truffles? ... ooh rah!

My first "truffle hunt" finally arrived, much later than it should have, but it arrived!  The act of "truffling" is basically the act of exploring somwhere new in the form of an overnight road trip.  Truffling usually takes place over a weekend and involves a car load heading somewhere with no real plan as to how things will pan out, but all members being totally up for any adventure that may come their way.  Basically, the perfect road trip ingredients.

Satsuma Peninsular

The act of "truffling" is basically the act of exploring somewhere new in the form of an overnight road trip

So, at 4am on Saturday morning Nick, Matto, Feral Matt and I forced our eyes to remain open (some of us longer than others, Feral Matt!) and loaded into the car to begin our journey south.  We'd only had about four hours sleep, but figured we may as well get the five hour drive south out of the way so we could have a full day of exploring.

We dominated the road, in very legal fashion I might add, and rolled past Kagoshima city at about 7.30am!  Our first destination was the Satsuma Peninsular, and more specifically Kaimon-Dake (an extinct volcano resembling a mini Fuji-san), which we arrived at by 9am.  Before we set off on our hike we had a little truffle (ohh rah) at a small kids adventure playground.  Being four guys of a fairly competitive nature it didn't take long before we had ourselves a route up, down, along and through the obstacles, and were racing it one at a time and recording the times.  My winning time was a bit catch 22, on one hand i got the win, but I think that it was probably more down to the wet slide than me, as I went first I consequently took all the water with me on my ass leaving it dry and slower for the other guys.  Still, they didn't have to hike with a wet bum for three hours!

We were told by the resident 'old ladies' (they're never more than a stone throw away in Japan) that the usual climbing time was five hours round trip.  For four boys who ran a half marathon the weekend before it really wasn't a time we were aiming for.  We dominated the mountain in just over two and a half hours, "Take that Kaimon-Dake!"  The walk up and down was actually really cool.  There was loads of volcanic rock to navigate over, a plentiful supply of greenery in for the form of small ferns and low canopy trees, and running down the scree through the winding track was a wicked finish.  The only shame was the cloud at the top that ruined potential views, still you can't win them all.

After some two minutes noodles and instant ramen, and all feeling our energy levels topping up again, we took our competitive nature to the nearby 'pitch and putt' golf course.  I personally had never heard of a 'pitch and putt', which it turns out is a mini golf course requiring just two clubs (which funny enough were a pitcher and a ... yep, putter!).  The longest hole was a massive 84m, and the average hole was usually in the 40's.

We decided to pair up and play a game of ambrose.  Nick and I formed the 'All Star' team, and left Matto and Feral Matt to form their 'Team Matt'.  Nick and I were supremely confident of a win, and even threw about the notion of winning each of the nine holes.  I think it has to go down as the most uneven game of sports since...  well, since England beat Germany 5-1!  And, just like on that day, the Brits came away with the goods, thrashing Nick and I, in a result that really suggested I should never pick up a golf club again.  It wasn't even just that Nick and I played like a couple of cripples with blind folds on, team Matt actually played a very sensible, solid round of golf, scoring just over par!  Full credit to them.

After the very enjoyable stroll around the golf course, and with the cloud now burnt off and the sun shining down on us, we piled back into the car and drove back in the direction of Kagoshima to find Ibusuki Onsen.  We found it with little trouble, parked up and the headed down the beach to find a suitable onsen establishment.  Finding one wasn't hard as the guests were spread out on the beach either lining up in yukatas or being buried in sand!

We payed our yen, stripped off in the changing room, donned a yukata and strolled out to join the queue.  The sand is heated by the volcanic activity in the area.  We waiting for four free spots and to be called over, then we made our way, lay down in the yukata on the sand and each had shovels of sand pilled up over our bodies until we were completely buried except for the face (breathing is pretty important after all).  While the sand wasn't instantly hot it warmed up at a pretty rapid pace.  It was a very strange sensation being buried and feeling my body pulse as my heart pumped the blood around my body, but, at the same time it was extremely relaxing and one couldn't help but close their eyes and fall into a state of half consciousness.

However in less than 10 minutes the heat below my arse had got to such a level that I just had to get out.  The four of us made our way inside to wash off and enjoy the more regular onsen of the bath variety.  Watching one french guy get in the onsen without showering, or cleaning himself was quite funny.  The poor guy clearly didn't know onsen etiquette, and the importance of thoroughly cleaning ones body before getting in... he had sand on his shoulders and everything!  Actually I'm very surprised he wasn't lynched for his actions, instead everyone just seemed to turn a blind eye.

