beppu-aso-shimabara-unzen

So. This was my route - and i did it in something like five days. i think. i kinda lost count...
so let me start at the beginning, i guess i'll get my bearings as soon as i start writing all down.
so, the last entry i did was from that strange priest in oita, i believe. well, it didn't get better, but it was over soon. so one morning i woke up early (though at just that day i would've had the chance to sleep in! damn.), totally nervous, because it was the day my 'serious' traveling was to start, and i didn't know yet where i would sleep that night.
at noon, i was in beppu, a famous onzen (hot spring) town next to oita. alois, one of the three german guys with whom i studied in kyoto, was supposed to be there at 12, and we had agreed to meet at the station. all worries about if we would find each other disapeared immedeately - i saw him (a head taller than everyone else, and the only one with a traveler backpack like mine) immediately, even before passing through the ticket gate. it was nice to see a familiar face again, and to use my mother tongue.
well, before catching up on all that had happened, we had to find a place to stay (and get rid of all the luggage). we were incredibly lucky: there was a lady speaking perfect english at the tourist information, and she had the perfect place, close, inexpensive and, as we found out upon arriving, very comfortable.
awesome start.
and then, we set out exploring the town, walking around, talking talking talking - alois had done two internships in churches, and he is rather talkative anyway, and you know all the places i had been, so you know we had a lot of catching up to do.
beppu itself... well, the onzen are indeed great. there is steam and smell of sulfur all around the town, and there are so many different onzen! we tried out three: once we got buried in warm sand (comfortable, but kinda heavy), once we got steamed with something suppoesedly herbal (though it reminded me rather of hay), and once we went to a mud onzen. the sand thing was in the oldest onzen in town, a beautiful building, right in the middle of the red light district. ...interesting.
whatever. aside of bathing, we did what we had to do in beppu: going to hell. or, rather, visitig some of the hells. there are several sites where hot water and steam bubble up from the ground, in different colours, and there is even a geysir. well, we looked at the blood hell (a pool of red hot water, red because of the clay soil there), the sea hell (blue water, steaming like.., well, like hell) and the geysir. and all i can say is - it's nice.i guess these hells would be really amazing if they looked more natural, but since they are turned into tourist attractions, surrounded by concrete and souvenir shops, it didn't feel like some wonder of nature or a display of nature's power. rather it looked like something else people built.
but the onzen were great.

mountains and ocean... kyushu is awesome. (well, most of japan is, in that aspect, since it seems to consist of mountains and ocean, mostly)

hot sand

our room

blood hell

sea hell, with basket full with eggs boiling in there

i was asked to show a sample of current japanese style... which isn't easy do do.

the geysir

onzen ffrom the inside. links sind die duschen und wasserbehälter, wo man sich sehr ordentlich wäscht (auf hockern sitzend). erst danach geht man ins bad.

breaksfast

we also went to some bamboo craft museum. those hats are made from bamboo. and they were too small.

and then, we went on, taking the bus to aso. even though aso is something like 50km from beppu, it took about two hours by bus. the street is truly amazing, climbing an climbing, winding around hills and mountains... we took the afternoon bus, so we drove with the light of the setting sun, and it was truly beautiful. until, suddenly, we were at the ridge.
oh my goodness. that was really amazing.
i mean, you climb more hills, and suddenly the ground just - drops. right next to you, there is a cliff, and it goes down straight. for a long long time. it's hard to describe... it seems like you stand on the brink of a huge crater. huge. really, really huge, and the top line is really straight, and it goes down really vertical. and down there is the flat plain, with fields and houses, and then in the middle of that plain rise some mountains - the several volcanoes, one still active.
it looks like this (though i didn't take that picture, i found it on the internet)

only more amazing.
so, there we were. unfortunately, the hostel recommended to us was closed (winter break). well, my dear lonely planet helped us and guided us to the youth hostel, where we were the only guests.
next day, we wanted to look into the crater of aso and climb the sorrounding peaks. we were well prepared with a map, directions and provisions.
which didn't help us one little bit.

the bloody volcanoe had nothing better to do but to be so active that noone was admitted into a 1km-zone around the crater.
to make all better, we couldn't even climb any of the other pikes, all the ways were closed, maybe due to the snow? anyway, it was disappointing. i mean, we still had a nice day, went to the museum where we could look into the crater with a camera at least, and i learned how the amazing geography of the region had formed: once there had been a huge eruption, and the volcanoe threw so much material into the air that the whole region collapsed. wow.
well, so much for aso. really, there isn't more. we walked around the 'town', but we were impressed by the ...nothingness.really, there even isn't a supermarket!

so, we left that nothingness and went to shimabara (via kumamoto and ferry), the peninsula around the volcanoe unzen. the unzen had erupted not long ago, 1990. but my chief reason to go there was more historical: in the 17th century, there had been an uprising, caused by the prohibition of christianity (this area had been one of the most christian areas of japan) and the terrible poverty. the peasants actually managed to seize shimabara castle, and to hold it for several months- and then they got slaughtered. everyone.
this lead to the complete closing of the borders of japan, all foreigners were thrown out, and christianity even more strictly prohibited. there already had been signboards in every town, saying christianity was forbidden and everyone who handed over a christian was awarded several pieces of silver. there must have been terrible persecutions going on, people being tortured and killed in the most terrible ways imaginable. one was to throw them into the steming hot water of the 'hells' in unzen, now a small onzen town on the shoulder of the volcanoe of the same name, the place we visited next.

