Not men but women

Erick didn’t made his bag the day before so he had to go back home kinda early to prepare his clothes for the weekend trip to Kyushu, Justin picked him up an hour after and they both went to meet their friends to the train station, Erick loves trains, he likes the idea of travelling in them rather than cars, “they’re just nice” is his argument. They got to Osaka harbour an hour later in company of the french Charles, Mickael, Jean Michell and Florian, then Marc from Belgium, Emmanuel from Italy and the Japanese Yuki, Masumi and Satsuki.
 
The boat turned out bigger than our hero imagined, and hence a lot more fun, they arranged common rooms with around 30 people all sharing the same space, of course it was cheaper but the Futon was more uncomfortable than usual. The guys were having fun outside in the platform with a pretty nice wind some beers and above all their own company. The trip was uneventful except for the fact that they saw a bridge near Kobe and was a pretty amazing view that all of them stared as long as it lasted.
 
In the following morning after a bad 4 hours sleep the guys arrived at Beppu which is one of the main harbours of the island, before getting of they met a nice canadian guy called Tyler who specifically gave them the advice of “Get the hell out of Beppu as soon as you can”, which our friends of course did. They arrived at Yufuin a couple of hours later after a wavy drive in a local bus. The teams splitted for some odd reason, Erick, Charles, Mickael, Satsuki, Justin and Florian ended up having a nice lunch in a local restaurant and it was indeed delicious, though nothing special just Udon and green tea.
 
After lunch they all decided to go back to Beppu where they’re Ryokan –Japanese style hotel- was located, once there they got their rooms which turned out to be pretty nice, the Hostess prepared the boys some tea while them as good tourists took a thousand pictures of the event. At the end of the short break Erick decided to take a bath so he went downstairs to the onsen wearing his Yukata or summer Kimono, a couple other guys were relaxing there and it turned out to be again a good experience, though he had to go back quickly because the night was only starting. But since it was still a little early, they all went for a walk to see the Harbour in this part of Japan, while taking the tour many friendships grew bigger between laughter and walking and they all got to know each other a little more.
 
A couple of hours later they all got back to the hotel to prepare for dinner which was extremely special, some of the guys were wearing Yukatas some didn’t. The dinner again consisted of a parade of raw and rare meals, though our character is growing fond of such dishes and he enjoyed the meal like everybody else. Thru the course of dinner the hostess had to fix his Yukata because it was tied in the wrong direction, this is left side first then right which is the way people dress the deads before saying goodbye.
 
A few boys decided to go to a bar around the area, and again Japan proved to be a bad source for this kind of places, they all agreed that the only way to get a nice crowd is to go to a restaurant such as an Izacaya. They did find a bar but it was too empty and dead to enjoy it so they all decided to go back and enjoy the onsen before saying good night.
 
Erick was the only guy of the group that had been to the Onsen in this Ryokan before with the exception of Emmanuel but who was already inside the bath, so he lead the group of guys to the place where he went before, but by surprise there wer women washing their selves in the common area :
 
-          This is the women side man, let’s get out of here. – Said Charles
-          No I’ve been here before, I took a bath here in the afternoon. – replied our hero
-          You’re crazy there is naked women in there, let’s go.  – The american pointed out
-          It’s got to be a mixed bathroom, I was here early today. – insisted Erick while walking towards the bath.
-          We’re leaving you stay. – All said at one voice
 
A couple of seconds later he followed the guys still not convinced that it was the women bath until by asking a girl from staff it was confirmed, from now on he would be the joke of the whole trip.
 
After a couple of hours in the Onsen –the right side this time. They all went to sleep of course not before making fun of the Mexican for such a terrible mistake for several minutes. The morning after our friends splitted again, some went to a mountain called Asso, and Justin, Satsuki, Emanuel, Florian and our character decided to visit the many Onsens by which Beppu is famous.
 
A total of nine onsens were covered in about 4 hours by the group, from blue colored, red, yellow, gray and more. I should say that they found something interesting, and is that the locals put eggs in a basket and then immerse them in the hot water of the hot spring which gives them a different color and taste, of course they tried them just for the fun of something new rather than hunger. Floating Gates, Coffe Factories, Shrines, Dragons steaming from their mouths, a nice view at the beach, all of it was part of the journey and they all loved it. And of course lets not forget that they met a taxi driver that took them between a couple of onsens and the harbour for a reasonable price and on top of that gave them a nice talk.
 
The ferry on the way back was again uneventful though more relaxed until someone got the idea of buying an “Uno” card game which turned into a bloddy competition.
 
Friendships were made, fun was always on the table, experiences, smiles and all sort of artifacts that can be found in a 20 something soup of eclectic Gaijins were the ingredients of this terrific weekend. They all will have Kyushu in their hearts … until the next weekend.