Kyushu 2015 Autumn Self Drive Trip - Day 2

Day 2 : Saga to Nagasaki , Stay Nagasaki

Today will be making our way to Nagasaki , for breakfast we decided to go try the famous bento made using Saga Beef. Cos Kyotoya does not provided breakfast with our booking, to add breakfast , we need to top up SGD $12 / pax which we might as well spend in on the Award-winning Beef Bento.
The bento is sold at the Takeo Onsen Cafe Kairodo at Takeo-Onsen Train Station. There are 3 types of bento on sale there , 1 ) 佐賀牛 極上カルビ焼肉弁当 ( A5 beef ) @ 1620 yen , 2 ) 佐賀牛すき焼き弁当 @ 1300 yen and 3) 佐賀牛サーロインステーキ＆焼肉弁当 ( A5 beef ) @ 2160 yen. No. 1 and 2 were award-winning bento so we tried both. ( reason also we felt no.3 a bit pricy after spending quite a lot on beef last night ).  All bentos can be top up and make it as a set ( stated on the website ) but we did not as do not wants a too heavy breakfast. There are seats in the cafe if you wish to eat there. Btw , Kairodo and Sagaya ( the BBQ beef restaurant last night ) are "sisters" company. There is a popular shop called Kira Honten but that is in Saga Station and Fukuoka and even shop in Tokyo. This restaurant we did not tried but read about it a few times on Kyushu's guidebook, so maybe you can try if you are around those areas.

Takeo Onsen Gate

Ticket Vending machine and Temperature for Takeo Onsen

After breakfast , we decided to visit the Takeo Onsen , we just took picture of the gates and look look see see then we moved on , did not spend time to go into the onsen as we already dipped in the one in Kyotoya before check out. Aslo we actually had plan to go to one in Ureshino.
Next up we decided to check out Mifuneyamarakuen ( 御船山楽園 ) , this is about 5 min drive from Takeo-Onsen which is supposed to be another place for Koyo aka Autumn colours. Fyi , there are illuminations certain period during autumn for Koyo but we had decided to go for Ogi's bamboo light up instead last night cos felt that using light to boost the Koyo 's colours is not natural. We were a bit early as most of the trees are not red yet though many leaves had dropped , do check the official site for updates if you plan to visit , think it's good for other flowers during different seasons. Btw , very thumbs up with the Japanese in terms of visiting these places , to cut down traffic jams , they usually had big parking for cars some distance away but they provide free shuttle bus services to and fro from the parking area to the places of interest. So do take know of these when you use you GPS , once around the area if you see people guiding you to carparks , just ask them the place you going to , 99% is the carpark is full on top and they redirect traffic to other parking.

Shruiken throwing

After chasing the not-so-red Koyo , we decided to visit the Hizenyumekaidou (肥前夢街道 ) Ninja Village in Ureshino. We saw this on some Taiwan's show and decided to drop by since along the way to have a Ninja "experience", there are a few different type of entrance plan , from just pure entrance plan to with ninja wear plan to "game" plan.  my advice is just to 1 person to get the "game" plan and few others to get normal entrance plan , unless you wish to dress up as ninjas. Reason is with the "game" plan you need to pay 1000 yen more but this gives you a card to play games free , there are few stations you can play games to experiences maze which will cost 300-500yen each time. The cards got like 10 boxes , each time you choose a game it will mark on the card , so this mean for instance the blow darts , each time it takes 1 blank box, meaning you can play 10 times which is very worth it but unless you really wants to play a lot else will be waste of $ , we paid for 2 "game" plan but we did not complete both cards. There are basically a Ninja theatre ( which we skip ) , some maze ( skip also ) , balloon game , Shuriken throwing and blow darts, etc. We only interested in the Shruiken throwing ( which I almost got a bull eye but the dart did not stayed on the target and dropped) , if you got bull eye , think they will award you a gift/cert. There is also "ninja" classes for kids.