we stumbled upon a catholic church in shimabara, quite beautiful, which commemorates the christians who died for their faith (personally, i am not sure what i should think about martyrs and if i think it is worth it to give up your life rather than stepping on a picture of jesus, or even publicly denouncing your faith... i really don't know.)

look at that kid's hand

as they were persecuted, the christians went into hiding, shaping images not easily recognised as christian. one famous exaple are thos maria picures which look like pictures of kannon, the buddha associated with mercy.

the fight for shimabara castle

how can peasants without much weapons win such a castle?

the ume are blossoming! spring is coming! (notethe way i am standing: i would never stand like that in germany...)

steam rising from the ground

when i first heard about this part of japan's history, i was mostly surprised that the shogun felt christians were such a threat. somehow, i had thought there numbers in japan to alwas have been insignificant. but in the 16th, 17th century, they had been influential indeed, several nobles had been christian, and the jesuits where very influential. they brought knowledge, and trade opportunities. and then, the dutch and british came, and you had all the religious differences, everyone denouncing each other, and the dutch warned the shogun that often the missionaries were just the people making way for the portuguese invasion. since that was more or less what was just happening in china, it is somewhat understandeable that the japanese became worried. and, looking at europe's history, i have no right no point my fingers at japanese atrocities. still, it was gruesome. (by the way, christians were by far not the only ones suffering; later, there were serious times for buddhists, too, when the government tried to forcefully establish shinto as a base for society.)
so, to unzen we went. but not so much to see the hells but to climb the mountain. well, climb we did - but not quite. again, i had to learn, mountain climbing in winter is a bad idea. i guess i finally got the message. (after trying in yakushima, kirishima and aso...) it was really beautiful, but the way was damn slippy at places. and the last climb up to the peak... no way. at least not with normal trekking boots.
hmpf.

somewhere along there we went

the start and end of the way were marked by torii.

this lava dome is from the last eruption

that was yesterday. wow... started at the 2nd, today is the 8th. yesterday evening we arrived in nagasaki, after departing in the morning from shimabara, and spending the day climbing around unzen. again, here, we found a nice hostel, have a kitchen and internet. nagasaki seems to be an agreeable town, houses climbing up several hills on the coast. it also had been the only city permitted to deal with foreigner during japan's long isolation. one dutch ship was allowed to come each year, and there was a settlement of dutch on an artificial island. also, there were a good number of chinese here. so, nagasaki had been a rather international city for a long time - until the wars started. then came all the events before and during the second world war. considering that, i think most german people know very very little about how the war went here in asia. how japan fought with russia, china, occupied taiwan, korea (and both early in the 20th century) and spread over all of asia (well, basically, i know i am exaggerating here.) well, the topic of the war is still a difficult subject here, a lot of emotions are involved, so i could never deal with it sufficiently here in such a brief space. i'd have to write a whole article about it. since this is not the place for it, please excuse me for not writing more now. only so much: there were many terrible things done, and the final terrible thing was using the atomic bomb, first on hiroshima, then on nagasaki.
today, we visited the peace museum which depicts what happened to the city on that day. it is hard to describe that. the shock, the devastation, people burned, destroyed - some apparently were vaporized immediately, leaving behind only a 'shadow' on the wall.
it is scary. to know that so much destructive power is stored in so many places on this world. that people could do that again.
and ... sometimes i am mad at some japanese (only some! but unfortunately too often those writing texts for museums, and such things) for underlining only the suffering inflicted upon it by those bombs, tending to ignore the suffering inflicted by them to so many others, most of them 'fellow asians'. but on the other hand - alois had been in america, at the base where those bombers carrying the bombs had started, and the one which carried the bomb to nagasaki is still exhibited there. but not as a memorial of a terrible day. instead, he said it is a celebrated thing.
so, about that topic it seems easy for me to point my fingers at both parties. still, it makes me wonder: where are my own blind spots?
well, so much for now. we will spend more days in nagasaki, resting and discovering the place. feels good to know i will be here more then two days.
ah, one last thing: there is one brilliant graphic novel (like a comic, but telling a more serious and longer story), done by someome who survived the bomb in hiroshima as a boy and basically tellls his own story, along with many other people's stories. it's called 'barefoot gen' or, in german 'gen. barfuß durch hiroshima'. i think it is great because it depicts all the terrible things which happened, during and after the explosion (the story concinutes for years), but gen never looses hope, he never gives up completely, and however terrible those times were, there is also happiness and humor. plus, it's critical of both, the japanese and the american side. so, my recommendation: read it!

memorial of 26 martyrs, who were marched from northern japan to nagasaki and were crucified there. amongst them two boys around 13 years old

a chain of thousand paper cranes, made from one sheet of paper. cranes became the symbol of peace.

a clock, stopped by the blast.

glass rosaries, molten through the heat

the bomb. the plutonium is only the small core in the middle, 1kg, not much bigger than two fists. so much suffering from so small a thing.

all that was left from a girl who had been at school that day: her lunch box, inside it rice turned to charcoal.

that was in the peace park, where there is a statue... i was infuriated at the words 'noble sacrifices' of those who died in the bomb. it wasn't a sacrifice, they didn't have a choice, and i am sure most would not have wanted to die!