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.
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