Kyushu 2015 Autumn Self Drive Trip - Day 4

Day 4 : Nagasaki to Unzen

View from Observation Deck 1 at Nita Pass

Today we will move on from Nagasaki City to Unzen , weather report ( we used Tenki app ) stated that  there will be rain in the late afternoon so we will have to go Nita Pass before that if we wish to take the ropeway.

Nagasaki Chinatown - one of the 3 famous Chinatown in Japan

Once we checked out from hotel , we drove to Nagasaki Chinatown area for Lunch and dessert. But the place where we wanted for lunch only opens at 11 am so all plans was moved backwards. I had planned to visit Nita Pass early then maybe can do a short hike , but as the weather is near winter , the mountains area are usually foggy in the morning. Unzen Ropeway website do have a update every morning around 8.30am on the view around there. Checked and if was foggy with limited view that day so we decided to go up the ropeway the next day and have the lunch we wanted to try today.

Lunch at Yossou (吉宗) , They open at 11 am and the shop filled up pretty fast , there is also a takeaway corner next to the main shop. The Chawmushi is really smooth and nice but might be too big for some as it is in a big bowl ( not those tiny one you get in typical Sushi restaurants ). So you can consider getting a set then ala carte for the rice. The rice got 3 topping , shredded egg ( Yellow )  , fish floss ( Pink , I think ) and mince meat ( Brown ).
Next we tried the Ice Cream at Cafe Oylmpic, Nagasaki. they served western food and parfaits ( aka ice cream towers ). there only 2 of us so we ordered the 50 cm tower , the tallest they have is 120 cm ( i think ) but you have to order in advance. but the tallest you can have walk in is 100cm , which is double of what we had. As you can see from the last picture aboved , a group was having the 100cm tower and I can still see the tip of the parfaits 2 tables away and with a high partition. Frankly the ice cream is so-so only , cos they do not have a lot of flavours/toppings/sauces inside , but It's FUN to be sharing a huge one with friends. My favourite Ice cream is still Lucky Pierrot's ( in Hakodate. Hokkaido )  ( that will be another story but if you ever in Hakodate , don't miss their ice cream and chinese fried chicken ).

Next we decided to go straight to Unzen cos it's getting quite late and it needs at least 90 min to get there but a long turn brought us to Obama instead but we did not stop as was planning for a sunset view  later instead ( but was raining so we gave that up too ). There is a 105m foot bath hotspring both for humans and pets at Obama ( click here for more informations). There is also a place where you could steam food from the "Volcano's Steam" otherwise know as "Hell Steam"

Instead from Obama , we turn up to 三十路苑 , The usually only opens the garden about 2-3 weeks each year during the Koyo Seasons ( can check the link here ) . this is a red leaves viewing area and since they are just nice opened for the seasons so we drop in to have a look. But we was a bit early for the red leaves still.

After that we drove up to Unzen , as it was still early for check in , we decided to drive to Nita Pass to take a look , if weather is good , we will take the ropeway , else we will try the next day ( Cos weather forecast is that it will rain ) . It was bit gloomy with some clouds when we reach the Observation Deck 1 so we just take a quick view and took some pictures , it will be much better if the weather was better.

It still looks very dark and gloomy ( day is shot during Winter ) , so we did not take the ropeway but leave it to chances the next morning.





After Nita Pass we drove back to the Unzen town area and wanted to visit the "Unzen Hell" and walk around the shops nearby. Unless you staying nearby ( our hotel is a few min drive away ) you have to pay for parking near the Hell area and I think it's quite big cos only managed walk a short bit )

Unzen Hell

We did a short walk at the Unzen Hell cos less then 5 min , it started to rain.So we quickly rush back to the car and drive to check in to our hotel - Fukuyada ( 雲仙福田屋 ). The staffs are super nice ( which usually at almost all hotels ) and the rooms was spacious and the food was not bad. ( Do take note though , usually meals in Japan Ryokans can lasted about 1 hours or more )  Note : if you have allergy or do not take certain foods , please informed them during your booking if your booking comes with meal options , else you might end up with a lot of foods you don't eat. For my case , I requested for "No Fish" meal for 1 pax which they replaced all "Fishes" with other items.

Western rooms with tatami area

Tatami area

Meal for the night

The hotel got 4 public onsen ( 2 outdoor , 2 indoor , 1 each for each Gender ) and 4 family rooms onsen which you can "rent" for 50 min FOC ( but out of the 4 , only 1 is free actually , the other 3 you still need to pay) . The public one is much better as it was bigger , so unless you really wish to bath as a family/couple , else stick to the public is better. Cos both of us are guys , so we enjoyed the public one better cos more spacious and still got view for the outdoor one whereby the "private" one is a bit small. The onsens rotate during the day so guests get to try all 4 different public pools. Pictures for the pools is  on the main site here . We did took some pictures when there are not other ppl but the quality for the pictures are not that great cos we took at night. Oh and ONE thing about the hotel is very sweet is that ,  the next day when we got out car key, there was a “交通安全御守” ( like a amulet for safe driving ) attached to it  and 1 small packet of candy in the car. to me it's a very sweet thoughts of the hotel to do that.

There are 2 observation decks (mentioned here ) on the way from Nagasaki to Unzen ( can google more details if you like )