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Kumomoto ken, Kofun, Aso at night
Hmm, my wireless internet connection isn't working. Could it be that I'm near the edge of a volcanic crater? Nah.
It's been a wonderful day. I woke up before my alarm and read the first volume of the Chronicles of Chrestomanci which continues to be engaging though I have no idea where it's going. I jumped on the internet and took advantage of the free printer to print a nice map to the National Kyuushu museum which I will be going to after New Years (on account to it being closed until then). I then jetted off and had a quick breakfast at McDonalds (hmm, sausage mcmuffins taste as tasteless as I remember them being). I was slightly worried that one or both the museums I wanted to visit today would be closed but luck was with me and even though I was the only one there, they were open *L*
First, I headed to Yamada where I followed many signs to find the Yamada Municipal Museum (past some rock tombs incidently). It seriously looks like a workshop for pottery or something, definately not a museum, but I gamely went in and inquired about the Chibusan kofun, which is rightfully famous (er, within Kumomoto ken at least. It's not like that many people (besides my friends list*g*) know about kofun outside of Japan anyway) for a beautiful inner chamber which contains a nicely decorated inner grave chamber. It has geometric designs in bright red (using benibara, a dye made from red iron... I am so glad I learnt the word for iron while I was on Sakurajima), white and black. The design contains a headless goddess with big breasts (hence the name of the tomb actually - it means Goddess of Breasts (feel free to giggle, I know I did)). The more hilarious thing is the little figure drawn in one corner who's throwing his arms up in the air, perhaps happy that his big breasted goddess has appeared...
Anyway, I headed in and name dropped the tomb and they blinked in surprise and called the tour guide over. It cost me about three dollars... The guide mostly spoke Japanese but that was okay and she immediately took me on a tour (I'd been led to believe you had to schedule it but then again, there was seriously no one there...She was also shocked she had had another foreigner so soon. Apparently, they'd had some Australians visit the week before *gasp*) We went in her car up the hill to the Chibusan where she explained everything in Japanese (which I've so nicely told you above) and then took me inside. I couldn't take pictures but it was damn cool to be in such a nicely decorated tomb. I thought that would be it, but she took me to another nearby kofun, Obusan that was in a circular shape. You could go inside that one and take pictures, though the most interesting thing was the stone 'doors' of the tomb that had been damaged by gun shots 200 years before. She put up with me wandering around to the other tombs that were nearby (and rather interestingly, there were large storage jars buried nearby too). Back in the museum, I once again thought she would leave me, but instead she followed me through the whole exhibit (one floor and exactly what I'd expect from a municipal museum). It was fun and I learnt a few new words and kanji (including the ones for pottery which served me well through the rest of the day). She recommended a few kofun for me to visit and gave me two maps so I headed out.
First, I went to one kofun that had no signs leading to it - Benkei-ga-anna (also famous for its decoration inside), but I had a map and luckily, I could see it from the road. It was nestled on the top of a cemetary next to a school. I should mention at this point that opposed to yesterday, it was freezing out and when I came out of my hotel in the morning, it was hailing. It was snowing on and off all day and it was fucking cold, to put it politely;) I climbed up to see it and posed with it and such, then headed down the road to another kofun which as far as I could tell (there were no signs yet again) it was at the top of a hill with a huge buddha on it which was on the side of Dragon King Mountain. I took my car up as far as the buddha then walked up further, but it started to snow and while it was cool to see snow falling while on such a high place, it wasn't all that fun to be climbing in it, so I went as close to the top as I wished, took some pics of what I assume was the kofun and headed back to my car. I then remembered to stop for that pesky lunch thing (I was going to skip it actually but then my stomach growled) so I bought a pizza-man (ie pizza ingredients in a chinese bun) which never fails to amuse me and some sort of pancake with frosting in it. That was devoured so I could head immediately to my second main stop of the day - the Kofun museum! I had only found out it existed that morning, but I was still really excited.
