- Went to an Onsen near Kagoshima where before you go in the tubs, you walk out to the beach in your robe and some people bury you in sand on this beach that has volcanic heat rising up from deep in the sand. I lasted about 15 minutes (which is respectable), but I never really knew what being claustrophobic was like before. It was refreshing after I got out, but was a little unsettling to be in that hot sand deep fryer.
- Met some US English teachers who were taking a vacation down to Kyūshū in Kagoshima and went out until 2 AM. Was pretty nice to get drunk with some fairly normal Americans. Until these guys most of the other westerners that I had run into were either somehow deeply involved with Japan or otherwise Japanophiles. As much as I like Japan, it was nice to be able to make fun of some of its idiosyncrasies without offending anybody or getting a rebuke from someone who thinks that everything Japanese is perfect and they can never do any wrong.
- Also ate some horse shashimi at dinner with those Americans. It was pretty tasty meat, but I think it is actually pretty expensive, since they do not give you very much.
- Camped out and climbed around Aso-san, an active volcano. The volcano was cool to look at, but even more beautiful was the grasslands surrounding it where there was some very expensive Japanese cattle grazing. Check out the flickr page for some pictures. The scene of hundreds of tourists chasing some poor cows around the open ranges was truly something to behold.
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