Now Let's Happy Journey!

I couldn't have said it better myself. Seeing as the whole adventure was such a stereotypical Japanese event, it makes sense that it started out with Japanese English from a teacher who apparently speaks great English. I've just come back from a short trip to Gunma, and here are some of my notes from the experience.

[Rule 1] - of travelling Japanese-style is that there must be a schedule. Unless you can accurately predict where you will be at 3:14pm on any given day during the 'holiday' period, its not a trip - it's chaos.

[Rule 2] -the destination must be far away from your departure point. Simply put, if you can get there by bus within 4 hour hours, it's not a holiday. No. You have to cram into a bus for as long as humanly possible. It's character building. And following rule 1, this also means that you have to leave as early as possible... otherwise you can't fit in as many pointless activities as possible, like...

[Rule 3] - any holiday schedule must include shopping. What's that I hear you say? You'd like to go and spend 20 minutes at that waterfall we just passed? No, I'm sorry. It's simply not possible. It's not on the schedule... we have to go shopping. I'm sorry, I couldn't quite hear you... you asked what that building was that we just passed? Is it historical? That's very observant of you... why yes, it's been there for since before the meiji period and it's where one of the feudal lords resided... no, we can't go there - there is this really quaint store that sells charming shirts that you might be interested in... I'm sure you'll enjoy that more...

But thats not to say that I didn't see some good places.

-----------------Onioshidashien------------------

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But it should be noted that this is in fact on a volcano... an active volcano - Mt. Asama. How do I know this? One couldn't escape the assortment of strategically placed refuge centres.

The sign on the side of this says "Refuge"... the far wall is facing the mouth of the volcano, and I guess it serves a double purpose - (1) to stop the ash from falling on you; and (2) they've attached a bench on either wall so that if the raging flood of lava comes rushing down, well, you'll just be all cosy on your bench waiting for the catastrophe to pass. I guess it's comforting to know that at least they put some thought into these things.

Me? I'll run screaming down the mountain... Jack & Jill? Tumbling down the hill? With a river of lava coming after me, I'll overtake those two runts, and they can both try holding it off with their pail of water for all I care...

Another place on the itenary was another volcano - or at least I think it was. It has a name that I can't recall, and a story that I should remember, but I just don't seem to be able to. Off the top of my head, I think its just a really large hot spring - or onsen in Japanese. I believe this to be the case because of the unholy stench of sulfur. It was coma-inducing... so much so that our tour guide, the one with the schedule from which all hell would be unleashed if we deviated from it, informed us that the strength of the smell could kill small children, but seeing as we're adults, it shouldn't be a problem. What a relief! I can't tell you how elated I was... but poor little Johnny sitting in row 13 of the bus was looking a little upset... No, no, I lie. There was no little Johnny, but some of the Chinese girls in the group could have passed for a small child. I was hoping to see some of them develop symptoms, but no such luck.

Of course, having been stuck on a bus for the better part of a 18 hour day and not being able to subtlely 'expel' and 'pent-up gases', the advantage of going to a volcano with an unholy stench emanating from it is that you can really let one rip, and provided nobody hears you - you're home free. So you can guess why it is that I'm smiling when this photo was taken.

-------The hot spring in the mouth of the volcano--------

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