I followed the signs and found that the cliffs on either side of the road were filled with rock cut tombs (they looked exactly like tombs in Israel and various Greek and Roman tombs I've seen before. so much so I was kinda surprised...). I parked near a huge group of them and took my camera and Sauron-chan to explore. I'm still cursing myself for forgetting my flashlight but then again, it takes a lot more courage to crawl into a tomb when you can't see anything that's inside of it. I'm not sure if I was supposed to actually go inside of them, but I did crawl into a few of them (they were single chambered with shallow stone coffins for between 1-3 people) (that pic, incidently, is my favourite pic from this whole trip). Interestingly, there were windows and such that allowed sharing of the tombs though I'm not sure if those might have been added later. There was also decoration in some of them which I got pics of due to the night vision on my camera. After countless pics, I followed some random signs to the kofun group I knew had to be nearby. I had thought I wasn't going that far when really I had to climb a cliff on ridiculously slippery steps (who builds steps out of wood in a forest covered in moss?!). I ended up on this windy plateau with a very nice kofun group and beyond was the museum.
I meandered over to it, stopping to play in the playground (it had a model kofun that was toddler sized (Sauron chan loved it *L*) and haniwa figures of animals the kiddies could sit on). Then made my way to the museum and found that it was open and I was of course, the only person there. They asked if I wanted to see a movie and let me set the time, so I wandered around. There were very few actual artefacts, but they had some very nice mock ups of the inside of various decorated tombs in the area plus a smattering of English. I was very amused by the informative display of three kids wandering into a tomb and encountering a friendly ghost who answered all their questions about kofun.
Whoever runs the museum must be obsessed with ghosts cause the movie was about the same thing. It was 3-D and utterly hilarious in its cheesiness (though the fight scenes were surprisingly nice as was the directing). The story was about a family who came to see the museum. The mother was enthusiastic while the father just wanted to golf and the son (who was far too handsome and old for a high school student) wanted to go do something else. They go to look at this large stone man in the display room and the man comes to life (they call him "Rock man" the entire time which is hilarious in and of itself) and brings them to this universe of stars where he offers to show them his history. First, they showed the making of a kofun, then suddenly they were showing a war between the rock people and a tribe near Fukuoka. There was lots of dressing up in costume and fighting, including some really bloody deaths (lots of chopping and slashing) and even a nice 3-D splatter of blood on a screen. There was also the touching story of a man going off to war and dying rather bloodily on screen while his wife and child were left behind. And then rock man rode off into the sunset with a few arrows in him and they were returned to the museum where the 'rock man' was also the janitor. Great stuff *L* I bought two books on kofun there and one on an experimental archaeology experiment in Japanese iron smelting (I find smelting fascinating. Don't ask me why).
I left the museum and hiked back and across the original road I had followed down since there were more tombs carved into the cliff on that side - higher up and behind some houses. I'm pretty sure I wasn't supposed to since they were buidling a giant dike and fence around it, but I walked through someone's back yard and climbed a ladder I found lying up against the dike. I then walked along the dike and took lots of pictures. I'm not really sure why they were building the fence though since the locals obviously use the tombs for storage of such important things as old tires and rusty farm implements...
My visit complete, I had one more kofun site to visit. I headed off and arrived at a nice little park. The four kofun were nothing special though I did get to go inside one and take a picture of the actual chamber. There were some interesting restored statues hanging around which finally answered my question of how they knew that kofun jidai people wore their hair in such weird hairstyles (yes, anime hair started very early *g*). The main hairstyle of the period for men was to braid the sides of their hair then fold them up into two long buns right next to their ears. There was also a cool kofun with a huge tree growing out of the side of it which looked very cool against the sun. For the second day in a row, I watched the sun set from on top of a kofun. I checked out a huge statue of a man nearby then headed back to my car, my goals for the day other than reaching a hotel at Aso, complete.
While I was sitting there planning my route to Aso, about three police cars pulled in to the parking lot and politely surrounded me (In any other country, I might have been worried). I assume this was the most exciting thing they'd done that day. They'd seen the blankets in the back of my car and were worried I would sleep there if I had to make a guess though the guy who talked to me (young and cute) very politely danced around the idea in Japanese *L* I explained what I was doing and they were relieved to find I was an archaeologist. Then they warned me about going to Aso since it was snowing there. Had I not been in 'be polite to the policeman, Ariana' mode, I might have pointed out that my car climbed to the 5th level of Fuji-san. A little snow will not stop it.