We had wanted to try a particular onsen in Ureshino , but it was closed for renovation when we drove there. Reason why we wanted to try this is because you can "soak in teacup" here. Attached is the website for the onsen which you can take a look at the "teacup" if interested. It's called 靜雲莊 , best to give a call before you go , don't be like us , drove there only to find it was under renovated ( actually we just saw outside there was some renovation going on but did not really went down to ask if the onsen is still accessible )

Online Picture

Online Picture

Our plan was to go to theYūtokuInari Shrine (祐徳稲荷神社)  ( this is one of the 3 famous Inari Shrine in Japan , the top being Fushimi Inari in Kyoto ) next but decided to give a miss since it getting a bit late and we hope to reach Nagasaki by evening to catch night view at Mt Inasa , so we drove straight to Tara for late lunch instead. Why we choose Tara is because it famous for Takezaki crabs (Takezaki crab is a nickname for a type of blue crab called Gazami ) and just nice it was in season. We first drove to the Tara Road Station , I loved visiting japan's Road Stations , cos usually it will sell the local products of the town/region. I remember the one I visited in Hokkaido , Toyoura Road Station , it sell strawberry ice cream and fried scallops , also they actually sell those cooked small scallops in a big box at very cheap prices. So if you are driving in Japan , do take note of road station , not only it served as a toilet break place , it also good for bites.

Back to Tara , we had very nice fried crab meat legs here and also we made some purchased for local products. And just because it was their oranges season , not only they are selling a lot here, there also got lucky dip for any purchases more then 1000 yen.  You get to win oranges ! from a small bag to 1 big box if you are lucky. We only managed to win a bag of abt 10 mini oranges , well better then nothing. There is a big board there showing the shops that are selling the crabs or oyster or both. We decided to drive to one about 10 km further cos read about it on some guide book. The Takezaki crabs to me was a bit disappointing , cos a fellow member on TA said it was so good then she detour to go for second round for her trip but to me it's like our "flower crab" here in SG , we it's bigger for sure, alive and meat is more firm but the price is much more expensive also. the one we had cost 3600 yen  ? ( which is about $40 ) . But the oysters were good , think different types from what we had the day before but scallop was not as big.

Next we moved on all the way to Nagasaki , from there is about about 1hr + drive  , the hotel for the night is on a hill top called , Nagasaki Nisshokan.  The GPS took us up a route which not only was up the hill , it was also kinda of scary , cos some part of the roads there is a tree as divider between the 2 ways , and the roads are very narrow that you feel that your car might just brushes the trunks of the tree.  trust me , it's really very narrow. BUT the view once you reach the top was WOW ! , did not managed to take a pic from that view ( we thought that maybe we can drive by again later but turn out there is a much easier way to the city area ) as we were hoping to reach the hotel fast and then can go to the other side to Mt Inasa. The hotel itself has a very nice view of Nagasaki town, it also had an Onsen which had a city view but we only found out the next morning cos it closes at 12 midnight. We booked this hotel because Toyoko-Inn was fully booked for the day and most hotel are either fully booked or prices were very expensive , in fact , Nagasaki hotels ( within city area) was fully booked for that weekends , but no regret in staying here for the night as the view is really great.
After check in , we had a quick view outside the hotel itself , as it was up on top of a hill , so the view itself is actually not bad but still we had plan to visit the night view of Mt Inasa , which is the one of the NEW top 3 night view of the world ( it actually replaced Mt Hakodate , which I think it is much nicer then Mt Inasa ) .
Note : Mt Inasa Ropeway is closed for renovation till 5th feb 2016 ( info can be found on the official site or here . So buses or driving up halfway and take the feeder bus is the only option.

Remember this Logo , you won't regret

After the night view, we decided to have dinner and do some shopping at Don Quijote  ( 驚安の殿堂 ドン・キホーテ) , this is a name to remember !!! You won't regret , trust me ! This is basically a store that sells almost anything and everything, from toys , clothes , drugs , electrical , etc ! and the best of all , most of it stores is either 24 Hrs or open till 2 am , this makes shopping great cos most department  stores closes around 9 pm. There are maybe other shops that open late but Don Quijote ( sometimes google use "donkihote" ) has the most outlets ( to what i know , as i can almost find in every prefectures ), some of the smaller shops are near city area and those slightly outskirt are usually much bigger. Oh , did i mentioned ( i think ) all Don Quijote is tax free ?  Click here for my own link of shopping tips and tax-free tips.