The third day of the symposium was a bus tour of sights around Nagasaki. One of the stops was in Obama, a town that is using the connection to the U.S. president to try to increase tourism. In Obama, there was a foot bath that everyone tried out. This area of Japan is full of onsens or hot springs, that often contain hydrogen sulfide, giving them a smell that is a bit like rotten eggs. They are supposed to be very good for skin.
The tour of the "Jigoku" (also known as "hells") was pretty impressive. There is steam coming out of openings in the ground and pipes all over this area of Japan. In some places there are even puddles of boiling water. After the meeting, we stayed a few extra days and traveled to the east coast of Kyushu prefecture, to a town named Beppu. This town is famous for it's onsens (hot springs). We went to a private onsen first. Keep in mind that it was snowing outside and this was an open air onsen. The water is so hot that we had to acclimate ourselves to be able to sit in it and were actually sweating after sitting in it for awhile.
We also went to a public mud onsen. This was a really neat experience. Men and women go into separate changing rooms, get into a warm bath to acclimate, then go into the indoor men's or women's mud bath. The mud is rich in sulfur and is supposed to be very good for skin diseases. Most women were rubbing the mud on their skin. After this, there is an outdoor or open air mud bath where men and women are still separate but can see each other because the water is too cloudy to see through. It was quite an experience!
Of course, we couldn't miss the snow monkeys (Japanese Macaques)! We went to a "monkey park" that was started many years ago to keep the monkeys out of the crops around the mountain they live on. This is a place where wild monkeys are fed (to keep them on the mountain) but are actually totally free, no fences or cages. There a colony of about 1200 monkeys in this park and they are free to roam and even touch people if they want to (We watched one monkey try to get the gatorade out of a man's pocket...see picture below). People are told not to touch, feed, or look into the eyes of the monkeys because they are wild! It was a really great experience to be so close to so many monkeys! There is a video of one playing with rocks at the end of the blog.
We then went back to Nagasaki to visit the Atomic Bomb Museum, which, of course, was depressing. We all know about the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but it was really interesting to see the Japanese point of view. We learned a lot that we didn't know and saw some photos and videos that would probabaly never be shown in the states. There were so many images and exhibits of what the bomb actually did to people and items. It was unbelievable. One of the things that struck me was the timeline showing increases in deaths from several different kinds of cancer that started anywhere from 20-60 years after the bombing. It is hard to believe that the people of these cities are still actively suffering from that bomb.
To cheer ourselves up, we went to the penguin aquarium. There we saw eight different species of penguins and were there for feeding time. It was really cool to see them and watch them for awhile. It made us happy again!
Well, we're back on Okinawa now. Back to the rough life of diving! We had a great dive today even though it was raining and a bit chilly outside.
Well, I know it is so difficult to be back in Okinawa but keep thinking of the wonderful experiences you are having and things you are seeing and doing, especially playing with monkeys!
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