On Saturday, January 28th, I got a message from my friend H. I had been ready to settle in for the evening, doing who knows what boring pastime *coughtheSimscough* when I got the message. It seemed that H's friend, who was supposed to fly down from Tokyo to join her for the Beppu Cold Resilience Challenge on the 29th, had had her flight delayed so much that she wasn't flying in after all. So H had an AirBnB all to herself, with an extra bed. She invited me to join, and in a rare show of spontaneity, I said yes!
So I gathered my overnight supplies and took the train from Nakatsu to Beppu (about a 50-minute ride). Beppu is known for its hot springs (some of which are so hot and foreboding that they're called hells) and Asia Pacific University (APU), an international university. I had made a couple of friends at APU through school events, and messaged one of them to see what he was up to. He was nice enough to invite me and H to dinner and drinks with a group of his friends, and we had a good time. We also went to the local APU hangout, a bar whose name I forget, and I broke out three getting-to-know-you questions I had learned tell you a lot about someone. If you're curious, have me ask you the questions in person!
Shaved ice eating contest
The next morning, we set out early to meet some ALT friends at Beppu station, from which we were going to drive up to the Beppu Ropeway. After a stop at the combini (of course), we headed up the mountain. There may be buses to get to the ropeway, but it was convenient that we had someone to drive us. It was a pretty windy road.
When we arrived at the base of the ropeway on Mt. Tsurumi, we met up with some more ALTs. It turned out that one of the two ALTs who had planned to sign up and participate in the challenge was sick, so our driver, K, decided to sign up in his place. We then bought our tickets for the airlift and packed onto it to make our way to the mountaintop. On the way up, we saw a deer on the moutain, just munching away on... dead grass... We wondered how it had gotten so high up!
The guy on the far left was just wearing a loincloth-type getup!
There was a bit of time before the Gaman Taikai (resilience challenge or endurance contest) was to begin, so we all wandered around the mountaintop, taking in the views and poking around the little shrine there, which had love fortunes on offer.
Then things got started with the kakigori (shaved ice) eating contest, which K had signed up for. The contestants had to sit on big blocks of ice covered with plastic, while eating out of bowls made of ice! The fastest eater was the winner, though sadly K didn't come in first.
Somen eating
Each event had two rounds. So after the second round of kakigori eating came cold somen noodle eating, icy-hands needle threading (which the other ALT participated in — you can see him get confused during the challenge in the video below), and the final event: clinging to a large block of ice. In almost all the events, there was a different martyr of a man competing in just a loincloth. I couldn't believe it! Kyushu doesn't get as cold as, say, Hokkaido, where there are literal ice and snow festivals, but it was still pretty cold in Beppu that day!
Ice water bath for the hands of the needle-threaders
For the final block-clinging event, you had to be both cold-tolerant and strong, as you had to cling in a certain position without using your feet. Only your hands! If I remember correctly, the longest clinging time was about one minute. I could never do that!! And, in fact, I don't think there were any women in that event. Or if there were, it was only one. Compare that with the six or so women doing the needle-threading event!
At the end of the event, we headed back down on the airlift. I had planned to go do some sightseeing in Yufuin with some of the other ALTs, but I just felt way too tired from standing in the cold and was ready to collapse. So, we all spent some time in the gift shop (a couple of our number missed the airlift and had to get the next one twenty minutes later) and then after getting back to Beppu, I headed homeward with H, who is always great company!
I think this guy lasted about 5 seconds before he slipped down.
Take a look at the video below for some snippets of the contest!
yikes!
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