[RD] Exploring Japan

The Sea Hell (continued)







You might have noticed some water lilies in the first photo. These are actually some of the largest lilies in the world, or at least belong to the species that is the largest - Victoria Amazonica. It is said that some of them get so large that an elementary school aged child can sit on one without it sinking.

There is a greenhouse on the premises that is heated by geothermal activity



 
That one at the bottom seems like you could sit on it without sinking.
 
They can get as large as 3m (10 feet) in diameter and can definitely support the weight of a small child.. Check out this photo from the wikipedia article. It's the same species of lily, although it was going by a different name back then.

I have no idea about supporting the weight of an adult though.. I would guess probably not, but I'm not really sure.
 
What's that, some kind of mud?
 
Looking for food in Beppu

The seven hells I saw were in two clusters accessible by bus.. By the time I finished exploring them I had built up quite an appetite... and so decided to not visit the last one and instead started to look for a place to eat.

Turns out that in this part of Japan most restaurants close for several hours during the day.. I did some more research online and identified a restaurant that should be open.. Here's some pictures I took on my walk there





The restaurant was basically somebody's house. You walk into their foyer and there's a living room on the left and an eating area on the right. It's an older couple and they don't speak any English, but get a decent amount of tourists and are used to that.



This meal might look pretty plain, but I remember it being delicious. Everything was cooked from scratch in their home kitchen. I remember the sashimi seaweed salad being especially tasty.. and the chicken was really good too.
 
My Second Onsen Experience

On the train into Beppu I did research and made note of the most interesting and recommended onsen in town.. I was a bit tired from the sun and from all the walking so my eyes kept wandering to the options which sounded the most relaxing



This ended up being a co-ed mud onsen.. Navigating it was a bit of an interesting experience. After you disrobe you end up in a bit of a maze of different chambers, each one with a different kind of pool in it. There were these wooden (or bamboo?) railings by some of the pools and the depth of each pool varied as well. At least one of the chambers had a sort of narrow pool that was almost like a walkway.. with railings hanging down from above.

There was absolutely nobody there at the time except me, at least in this part of the onsen, so I couldn't just look around to see what everybody else was doing. I made my way from chamber to chamber and tried to make proper use of each one. Some were obvious and some were mystifying to me... but I did my best and generally had a relaxing spa experience.

Eventually I ended up in a sauna. It was so steamy inside I could not tell if I was the only person there or not. It was very very hot and very steamy and I did not last long. Right outside was a small ice cold pool of water, which I jumped into.

In the end I managed to find my way to the outdoors pool, which is fairly large. From what I remember it's sort of a whole bunch of connected mud baths with a large common one in the middle. As I walked around the building and deeper into the pool, I eventually noticed the first people I had seen my whole time there.. They were all soaking in what looked like the best part of the whole mud bath. It was a fairly large part, so enough room for all of us and then some.. I got in there and got my soak in and had an amazingly relaxing time

By the time I got out I felt very relaxed and smelled like sulphur.

So obviously I was not able to take any pictures of any of this.. but here's a picture I took just a short walk from the onsen.

 
Warpus you didnt wash and shower yourself before entering into the commonal Onsen ?
Hopefully no one noticed

Japanese still grow their Chicken the old fashion way, they take longer to mature and are leaner. But given that Japanese often eat Chicken raw this method of animal husbandry is safer then the more industrialized massed production you have in America and much of the West. Its also one of the reasons why consumption of Raw eggs is safe in Japan but not elsewhere.
 
Yes, I recall reading about the importance of washing before going into an onsen. And I guess one would also wash after a mud bath too.
 
Warpus you didnt wash and shower yourself before entering into the commonal Onsen ?

From what I remember i kept 3 rules in mind: don't use soap in the pool/bath, be naked, and wash yourself before entering the water/mud. Even when I froze in the moment at that first onsen and completely forgot all the other proper steps, I do remember knowing that I had to wash myself before stepping in. So I probably didn't mess up here, but I don't remember that part at all. My memories revolve around all the different rooms they had that I was trying to figure out, the sauna, and then the large outdoors area.

Japanese still grow their Chicken the old fashion way, they take longer to mature and are leaner. But given that Japanese often eat Chicken raw this method of animal husbandry is safer then the more industrialized massed production you have in America and much of the West. Its also one of the reasons why consumption of Raw eggs is safe in Japan but not elsewhere.

