It is time again for another photo trip through one of the most fascinating countries of the world. A few days ago I wrote a first article about Nagasaki, and today I want to continue in this prefecture.
But we will not stay in the city, we will go for a short drive along the coast, and we will arrive in a town called Obama after about 90 minutes. One of reasons why we came here to the south of Japan is to see the bloom of the cherry blossoms, which we came much closer to on this day. The first signs are clear and everything is set for more pink and white, the next days will show this even more clearly. Today there are only a few isolated color sprinkles in the not yet really green nature, but that gives hope for the next days.
Now in October, we are far from being close to this season but I feel it is always the perfect time to boast about the beauty of spring. Cherry blossoms make my heart open wide quickly, and I need a dose of this beauty to bring me through the recent colder days.
As most parts of Japan, the island of Kyushu is also largely made up of mountains that reach down to the coast, which of course provides some nice panoramas. Here is a view over the city of Obama, squeezed between sea and mountains, where we had a little stopover. Just for fun and because it was time to soothe our growling stomachs.
In the city, it hisses and steams at several corners, geothermal activities are not really a special feature in Japan, but are used and pumped for various purposes. On the one hand of course in the many onsen, the famous Japanese thermal baths, which can be found all over the country and are very popular at any time of the year. Even in the middle of summer, many Japanese still go into the hot water to sweat it out. Everyone in the way they like it!
Another interesting way to use this geothermal energy can be seen here. In this stone bunker you can put various raw foods in small wooden baskets, which are then steamed in a natural and gentle way. On the wooden shield you can read the cooking times, for eggs 8 to 10 minutes and for potatoes for example 20 to 30 minutes. But also asparagus or octopus seems to enjoy some popularity here. A perfectly prepared Onsen egg is a delicacy that not only I appreciate very much.
But there is also a place to take care of your tired legs. If you don't want to immerse yourself completely in a hot spring, you can also start very slowly with just your feet. A foot onsen is something very special and often found near the thermal baths. There you either sit in a circle or like here in a row and the about 40 degrees hot water gently caresses you between your toes until your feet slowly look like a freshly cooked lobster.
On that day we weren't ready for that yet but should get to our foot bath at a later hour, but there is more about that soon.
Obama was a nice little break on our way. Just because of the name we had to stop here at least once and have a look around, which was a nice addition to the trip and also added some new pictures to my camera. But we want to go a little bit further towards Unzen, where it's really devilishly hissing and steaming, and we want to have a closer look at that.
Next time there will be a few pictures of that, so stay tuned to this channel to make sure you don't miss anything.