With time against us we made our way to Kagoshima City to catch the ferry across to Sakurajima (cherry blossom Island) where we had a reservation at the only Youth Hostel.  After some initial difficulty finding the ferry terminal (Japanese road signs are not always the best help), we made it and didn't have to wait more than five minutes for the ferry across.  The ferry runs 24hours a day, and at about four an hour until about nine at night.  The ride over was short, we hadn't been out of the car for more than five minutes before we were racing back to the bottom deck to unload.

Sakurajima

Sakurajima mostly comprised by an active volcano and it used to be an island until an eruption about 50 years ago joined it to Kyushu.  The island itself is no more than 50kms in circumference (maybe only 34kms by road in what would be a pretty nice ride for anyone on a semi-decent bike).  We had been told to check into the hostel by 8.30pm and so had raced up from the beach onsen, not stopping for any dinner.  This proved to be a rookie mistake, and to anyone intending on staying I definitely suggest either arriving in the afternoon when the supermarket is open, or eat at Kagoshima before you go over (the latter would be my pick).  However, after checking into the hostel, run by the most frosty, grumpy man in all of the Tourism industry, we were forced to grab dinner at a conbini as there are no restaurants open at night!.  Our bodies had already been through enough with conbini stop after conbini stop providing our food thus far, but, we forced the food down our reluctant bodies, which were screaming out for something fresh and not covered in mayonnaise, or containing 100g of fat, and washed it all down with some much needed beer.

That night we were all pretty shattered from our big day (we'd been on the go since 4 remember), so we enjoyed some quiet beers and played a little poker until everyone had pretty much lost interest and was more keen for bed than securing their chips.  Man I slept well that night!

The next morning we were up and out of the hostel before 9.  The lady on reception was a slight improvement from the guy the night before, but only slight.  She was rather confused when we hired four 'granny bikes' from her for the day and then when she offered to take our packs we declined telling her we could leave them in the car downstairs.  But, why would we want bikes if we had a car?!... Some people just don't get it!

After some much needed food from a reasonably priced restaurant we made our way in convoy on our kick ass stylish granny bikes to the water front to ride along the "magma trail".  It was a fun morning ride with the volcano to our left in the centre of the island standing tall, and looking very much like a smaller Mt Ruapehu, and the ocean to our right.  After we had done the magma trail we decided to be a bit adventurous, and really step things up a notch, by riding up a road to a look out.  The said lookout just happened to be at the end of a 7km road, all of which was uphill!!

After about five minutes of hill climbing, on bikes not meant for anything except a trip to the supermarket, we took a break to asses our situation.  It was quickly agreed that this was what "truffling" is all about and we would just suck it up.  Just under an hour later we made it to the look out, with sweat pouring from our pores, blisters on our hands, and our legs and tri's wondering what they did to deserve such treatment!

All good though, even without the awesome views, the ride down was worth it alone!  An hour up and six minutes down, man that was a fun ride with the wind racing past us, tearing up our eyes to make us look like we had just sat through the ending of King Kong five times in a row...showing again, and again, the moment king kong lets go and gives up on the world (oh so sad)!  We even managed to get down with out any casualties, much to my surprise, as our bikes weren't in the best shape, especially in the brake pad department!

After our random hill climbing escapade we found the "dinosaur park" which consisted of some large dinosaur statues dotted around some cherry blossom trees in full bloom with families enjoying hanami.  Around the dinosaurs one could hear the cacophony of terrified children crying (sometimes realistic models aren't always a good thing), mixed in with the laughter of other kids having a wail of a time (or just poking fun at the criers.. I'm not too sure).  The highlight of the park was definitely the 50m roller slide which we truffle hunters proceeded to dominate, and turn from just a slide, into the main attraction of the park.

Next up we took the bikes back to "grumpsville" and grabbed the car and made our way around island to find a 3m Tori that was buried in ash once when the volcano erupted.  Now only the top metre remains above ground and has been preserved as a testament to the destruction caused many years ago.

Now well into the afternoon we decided we had done our dash on Sakurajima, so we made our way off the island and drove the long trip back north to Saga ken.  Again we made pretty good time and soon found ourselves in familiar surroundings.  My first truffle hunt was coming to an end their remained just one last tradition - all singing along to Queen's 'I want to break free' - the official truffle hunting song.

All in all, a great weekend way, Kagoshima Ken has some real treats, and more importantly I'm very happy and proud to now be a member of the mighty truffle hunter team.