Black Steaming Sand Baths N a Romantic Birthday
Trip Start
Dec 01, 1999
1
54
103
Trip End
Aug 31, 2000
Ibusuki,
Japan
Friday, February 25, 2000
As there was no other guests in our dorm we stayed up most of the night chatting about anything and everything and decided we wanted to go somewhere much more romantic to spend her birthday. After searching through places close enough we both could only think of the one place....Ibusiki!
Black smoking sand baths and a seafood dinner along with a cold bottle of wine!
But first there was one more place that Anna wanted to visit, so after a few hours sleep we rose to share morning 'three in one' coffee and then headed out into Nagasaki streets and made our way to the Shrine to the 26 Martyrs.
Way back before now Nagasaki was a well visited cosmopolitan port city with a huge Christian population. Seriously, it was! So why the shine and who were the martyrs? Way back in the 16th Century Christianity became not so cool and in a huge crackdown the Shoguns stamped their feet and raised their swords. Why? Shinto was soon to become the ONE state religion.
There were twenty European martyrs and six Japanese martyrs.
Before heading back to the Hostel to grab our packs we had another temple to visit. A young Japanese couple told us about it before we left the hostel. The sight of it was just as awesome as they promised it would be. It was a huge turtle with a huge statue standing on its back. It's called the Fukusai-Ji Temple and if you come to Nagasaki and don't place yourself before it, you'd be bloody crazy!
When we got back to the hostel the Japanese couple was still happily chatting away in the tea room so they came out to say good bye as they were leaving as well. After some pictures they made their way to the main road and done as they have been doing for several months now, simply sticking their thumb out and hitching rides to their next destination.
Unbelievable!
We headed the train station and chased each other on the train and fought over the window seat. The bemused Japanese man sitting in the other window seat happily offered his and moved to another seat laughing.
The train journey was beautiful and we soon found ourselves at the southern most tip of the Satsuma peninsula at the entrance to what is known as Kagoshima Bay. We were in beautiful Ibusuki.
After finding the Tamaya Youth Hostel we dropped out bags off and headed out into the
As the light had already begun to fade with didn't get to see Mt Kaimon in all its glory until the following morning. Anna's book says that it is 920 meters high. We weren't too worried about the mountain as what we were after were the sand baths at Surigahama beach. Here, along with about fifteen other people we changed into a Yukata and lay down in the trench that had been dug for each of us. We were them buried up to our necks and there we lay violently sweating for about twenty or so minutes.
Mate, it was hot, sooooo hot and sweat we did...buckets of it!
After leaving the sand baths we ventured off to find a romantic restaurant to begin celebrating Anna's birthday. The food was awesome, the wine and beer was cold and late evening found us nestled on a little grassy hill overlooking black steaming sand.
Happy Birthday to Anna the beautiful!
Beers N Cheers toya...shane
Accommodation: & ;nbs p; Tamaya Youth Hostel
Hibiscus Road
IBUSUKI JAPAN
Ph: 0993 22 3553
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The soundtrack to this entry was Placebo.
The album was 'Without You I'm Nothing'
What a band and what an album!
