Noxious Fumes Galore!

I met Katie and Leon Friday night at our meeting spot off the highway and we drove up to the Aso area to spend the night before our weekend of hiking. We spent too long at the dollar store after dinner picking up a few supplies we'd forgotten (fork, bowl, cup) so we didn't make it to our intended campsite. But, we did stay in a love hotel, since they're so damn economical! It was a cheap inaka place, so the rooms have thin walls and personal parking spaces with garage doors to maintain your privacy from non-guests. I forget what the hotel was called, but in the driveway it did have a giant 3-D shark head emerging from the wall, which was the selling point for me. Everything else about the room was pretty much standard--fridge, mini vending machine, shower with window, nice bathroom. But they did have catalogues of hosts and prostitutes you could hire within Kumamoto. There were photos of hundreds of girls (yes, all Japanese) in various layers of dress and undress. Some had blurred faces, some didn't. A large portion listed the various things they would be willing to be paid to do, and some had funny graphs describing the softness, texture, sensitivity and size of their breasts. The photos of the hosts were kind of funny. I'm sure some of them are prostitutes, too, but they didn't list anything. They all had suits on, and some of them were really, really pretty. There were also some really damn ugly guys, too. I wonder, who hires the sleazy-looking, below-average-in-looks, overweight guy with girly hair to hang out with? Eh. Oh, and apparently you can buy the prostitute catalogues at stores for 300 yen. How can this be legal??
The next day we drove up to Mt. Aso and tried to do a 40 min hike up to the caldera, but the gas was too strong and they closed the area for the day. Before they closed it, we started to walk up the path (the ropeway was under construction and driving cost money), but the sulfur fumes were really really strong and our lungs burned way to much to walk for even another couple minutes. I can see how getting gassed by the police or in combat would be really awful!
On our way to our campsite we ended up going to an awesome pizza place (the rare thin crust! and to a cheap, cheap, cheap grocery store (1 giant grapefruit size watermelon was 198! Avocados 88 yen each! Lemons 3 for 78 yen!) that we went back to on our way home and stocked up on melons to give people (we bought 12). The site was grassy and next to a field of cows.
We ended up doing a really dangerous hike after we missed/misread the sign saying to go up a different part. So we climbed up rotten rock and loose rocks for far too long up a steep incline. A bit scary. We started a couple of rockslides, too. Next time we'll pay better attention!
Sunday we hiked a couple of hours from near our campsite to the two tallest peaks of Mt. Aso and we could see the calderas from the top. Gorgeous views and great weather. But weirdly, in Japan only old people and little kids go hiking. Mostly just old people. It's rare to see people my age out of doors around here (although I know some play soccer)! I asked my English teacher why today, and she said that "just walking around is boring!" Uh, okay.