Wednesday October 10, 1990
Yesterday was a holiday and for one glorious day, the sun shone. Jenny and I made the most of it.
Our holiday actually began the night before when Jenny received a letter from an old friend professing a secret and undying love for her. It was, however, almost illegible, having been typed with a ribbonless typewriter. Thus, the letter bore but the faint impression of love. Jenny came down to show it to me and, because it's October, I baked apple tarts. We discussed how best to answer it. Rain began and it was after midnight when it stopped and Jenny could walk home. I accompanied her, walking my bicycle. We rediscovered the pleasure of walking and talking. I stopped to see her new place (she moved into Jeanne's old apartment) and to drink a glass of water flavored with sweet vinegar, and look at photos of her friends and her sweetheart. Then I rode the bicycle home; it was 2:AM before I was in bed.
But the sun streaming in my rooms woke up 4 hours later. I roused myself, went downstairs to the apartment onsen to take a bath, and then rode my bicycle downtown, lugging my camera and tripod. I've been determined to take some photographs as soon as we had a clear Fall day. I walked around taking photos for about two hours, bicycled home, ate a huge breakfast consisting of four pieces of toast and a pot of coffee, and fell asleep.
It was almost noon when I woke up again, quite groggy. I was just starting to write and do my accounting when Jenny called, and I abandoned all for her.
We decided to hike up the mountains to take a bath at Myouban Spa. We walked about an hour, past fields of tea, chattering away, jumping from one topic to another, interrupting, contradicting, backtracking to pick up lost threads, frequently returning to the theme of lost (or is it only misplaced?) love. I don't think either one of us ever finished a sentence.
After an hour, we were nearly under the span of the great, modern highway bridge (Beppu Myouban Ohashi) that dominates this valley. Here we detoured off the main road, past a hotel that had a little garden, though not like any I'd ever seen. The pools in this garden were pools of bubbling mud, and the scent of this garden was that of sulphurous steam.
We wandered the garden paths until we came to a mountain stream, and next to it was a small cinderblock house with a corrugated tin roof: a bath house. There was no attendant. Jenny went inside, drawing back the curtain that divides the dressing room from the bath, revealing a small sulphur pool, water cloudy with minerals, and steaming. We decided, why not? Let's have bath here. The water was so hot, our muscles relaxed so quickly that we could feel the tingling of our blood rushing to the tips of our fingers.
After our bath, we decided that we were too relaxed to walk further into the mountains. So we sat, looking down at the bay, and ate peanut butter and marmalade sandwiches, which Jenny had made, and shared a persimmon. The mountains were at our back and Beppu was at our feet. Every detail of the bay was clear. The buildings of Oita City on the south arm of the bay and Hiji Town on the north glittered like white pebbles in the sunlight. The sea was a deep aquamarine. And across the sea on the horizon we could see the neighboring island Shikoku.
We felt so invigorated that we decided to walk into town. It proved to be much further than we anticipated. More than two hours, our enthusiasm, and our patience passed before we reached Beppu station. We revived ourselves with some miso soup, domburi (rice with a topping), and noodles. Then we bought some little cakes, took the train back to Jenny's, and had them with coffee.
Thursday October 11, 1990
At 9:PM I went home and slept. So ended our holiday. Today it's dreary with rain again. Even a day later, I can smell the sulphur on my skin, in the membranes of my nose and lungs, and even in my urine.
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens
November 08, 2003
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- 06:00. Holiday. Up early. Bathe and then ride the bicycle downtown with the camera and the tripod to shoot some Ektra 25 film.
- 08:30. Home. Eat breakfast and go back to sleep.
- 11:00. Jenny and I walk up toward Myouban onsen. Stop to take a bath at a little roadside onsen. Eat our picnic lunch at the Tunisian's restaurant looking out over the bay. It is so clear we can see Shikoku.
- Walk downtown. It is much farther than the walk from Kamegawa to Beppu along the seawall.
- 19:02 Have dinner at that restaurant on the fourth floor of the Cosmopia. I have una-don and Jenny has dango-tei.
- Back to Jenny's for coffee and cake.
- 21:30. Home. Wash hair and then watch the Dead Pool.