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.

Kyushu 2015 Autumn Self Drive Trip - Day 1

Day 1 - Singapore to Kyushu ( Fukuoka ) , Stay Saga

Day 1 Itinerary

Display at airport that most tourists will take photo with

From Fukuoka International Airport to City area ( Hakata / Tenjin ) , there are few options

1) By Subway - Take the free shuttle bus to Domestic Terminal 2 then from there take a subway to Hakata ( 2 stations away about 5 min ) /Tenjin ( 5 stations about 11 min ) , making it the most convenient and accessible airport in Japan
2) By Bus - From International Airport , takes about 15 min to reach Hakata ( this saves the trouble of taking your luggages up and down the shuttle bus and then to transfer the subway. If i am not wrong should be Bus 11. Anyway if you plan on taking buses in Fukuoka area , do download this App : NNR-BusNavi for buses. NRR- BusNavi for iOS  , NRR-BuaNavi for Android

3) By Cab - Takes about 15 min , cost about 1300yen to Hakata and about 1800yen to Tenjin ( we took from hotel at Hakata cost use 1320yen , and a fellow fren took from hotel at Tenjin , cost her 1860yen )

As mentioned , for SQ flight to Fukouka , will reach in the morning around 8.20 am ( Japan time ).  In order to save time , we decided to pick up the car and wifi router on the same day and drive out of Fukuoka. The reason is that , Fukuoka will be our last station as will be flying back from here , and this will also be where the Last minute shopping will be ( ** big mistake here  , will mentioned later ), that's why instead of spending the night here , we will move off to Saga to save 1 day.
From International Airport , we took the free shuttle bus and alight at Domestic Terminal 2 ( T2 and T3 is connected ) , we walk to T3 Post office to collect our WiFi Router. ( you can have it send to the hotel if you wish but as we will be travelling to the hotel and check in late like evening , so we decided to pick it up first so we can use along the way ). From there , cross the underpass to the other side of the road where most of the car rental companies are at. Ours is Budget Car Rental , which is just 1-2 minutes walk from the underpass exit.

After collecting the car , we drove to Ichiran Odo for brunch.  Reason for coming to this outlet is that cos our next destination is Mariano City for shopping. Also as this outlet is out of the busy area of Tenjin/Hakata , parking will not be an issue so they have their own parking lots. Also to note that , this outlet served a slightly different noodles from the main outlet , it serve Wheat noodle , Ouote from the site  ""Special Ra-mugi Noodles from this local special wheat. These noodles contain the flavor of Fukuoka’s pure nature with characteristic strong consistency."

For those new to Ichiran , below is the ordering form for the type of noodle/Soup/Condiments you like , there are forms in different languages , just ask from the staffs. Also you will notice that toilets in Ichiran will have many toilet rolls like the picture above , this is like how they let you choose your style of Ramen , you get to choose from different toilet rolls ( I am not sure if the quality/texture of the rolls defer cos I never use. )

Form for selecting your own "customise" bowl of noodle 

After the Ramen @ Ichiran Odo , we drove to Marinoa City Outlet for a quick shopping. Online we found out that Mont-bell had a outlet here which sell past season at discounted price.

Marinoa City Outlet @ Fukuoka

A BIG mistake , as there is no Tex-Free here at this outlet , We only found out on our last day at Canal City Mont-bell shop that , not only there is a Outlet corner there , it also offer Tax-Free !! based on our spending , we could have save almost 8000yen ! almost SGD $90. *So for those who indent to get items from Mont-bell , go to Canal City Shop instead. Lesson learnt is , if there is specific brands that you are into , do a google online to see which are the outlets for the brand that had Tax-Free , can save a bit as japan tax is 8%.

