Aso -- The Heart of Kyushu

I am smitten by the people of Aso.

After crossing the Korea Strait by hydrofoil, I was bustled through Immigration, then Customs in Fukuoka.  The pert, young Customs agent smiled and asked what I would be doing for three weeks in Japan.

"I don't know," I said.  "I'm at the ANA Crowne Plaza here tonight, but then I'm on Japan Rail Pass.  What do you think I should do?"

"You should go to Aso-san," she said, bowing as she handed back my passport.

Never having heard of Aso-san, I googled it when I got into my room that night and was dismayed to learn that it was less than 100 miles from Fukuoka, and it was to the south, in the very center of Kyushu.  I had actually thought I would head straight up to northern Japan and work my way back down, but I thought, I asked for her advice and she gave it to me;  I need to follow it.

The next morning, I had a great deal of trouble finding accommodations in the Aso/Kumamoto area.  The summer holiday is peak season for travel in Japan, so a lot of places I found on the web were fully booked.  Worse, many of the hotels do not provide English versions of their webpages.  I was stymied, so I went down to the concierge hoping my Priority Club membership might finally pay off.  After about half an hour of phone calls conducted entirely in Japanese, I was booked into the Aso Kougen Hotel on the outskirts of Aso City, located at the base of Aso-san, that is, Mt. Aso.  This service was definitely worth more than all of the Rewards Points I've ever earned.  At that point, it was simply a matter of figuring out how to activate my rail pass and board the next shinkansen heading south.

From then on, my every desire was met with grace and patience.  One of the front desk clerks at Aso Kougen Hotel is a young woman who worked in Vancouver, British Columbia for a time, so her English is very good.  She took a lot of time to explain how to negotiate the local bus system to get up the mountain, then ride the Aso Ropeway up to the world's largest active caldera.  The next day, the hotel's Chief of Reception gave me a ride to the nearest bus station on his own time.  It turns out he lived in Van Nuys, California for 17 years and attended UCLA, studying geophysics.  In fact, he was at UCLA while I was studying Chinese there in '83.  I can tell they both delight in practicing their English, but I really cannot express how helpful they were to this traveler.  Most people I've encountered in Japan have only a very limited knowledge of English (which is still infinitely better than my Japanese) so languaging has often proved quite difficult.  Even so, everyone in Aso--from white-gloved bus drivers to uniformed waitresses--has bent over backward to try to help me accomplish whatever it is I'm trying to do.

Working together with the staff who could translate for me, we figured out how to order traditional Japanese fare off the hotel's restaurant menu (opting for fried squid rather than horsemeat sushi), how to visit a local onsen or hot spring, and how to get to Aso-jinja, one of the oldest and most prominent Shinto shrines in Japan.  They even did some laundry for me, which they may have considered a public service.

But it's not only their interactions with me.  I see how they interact with one another, and it's equally gracious.  Every exchange begins with a smile and ends with a bow.  We might consider importing that idea into the U.S.

I don't know if it's the Japanese version of southern hospitality, or simply a matter of getting out of the big city, but these are the warmest, most accommodating people I have met on this journey.  Put that together with some of the most gorgeous landscape on Earth, and you could easily see living out the rest of your days here.

But that must be another time.  While on my way up to Aso-san, I met a young man from Ohio named Adam, who's been teaching English in Osaka for the past six years.  When I asked him where I should go, he said I must visit the Peace Park.  Okay then--Hiroshima it is.

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