More Info on the World Cup in Oita
If you are visiting Oita for the World Cup, you can find information (in English, Japanese, Korean, French, Italian, and Spanish) at the official 2002 FIFA World Cup Oita site.
If you drink too much, before, during or after the match, there is nothing better for a hangover than a hot bath and sushi. Get thee to Beppu-shi.
Update: June 7, 2002
The Japan Times asks the question I've been asking myself. What is the World Cup doing in Oita? Snide remarks about country bumpkins aside, I did learn from this article that my very own Beppu-shi used to be a yakuza stronghold. I never heard that before. The article also mentions Bar Brown, a bar in Oita City that I've actually been to. It also mentions that that there is now a Starbucks in Oita City. I have no trouble imagining Starbucks in Tokyo, but in Oita? Talk about world-wide domination.
May 23, 2002
Japanese railway companies will spend about 10 million yen to glue down stones that line the train tracks. They fear that drunken soccer hooligans could use the stones as weapons in a soccer riot.
And oddest of all to me, my own sleepy, little Oita prefecture is scheduled to host three World Cup games on June 10th, 13th, and 16th in the new Big Eye stadium. The Big Eye can seat 43,000 people. Wow! 43,000 soccer fans potentially descending on Oita. The Oita prefectural and city governments have been preparing for this for six years.
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens
June 12, 2002
Comments
Great news from Oita. And a succinct if incomplete description of the facilities in both Beppu and Oita-shi. One would have to live there to appreciate the real beauties of the place. Take the Yakuza for example. One of my favorite memories is of going to my favorite hotsprings, the name of which escapes me momentarily. This complex was comparatively large, sprawling in fact, and encompassed separate men's and ladies' baths with waterfalls, a submerged pebble walkway, sauna huts with dry heat and steam rooms. It also had a "rotenburo" or open bath where both sexes could cook like noodles in the steaming pools. One thing that fascinated me about this particular hot spring complex was that it had a sort of elevated walkway connecting the ladies' section to the outdoor pond. From this walkway you could look right down into the men's waterfall area. One evening I happened to do so and the site of extravagant tatoos plastered over a solid and compact body caught my eye. His body was so completely covered that he looked like he had a short wetsuit on. Upon closer if discreet inspection, (how discreet can a woman be looking down into the men's section from a raised bridge?) I saw the elegant stylized waves of Japanese art swirling over his chest and simultaneously concluded that he must be one of the famous Yakuza of Beppu. Alas, I was too far away to count his finger tips.
Comment by: jbl. Posted June 20, 2002 06:07 PM.
That's a great story! Was your yakuza encounter at Hyotan Spa? I used to love to go there even though it was somewhat expensive. I remember taking a blond German youth that M2 and I had met in Nagasaki to Hyotan Spa and lying naked next to him on the hot sands. Even at the time I knew it sounded much more wicked than it was. But a girl can dream.
Comment by: M Sinclair Stevens. Posted June 20, 2002 06:28 PM.
Actually this experience inspired an erotic story. Patty, Barbara and I used to get together for a writing group, along with Linda a Black American ex-jounalist Yoga teacher. We would give ourselves weekly topics, so I used the Yakuza experience to stimulte me and get my juices flowing, so to speak. I had read Anaiis Nin some time before and always liked her "Little Birds" stories so I tried to fashion something along those lines, literary rather than smutty. Maybe I should post that! And yes, it was Hyotan, which means gourd in Japanese. They sold them in the little gift shop in the entrance where you could also buy or rent your tiny towel and a yukata. This was the hot spring nearest to our jutaku (teachers' housing) and we could trot up the hill in only ten minutes or so. Myoban up near the Beppu Ohashi bridge was my favorite I think with the zabon floating in the waters (is that the one?) and the mud baths but Hyotan was our local hotsprings and felt like home. And you're right, some of the things that were so natural in Japan sound wicked now. The number of people I lay around naked with!
Comment by: jbl. Posted June 27, 2002 11:06 AM.
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2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan in Oita: Official Logo