Can look kinda of scary

Long road of Pines at both sides of road

This is the view if you go up Kagamiyama

After spending few hours shopping , we decided to drive to Nijinomatsubara （虹之松原）is a 360-year-old pine forest in Karatsu, Saga. It has a width of 400 - 700 metres, a length of about 4 km, and a total area of 240 hectares. ( from Wikipedia ). Along they way we decided to stop by Itoshima area for BBQ Oyster.  this is the Oyster Huts Guide for 2015 , basically cos from November to March is Oysters Season , so along the coastline will have "Oyster Huts " that sells oysters and other seafoods for BBQ. 1 basket of oysters cost around 1000yen ( about $12 ) then other seafoods price varies , then they will charge you about 300yen for the "Service Fee " be it charcoals/gas stove. The one we went though charged us 300yen for service fee but we get to choose 2 drinks ( based on convenience store prices , 1 soft drink will cost about 100yen so meaning we only paid 100yen for the "Service Fee". The owner also throw in a few piece of oyster as "service" - meaning Freebie.

The Oysters was very fresh & delicious , of cos we ordered Scallops as well ( my fav ) they usually give you butter for that. If you are not sure how to BBQ like us , the staff will try their best to show you , even if you do not know Japanese, body languages will be used. Lucky for us the lady owner of the store we went knows some english , so there was not big issue. *Note : to bbq the oyster , you need to put it on the flat side first , after few minutes , then you flip to the other side. think one of the reason is to drain out some of the seawater , else read online that the water will "spray out" if you put it on the uneven side at first. Also do not stay too close to the "fire" as some oyster shell might burst due to the heat, not sure why though , some does and most does not. After it's cooked then pry open the shell and then add some soy suace , lemon juice , etc to it. I preferred it without anything on it.  The freshness and the saltiness from the seawater is good enough for me.

The Karatsu Burger Van

I ordered the Special

Karatsu Burger

After Oysters , we drove on to Nijinomatsubara for Karatsu Burger. It taste a bit like Malaysia's Ramy Burger , but they bun they toasted/fried ? so overall taste quite good. Quite hard to imagine the business was not bad though it was like a food truck in the middle of nowhere. Cos when we was there, cars keep coming in to buy , mostly look locals rather then tourists like us.


Did not went up Kagamiyama as planned cos the sky are getting bit dark. Days in Winter are short , though we had planned for Autumn trip but as it was very late in Autumn , it's almost like winter. about 5 pm and the sky is all DARK like 7-8pm in SG.  So if you ever planned trip in late Autumn or in Winter, do take note of the short daytime.

After having the karatsu burger, we drive to Kyotoya our hotel in Takeo Onsen area.  After a quick check-in , we drove again to Ogi , Saga. From 15th Nov - 23rd Nov each year , there is a Bamboos light up in Ogi. Though only i read that the bus timing aboved , but think there are more buses then the only 5 mentioned. As with many tourist attractions in Japan, if the places of interests is seasonal and parking is limited , they will usually provide free shuttle buses at some temporary carparks to cater to the visiting crowds.
After Visiting the 清水竹灯り aka the Bamboo lights Festival in Ogi, we drove back to Takeo and park our car at the hotel then walk about 10 min to 佐が家 for dinner.

Part of the Beef Menu

Highlight for the night is A5 Saga Beef ! ( a lot of people just know Wagyu beef , which only means only Japanese Beef.) There are a lot of classification of Wagyu , A5 ( i think ) is the highest grade and then it also will have to depends where the beef is from , like Kobe Beef , Matsuzaka Beef , Miyazaki Beef , Etc. One thing I found our very different this trip is that , in Kyushu ( maybe other places , i am not sure ) that they like Oysters Grilled , and the Beef grilled as well rather then we like Oyster Raw in SG and Beef steak pan-fried , maybe is just the shop i went. The beef is REALLY YUMMY ! but some might feel it a bit too oily due to the fats but i like it anyway , we did order the Steak , which is a better mix of fats and meat , it taste super good too !

