Sumo and Kumamoto Trip

I had a totally cool weekend.

On Saturday the university paid for us to go and see a sumo game. The ticket was 3,100 yen which is expensive, but we got it for free. They even paid for us to take the train and a bus to the stadium. The sumo was very interesting - I've never seen sumo before even on TV so I had no expectations. It was sort of a combination of funny and awesome - these huge guys slapping themselves and throwing rice and stamping, squatting down, leaping at each other and wrestling so fast until one of them fell over or out of the ring. A couple of times one of them rolled right down the edges of the ring and smacked into the people waiting round the edge.

Funny English sign - fundamentally, no re-entering.

No entry is allowed for gangsters!

Me and Meike with a cardboard cutout sumo wrestler

It was very hot in the stadium, after we left I went to a second hand store in Tenjin and bought 2 new dresses (one for only 105 yen)! And then me and Meike went to Starbucks and I had a matcha frapuccino as usual. An American guy came in and asked us where the best clubs were nearby, so we told him to just look for nomihoudai and hope for the best. I couldn't have recommended a particular place, but the centre of Tenjin is full of bars and clubs so I'm sure he would have hit somewhere soon. Funny to be talked to by people as if they know you - I find that a lot with other foreigners here, we sort of catch eyes and smile like 'we're both foreigners in this country, aren't we?' Sometimes they even say hello.

On Sunday our friend Takuya (who we share a culture class with) organised a trip to Kumamoto for us. He rented a big car and drove us all the way himself. Our first stop was an old Japanese castle (Kumamoto Castle) - a really huge beautiful building in a big park lamdscape. There was a museum on the inside and we saw some interesting scale models of the buildings. We climbed right up to the top and looked out of the windows, you could see for a very long way. It was really beautiful and awe inspiring.

View from the top of the castle

You could see so far!

There were a few guys dressed up as Samurai, one of them David freaked out by pretending to fight him! And we also saw a zen garden that was seriously raked, and a beautifully painted room and some replicas of beautiful painted doors.

Sophie and Mounir

Shiny gold room

Beautiful painted doors...

We stopped to buy lunch at a 7/11 - I had a tempura bento, and then we set off to go to Mount Aso. We got a little bit lost along the way, and climbed a little up another mountain. The views were beautiful, although the weather was so cold I wanted to hide inside my coat! Mount Aso itself was very cool - the smoke rising from the crater all the time that smelled strongly of sulphur - it hurt my throat and made me cough, but I wanted to stay and watch because I'd never seen anything like it. It was really amazing.

Titanic on a roof =p

My favourite part of the day was the visit to the onsen (hot spring). The place we went to is called Kurokawa (black river), there are lots of hot spring baths there to choose from. The price to get in was only 500 yen, for 2 hours time. We chose one to go to, that had women and men's separate baths inside, and a mixed bath outside. First you go through to a little changing room, where you put all your clothes and things into a basket. Then you go through to the first room, a bath inside, with little stools and showers by one wall. You have to wash your body and your hair if you want to before you get into the bath. You wash in the showers, and then you use a little wooden bowl to splash the hot water on yourself before you get in. The water is very very hot, and the steam is really thick, it's hard to see very well in the dim lights.

Through another door there is a second pool, which is partly inside and partly outside. This one was my favourite part - women's only, a soft breeze running through it, you could see the stars in the sky. It was dark already, and the air was very cold, but in the hot spring the cool air is refreshing and nice, because the water is just so hot. There were 2 streams of water running down from the ceiling that you could use to massage your back - although I couldn't for long because it was so strong and started to get painful.

Through a little tunnel from that room, and out of another door, there was the mixed bath. This one was totally outside, surrounded by trees. It was so beautiful, the night sky above and the steam rising from the water. The guys came out too for a bit, but I think they were more embarrassed than us!

I was worried about being naked in front of everyone at first. You are allowed to take a towel in to cover the front of your body while you are walking around, but really it doesn't cover that much and there comes a point where you have to just get over it and be naked when you want to get into the water. I was nervous at first, but it quickly became pretty natural and normal, especially in the low light. At one point, our friend Leila became dizzy because of the heat and fainted. Meike ran over to her to help her lie down and lift her legs up, but it was too hard to do it with the towl held in front her her, so she just threw it to the ground and shouted "fuck it, throw off your towels girls!" it was the funniest thing.

I couldn't take any pictures inside obviously, but this is a pretty building

Before I left, I washed my hair with the shampoo and conditioner provided there and now my hair is super soft and smells good =]
The trip home was long and I was very tired, and also pretty headachey from the hot water and not drinking enough in the day. As soon as I got home I fell asleep. A LONG weekend, but so worth it, and so much fun.

A few other things that have happened:

• I got a package from my mum with new pyjamas in and some hot chocolate packets, fluffy socks for bed and chocolate buttons.
• The stuff I ordered from ASOS arrived and I finally have new shoes.
• I talked briefly to Alex, but he didn't have time to talk and I felt sad.
• I've slept a lot, and eaten chocolate.