A mountain story
Trip Start
Aug 31, 2010
1
14
40
Trip End
Dec 11, 2010
Aso, Kyushu-Okinawa, Japan
Thursday, September 23, 2010
I hesitated even going up the cable car to see the crater and access any hiking trails, since the rain was so hard and signs already said that you couldn't see into the crater because of the clouds. After waiting 20 minutes, the rain was letting up and I decided to do it, otherwise the whole trip was kind of a waste. I bought a one-way ticket so that at least I'd be forced to hike down (it was an easy hike) and get a bit of walking in. Sure enough, at the top you could not see anything--the crater was simply mist. Nor could you venture very far in any direction at the viewpoint because most everything was closed due to the supposed higher than usual noxious fumes. But at least it wasn't raining! So I started my hike down, pausing at the base of the hiking trail I would have went on had the weather been good. There was a police officer yelling into a loudspeaker to nobody in particular about something or other. Since he was also roping off the car park, I made the assumption he was announcing to anyone within earshot (probably 1 kilometer or so) that they were closing the mountain to visitors/hikers. I loitered around till he drove away and then, like the rebel I am, took the hiking trail (a wooden plankway) for about 10 minutes into the mist of the lava fields. I felt like I had to do a bit of hiking even though I could see barely anything. It's nice and eerie to be out in the middle of nowhere with no one around and not being able to see much but know you are on the edge of a massive crater. Only when I took a break at a junction point in the trail did it start to rain again, and I decided enough was enough and jogged back down the trail to the car park and then walked briskly back to the cable car base station without getting too soaked.
I still had 50 minutes to wait for the last bus down the mountain, but I saw another lone backpacker (a Swedish guy with an Aussie accent for some reason) looking real bored and I asked him if he wanted to walk with me the 20 minutes or so down to the volcano museum rather than doing nothing at the station at the top. He said sure because they had closed the cable car earlier so he didn't even get the chance like me to ride up and confirm that, yep indeed, nothing could be seen. So off we went, as the rain started again. We knew where we were going but kept having to hop over fences and ropes because the walking pathways near the road were constantly blocked off. All good until probably 5 minutes to our destination when we took a turn thinking we were having to cross a small gorge but instead it took us into the hills. By the time we decided there was no way this trail was getting us to the museum (we could kind of see it in the distance), we turned around. And that's when the real rain began. It's not often in your life that you get so wet and so drenched that you don't even care anymore. You can't get any wetter...you might as well have jumped into a pool. So you take your time walking to the museum, talking and laughing at how stupid it is but not really worried, knowing that you have dry clothes in your pack down at the train station.
Of course, once at the train station and after changing every single piece of clothing I had on, I get to the ticket area where I'm informed that the train would be 2-3 hours late due to the rain, may not even come, and even if it does, it probably won't go all the way to Beppu. But another backpacker from Scotland tells me there's a bus in about 15 minutes heading to Oita, just south of Beppu, and we can take a train from there. Only problem...it's 2,100 yen (about 25 dollars) and all I have is about 500 yen of change in my pocket. I hadn't been concerned about cash because I had a rail pass and my only task for the next few hours was to take the train. One thing westerners learn quickly in Japan is that there are three ATM networks here that work with international cards--the Post Office, 7-Elevens and Citibank. Unfortunately, the post office was closed and there were none of the other two.
The station agent was trying to figure out a solution for me, talking to the bus station person, suggesting going to another convenience store's ATM, whatever. He knew that it would be stupid for me to wait as I probably wouldn't get to Beppu. Finally I was resigned to having to do that, standing outside talking to the other backpacker, when he comes up to me and hands me two 1000 yen notes. A present for me because of Japan Rail's problems. Now I don't know if this was his money or JR's that he was giving me, but I was ever thankful. Just one or two blog entries back I said I was no longer surprised by the Japanese people's generosity and politeness because it was so consistent. But I have to say that I was completely shocked by what he'd done. In the end, I arrived in Beppu only 15 minutes later than originally scheduled. And I was dry.