And true to my thoughts, it didn't though the snow did get pretty heavy by the time I actually reached the area around the crater (traffic is evil). I arrived in Takamori around 7pm and headed off the main road to find a minshukan that was recommended. It, of course, wasn't there and doesn't seem to exist (oh Lonely Planet, you lie to me yet I keep coming back!) so I drove onwards on a increasingly whitening road (snow had previously only been sticking to the fields and grass and stuff). Beginning to panic, I finally found a pension that looked really nice (a pension is kinda like a family hotel with food being served in a communual hall while the room is this huge place with five beds). The guy running the place was really nice and obviously realized I was kinda stranded by the snow. He gave me a room that I'm pretty sure has been made up for someone else coming in the next day and didn't overcharge me though he could have. I had missed dinner by a half hour so I asked where a nearby restaurant would be. He showed me where but the idea obviously freaked him out. He kept muttering about how dangerous it was and such. Even so, I was surprised when I came out of the room and he asked if I liked rice, fish, meat, vegetables etc and would be willing to eat there. I wasn't going to say no so I ended up in their dining hall where another family was finishing up. I had expected something quick but they gave me the full, three course proper meal which I'd never have ordered for myself but was pretty cool. It started with sashimi, salad, soup, a fluffy quiche and pickles. The owner worked hard to light a fire in the pit in the middle of the table and brought out this plate filled with vegetables, chicken and beef for yaki niku. I was given tea and they turned the heater directly on me. Then came rice and his wife (the cook) came out to ask me if I liked tofu. I do, but I've never actually eaten it in that situation. Who knew you were supposed to mix some bitter orange stuff with soy sauce and dip it in that? You live and learn. I had fun cooking my food and the black rice that came was great on its own so I was seriously stuffed, especially after the refreshing fruit desert. I thanked them profusely and told them I was full which seemed to please the cook. They gave me a kettle full of hot water for tea and here I am. This is a beautiful place, made even prettier by the new snow that is covering everything. I'm also wearing a really cute yukata with a winter coat. It's nice to end up somewhere good unexpectedly.
And I'm currently watching someone hunt an octopus and stingray on tv. These guys have been stranded on an island and have to build their own house and catch their own food and cook it and I think they're comedians cause they're having a lot more fun than I would have doing it. Tomorrow, I'll head up to have a look at Aso, though I'm not so hot on the idea of hiking in the snow. I'm toying with spending the night at a Kurosawa onsen but I'm not sure how much money I'm willing to spend. Good night, m'dears!
It's been a wonderful day. I woke up before my alarm and read the first volume of the Chronicles of Chrestomanci which continues to be engaging though I have no idea where it's going. I jumped on the internet and took advantage of the free printer to print a nice map to the National Kyuushu museum which I will be going to after New Years (on account to it being closed until then). I then jetted off and had a quick breakfast at McDonalds (hmm, sausage mcmuffins taste as tasteless as I remember them being). I was slightly worried that one or both the museums I wanted to visit today would be closed but luck was with me and even though I was the only one there, they were open *L*
First, I headed to Yamada where I followed many signs to find the Yamada Municipal Museum (past some rock tombs incidently). It seriously looks like a workshop for pottery or something, definately not a museum, but I gamely went in and inquired about the Chibusan kofun, which is rightfully famous (er, within Kumomoto ken at least. It's not like that many people (besides my friends list*g*) know about kofun outside of Japan anyway) for a beautiful inner chamber which contains a nicely decorated inner grave chamber. It has geometric designs in bright red (using benibara, a dye made from red iron... I am so glad I learnt the word for iron while I was on Sakurajima), white and black. The design contains a headless goddess with big breasts (hence the name of the tomb actually - it means Goddess of Breasts (feel free to giggle, I know I did)). The more hilarious thing is the little figure drawn in one corner who's throwing his arms up in the air, perhaps happy that his big breasted goddess has appeared...
Anyway, I headed in and name dropped the tomb and they blinked in surprise and called the tour guide over. It cost me about three dollars... The guide mostly spoke Japanese but that was okay and she immediately took me on a tour (I'd been led to believe you had to schedule it but then again, there was seriously no one there...She was also shocked she had had another foreigner so soon. Apparently, they'd had some Australians visit the week before *gasp*) We went in her car up the hill to the Chibusan where she explained everything in Japanese (which I've so nicely told you above) and then took me inside. I couldn't take pictures but it was damn cool to be in such a nicely decorated tomb. I thought that would be it, but she took me to another nearby kofun, Obusan that was in a circular shape. You could go inside that one and take pictures, though the most interesting thing was the stone 'doors' of the tomb that had been damaged by gun shots 200 years before. She put up with me wandering around to the other tombs that were nearby (and rather interestingly, there were large storage jars buried nearby too). Back in the museum, I once again thought she would leave me, but instead she followed me through the whole exhibit (one floor and exactly what I'd expect from a municipal museum). It was fun and I learnt a few new words and kanji (including the ones for pottery which served me well through the rest of the day). She recommended a few kofun for me to visit and gave me two maps so I headed out.
