To Hell and Back--Written Oct 26

Our last night in Unzen was spent in "Hell" at Kyushu Hotel, a traditional ryokan at a sulfur spring. The hotel was shrouded in a sulfur mist, which was beautiful and romantic, but stunk like rotten eggs! They call it hell because the sulfur boils out of the ground in pools and is very hot. As soon as we got there, several of us dropped our bags and went to a pottery store down the street, but it looked closed. There was no one in the shop and the lights were turned down. We walked back to the hotel, dejected, but Jill was determined, and asked to front desk to call and ask the shop to open for us! Turns out they were open after all, so the hotel piled us in a van and drove us back. We made it worth the shop’s time! The pottery was beautiful, and we kind of cleaned them out!
We were supposed to be back for dinner at 6:30, but it was more like 6:50 by the time we made it. Everyone was waiting for us in their yukata! That’s ok, we plopped down anyway. This was a traditional Japanese dinner, with special dishes from the area. The first course was a delicious salad with tuna sashimi and squid. Then we had some raw food on a fondue type of thing with a leaf for cooking on. The food cooked by the time the candle burned out, then we were supposed to eat it, but it all tasted like leaf to me. The next courses consisted of various fish and rice products, but my stomach is still not up to snuff, so I kind of picked at them. Some were good, some slimy, salty or crunchy, and all very different from American food.
The highlight of the evening was a karaoke machine! Someone needed to be the brave first singer, so I let my vast Rock Band experience lead the way. I got up and sang "I Will Survive" in honor of surviving my sick week in Unzen. After my icebreaker, others got up and sang, too, and I joined a few friends in singing an old Madonna song towards to end.
As I write this, I am at the airport waiting for the plane back to Tokyo.