Trina and Mia Visit: Part 1 (the first weekend)

the first evening there was a beautiful sunset.
dinner with keiko and hiromi

rie seems to be enjoying herself.
group picture!
friday morning, and it's time to go to the bus stop!
on our way to matsuyama castle!

up the hill!
japanese old ladies rock.
i like this sign.
closer and closer.

cute little kiddies!
castle!
steps.
samuri shin guards.

cool shell mosaic on this spear.
skirt flap
more shin guards
chest

whole package.
love the detail.
helmet.
old flute.

roar!!
meow!

let's watch a movie.
the kids are storming the castle!
awesome hat!

all done!


mia's a little tired...

and trina's trying to pet the birds.

the matsuyama castle shrine.
hmm, wonder what they sell here?
the hostel!
dogo onsen!
time to go get clean!

ahh! naked japanese guy!
all clean!
the upstairs... where the special people go.
special room... ooooh....

we're special!

the brewery, that i've now come to believe dislikes gaijin. we stepped in to a nearly empty place and the guy ran up saying "we're full" in japanese. then he tells us that there's no english menu, and we say "fine". then they finally sat us. grr. i had a similar experience back in feb when i went last time.
exciting store!

more foot bath.
the next morning it's time to go to beppu; weddings this way!
here's the boat!
that dolphin's got the biggest belly-button bling i've ever seen!

we're on a boat! boatin' around! boat, boat, boat, boat....
hello Oita!
this must be their mascot.
shopping anyone?

sleeping standing up? only in japan...
streets of beppu.
our room! very nice, clean, and cozy.
trina's modeling the yukata for us (think light bath robe) meow!

big nose shrine guy. (at this point we had picked up the crazy japanese lady who was stalking us and trying to get us to give her money, though we didn't let it get that far.)
miso factory
yummy salty goodness....
the strange, and very rundown 100yen onsen that crazy sarah took us to, then proceeded to grab mia's butt! O_O i think this was the point that we all silently decided that crazy sarah had to go!

there she is! don't get too close or she'll start talking about growing up in Georgia and having a baby when she was a teen, then moving to japan and working in a bar, and her dream is to work in the airlines! shut up! shut up! run away! she won't leave us alone and completely ignores that subtle hints, so we tell her that we're sleepy and we'll go back to our room and take a nap and meet up with her later. she suggests we all go take a nap in the park.... merp? no!

back in the hotel we decide to make a break for it...
mia goes out on the roof to see if the coast is clear.
checking...
looks good! let's go! ninja style!

wandering around a bit, then we went and "broke up" with crazy sarah. i think she's heard that sort of speech before and backed off before we had to threaten the authorites. thank goodness!
in the little lobby area of the hotel we were staying in. (Kokage! close to the beppu station, free coffee and toast in the morning, nice rooms, nice lady running it, private onsen, and towels and yukata! phone number: 0977231753)
cute!
and cozy!

then the next morning it's off to the "hells" tour! (think small/commercial version of yellowstone) here we are starting at number 1.
the "famous" blue pool.
where they boil eggs.

random little brown pool.


they're pretty serious about not drinking the water.

pretty greenhouse!
a lovely little dragonfly...
and his dead friends. eek!

did someone say bananas?

foot bath!
hello?
do we have a little captian in us?
cheese!

on to number 2!
alot of hot mud.
and some more.
number 3, the worst one.

it was ok here...
and this was ok...
and then we came to this poor guy.
this fellow keeps his head proped up all day for raw potatoes.

pretty sad.
and then there were the monkeys.
this one had a big cut on his flank. it looked like it needed stitches. we left after this.

crocs!
grr.

this is number 7, the "famous" blood pool.

number 8 was an intermitten geyser.
time for a "famous" beppu sand bath.
it's a good thing they shovel "gently", that sand is heavy!