STUPID GIRL SCOUTS, DINNER WITH MR. KIM

I have had to write 2 blog posts all over again because the page froze up…come on WIX! Maybe I should’ve stuck to Blogger or something. Ugh, here we go again…I’m keeping it short because I don’t want to waste too much time. Second day in Beppu I woke up to head to Yufuin, another onsen resort town up in the mountains. I bought the bus ticket and was stunned to find out that there was a line for the bus there…a bunch of girl scouts. They hogged a whole bus so I had to wait an hour for the next bus up to Yufuin.

When the next bus came, I got a seat right away which was good because the girl scouts ahead of me caused a backlog. The only bus to Yufuin is an old crappy local bus. It was jammed to the brim with people, but somehow several more people were able to get on along the way. People in Japan are used to uncomfortably packed places. Once we got to some amusement park in the mountains, most of the people got off. Before arriving at Yufuin, there was a nice hiking area I wanted to check out but I decided against it because I didn’t have hiking shoes and I didn’t know how long the trails were to the top peak.

Once we arrived in Yufuin, it was jammed again because of a three day weekend I wasn’t aware of. I wasn’t very impressed with Yufuin perhaps because it was so crowded. The only highlight was a grilled piece of marinated squid! I left after a few hours and headed back to Beppu. Things were a lot cheaper in Beppu anyway.

I bought some gifts and went to the post office to ship them back to my uncle’s. Along the way I couldn’t help but notice the many young foreigners. There is an international school nearby. The post office is very efficient in Japan, like no comparison to the failing USPS. When I got back to the room, there was a new dorm mate there. His name was Mr. Kim and he was visiting Beppu for the first time. He was also an avid traveler…there seems to be a lot of them in hostels. I always feel left out when these seasoned travelers start talking about where they’ve been. We decided to go eat dinner and hit an onsen.

We found a small izakaya inside the arcade nearby and ate some yakitori and once again, chicken tempura since Mr. Kim never had it. Afterward we went to the onsen I went to the night before, but it was packed. We found another onsen down the street for 100yen. It was also crowded and not that great of an experience. We left rather quickly and went to the conbini to get some snacks and ice cream. Afterwards we stopped by the hostel bar again and I saw the Irish girl again. We only spoke for a bit because I didn’t want to keep Mr. Kim waiting. Tomorrow would be a long day of riding so I tried to hit the sack early.