Kyotoya's Room

As for our hotel Kyotoya , Room wise was ok , quite spacious , parking is just next to the hotel. When we checked in , was given a information slip , and it stated the outdoor onsen only opens from 3pm - 10pm , most of the other Ryokans we stayed before , usually onsen is 24 hours for in-house guest. But we still saw some guests went outside and we thought that was the Sauna , but when we went again the next morning then realised that that was the outdoor onsen , it shared the same door entrance with the sauna and on the door for the sauna then got a plate that states 3 pm to 10 pm. So I think maybe the information slip then the hotel gave was wrong in translation ? anyway we went outside the next morning since the door was not lock.

*Note : if when check in to any hotel in Japan and the staffs cannot find your name , try to ask them to check for your first name instead of the usual last name , this is the problem we had with hotel that we book from booking.com.
Eg . your name is Tan Ah Beng , usually Last name = Tan , First name = Ah Beng , by right it should stated on their record your name is Tan Ah Beng , so the will start to look for Tan , but then they can never find cos on their records it will show Ah Beng Tan instead. So don't freak out if they can't find your booking if you are sure you booked correctly , just point to them to search for you First name instead of "Tan San" ( San = さん in japanese means sort of like Mr. )

Kyushu 2015 Autumn Self Drive Trip : Tax-Free and Shopping Tips in Japan

Tax-Free shopping in Japan - meaning for consumable products like food/drugs , as long as you spent 5001 yen and above you can ask for tax refund , and for things like electrical products / clothing , the amount is 10,001yen and above.
For more info on Tax-Free in Japan , click here. Rule of thumb : consumable products will be seal and cannot be open during the trip , must be taken out of Japan unopened. For electrical products/ clothing , they will not seal it .

Tips on tax free ( own experiences ) :

1) When buying items , see if it is worth the 8% cos i bought some bottled syrup , due to tax-free they seal it but makes it difficult for me to save space in my luggage when i try to repack.

2) Box item - if you think you do not need the boxes , like we bought some tea bags and sprays , we removed the boxes when the staff is helping to seal it , this way it saves some luggages spaces.

3) 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 at least 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 ?

Though Don Quijote is tax free BUT shops like Yodobashi , Bic-camera sometimes have additional coupons online or usually on brochures ( those visitor guides you can get in airport , it usually have in different languages and a girl as cover , folded like a small map , cos i rem last trip to japan the cover also a japanese girl ) . So it helps to compare the prices , esp for electrical items , even for G-shocks watches , found that they selling it cheaper then some G-shocks boutique ( this is based on the models i saw) , they usually had a additional 7% off on top of the 8% GST rebate.  This time round we bought at Bic-Camera @ 7% off tax rebate price. ( think they have a 5% off with Visa card if you do not have the coupon )

4) Canon ink cartridges - In SG , it cost $19.50 ( for the model i am using ) over there only selling around less then 900 yen meaning after 7% , it cost less then $10 each , not sure about other brands but for canon it's about 50% cheaper

5) Aeon - Aeon mall usually have supermarket at city outskirt and some had tax-free as well , even if got not tax free , they have a Enjoy Aeon coupon which gives 5% off.

6) Tokyu Hands - Certain outlets got Passport discount of 5 % ( not all outlets ) Check here for the outlets that is tax-free or got Passport discount , etc

7 ) Loft - The have tax free but you need to purchase and pay in full then they will refund you in cash but the do charge a service fee. Not sure how much but for my tax refund of 895 yen , they charged 123 yen for service charges.

8) Some ( maybe all not sure cos last year in Ginza there isn't ) Uniqlo shops have tax free as well , even without tax-free the price is cheaper then if you buying in SG , so no harm drop in to see if you like Uniqlo, Eg this trip , bought some pants for my SIL , in SG she said it cost $49.90 , but even when not on discount it ard 2990 yen ( b4 tax ) so about $34 , but i bought it at discount making it 1990 yen each ( about $24.50 after tax which is like 1/2 price ) . Last time i bought some jeans at about $10 -$15 lesser then in SG. Also for big sized like me , Uniqlo had sizes up to 4 XL BUT they only had it in some Mega shops ( i know the one in Ginza had a Big & Tall corner ) OR purchased online for more design.