First, I went to one kofun that had no signs leading to it - Benkei-ga-anna (also famous for its decoration inside), but I had a map and luckily, I could see it from the road. It was nestled on the top of a cemetary next to a school. I should mention at this point that opposed to yesterday, it was freezing out and when I came out of my hotel in the morning, it was hailing. It was snowing on and off all day and it was fucking cold, to put it politely;) I climbed up to see it and posed with it and such, then headed down the road to another kofun which as far as I could tell (there were no signs yet again) it was at the top of a hill with a huge buddha on it which was on the side of Dragon King Mountain. I took my car up as far as the buddha then walked up further, but it started to snow and while it was cool to see snow falling while on such a high place, it wasn't all that fun to be climbing in it, so I went as close to the top as I wished, took some pics of what I assume was the kofun and headed back to my car. I then remembered to stop for that pesky lunch thing (I was going to skip it actually but then my stomach growled) so I bought a pizza-man (ie pizza ingredients in a chinese bun) which never fails to amuse me and some sort of pancake with frosting in it. That was devoured so I could head immediately to my second main stop of the day - the Kofun museum! I had only found out it existed that morning, but I was still really excited.
I followed the signs and found that the cliffs on either side of the road were filled with rock cut tombs (they looked exactly like tombs in Israel and various Greek and Roman tombs I've seen before. so much so I was kinda surprised...). I parked near a huge group of them and took my camera and Sauron-chan to explore. I'm still cursing myself for forgetting my flashlight but then again, it takes a lot more courage to crawl into a tomb when you can't see anything that's inside of it. I'm not sure if I was supposed to actually go inside of them, but I did crawl into a few of them (they were single chambered with shallow stone coffins for between 1-3 people) (that pic, incidently, is my favourite pic from this whole trip). Interestingly, there were windows and such that allowed sharing of the tombs though I'm not sure if those might have been added later. There was also decoration in some of them which I got pics of due to the night vision on my camera. After countless pics, I followed some random signs to the kofun group I knew had to be nearby. I had thought I wasn't going that far when really I had to climb a cliff on ridiculously slippery steps (who builds steps out of wood in a forest covered in moss?!). I ended up on this windy plateau with a very nice kofun group and beyond was the museum.
I meandered over to it, stopping to play in the playground (it had a model kofun that was toddler sized (Sauron chan loved it *L*) and haniwa figures of animals the kiddies could sit on). Then made my way to the museum and found that it was open and I was of course, the only person there. They asked if I wanted to see a movie and let me set the time, so I wandered around. There were very few actual artefacts, but they had some very nice mock ups of the inside of various decorated tombs in the area plus a smattering of English. I was very amused by the informative display of three kids wandering into a tomb and encountering a friendly ghost who answered all their questions about kofun.
Whoever runs the museum must be obsessed with ghosts cause the movie was about the same thing. It was 3-D and utterly hilarious in its cheesiness (though the fight scenes were surprisingly nice as was the directing). The story was about a family who came to see the museum. The mother was enthusiastic while the father just wanted to golf and the son (who was far too handsome and old for a high school student) wanted to go do something else. They go to look at this large stone man in the display room and the man comes to life (they call him "Rock man" the entire time which is hilarious in and of itself) and brings them to this universe of stars where he offers to show them his history. First, they showed the making of a kofun, then suddenly they were showing a war between the rock people and a tribe near Fukuoka. There was lots of dressing up in costume and fighting, including some really bloody deaths (lots of chopping and slashing) and even a nice 3-D splatter of blood on a screen. There was also the touching story of a man going off to war and dying rather bloodily on screen while his wife and child were left behind. And then rock man rode off into the sunset with a few arrows in him and they were returned to the museum where the 'rock man' was also the janitor. Great stuff *L* I bought two books on kofun there and one on an experimental archaeology experiment in Japanese iron smelting (I find smelting fascinating. Don't ask me why).
