9 Oita

The next day my best friend, Rei and her family drove all the way to Aso from Oita to pick us up. Rei is a very close friend of mine, we met at the university, she was a guest lecturer at the textile department teaching bingata (Okinawan Dyeing). We connected very well from the first moment. She is bursting with energy, very creative, brave and very open too. Most of the time when i try to make Japanese friends, there is a wall that i can't break through but it was different with her. She asked my advice on her important decisions and she took me seriously but we had great laughs together too,  we can talk about everything. I couldn't wait to see her home and spend time with her again. She decided to leave Okinawa about a year ago and went back to her grandma's village to start her own textile dyeing studio in the old family house that hasn't been used for years after grandma had passed away. I was excited to see how this amazing idea and hard task was going. The Chitose Textile Dying Studio is a hub of creativity in the rural Japanese environment. It was entertaining to see the locals coming and peeping in every day, wondering what on earth was this girl doing in the village, She just smiles, shows everyone her new ideas and works and inspires people without even knowing it. I guess even her curious visitors themselves don't know but they keep coming back and bring her fresh vegetables, beer or other small presents. Her world brings color and fantasy to that little village.

Rei-chan, Lili (her niece) and us on the way to Ooita

We were sleeping at her studio, and were busy everyday. We kept asking her if there was anything we could help with, so finally Hunor renovated an old drum that Rei has to paint on, and carved a sign for the studio on granny's old cutting board. I did some English translations for her and worked on a photo-papercut that I had in mind after a sunset shot Hunor took of Rei and I the first night. We are both jumping, so I thought it would look good if i cut wings for us on the photo - to turn us into local angels. 

"Local Angels"

the drum Hunor is working on under the curious supervision of the girls from next door
one four year old asked me: "Is it your man?" "Yes" "You chose a good man!" she assured me and i thanked her.

Hunor carving the sign on granny's old cutting board

We were also busy with preparing to an event she organized for us. Sunday 25 August we were planning to do a screening of Under the Same Sun with a Hungarian and Okinawan mini concert. She and her family prepared everything, invited musicians, and arranged the place: the local Buddhist temple. When we first met the priest he seemed very cooperative but not very hopeful. He said people in this village are hard to get going so we should not expect more than around 30 people at most. I saw Rei was not very happy with the answer. She said she was hoping for a 100. Well, I told her, people who ask for miracles and work towards them, get miracles. She smiled and worked and worked, arranging meetings with the musicians, handing out flyers, brainstorming about decorations. Sunday, when we went to the temple, the place was all prepared, the priest cut bamboo sticks for a special light up and arranged the room for us. While we were preparing the food stall outside together with the priest Hunor had some time to ask a few practical questions from his "colleague" about church government and the everyday life of a buddhist temple. After all, a protestant pastor and a buddhist priest do not meet often so they need to use the opportunity for an inter-religious conference, right? The event started at 7, but people already started coming from 6 and soon the room was full, there were not enough seats for everyone. The sanshin  players started the event with three Okinawan songs, then it was my turn to sing Hungarian folk songs with a local guitarist and drummer. Then Hunor showed his skills on the jaw harp. When i was watching Hunor playing traditional Hungarian melodies on a jaw harp, jamming with a local blues-rock guitarist and a cajon drummer in a buddhist temple, followed by the curious eyes and ears of local farmers, I  was amazed how Rei's web of imagination could wrap all these people and bring them together in this funny capsule of time and space. As I looked at the full house I knew I was looking at a miracle, one that was asked for and worked for by Rei and it gave me goose bums. Her radiating creative energy inspires me so much! The priest told us after the event that there must have been around a 100 people and he has never had so many people at his temple before! Thanks Rei, for showing us a miracle.

Rei made time for sightseeing too, we went to a lotus field, which was the first time for me to see this intricately elegant yet simply funny flower. They look like shower heads, but then they have these beautiful light pink blossoms and perfect petals and what's more, water-repellent leaves. I mean this all just sounds impossible and contradictory, but when you look at it, it makes sense. No wonder it is traditionally a holy flower, the flower of Buddha. 

After that we visited Beppu, a city famous for hot springs and we went to an interesting restaurant. The name is Hell Steam Restaurant (very inviting). All kinds of food are steamed in wells built on top of a sulphuric hot spring. It is said to be very healthy and it is delicious even without any extra spice, since the salt and the aroma of the hot spring penetrates the vegetables and meat. We also visited a hot spring, and took a mud bath. It was a great time but we smelled like pigs for about a week after. Especially because we did a small competition with Hunor: who can cover his/her full body more elaborately. 