9) G.U , which is a sister company of Uniqlo , is priced slightly cheaper then Uniqlo , though some said that quality is not as good but for normal wear is fine.

10) Think Crocs is cheaper also , saw some priced around 2500 yen to 4500 yen , ( ard $50+ ? which i think SG usually sell much expensive ? ) , cos i don;t really shop at Crocs but last time i saw all around $60+ ?

Kyushu's Mapcode / Telephone for Self drive trip

Google Map - used for initial planning and also i usually use as backup for Car GPS navigation. I also usually use it for "Walking" in town/city to find specific area / shops.

For self drive , Telephone / Mapcode of the place is very important when using the car GPS navigation. Best to have both as sometimes Phone number might not be updated and also for Parks/Mountain Areas , the phone number might point to the "town council" or something. In this case best to use mapcode , unless the phone number points to shops nearby the location.  Also to note , Mapcode points you to an area rather then a specific places , so when near the place of interest , it's better also to look at road sign , best if you can get mapcode to the parking area of the places you wish to visit. ( different carparks within the area may cost differently and also some requires less walking then others )

Mapcode/Telephone of some of the places went.
Below there are 2 links on how to find your own map code using http://www.mapion.co.jp
**Note : do find all your mapcodes before you set off , cos during my trip , Found out that using mobile devices ( iPhone/ iPad ) it does not work the same way for the site and it doesn't allow me to find mapcodes.

How to get Mapcode Link 1 
How to get Mapcode Link 2 

For certain places , if you do not have address to find the mapcode from the site , what i did was to use google map to locate the places then use it to reference the map on mapion then move the "red cross" on the map to get the mapcode.




Everyone plans and travel differently , so my mapcodes here might not be places you wish to visit , so find your own or for more popular places actually you can just google online as other bloggers might have it on their travel blog.

P/s : sorry though i hope to write this travel blog in English but when doing my "homework " most of the places i still use Chinese/ Japanese.

Kyushu Self Drive Autumn Trip 2015 - Wifi Router , Car Rental and Hotels Booking

Wifi router - we always loan from Japan-Wireless  so far been 3-4 times , though even Singapore Changi Airport  ( link here ) also have but 1) we used a few times so might as well go with them , 2) they can send to hotel or self pick up from major japan airport post office and just need mail it back to them on your last day , 3) cost wise was slightly cheaper if i am to loan from them compare to loaning it from Singapore and it will save the hassle of bringing it to Japan and bringing it back. ( In case of any issue , i think they can reissue another one by post to your next hotel , which i think if you loan from SG , that cannot be done. )

Car rental - We decided to book from ToCoo Car Rental ( basally it's a company like an agent , which book cars from different rental companies like Nissan/Budget/etc ). Compared and find it cheaper then if you going to book direct from the other car rental companies BUT you cannot select the specific car type , you can only select the car class ( meaning for same class there might be a few different models and random will be rent to you ) If you are going to rent specific models then best to rent from car rental companies like Nissan, Toyoto , etc.

Things to note for car rental :

1) English GPS : best to get english GPS unless you know japanese of cos, this will make your driving easier. You can request from Tocoo to see if they have , if not you can emailed the car rental company and see if is is possible with your Tocoo reservation no.

2) ETC : Something like our Cashcard , this trip we got out car from Budget Car Rental Via Tocoo. Tocoo charges 324yen/day for ETC rental BUT Budget offer it for FREE ( cos i emailed them to checked ) so take note of this , if can email the company and check their prices before you commit , ** Compare and Compare to get best deal !

3) Tocoo offers "Free Cancellation " 7 days before collection date BUT do take note of the currency exchange. Cos Tocoo Car rental had a compusulary  " Tocoo Additional Support " Fee , which cost 810yen/day. " ToCoo! Option fees are not included in rental car fees, It will be charged from registered credit card when reservation is confirmed." 

