please be free to visit his home page as well since the pictures will be different.
Working in Japan is full of surprises and this contributes to a highly challenging environment. It is sometimes stressful and thus, my Christmas holidays were very welcomed. I had partied every nights during the last week of December ( Bonenkai) and thus, got plenty of need-to-be-burned calories to begin my trip to Kyusyu. Gilles and I had decided on our destination on a simple fact: in the Northern Hemisphere, when winter comes, it is warmer to go South than North!?
With our experience to Nara a full success, we pack the same amount of clothes and head for the first train to leave Kariya at 6h15am on December 29th, and then the Shinkansen for Hakata (a suburb of Fukuoaka, the largest city in Kyusyu). While reading Japanese chronicles by Nicolas Bouvier, a foremost-related book for this trip, the Shikansen makes the trip in 5 hours approximately very smoothly and conformably. As recommended by the Lonely Planet (the most practical travel guide around the world), we do not spent much time in this ugly megalopolis city. Sun dried canals with rows of weird buildings. Gee. It is not a very pleasant welcome. We thus hurry to a quiet suburb named Dazaifu. The Tenmangu Shrine located in this city is well known as it is dedicated to the God of Scholars. It is thus thronged with students during admission test season. The weather is perfect (as it will be for the entire trip with the exception of Mt. Aso) but just a little bit chilly. In fact, the temperature did not drop that much since it turns out that the northern part of Kyusyu and Nagoya are almost at the same latitude. Zut! But anyway, we are still enjoying a very mild winter not comparable to the one they have in Montreal now...
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Nagasaki, full of history and a highly mountainous city like nowhere in Japan is one of our prime destinations. And for our first lunch, what is no better than eating in an elegant Russian restaurant named Harbin in reference to a historically important Russian city during the Japanese-Russian war (1898). Nagasaki has always flourished as a busy trading port and a center of Christian missionary activities since the Portuguese opened it in 1571. After the re-opening of Japan to the western world, it became an important military port where its role in the first war fought to Russia is unprecedented. This unexpected deal in a very high-class restaurant could not only bring us the summit of Russian cuisine: delicious vegetable pottage, grilled salmon and sorbets but also, all the ambiance of the last decade. We find our Ryokan in the middle of the downtown aided by policemen. Hence, we had already our first-hand impressions about people of Kyusyu. They are very welcoming... a bit too much may be. Once our backpacks in the room, we go straight ahead to where we thought would be the shortest way to the Clover Garden. Incidentally, we forgot that Nagasaki is very mountainous and we must climb steep hills and very thin roads for one hour. This detour lets us discover that Nagasaki has, for sure, the highest density of scooters in the world. It is the easiest way to get around in those difficult urban conditions. After all this, we arrive too late for the garden but are still capable of visiting to Oura Catholic Church, built by French missionaries in 1864. However, loud speakers with explanations in Japanese do not make a church the ideal place to pray and meditate though. We find this lack of respect a little drawback. |
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The third day is consecrated to the Clover Garden to which we took the tramway this time. Once again, we are confronted to the bold history of this thriving European settlement in the late 19th century. Shaded by large trees and commanding a panoramic view of the harbor, this spacious garden features several Victorian colonial buildings. One of that was built in 1863 by the famous British merchant Thomas Glover whose story does not fail to remind us of books like Gaijin by James Clavell. The Hollander slopes do not impress us this much, in fact it looked like home! For lunch, we eat another popular meal from China named Champon since Chinese traders also occupied some restricted part of the city. It is a very nutritious pasta and seafood soup. |
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It is a similar military role that will play forward as a tactical choice for a possible nuclear target during WWII on August 6th, 1945. The atomic bomb catastrophe turned a dark page in Nagasaki's turbulent history, but the city is now a center of peace confirmed by the A-bomb Park. There are fountains with water sprayed to form beautiful dove's wings and different commemorative sculptures from countries around the world. The major peace sculpture is a muscular man standing against nuclear weapons, which do not miss to bring about Japanese tourist groups. It is comical to look at them getting photographed for that purpose. Another Catholic Church is the hardest-hit victim of the nuke and its still remaining wall is also displayed in the Park. |
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For New Year's eve party, we go to a super-show given by a popular Japanese rock'n'roll guitarist. The way he slams his guitar is so sarcastic that he broke four of them!? The crowd, mostly teenagers dressed like a new generation of yuppies and rappers, enjoy the show. This is a cool way to close 1998 with fireworks and a countdown in Japanese:
kyu,
hachi,
nana,
roku,
go,
yon,
san,
ni,
ICHI!!!
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Beginning the New Year 1999 has also a particular touch since we visited the A-bomb museum late in the morning. It is a catastrophe that is hard to conceptualize after more than 50 years and the end of the Cold War. Nevertheless, pictures, molten metals, etc. are striking proof that this horror is totally unbearable. The special characteristic of atomic bombs is nuclear radiation which conventional weapon do not produce. The heat rays generated at the instant of the detonation also inflicted tremendous damage. Finally, at the moment of the explosion, an extremely high pressure of several hundred thousand atmospheres was created blowing buildings and people through the air.
