Onsen Hotel Nakahara Besso Kagoshima

... areas, and Frommer's is always reliable!<br><br>The room is small and furnished simply. Most Americans would probably say it's years past due for a makeover. But everything was functional and clean. My desk chair is a fabulous example of bentwood plywood furniture. The prefabricated unit bathroom is literally a step above the norm--there is one steep step down from the bathroom to the rest of the room. Instead of drapes ...

... verschwunden. Dann meinte sie ich bin &#12363;&#12431;&#12356;&#12356; und dann noch beautiful auf englisch. Hab natürlich brav verneint. ^_^ Noch etwas mit ihnen geredet. dann wieder das obligatorische &#19978;&#25163;(super japanisch). Dann nachdem wir den nächsten &#12473;&#12540;&#12497;&#12540;(superm arkt) gestürmt haben, wollten wir das erbeutete am Strand essen, bzw in Strandnähe. Wir stehen so bei der Ampel und da streichen gerade zwei junge Burschen einen Laden. <br>Meint der ...

... nt das Flushgeräusch (komisch aber ich komm ja gar nirgends an!!) und hört auch nicht mehr auf... solange bis man echt das knöpfchen drückt. seehr seltsam...automatisches flushen und quasseln am Klo<br><br>Noch ein Tipp nur für Mädchen (Jungens unten weiter lesen) - wenn man die Bidet funktion des Toilettchens benutzen will - Mädels setzts euch hin (wischts vorher mit Desinfektionstücheln und dann noch mit ganz viel Papier rund ums Brillchen und dann machen... bloß nicht beim ...

... nearly 2 hours in there compared to my 15 minutes. The following day we crossed to an island called Sakurajima which is dominated by an active volcano. In the volcano museum we got talking to a French mother and daughter and ended up spending the whole afternoon with them just chatting and dipping our feet in scorching hot foot spas overlooking Kagoshima. The best moment was when Fernet (the 80 year old mother) told us that her first lover was English and she'd ...

... w*s *ctu*lly the only thing th*t kept me from gn*wing off my own leg out of st*rv*tion. The rest of the time we were served cr*zy fish served in 1,000 different w*ys, *long with equ*lly str*nge side dishes like octopus *nd qu*il egg noodles. Every once in * while something decent would come *long like miso or curry soup with something resembling chicken nuggets but, they were not close enough to e*ch other to keep me from feeling the hunger p*ins. Anyw*y, I digress. On shore, str*ight ...

... find out she was born in Yakushima but she and her parents moved to Osaka when she was small and then Seoul when she was around 6. Korea was occupied by Japan during that time. However, WWII broke out and she and her family escaped back to Yakushima where all residents of Yakushima hid into the mountain during the peak of the war. After the war, her family settled in Nagata, Yakushima where they built a traditional large wood ...

... we took pictures as well. I have to reason being here just the fact that we have JR Railpass and we are trying to milk it!!!! There she blows (and I don't mean Francis!) We were on the ferry to head out to Sakurajima island, when the volcano erupted! I am not kidding, we saw it all! That has to be one of the coolest natural sites we have seen since New Zealand. We went to ...

... s mom and brother who took the train back down to Kagoshima, and the four of us continued north, passing the Kaimon channel separating Kyushu from Honshu at twilight, and arriving in Hiroshima in the evening. Now I'll quickly mention the food we tried, so much of it was new and Scott was a real adventurer since he doesn't even eat fish. We had Oden which is like a hotpot with Japanese radish, fish paste cooked in bamboo, burdock and whole eggs. It ...

... gas station on the island. The black pork noodle soup was tasty in the noodle restaurant near the airport. Black pork seemed a speciality of the island.<br><br>The next day, on our way back to Nagoya, we dropped by Kagoshima, where we took some pictures around the Takamori Saigo statue and then headed for Sakurajima Island. Actually it used to be an island, but it's not any more, because the lava from the volcano erruption in 1914 made a way ...

... a little when a couple of junior school groups turned up. Although with the animals hiding or cowering in their barren cages, it still felt like a joyless place. We got back to the ryokan and our lovely hosts gave us a lift to the train station. For lunch we had KARE-. In fact, Mike's had curry 4 days in a row now. The last 3 nights, he has gone into Family Mart and picked up a bottle of sake plus a jumbo curry cup noodle. I'm getting the feeling, Mike's found his calling ...