Dogo Onsen

Today we decided was going to be a lazy day. We were wanting to just lounge around the spacious hostel, catch up on uploading pictures and updating the blog. Unfortunately, everyone is kicked out of the hostel at 10am, no matter if you are staying another night or not. So although, I`ve caught up on the blog entries, our pictures are only up to us passing Mt. Fuji on the bullet train.

We however made the best of the situation and found some 500 Yen lockers to dump our packs in. Although we found the English translations the best here in Matsuyama, coming across English is hard to come by, especially in the restaurants. We ended up having to take our server to the front window plastic food displays for both our breakfast and lunch.

We also took a bath in the Dogo Onsen, Sarah`s first experience in a public bath. We both survived, with only one of us giving a show to someone of the opposite sex.

Fully relaxed from the hot bath, we boarded the JR for Yawatahama which passed through a couple of the towns Stacey frequented when she was on the island teaching English. At the port we grabbed the ferry bound for Beppu. As we were deboarding after the 2 1/2 hour ride, Sarah struck up an English conversation with a Japanese woman, who was nice enough to offer us a ride to the Beppu Station, just a couple of blocks from where we were staying. The woman must have seen our Canada flag luggage tags, as she mentioned that she had visited Vancouver and Banff a few years ago.

Luckily we didn`t have her drop us off here at the Beppu Guest House, as it is the most rundown accommodations we`ve stayed at.

I can`t upload any new pictures on this stop, as the sole computer is running Windows 98 and it doesn`t support our USB SD Card Reader. Oh well. At least I`m now caught up on the blogs.