This is on top of the car rental fees and this will be charged by credit Card. So meaning , even though the Cancellation is free , 24 hrs after you submit you booking they will charge this , so if you cancel they will do a refund but exchange rates via interbank will incur loses. We cancelled 3 times and each times cost use about about $8 loses per transaction. * Note : booking from Tocoo does not allow changes , any changes you need to Cancel your previous booking then rebook again. So if there is really a need to rebook your car rental , Book a new one first then cancel the old one, Do note to do it 7-8 days before your collection or within 24 hours of first booking. Please read all T&C carefully as my notes might not be updated enough for your trip. We did not take up additional insurance with Tocoo , check if you need it and IF you do , check the prices in total and compare with other car rental companies. Cos i think Nissan/Toyota Car Rental includes the additional Insurances to the overall rental charges.

For hotels wise , I booked through some of the following sites below :-
1) Toyoko Inn
Members can book 6 months  ( non - members 3 months ) in advance and it's free cancellation. Do note that if you know you gonna check in late , either select the timing when you do your booking online OR give the hotel a call on the day of check in. Also Parking might be first come first served basis OR must make reservation in advance, so take note also if you were to drive and need parking space , details will be on the website of the particular branch you booking. You can book first and then choose to join membership on the sport @ 1500 yen, they offer 5% off on weekdays and 20% off on Sundays/PH. Also there is a point system in place, for every 10 nights stayed , you can redeem 1 night FREE ( for single room only , if you take double room , just top up the differences in amount )

2) Booking. com
Offers free cancellation and no charges few days before you check in. Rates are quite reasonable. Any request you can type in during your booking and they will pass to the hotels, Eg. I requested for non-Fish meal in the Ryokan where we book with half-board.

3) Agoda.com
Note : not all hotels are Free Cancellation, so do take note when you book. Prices are usually not included of taxes YET. Sometimes have tie up with banks/cards for extra %. Eg when we book there is a 7% more with DBS/POSB cards. have points systems when you book thru them which can accumulate to redeem for price off your future booking. ( usually i prefer to book thru booking.com first , unless there is no hotel from them , then i will choose agoda , because of the "Free Cancellation" , you can check the different in prices first too.

4) Jalan.net
Certain area in Japan might not be so touristy , so major english site like Booking.com/Agoda might not have so much choices in hotels in that area , or they only have the more pricey ones. So you can also check with site like Jalan.net/Rakuten Travel and Japanican. Even Jalan.net itself the Japanese site got more hotels offered then the english site.

5) えぷろん亭 
This is the only Ryokan I booked directly this trip and it was the best value for money stay the whole trip , will talk about it more later on.

Except for the one we stayed in along the coast in Miyazaki , I actually booked direct from the Ryokan though they do have it at Rakuten.travel site

Some other site you can try are :
1) Rakuten Travel
2) Japanican.com

*Notes :
1) As mentioned above , sometimes if you going to stay in smaller less touristy towns/areas in japan and you cannot find a reasonable hotel to stay from site like Booking.com/Agoda , try more natives japanese sites, some of them have english , else just use google translate and find your way through the booking. Do compare all prices/plans from all site ( if you got time ) and get the best deal.

2) Another way i use to find hotels is by using Google Map. Reason is that Self Drive trip is not like trips where you take public transports , when you have a trip that uses public transports , best is stay near Trains/Railways/Subways Stations cos then you no need to walk too much with your luggages. But for driving trips , you can choose to stay anywhere you wants , you do not have that restrictions and sometimes to break away from long drives , you need to stay at more ulu locations. Eg. when i first book the coastal ryokan in Miyazaki , I got no idea where got hotels , so what I did was to use google map to look for the location , then use the "search hotels nearby" function , this will list out the hotels nearby the place I wish to break my long drives , then from there i will click on the hotel name and see if they got any website , if they do not have then I will copy and paste the name of the hotel and try google for it. Then from there you can check the prices for the hotels and can see if any websites does booking for the particular hotel , if not then from the hotel own website , find their email and do an enquiry. Use google translate in this case , type in english then translate it to japanese , past both languages in the mail, most of them will reply ( not all though ). Used this way for our last time to Hokkaido and book some nice hotels/ryokans.