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Taking the ferry to Kumamoto, a city on the other side of the bay is a great idea. The partly cloudy sky and nearby volcanic islands give a fantastic lookout. On the first day of the year, Kumamoto with a population of over a million is surreally empty, almost a ghost city. Every Japanese enjoying the warmth of their home and the first holiday of the year, there are very few people wandering in. This gives us a cold feeling of this city particularly when we have to pay 100 yens per hour for the heater at the minshuku ryokan (privately owned ryokan similar to a big familial house). |
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The next morning is spent visiting the Kumamoto castle, which grants higher esteem to the city. One of the three most famous castles in Japan, it is magnificent and truly worth the promenade. Designed by Lord Kiyomasa, the castle was completed in 1607. Notable aspects of the fortress are spectacular stone walls with rocks, the dimension of trucks! In 1877, the insurrectionist Satsuma Army provoked a civil war and for almost fifty days, the Kumamoto castle was under siege, but the garrison never surrendered. This event finally put an end to the last civil war in Japan before the opening of Nagasaki to the western world which, in turn, escalated to the Japanese-Russian war. In the afternoon, we take the train to the center of the Kyusyu island where the second most sight-seeing mountain in Japan(after Mt. Fuji), Mt. Aso, is located. Two million years ago, the central part of Kyusyu island emitted fire and shook the earth. It erupted again and again and then sank. Rainwater collected in the crater basin and eventually formed a crater lake. Looked from a satellite picture, it has tremendous dimensions, a diameter of 17 kilometers! Later in its history, it erupted again (the last time in 1992!) forming a series of concentric mountains surrounding the volcano's mouth, the crater. Hence, it is still declared an active volcano and the sulfuric gas can be smell easily once nearby the top. Unfortunately, the weather conditions have dropped very rapidly and the volcano was so cloudy that we could not see more than 10 meters ahead of us. With no other choice than visiting the volcano museum, we learn about its geological history in bit of desolation... Even cameras placed inside the crater only show a white screen. There is nothing we can do and it is frankly quite cold. |
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Back to the ryokan, we meet a Chinese-Japanese couple from Vancouver. Visit to our first onsen (which use hot spring water. It is not to confuse with sentoh, which is a public bath using ordinary hot water), the same smell of sulfuric gas is perceptible. Relaxing, we enjoy the wonderful dinner, typical Japanese nabe, prepared by our host.
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Today, we take our revenge on Mt. Aso. Jumping on the first bus that goes to the top, we are particularly happy to see that no more clouds obscure the volcano. We just could not believe the view we were having at the exact same spot yesterday. The volcano is dashing scary sulfuric gas clouds. Hiking along the different trails that surrounds many other little craters, it is a wonderful moonlike landscape with just a brisk snow covering the highest peaks. Well, this time we know for sure that it cannot be eternal snow... |
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Once the expedition to the Mt. Aso finished we run toward Yufuin which is the best place to enjoy onsen at its best (compared to Beppu which is must more business-oriented). There, a pretty girl working at the tourist information of the train station guides us to the most agreeable ones and even suggest a family restaurant. The first onsen is what I would call a semi-unisex. There is a woody wall separating men and women but the wall is cut in the middle of the water bath, and well... we can see the other side! But don't worry, mom, there is so much vapor and girls are so far that we cannot see anything anyway. Zut! Little kids, the lucky ones, have no problem crossing one side to the other. The onsen is outside and, of course, it is cold washing ourselves on the little box. Brrr! Back in the dark night, we look for the suggested restaurant where, oh! Surprise!, we find the same pretty girl. She was doing some good commercial for her family restaurant. Why not! It was great food and an excellent personalized service. Her English is so good that she wants to pursue journalistic studies at a Michigan University next year. The restaurant is in fact a huge modern inn and her family must be quite rich. She gives us access to their privately owned onsen where we delight in one of the hottest bath ever. Fyuuu! 
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We are at a close to finish visiting the Kyusyu island. Back on the Shinkansen, we drop by Hiroshima for a quick tour. There is another peace memorial museum which resemble very much to the one we visited at Nagasaki. It contains the same kind of exhibit materials and the same peace-oriented monuments. The Hiroshima bomb (Little boy) was in fact smaller than the Nagasaki one (Fat man) but because it has been dropped in more populous area of the city, the damage and the death toll was much more serious (200 000 deaths compared to 70 000 at Nagasaki). After visiting such a museum, we feel flattened and exhausted. We terminate the first part of our Christmas holidays by arriving at Osaka early in the evening. Ouf! From now on, we will stay in Osaka for six days in a small apartment which cost only 10050 yens (about 125$) for the whole week. It is such a perfect deal that my Japanese colleagues still do not believe me. They all think that I stayed at an old girlfriend's place... 
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