Sakurajima part 2

The second time Angelica and I went to Sakurajima, we went to work (Note: I should be putting the word "work" in quotation marks as a sign of sarcasm or disdain since the amount of actual labor we put in probably amounted to roughly five minutes of normal work for other people, but I am trying to distance myself from the overuse of quotation marks as a a cheap and ineffectual shortcut.  After all, you really enjoyed reading this long-winded side note, right?  And would this have been possible had I used quotation marks?  Of course not!).  The owner of the hotel wanted to test drive a few WWOOFers (and here I remind you that WWOOF stands for Willing Workers on ORGANIC FARMS), so our host sent us over for two days.

Now, they had no idea what to do with us.  The gave us two 18-year-old chaperones who were scared to death of us, and mainly we just stood in a corner while people ran around trying to figure out a simple task that we couldn't screw up.

We ended up setting the tables for dinner and breakfast and then folding some towels.  And that was it.  Then we ran around for awhile taking pictures.

The coolest part of this trip was that we got to stay in the traditional tatami mat hotel rooms.  They are really big rooms with futons in the closet.  On the thing that looks like a balcony but was actually just a small, partitioned off place, there was a small table, a sink (the bathroom and toilet room were on the opposite side of the room near the door) and a refrigerator.  And then there was a balcony beyond that. 

They even provided yukatas for our use.  Yukatas look like mini-kimonos/bathrobes, and people wear them around the hotel, to the restaurants or going to/from the onsen. Please ignore the funny look on my face; that's what happens after 20 failed attempts at taking a picture of myself.