Kyushu 2015 Autumn Self Drive Trip - Day 9

Day 9 : Miyazaki to Takichiho

Day 9 , covering more then 1/2 of Kyushu and trip is ending in less then a week. Today we will have another long drive from Miyazaki to Takachiho. As last night we stay at this ryokan : えぷろん亭 , it's built along the road next to the coast. so not only last night the moonlight was nice, in the morning just from outside the balcony , we can view the sunrise coming up from the sea line. I even took my first time lapse video - Link . Liked i mentioned , this is one of the best we stay so far in Kyushu. The funny thing is this was not in our planned list cos it's not available on booking.com/Agoda.com.  How i found this beauty ? link to my hotel booking tips here.

Japanese style room

View form the dining room

Imagine waking up , just open the partition and the curtain , and you get the full view of the coastal line. On did i mentioned this place is quite affordable ? Think we paid about 10,000 yen (about SGD $120) /1 night for 2 pax + breakfast and the room we had is ensuite with a bathtub that have a big see through glass of the sea view ! Actually we planned to stay further up in Miyazaki city but cos we already foresee that we will not be able to cover some of the sightseeing spot the day before , so we choose to stay here last night then this morning will not have to drive all the way down to Udo Jingū (鵜戸神宮) and Sun Messe Park.

The shrine built in a cave

View form the entrance of the Shrine

Sort of like a wishing well

鵜戸神宮, Udo Jingū

Instruction on how to see the stone "breast"

The stone "breast" that provide "milk"

This is one of the quite special shriner we visited , it's built inside a cave at a cliff area. There is legend that this is where the first Emperor of Japan is born ? There is also a pair of stone "breast" that provided "milk" for the baby when he is born. Link , quoted from the link " Outside the cave is a terrace overlooking the ocean. Among the rocks below is a target marked by rope into which people try to throw small ceramic undama, or lucky balls for 100 yen/ 5 pcs , Women throw with their right hand while men throw with their left, and landing an undama in the target brings good luck" *Note : if you are self drive like us , do remember to park at the lower carpark cos most tourist bus will park at the upper carpark , which means you will have to climb up and down a stone staircase before you reach the entrance of the Shrine.

A short drive from the shrine is another spot called Sun Messe Park, this is where you will se 7 huge Moai statues by the coast line. This is the ONLY place in the world where restoration of these Moai statues has been permitted.( the original ones are at Easter island )

It's actually a huge park ( think cost about 600yen/entrance ) but the main highlight is these 7 statues which symbolise (from left to right ) they are business, health, love, leisure, marriage, money, and academics.
Next we drive to the Aoshima Shirne (青島神社）it is location on a small island surrounded by "Devil's washboard" - which is some rock formation with the look similar to old skool washboard when see from far. It's link to the mainland by a walk way , cars are not allowed to be drive inside. *Note : There is a lot of uncles who will hold a card showing parking here @ 500 yen ( or similar ) you either have to pay them 500 yen or if you purchased items from their shop over certain amount , they will waive the parking fee ( info from other blogger ). But there is a free carpark at the park area , about few min drive away from the main entrance , walking will take about 5-10 min by the coast line to the entrance, you will reach this carpark first if you are driving here towards Miyazaki city direction. Below is the map location and the look of the carpark for your reference.

The red box is the free carpark

View from google map street view

The blue box on top is the "touting" aka the main entrance , the red box is the free parking area of the park. There is a public toilet next to the car park. The purple lines are the route to walk to the entrance , or you wan walk along the road to the shops near the entrance if you like to buy some Omiyage.

View at 馬ヶ背

On our way to Takachiho , we will be passing by 2 other spot - クルスの海 and 日向岬・馬ヶ背 but due to time constraint and the short daylight again (yes yes yes , winter is not a good time to do too much sightseeing that is something I learnt this trip , esp if you got travelling partners who need to sleep till late LOL).
We should have reach クルスの海 first but due to I set to the wrong GPS , we actually hit 日向岬・馬ヶ背 first and this is the only one we visited. There are a few carparks there , the one we park is the lower one so we had to climb a bit up to get to this view. I believed there is another carpark near the light house further on top ( but either way you will need to climb up either on the way there or on the way back ) , from the trail , you will reach the 馬ヶ背 first , it basically translated as horseback. Then as you walk further down you will reach the end of the cape. It will look much nicer in bright daylight. The sun was almost setting when we reach there.

When we reach our stay at Takachiho it was already dark , the reason to stay a night here is so that we can go bow rowing in the gorge by the waterfall in the morning tomorrow. It's quite a small town on top of the mountain , not much nightlife from what we see. Most tourist will visit the Takachiho Shrine for a show - 夜神樂 which is performed from Nov to Feb. We decided to skip cos from one of a fellow TA member whom was there a few days ago said they just stayed a while and left and also cos we are very hungry as we did not had a proper lunch cos the shops we wanted to try in Miyazaki is either closed or cannot be found.
We actually planned to visit Hatsuei (燒肉 初榮）but both their outlet is full ( or booked ) so we end up going to 2nd choice Nagomi which we did not regret , the A5 beef was really good too, though i prefer the Saga one better. But here we ordered a cooked steak which was super good ! Don't bother to order vegetable for bbq ( from experience in Saga , 1) usually the beef will come with 1-2 pieces of them and also it usually burnt very fast so you will end up with black vegetables ) Nothing beats Beer with BBQ beef !  * look at the marble effect of the A5 ! )
We were hit by a cold wave of temperate these few days , so tonight was like about 1 deg C