If I ever visit the main campus of Harvard, I am always amazed at the bus loads of foreign tourists that roam the Quad. Because there is no security guard in the Science Building you often run into them in the basement bathrooms, where tour guides have long figured out that it is one of the few places using the bathroom without an identification. I try to avoid these bathrooms for that reason, but that doesn't mean that I don't run into that stray toursist that has lost his/her group. The odd thing is that you rarely see american tourists on campus. Foreigners seem to out number them almost 4 to 1. However, if you go to Fanueil Hall....oila all the Americans.
I mention this phenomena because I discovered it is universal. During my recent travels in Japan I hit most of the hotspots written up in all the guide books: temples and shrines in Kyoto, Koyasan, Nara, Miyajima, the bright city lights of Tokyo, Osaka, and Yokohama. In all of these places, gaijin roam around freely with cameras and maps in hand.
This weekend, I decided to make use of my unlimited ride train pass to hit slightly off the beaten path locales. Well, actually the truth is I needed a little respite from all the historical sites.
On Saturday, I went into the lab and went out to lunch with the two H's. Both of them were postdocs in our lab and both moved back to Japan. After lunch and some roaming around with the boys, I got a headache from the sun. I decided that I would let hang out and I would take a train back to my house. It was a warm day with little air conditioning on the train and I had a full belly.... Anway, long story short I woke up an hour and a half later in Okayama.
Okayama is known for it beautiful garden and its black castle. The garden is touted as one of the three most beautiful gardens in Japan. I decided to make to best of accidental arrival, by seeing this garden. Korakuen, as it is called, is a large meticulously planned out garden. So depite being eaten alive by all the mosquitoes I was glad to walk around. The one strange thing was that I noticed the lack of non-Japanese tourists even though the place was full of people. They seemed slightly surprised as I spoke English at the ticket gate.
On Sunday, I decided to make use of my rail pass and visit Beppu. Beppu is famous for its active volcanoes and its hotsprings. The water is supposed to have curative powers. Beppu is on the island of Kyushu, which is south of the main island of Honshu. Its main industry is tourism. What I failed to realize was that it was mainly for Asian tourists (although the majority of the people there were Japanese, there were a lot of Koreans too). I hopped on a Japanese tour bus that made the rounds of all the "Hells," which are hotsprings that are meant for viewing only.
Really I have only one sentence to say to summarize my experience: Kentak3, your peoples are weird.
Each "Hell" had a theme, "Blood Hell," "Sea Hell," etc.. The theme was based on what the actual hot spring looked like. Basically, this is what you do: you get off the bus stare at some steamy pool of water, then you walk around lots of concession stands, you get back on the bus and repeat. By the time I had seen three of these (in the pouring rain) I decided I had had enough. I was planning on taking a long soak at one of the public baths, but decided the ridiculously crowded bath houses should be avoided when cranky.
Which brings me to another weird thing. I have no idea why, but the entire tourist population seemed to be grandparents and grandchildren. No one from the age 15 - 45 could be seen. That might also explain why there were an inordinate number of water parks in Beppu too. The whole experience was what I imagined tripping on acid would be like: loud, bright, and strange.
On my train ride home, I tried to figure out what was common between a 350 year old university, a garden, and a city with flashy lights and natural springs all they have in common are that the Japanese seem to think are fun to visit.
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