Adventerous Aso

Back from the Kyushu trip bruised, battered, and full of cold, but it was bloody brilliant.

We went to a place called Aso-san, in which the town is set within a flippin huge caldera the result of a volcanic eruption 90,000 years ago. So obviously, the town is pretty famous for a volcano - but not just any volcano, one of the biggest volcanoes in the world. It puts the volcanoe in the Jimmy B film (sorry, that`s James Bond for those not familiar with Jim) You Only Live Twice to shame. It was incredible. THE Badger. It also smelt worse than Middlesbrough on a bad day - the sulphur smoking out of the crater was insanely intense, so much so on the day we went they were blasting warnings IN JAPANESE that poisonous gasses were particularly bad that day and could therefore everybody please evacuate the volcano asap, arigato gozaimashita. Of course, as it was in Japanese, I didn`t have a clue what was being said, so poceeded to do the 3 hour walk around the volcano`s cliffs, pretty much downwind most of the time and inhaling a bucket load of sulpher. Thanks for nothing dudes. You want me to carry on being uber genki for your kids, try keeping me alive first. Still, it was worth it. Look at these photos!

Before we went on a climb, I took Jay paragliding! This was also bloody brilliant, as we didn`t even do it Tandem. After a couple of minutes of training that went along the lines of "throw yourself down that hill.... run run run run right hand up right hand chest left hand chest left hand up brake brake brake brake brake.........", we were then told to run down that hill and do precisely that. With the instructor at the bottom shouting the appropriate instructions. Now the lass who was doing it all before us had had a bit of an accident - and she was doing it Tandem!!! - and she pulled the instructor down the hill with her without ever leaving the ground, and somehow in all of this th megaphone that the instructor uses got broken. I still don`t know how that happened. But, it meant when it came to me running down that hill and supposedly flying, i couldn`t actually here a word this guy was saying. (And remember it was broken English with a very thick Japanese accent. So when I tried to follow his instructions, whilst up in the air and flying towards the ground, i couldn`t really hear him as such, and it was more " baaa haaa daaa, riiiii hiiiiiiii aaaaaaa, leaaaaa haaaaaaa waaaaaaa". I didn`t have a fucking clue what was happening some of the time, which probably explains why I went nose diving into a bush headfirst and ended up looking like i`d been pulled through a hedge backwards. But hey, I got back up that hill and proceeded to do it all again. Muchos amusement.

All in all a great trip.

Yesterday I turned 25. Now the thing that bothers me most about this, is the fact that I lose my Young Person`s Railcard next year. I`ve only got one year left of abuse, and here I am on the other side of the world not able to use it. Boo hoo. How will I ever travel around England again without using the Mega bus for a pound? Now I know the idea is, is that at 26 I am a young professional earning bucket loads of cash and contributing to the British economy in full, but thats a big load of crap, and extremely unlikely. After all, I want to go and do Alternative Mdicine when I get back, which means I will once again be a pimple on the asshole of society for another 3 years. And there`s nothing worse than a Mature Student being all tight with cash. Hmmmm. I reckon as they are bumping up the age of retirement, it is only fair they bump up the age of the Young Person`s Railcard. I`ve got a lot of friends whose birth certificates say they are 30+, and there is nee way these peeps are anywhere near the young professionals earning bucket loads of cash that the British government idealises about.

Sigh.