Rei is so playful and active, and she also has a nine year old niece who is a small artist, so creativity is all around the place. We spent the nights drawing and painting together on big pieces of paper, being immersed in colors, lines and circles. She and her sister, her niece, her mom and her stepdad had a great impact on me. A loving and caring family of artists, living together, sharing their life, their food their love and their ideas. I was totally inspired by the week we spent together.

8 Aso Volcano

It is hard to admit, but we are still sore of the Ryujin Sugi hike in Yakushima, and we are the only visitors of the camping, with amazing greenery and mountain view, so we decided we would stay in (I mean literally out, under a tree by our tent) and relax for a day. We have had so many experiences the last few days, met people, heard stories, we need digestion time before we go on. So we sat/laid under a small tree and stayed there for a good day, moving our towel one inch/hour around it, as in a very slow ritual dance, to keep us in the tiny shade it gave.  

digestive period

The next day we are full of energy. We go up the hill to conquest the volcano, which is still active, Sounds a bit too adventurous, but as we know everything is super safe in Japan, so  I guess if it's a tourist spot we are safe. We hitch a ride uphill, then we walk for a short time so we are at the crater in less then half an hour. On the way up I am quite surprised to discover the white cloud that I could always see from the campground at the same spot is not a cloud, but smoke coming from the volcano. The crater is something I have never seen before. A yellowish green pond in the center bubbles and smokes and this sulphuric smoke/steam paints the walls of the crater colorful with a yellowish shade. So, this is how an active volcano looks. I stand there in awe, being humbled by Nature for getting such a glimpse and stay alive. It gives a hint of the power that lies within the Earth under the surface. Scary and inspiring at the same time. You kind of wanna do your best if such powers lie within and you are still given the chance to breathe.

the crater

We were quite unprepared for a hike and sore from Yakushima, so we didn't think we would spend the next five hours going up and down steep montain trails, but we couldn't see in the beginning where the road will lead us, so we explored the ridges nearby and had amazing views of the crater, the cities and rivers nearby, and the sea. Going downhill was quite tough on a steep wall covered with sharp stones. I could hardly believe we are still in Japan, the only signs were some yellow arrows sprayed on bigger rocks, other than that no fence, no sign. Maybe the logic is that they put signs in safe places, just to appear nice where many people go , and where it is really hard and demanding, the few people that take the risk have to be smart enough to take care of themselves. Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining. It was a great opportunity to spend some more time with the volcano and the mountains and to feel small and to inhale (not the volcanic gases) but the power of nature.

the cloud of smoke

7 On The Way To Aso

In the port of Yakushima we greeted Hibiscus Lady as an old friend and after waving goodbye to Mr Tetsuka and Takamaru for as long as we could see them we had a royal breakfast with home made honey and smoked fish they gave us as farewell presents. One good thing in traveling is that you can't keep anything for special occasions, there is no storeroom. So any time is a special time and any place can turn into a five star restaurant (a special one, where you eat good food on the floor with your hands). We stopped at Tanegashima again and as I saw tanned people with surfboards my heart started to beat faster again.. but maybe another time when I will be a better surfer I will come back. It is the holiday season for Japan, so an unbelievable number of passengers boarded the ship in Tanegashima. There are no seats, just five big rooms, the floors covered with carpet that we all share. Personal space became smaller and smaller, but fortunately people stopped flowing in before we felt the need to scream. And we soon reminded ourselves that this is still a piece of cake compared to some routes we might take in the future if we head to South-East Asia. Also, it was a short ride, only five more hours from Tanegashima. We were the first ones to get off the boat because we figured our only chance to get a ride out of the port area would be to hitch one of the cars leaving the boat. So we dived into the port like hounds, in searcg of cardboard paper and made our next sign as fast as possible: "in the direction of Kumamoto". I am insisting on writing the signs in Japanese, so they could see we speak the language, but apparently noone makes such a connection. People are always extremely surprised that we speak Japanese when they pick us up. Maybe it is totally normal for a foreigner to write in Japanese.

We didn't have to stand there longer than five minutes, when a family stopped. They said they have a son who is backpacking in Germany now, so they must pick us up (I hope their son is picked up by someone right now wherever he is!) We were not sure we could make it to Aso, a volcano in the heart of Kyushu in the same day, but this family did not only take us to Kumamoto on the expressway - which would have been on their way anyways - they got off the expressway and took us all the way to Aso, to the campground I randomly found in the travelguide as the cheapest option to stay. At 7pm, before dark, our tent was up - again in the middle of nature at Aso Bochu Camping. 

our ride to Aso

view from the camping