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In 1992 I did an internship in Tokyo, twelve years later I have finally returned. As I had really enjoyed Japan at the time the surprising thing for me is that it took so long to come back.

Impressions of Japan and Nagasaki's history

Odv
2006-04-13 19:50:39

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only to find out that everything was closed because of the typhoon.

A typhoon, comes with an endless amount of rain, for two days, it rains, rains, rains, rains... without ever stopping. The only result of our excursion in Osaka during a typhoon was that we got completely soaked, as even an umbrella and raincoat barely helped.

Between the typhoons, the weather was rather good, with lots of sunshine and clear skies. Armed with a 2 week Japan Rail pass, we traveled in real Japanese style, trying to see as many different things in the 2 weeks that our pass was valid.

Kyushu
On the first day, we took the train from Tokyo to Kagoshima (1468 kilometers) which took only 9 hours and 20 minutes (this included a 1 hour break in Osaka, where we had lunch)!

Kagoshima is a city on a bay in the south of the island of Kyushu, overlooked by Sakurajima, an active volcano. Although there was no activity while we were there, view points around the volcano are dotted with bunkers in which to hide in the event of an eruption.

On our way to our next destination, the Aso-san volcanic crater, we stopped in Kumamoto, where we visited a reconstructed castle and a Japanese garden. The castle, though good looking from the outside, turned out to be a concrete and steel construction, looking nothing like a castle on the inside. In other words it was completely fake.

Aso-san, is said to be one of the most active volcanic craters. Fuming constantly, the area around it is sometimes closed because of poisonous gases. A bus takes you to the base of the crater, from where you can take an overpriced cable car to the rim. The alternative short walk up to the rim, was a better option.

Busloads of school children also made it to Aso-san, many of whom, tried to overcome their shyness and say hello to us, the gaijins.

After visiting the fuming crater, we decided to climb up Naka-dake, a mountain from which ...