Kyushu 2015 Autumn Self Drive Trip - Day 13

Day 13 : Yufuin to Shimonoseki

Today we will leave Yufuin and say goodbye to our last onsen for this trip. Plan is to drive to kitakyushu then to Shimonoseki. The plan is actually to try catch 2 different night view , one from Sarakurayama (血倉山) near Kokura (小倉) and the other is Hinoyama Park (火の山) in Shimonoseki(下關). But when doing my homework then realised that the cable car for Sakarurayama only operates till evening on weekdays , last car to come down is 6 pm , which means you can see the night view if you are taking public transport , although the day view is nice but it's the night view that is  what we are interested in, as it was voted as the "New" top 3 night views of Japan. The driving up will takes about 1 hour ( from navitime ) , google map put 5 mins …… , so we decided to skip it and focus on doing the one at Hinoyama , which also look nice with the bridge as view. Do note that the Illuminations of the bridge and the access to the park is around 9 pm to 10 pm only so do check again if you are planning to visit. ( In the end , we did not managed to view any night view cos it was raining that night !)

B-speak roll cake

nico soy doughnut

rice wrapped with pork slices

caramel pudding

Wake up in the morning and I thought that I can go out to buy bento for breakfast at the Yufuin station , cos I saw a blogger said the beef bento is very nice BUT to my disappointment , there is no bento sale at the JR station ! Also we tried looking for a famous bento from Cucu.chi , one of the shop along the main shopping street but seems that it was not selling the beef bento anymore. So we just bought some food and snacks and move on our way as it's gonna be another long drive today.
We detour to Yabakei Gorge (耶馬渓) 's Hitome Hakkei (一目八景) ,  it's actually a spot whereby you can see 8 different view of rock formations , can't seems to find the map online now , but at the visitors centre there , you can get a map and it will show you how to see the 8 different views. this is supposed to be a popular spot for koyo but we are a bit late in season but still managed to see some red leaves just that cos it was drizzling a bit then clears up do the weather is a bit gloomy.
When you drive past some of the shop , there are parking there but think they charges ( or maybe if you purchased from them it might be free ) but just drive further down to the Visitors Centre ( there are new toilets there that looks like just been built ) there are free parking there , it's about 5 - 10 mins walk from the lookout observation deck , you can walk along the roadside or from a mountain trail.
From there we make our way to Kokuro (小倉), via a tunnel called Ao no Domon (青の洞門) , it's said that it was hand dug by a monk long ago and took about 30 years to complete ?

Sunny bun

condense milk filling

melon pan

the cheapest bun think around 40 yen

It was raining quite heavily when we reach Uomachi 魚町銀天街 , It is basically a covered shopping street near Kokuro Station. We had wanted to reach early and have our meal at Daigaku 大學堂 in Tangaichiba (旦過市場) which is linked to Uomachi. While Uomachi is more for shopping , Tangaichiba is more for food and very special is Daigaku cos it will sell you a bowl of rice then you are free to walk along the covered street and buy food to put on top of your bowl of rice to create your own "Don" ( rice bowl ). But it's closed on the day when we were there ( ya right aloof of shop that we wanted to try was closed when we were there LOL). So we just stick to go some shopping in Uomachi , visited some drugstores and then visited one of the bakery which I wanted to try. Shiroya Bakery  is near the entrance of the shopping street if you are coming from Kokuro Station. This is a bread shop that sells cheap buns and one of the most famous one is their "sunny bread" it is a bun with condense milk inside , for ppl who like condense milk , it's heaven and the good news is that they just opened a outlet in Hakata recently so no need to travel to Kokuro for it. Think most of the bun are less then 100 yen with the cheapest is like 40 yen ?

Kaikyo Yume Tower

From there we said goodbye to Kyushu and drove over the straits to Shimonoseki in Yamaguchi Prefecture. There are a few ways to get over there from Kyushu, for driving there is a tunnel and a bridge ( highway) , for walking there is a underpass ( free) or you can take a train ( thru under tunnel ).
It was still drizzling when we reach there so we skipped the night view that we had planned at Hinoyama park.
Note : The parking at this Toyoko Inn is first come, first serve. As when we reached , the parking is already full , we need to park about 5 min walk away from the hotel , the hotel staff will inform you of 2 different parking space nearby with different in pricing and will give you a map for it. Parking charges in Japan varies by company n places , it can be a carpark nearby but the rates might be a lot different , so always check carefully , If you can navigate ( or can guess ) Japanese , Navitime got a site which can let you check nearby carpark in advance.It can show you the charges also but I am not sure how updated it is but i find it not very user-friendly so i just check a few and give up.

