Orandajin

I had planned two days in Beppu and figured one day of onsens would be more than enough for me. So i chose to do something a bit more active but still not too crowded today. I read about stone Buddhas in a small town calles Usuki just an hour south op Beppu and thought this would be the ideal spot for me to be active and still get some rest. Trains to smaller places don't go very often in these surroundings and because i lacked to check the schedule i had to wait almost an hour for the first train. As i arrived at Usuki i found al the bus schedules to be in Japanese only and so i asked the friendly lady from the tourist office if she could help me out a little bit. She very enthousiastically started to tell me about the area and all the things to see and do. After a while she showed me the busroute and explained that the next bus to the stone Buddhas would soon depart from the station. The busstop was only a few steps away from the station and as the bus arrived i was the only passenger to board it. That remained so until the bus arrived at the final stop at the stone Buddhas. I got a ticket at the entrance gate and the lady was apparantly surprised to see a foreigner because she asked me where i was from and was surprised when i told her i was from Oranda. She was friendly enought to point me to the entrance of the stone Buddha park and soon i was on my way. Most of the signs and boards were in kanji but it was still a spectacular sight to see the Buddhas carved out from the rocks. I walked around for more than an hour and made sure i visited all the statues. I was a really relaxing and inspiring site to walk around in. I wrote a small note in one of the guestbooks. I had seen a small restaurant on the way up to the place and as i had to wait another 45 minutes for the bus figured it would be a nice place to have lunch. I entered the restaurant and heard 3 people from different places in the restaurant yell "Orandajin!" which means "Dutch person!" I guess I was the news of the day in this very small place. :-)
I order lunch and got a really simple but delicious and hearty vegetable meal. It had all kinds of locally picked vegetables, fresh and pickled with rice and miso soup. As the bus was about to come i left the restaurant and the lady from the ticketwindow was so friendly to recheck the bus schedule for me. One bus and trainride and i was back in Beppu again. It was getting late in the afternoon and after hunting for some nice Beppu t-shirts i went back to the hostel to meet up with all the folks from yesterday evening. Sunshine suggested to go to a park and relax and play some baseball and volleyball which sounded like a great idea. I went to bed tired but satisfied. This was just the day i needed. :-)Read more