Unzen is located on the Shimabara Peninsula and is about a 2 hour jaunt from Nagasaki (Oy! Wake up the back you dozy gits, I'll be asking questions later). Now, where was I? Ah yes. Blah blah blah. Unzen is famous for three main reasons apart from its stunning scenery: 1) People from all over Japan voluntarily fling themselves naked into boiling water. 2) Christians from all over Japan were flung rather less voluntarily into even more boilinger water. 3) A large mountain with a hole in the top flung boiling liquid and rock out at some innocent bystanders. Well. There'll be a hot time in the old town tonight, and no mistake. Because of the area's volcanic activity, hot springs (onsen) abound and the water is believed to have curative properties. I'll cover onsen on another occasion, suffice it to say that you need to be fairly resilient to get the best out of them. The Christian persecution thing rears its ugly head again amid these beautiful mountains. The search was at times akin to the witch hunts of medieval England and 20th century America. Several methods of discovery were employed, one being to ask someone to stamp on an image of Christ; refusal clearly indicating someone who believes Easter is more than a few days off work. The disposal method here invloved being taken to 'The Hells'; an area where volcanically heated, boiling, muddy water lay in steaming pools, and the air is thick with sulpher dioxide. Quite simply, the victims were boiled to death. Ironically it is now a mecca for those wishing to improve their health. Mt. Fugen is the highest of the peaks and dominates the skyline from miles away. In 1990 it decided it was time to wake up and erupted sending a deadly pyroclastic cloud down its slopes. Among those killed was a world-renowned French volcanologist and his wife who, as did others, fatally miscalculated the strength of the eruption. Though some years since the eruption, merely a geological heartbeat, some areas around Fugen are still considered too dangerous to visit. Apart from all this, it's just an everday story of quiet country folk.

Another memorial to Christian forebears	This area is called "The Hells" - it's no mystery

Mt. Fugen's deadly eruption produced a grey, superheated pyroclastic cloud of devastating proportions. (Photos: Kenji Ohkawa)