3) In Japan , Most ( almost ALL ) hotels/Ryokans charges by Person and not typical in most countries which charges by per room. So read carefully. Also they usually have different plans like no meals , with breakfast , half board ( dinner + breakfast ) and Full board ( lunch + dinner + breakfast ) though this is very seldom in most case.

Dinner usually can take up to 1 hour if you eat in Ryokan's Half board so do take note of time if you got other plans after, even breakfast can take at least 30 mins.  From experiences , Dinner usually can be very full ! Will upload some of the pictures when I post the rest of my trip.

For Ryokans , they usually have half board which means usually they will required to check in before 6 pm , if you gonna check in late , best to informed them as they usually need to know what time you wish to have your dinner. when check in , they will usually ask you to select your preferred Dinner and Breakfast timing.

For Ryokans with Onsen , some of them might have "Family bath" , other then then public Indoor or Outdoor bath. It is usually by "booking" also known as 貸切風呂 , meaning you can booked the "Family bath" aka private bath for ard 50mins to 1 hour usually and usually you can only do it ONCE , more then that you might need to pay for the "rental". Family bath is usually smaller , good for couples or with kids to bath together , also good if you wanna take your private onsen's photos  If you are just there with friends , and are ok with public bath , i will recommend public bath instead cos usually it's bigger and nicer.

Kyushu Self Drive Autumn Trip 2015 - Planning & Overview

First of all , thanks to the many blogs I read online for making this trip possible and also to many help received from Trip Advisor 's Forum members.

While i was doing my planning aka " homework" which i usually refer as , I realised that there are many blogs on trips to Kyushu … but mostly in Chinese. As most were posted by visitors from HK/TW. That is why I hope to put my trip in English , hoping that it will help others who are planning  for a trip to Kyushu.

The main agenda for this trip is Koyo , aka Autumn Leaves or Red Foliage as We had covered all 3 other seasons in different part of Japan , Summer + Winter in Hokkaido , Spring in Tokyo/Osaka/Kyoto and so the only missing season to complete my circle is Autumn.

As most people said , Koyo is easier to "chase" then Sakura , as Sakura usually blossom and fade in 1 week , very much dependable on weather. But as with my this trip ,  I realised that Koyo is not exactly as easy as I was told. Cos when we were that , most of the leaves have dropped and had turned to brown ( all botak ) , some reasons is that there was a huge typhoon in August 2015 and some of the trees were affected , making this one of the not so great autumn foliage in Kyushu this year.

The Trip -

We had planned for a 9 days trip initially and only planned to cover the top part of Kyushu , mainly Fukuoka , Saga , Nagasaki , Kumamoto , part of Miyazaki and Oita. about 6 out of the 7 prefectures. Direct flight from Singapore is only done by JetStar and SQ and there hasn't really been any promo on JetStar whereby SQ was having a promo when we were doing the planning. BUT the dates that was on promo ( at time of booking ) was only for 13 days or 16 days. So we end up choosing 16 days instead and decided to include Kagoshima in this trip , covering all 7 prefectures of Kyushu.

Map of route covered in our 16 days Self drive Trip , covering more then 1000 km of driving.

Main Itinerary

Good thing about SQ flight to Fukuoka is that it reach there early morning at 8.20 am Japan time BUT coming back also early flight at 9.50am japan time. But lucky that it was an early flight back also , as the Duty free for snacks is a very small scale shop , when we check in at 8 am , the store just open so most of the snacks are still full in stocks. Cos a fellow TA member who took a later afternoon flight said that most of the popular items were so out and was not top up when they were there.

Next I will write about the trip by Days and will try to write details of where we went , did , and missed. Also will try to include some "tips" if any to make yours a better trip then mine :)