Monday, April 7 - Nagasaki Day 3

I was not planning on staying in Nagasaki this long, but there were still things I wanted to see. I grabbed a sandwich and onigiri for breakfast from the nearby conbini. It was raining outside and I was glad that my umbrella finally came in handy. Vaso woke up by the time I finished my breakfast. As he was out getting food, I asked Shingo what else there was to do in Nagasaki. He recommended that we go to the local island called Ioujima. I took his advice and informed Vaso that was our plan for the day.



The first stop on our list was the peace museum. We failed to make it their our first day in Nagasaki because it was pretty late by the time we arrived. We took a streetcar to the peace park again and headed straight for the museum. Compared to the museum in Hiroshima, it was not that great. The place was small and had little to no exhibits. Still, it got the job done of warning everyone how bad a nuclear war would be.



Next up we headed to the harbor. Shingo warned us that there were not any restaurants on the islond, so we bought lunches to take with us. Ioujima island had a special deal going on during the “winter” season that $10 gets you a round trip ticket to the island and access to the hot springs once there. The catch is that you have to go to the hot springs in order to receive your ticket back home.



After arriving on the island, the first thing that I noticed was the utter lack of people. It was like Miyajima, but without all the tourists. The only people there were the inhabitants of the island. Near the dock, we found a place to rent bikes for 300 yen for 2 hours, and we jumped on that. The island is rather large and you can’t see much of it by just walking. We followed the signs to the local beach, Costa del Sol. As expected, there was no one as far as the eye could see. It was especially weird because I felt like the island would be a great vacation place. There were playgrounds with no kids, roads with no cars, and houses with no people. It felt like a dead island. Anyway, we found a nice place along the beach to eat our lunch and reflect on our journey thus far.



Let the biking begin! We started off on the main roads heading up and down various mountains. We ended up walking through a bamboo forest and taking our bikes off the beaten path. The air was clean and refreshing. The forests were untouched. The view was once again amazing. After biking around until our 2 hours expired, we headed to the hot springs for a nice bath. I’ve got to say that it was one of the nicer hot springs I have been to. They had a sauna, inside and outside baths, and a very clean wash room. Inside there were 3 different baths to choose from: one made of bamboo, one wood, and one stone. Each gave the water a unique color and feel. Outside there was the normal bath as well as 3 barrels with a little faucet of water flowing into them. Very original. I had a good time there. Vaso also started talking to this local Japanese person as well. He got me going in on the conversation and before long we had made another friend.



Upon returning to the hostel, we decided to head back towards Fukuoka. We said goodbye to Nana and Shingo, getting our picture with them.

Vaso and I agreed that it would be cool to explore more of Kyushu for the final day of our trip. We took the train to a stop called Tosu, which is about 30 minutes from Hakata. From there we were planning on taking a bus in the morning to a different city. The problem was, we could not find a place to stay. We checked out a couple of the business hotels, but they wanted a ton of money for a room. Vaso and I were not ready to pay that amount so we headed back to the train station. Vaso worked his magic on the train station guy and managed to get our tickets back. We continued our trip to Fukuoka. At Fukuoka we called a couple youth hostels, but it was too late for us to start checking in. We instead went out in search of cheap housing. By this time it was 11pm or so at night. Finally, we ended up staying in a capsule hotel. I was all ready to pay the $40 per night, but they mentioned that they had a student discount. It turned into a $30 capsule, complete with the bath. If one has not tried it, I recommend they stay in a capsule hotel at least once in their life.

We went upstairs and found lockers for all our stuff. The lockers were really small, but after taking a couple things out of the front pockets of my bookbag, I was able to fit everything in. We stripped naked and put on the yukata that they provided for us. By this time Vaso and I have become “Hadaka Tomodachi” (literally naked friends). It is nothing sexual, just that we are close enough to go to the hot springs together. Anyway, we were dead tired so we headed up to the capsule room and went right off to sleep. It took a while to get situated. Of the 6 floor building, only the top floor was where everyone slept. The first floor was reception and pachinko, second was lockers, third was the bath, fourth was a restaurant, fifth was a massage room, and the sixth was the capsules. Vaso and I got Capsule that were right on top of each other. The entire sixth floor is kept dark 24/7 so that people may sleep whenever. Each capsule had a little green light if it is reserved and no light if nobody is there. This helps the workers know which ones they can clean I guess. Inside the capsule was surprisingly spacious. I could sit straight up without hitting my head on the ceiling, and most importantly I could lie down without my feet sticking out. Instead of doors, the capsules had shades that you pull down to keep light and sound out. I always pictured doors, but that would be bad for breathing. Finally, there was a small television mounted on the ceiling, and a control panel for it mounted on the wall. The panel also had a clock with alarm and a radio. I fell asleep almost instantly and slept extremely well. It was that good.