I left the museum and hiked back and across the original road I had followed down since there were more tombs carved into the cliff on that side - higher up and behind some houses. I'm pretty sure I wasn't supposed to since they were buidling a giant dike and fence around it, but I walked through someone's back yard and climbed a ladder I found lying up against the dike. I then walked along the dike and took lots of pictures. I'm not really sure why they were building the fence though since the locals obviously use the tombs for storage of such important things as old tires and rusty farm implements...
My visit complete, I had one more kofun site to visit. I headed off and arrived at a nice little park. The four kofun were nothing special though I did get to go inside one and take a picture of the actual chamber. There were some interesting restored statues hanging around which finally answered my question of how they knew that kofun jidai people wore their hair in such weird hairstyles (yes, anime hair started very early *g*). The main hairstyle of the period for men was to braid the sides of their hair then fold them up into two long buns right next to their ears. There was also a cool kofun with a huge tree growing out of the side of it which looked very cool against the sun. For the second day in a row, I watched the sun set from on top of a kofun. I checked out a huge statue of a man nearby then headed back to my car, my goals for the day other than reaching a hotel at Aso, complete.
While I was sitting there planning my route to Aso, about three police cars pulled in to the parking lot and politely surrounded me (In any other country, I might have been worried). I assume this was the most exciting thing they'd done that day. They'd seen the blankets in the back of my car and were worried I would sleep there if I had to make a guess though the guy who talked to me (young and cute) very politely danced around the idea in Japanese *L* I explained what I was doing and they were relieved to find I was an archaeologist. Then they warned me about going to Aso since it was snowing there. Had I not been in 'be polite to the policeman, Ariana' mode, I might have pointed out that my car climbed to the 5th level of Fuji-san. A little snow will not stop it.
And true to my thoughts, it didn't though the snow did get pretty heavy by the time I actually reached the area around the crater (traffic is evil). I arrived in Takamori around 7pm and headed off the main road to find a minshukan that was recommended. It, of course, wasn't there and doesn't seem to exist (oh Lonely Planet, you lie to me yet I keep coming back!) so I drove onwards on a increasingly whitening road (snow had previously only been sticking to the fields and grass and stuff). Beginning to panic, I finally found a pension that looked really nice (a pension is kinda like a family hotel with food being served in a communual hall while the room is this huge place with five beds). The guy running the place was really nice and obviously realized I was kinda stranded by the snow. He gave me a room that I'm pretty sure has been made up for someone else coming in the next day and didn't overcharge me though he could have. I had missed dinner by a half hour so I asked where a nearby restaurant would be. He showed me where but the idea obviously freaked him out. He kept muttering about how dangerous it was and such. Even so, I was surprised when I came out of the room and he asked if I liked rice, fish, meat, vegetables etc and would be willing to eat there. I wasn't going to say no so I ended up in their dining hall where another family was finishing up. I had expected something quick but they gave me the full, three course proper meal which I'd never have ordered for myself but was pretty cool. It started with sashimi, salad, soup, a fluffy quiche and pickles. The owner worked hard to light a fire in the pit in the middle of the table and brought out this plate filled with vegetables, chicken and beef for yaki niku. I was given tea and they turned the heater directly on me. Then came rice and his wife (the cook) came out to ask me if I liked tofu. I do, but I've never actually eaten it in that situation. Who knew you were supposed to mix some bitter orange stuff with soy sauce and dip it in that? You live and learn. I had fun cooking my food and the black rice that came was great on its own so I was seriously stuffed, especially after the refreshing fruit desert. I thanked them profusely and told them I was full which seemed to please the cook. They gave me a kettle full of hot water for tea and here I am. This is a beautiful place, made even prettier by the new snow that is covering everything. I'm also wearing a really cute yukata with a winter coat. It's nice to end up somewhere good unexpectedly.
And I'm currently watching someone hunt an octopus and stingray on tv. These guys have been stranded on an island and have to build their own house and catch their own food and cook it and I think they're comedians cause they're having a lot more fun than I would have doing it. Tomorrow, I'll head up to have a look at Aso, though I'm not so hot on the idea of hiking in the snow. I'm toying with spending the night at a Kurosawa onsen but I'm not sure how much money I'm willing to spend. Good night, m'dears!