For dinner we had at 笑笑 , it's about 5 min walk form the hotel and around here that are actually a few different Izakaya (居酒屋). You can refer here for it's menu. The food is actually quite good , esp the skewers. A funny incident here though due to our bad japanese : the staff actually direct us to the locker  when we reached , but we had not bags with use just jackets so we thought we prefer to bring with us so we just follow on to our seat. They try to talk to use in japanese but we do not understand then just smile ( if they use body languages , i would have understand what they meant LOL ) , after we seated , they bring us 2 keys , which we were puzzled. Only after we finished our meals and leaving then we realised , the keys are to the lockers and the lockers is to keep your shoes ! So paiseh ! means they have to help use take our smelly shoes to put into the lockers as we don't understand them in the first place.

Tomorrow we will be going back to Kyushu Again ! 

Kyushu 2015 Autumn Self Drive Trip - Day 12

Day 12 : Yufuin/Beppu

Woke up early this morning again as we wanted to catch the view of Kinrin Lake (金鱗湖) cos in the morning , usually there will fog/steam on top of the lake , this is especially more obvious in the Autumn/Winter month. This is because the lake itself has water coming from a hot spring that is why during cold morning , the fog will form on the surface of the lake , then in afternoon , you can see the lake actually reflecting the sunlight when the wind blows thus look like "golden scale" of fishes , that is why called in chinese "金鱗".

view from room

supper cold and foggy next to the lake

web think frozen at night and defrost in the morning

The lake is super foggy that morning and very cold so did not managed to take any nice photo , and it was about 15 min walk from the hotel we stayed so actually wanted to visit again in the afternoon the next day but weather is not very good so we skip. ( if from the station maybe closed to 30 min walk )
After the visit to the lake we went back hotel for breakfast ( do note that usually meals in Japan can take some time cos too many dishes so don't be surprise a meal can takes up to 1-2 hours ). Our next destination is Kokonoe Yume Suspension Bridge 九重”夢”大吊橋 , It is the highest bridge in Japan for  pedestrians. The bridge is good for viewing autumn colours and winter colours BUT again the red are gone only to be replaced by all the yellow and bare trees but still the view is quite nice that morning. The ticket allows you to walk from one end of the bridge to the other and back so there is no need to buy 2 tickets. Also the Bungo beef stick at one side of the entrance is not bad though it was not BBQ on the spot.

Part of open view on the center of the bridge

View from the open view part

To view the whole bridge , you have to walk up/drive to this place near "ここのえ茶屋" There is a viewing deck there.
Next we visited the Hells of Beppu 別府地獄 ， there are total of 8 Hells , 6 of which is together and the last 2 is about 5 min away. Refer to the map here. If i remember correctly , the entrance fee for each Hell is about 400 yen , but if you buy the booklet which allows entry to all 8 Hells , only cos about 2200 yen. Please allows about at least 2 hours to complete all 8 Hells. If you do not have enough time then just select the one you are interested based on reading online. Do note that "龍卷地獄“ only spray like once every 30 min , the staffs at the "血の池地獄" actually informed us that the geyser is spraying soon so we took a quick look and went over so we do not have to wait for another 30 min if we missed it.
There is a place in one of the hell ( Kamado Jigoku i think ) that has place for you to try the "Hell" water , do note that you have to dilute with cold water by the side before you try cos the spring water is 80 deg C. This area also have a place for you to buy come snacks like steam food/egg using the steam from the hot spring water also you can had free foot bath here. Do try the ice cream here , think there is a few types , the one I tried is with black pepper ( taste bit salty as well ) , it is very nice ! there is also another think with chilli powder/spices which I did not try.

There is a viewing deck nearby called 湯けむり展望台 which allows you to see the Beppu town with steam coming out , it looks like a burning town with smoke ? but we did not go to due to not enough time and day light problem again. Another place we skipped was the Beppu ropeway It is actually between Beppu and Yufuin if not going by the highway.
We did stop by a viewing spot nearer to Yufuin called Sagiridai 狭霧台 , you can actually see "Sea of Clouds" in the morning and also night view here.  You can even catch a picture like this if you come in the night before day break.

Nice but a bit Expensive Ryokan

Living room leaning to the outdoor bath

View form the bedroom

Our own private outdoor onsen

Dinner from the 2 supermarkets and some snacks from the main shopping street. Note : The shop closes really early in winter , most will closed by 7 pm. Also this is our last night with onsen , the last 3 nights we will be staying in the city, that is also they main reason why we choose to splurge on this ryokan though it's a bit over our budget. this is about 2.5 times of what we paid the night before and that comes with breakfast too. ( this one cost us about SGD $300/night with no meal but the host is really nice and friendly and the stay was great , no regret)