I did some reading about why it's safe to eat raw chicken in Japan a bit later.. so I read about some of what you describe. I don't think I would order it anyway. I assumed it was safe, somehow, but the texture would just be too weird I think. I love raw fish in sushi and at times on its own.. and I enjoy some carpaccio as well.. but chicken just seems wrong. I might try it eventually, but for now I don't mind that I didn't on this trip
 
Day 18 - Osaka and Curry Rice

I woke up early this day and jumped on a set of trains back to Osaka..



This is an older map I posted which highlights my travels heading away from Tokyo.. Now I was travelling back, but instead of transferring in Osaka I would spend 1 or 2 nights there.

The journey from Beppu to Osaka, with a transfer in Iktakyushu, is about 650km and took 4 and a half hours. According to google maps the same journey by car would have taken over 8 hours, although that probably depends on the time of day and other factors.



I know I've said this before, but the Shinkansen is really quite a delightful experience.. It flies at 300 km/h and you can just sit back and sip a beer, which will not spill standing there on a flimsy looking fold-out shelf in front of you. It feels more like flying (with 0 turbulence) than being on a train.. You don't hear that constant rhythimc beating sound you usually hear on a train.. it's more like a sort of buzzing hum. It feels futuristic and amazing and you can just sit back and look out your window, and everyone is quiet, and you can read your book or take a nap or order some more snacks or food.. and best of all you know that the train you're on will most probably arrive almost exactly on time.

At the Osaka train station I saw a restaurant that specializes in Japanese curry.. I couldn't resist



I believe that is a Pork Katsu Curry, which is essentially rice with a sliced fried breaded pork cutlet and tonkatsu sauce, which is made from worcestershire sauce, soy, sugar, and a couple other spices..

Curry was introduced to Japan in the late 1800s, brought from India by the British. It was adopted by the Japanese navy to prevent beriberi disease and became popular in the country. It is consumed so widely in Japan that it's now the national dish.

And even though this one you're looking at was made at a train station, I remember it being delicious
 
I think I recognize that curry restaurant. It was still there the last time I was in Umeda.

In your last picture there I see Festival Towers (those two matching buildings on the right.)

Before that, there was the Osaka Hotel Grand, which was I guess enough of a landmark to be featured in a book I have about Japanese hotel design from the 1970s.

The other building was, I think, the old Asahi Shimbun building. As far as I know, their parent company owns both of the new buildings on the site.
 
No Railyway Bento ? You missed out Warpus
Did you pick up any of the instant Japanese curry that stuff is like Crack, I tried all the top 10 curries and they are all amazing
 
I did get a bento box every once in a while on the train. Those were pretty good (and reasonably priced)

I did not eat any instant curry on my trip, but maybe I should look some up now

@amadeus Thanks for describing those buildings! I could have probably figured out what they were, but I assumed they would just be usual office towers not worthy of mention.
 
@amadeus Thanks for describing those buildings! I could have probably figured out what they were, but I assumed they would just be usual office towers not worthy of mention.
For the most part, there's nothing special about them. There was a concert hall in one of them before they were demolished and rebuilt, and I think it kept the same nameplate but otherwise there's not much to the area. The area north of Nakanoshima (3rd picture), Umeda (where the curry restaurant is) has a lot of neat stuff in it and it hasn't been overrun with tourists yet.

As a matter of fact, a few of the train companies in Osaka have recently changed station names because tourists didn't know the place names. Hankyu Railway changed its station name from Umeda to Osaka-Umeda, and Keihan Railway from Kawaramachi to Kyoto-Kawaramachi.

For those coming outside of Japan, and especially those on the JR pass, they should know that the Keihanshin (Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe) area has 5 major train companies in addition to JR: Hankyu, Hanshin, Keihan, Kintetsu, and Nankai. None of these will accept the JR pass as they are all 100% privately-owned. JR in this part of Japan has also been at least partially privatized as of the late 1980s; JNR, the old state railway company, was losing money hand over fist due to redundant staff and the expense of constructing the original bullet train lines.
 
At times it was a bit confusing keeping straight which exact rail lines my rail pass was good for and which ones it didn't cover.. But when you walk in to buy a ticket, none of that matters. You flash your rail pass and ask for a ticket to wherever you want to go, and the agent figures it out. If there isn't a way to get there via the rail pass then you would be informed that you have to pay for a ticket.

Some of the subways and regional rail lines in Tokyo (and elsewhere) worked with the pass. Those I just made note of, so that I would remember to not swipe my PASMO card (deducting money from it), but instead flash my JR pass. The train I took from Hiroshima to the ferry that took me to Miyajima island was also free for me as a JR pass holder.

These tidbits always sort of push me to want to read more about the history behind the rail line (and company) situation in the country. But I never do
 
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