Mt. Unzen/ Day 2

Getting ready to load up and head back home.

Our private hot springs bath.

The water comes directly from the natural hot springs in the ground and then cold water is added to bring the temp. down so that humans can get in.

We had a reservation at this hotel for a private one-hour hot springs bath. The city of Mt. Unzen have dozens of hotels that offer hot spring bath- both public and private. There are even stations set up in the city that are called "Foot Baths" where you can sit, take off your shoes and soak your feet.

This is the top of Mt. Fugin. It's one of the newest, if not the newest, mountain in Japan. It was formed the last time Mt. Unzen erupted which was in 1990. You can take a skyride up to the top.

Here is Mt. Unzen. You can see in the picture the lava tracks from the last time it erupted! Pretty cool. Shimabara City is located at the bottom. On our drive down the mountain, it was really neat to see the lava flow damns that have been built to save the city the next time this things decides to blow. Also from this deck, we could look out across the Araike Sea and see Mt. Aso. Mt. Aso is another volcano that is still very active. We hope to make a trip to see Mt. Aso close up while we're here. I was told you can actually go up to the very top and look into the volcano dome!

There are pockets of steam like this one everywhere in the city.

Isn't that so sweet!

Taking a potty break. He saw his daddy do it, so of course, he had to do the same:)

Hiking up to the top of the mountain.

This was a nice veiw of some of the city and the pond. The pond was bright green from all the sulphur in the water.

I got Landon to unplug his nose long enough to give me a thumbs up. He kept saying he wanted to go home because this place stunk. Literally, it did.

Boiling water pools like this one were everywhere.

We arrived in Mt. Unzen and spent the morning walking around the park called Jigoku which means "hell" in Japanese. (The Japanese believe that if they do bad things while living on earth, they will be thrown into a pit of fire when they die.) There were pockets of hot water that create all this steam coming up from the ground all over. Landon kept plugging his nose and commenting on how badly it stunk. It smelled like rotten eggs because of the sulphur. However, it was the coolest thing to see all the pools of boiling water at the surface of the earth. Along your walk through Jigoku, there were places to buy fresh boiled eggs that were cooked using the hot spring water right there in the park.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010:

This morning, we headed over the mountain to the town of Mt. Unzen. The city practically sits on a volcano. If you look closely at the sign you might see another name you recognize. I'll give you a hint... Jim detests the name.

Our Stay in a Japanese Ryokan

These toilets are great. I told Jim I want to buy one and take it back to the states with us. The best thing about them are the seat warmers:) You can see at the top what looks like an armrest. The buttons are all digital with options like warming the seat and playing music while you do your business.

The kids playing around after breakfast.

Landon had fun entertaining us with more of his "funny faces" at breakfast.

Megan eating white rice for breakfast... she can't get enough of the stuff.

Our overnight stay included a buffet-style breakfast. There was something there for all of us. Megan and I tried tofu and didn't like it. But we did have things like ham, scrambled eggs, rice, soup, salad, bread, pastries, Jim had some sushi, fried egg rolls and coffee. It was delicious!

Settling down for bed.

After getting back to our room from dinner, the maids had came in, removed the furniture and made our beds (Japanese style). The kids and I slept comfortably, but Jim didn't like his bed. He complained that it was uncomfortable.

After our hot springs bath, us girls enjoyed pampering ourselves with the different body lotions and facial lotions.

Megan has just gotten out of the hot bath and is cooling off.

Ashley is enjoying her soak.

Inside the public baths, there are these cleaning stations set up. The Japanese believe that the hot springs are for soaking and relaxing, not cleaning. So before you enter the tubs, you have to bathe yourself using a station like these. Al of these necessary cleaning items are provided for you including a scrub brush.

While waiting for the elevator to take us down to the hot springs, Landon wanted me to get this shot of his shoes. These are the slippers that you were around the hotel.

The inside of our Ryokan. Notice there are no beds. This hotel does offer more westernized rooms, but I requested that we stay in a Japanese room.

I can't remember what they call these robes, but these are what guests put on to walk around in and lounge in inside the hotel. They were very comfortable. Here, we are about to head downstairs to soak in the hot springs before dinner.

Shimabara Castle/ Our First Road Trip

This is the bell tower on the grounds.

This is Landon's new "funny face". He loves cracking the girls up:) Next to him is armour that a guard or soldier would have worn.

A view from the Observatory Deck of the castle.

One building on the the castle grounds was being used as a statue museum. This museum is said to be the only one of its kind. All the statues we saw were hollow and were created much like the Statue of Liberty- using the same techniques.

Landon was trying to look like the statue, which is of a man boxing. He's such a little character!

This was one of the many statues we saw. I don't know what this statue is called because everything was written in Kangi, but it's certainly not the god of love.

Driving up to the castle. The grounds were decked out in azaleas. As you can see, they are all beginning to bloom.

One of the two doors that sit side-by-side to enter the castle. Pretty big!

A picture of the castle through a window in one of the nearby towers.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010:

Tuesday morning we took off on our first official road trip in Japan. We headed to the city of Shimabara- about a 2 1/2 hour drive. The drive was beautiful and we got to see some of the countryside. Our first stop was Shimabara Castle. The castle was built in the mid 1600's and it has survived many wars, earthquakes and a tsunami that killed more than 10,000 people in the city! The castle sits up very high which is what saved it; however, the tsunami was so big it reached the foot of the castle.

There were 7 kids on our Monday fieldtrip today. Here are most of them all lined up looking at a waterfall.

Here were some pretty flowers growing along an old wall. I'm so glad spring has finally arrived!

One of the snakes we encountered today. We weren't sure if this one was poisonous so we kept our distance.