Yufuin (由布院 as onsen resort, 湯布院 as city district) is in between 2 other popular onsen town that are Kurokawa Onsen and Beppu.

Yufuin is surrounded by mountains and one can see Mount Yufu as the backdrop along Yufuin's main street. Yufuin's main street is lined with shops, cafe, small museums and boutiques whilst ryokan and onsen are more "hidden" from the main street.


The main street starts from Yufuin Station and if you walk all the way, it leads to a scenic Lake Kirinko. There's a small shrine by the side of the lake.



I booked a room at a more budget ryokan. The staffs are friendly, the room is comfortable, location is excellent and it comes with private indoor and outdoor hot spring (you are to lock the door that leads to either of the hot spring) but I find the cleanliness level overall of shared facilities is a little subpar so I don't recommend the place and won't blog about it.



Getting to Yufuin from Kurokawa Onsen
I took a bus from Kurokawa Onsen to Yufuin. The same staff from Ryokan Ichinoi dropped me and another visitor to the Kurokawa Onsen bus stop.
Here's the link to the timetable. I took the 10:25 bus, arriving in Yufuin station bus center at 12:00.
Both bus and train stations in Yufuin are just a step away from each other.



Yufuin main shopping street
Aside from eating places, there are plenty of shops selling local specialty. souvenirs, snoopy themed, dogs, cats, music box and Totoro. It was very hard to get a photo without someone walking into the frame as it is very popular especially as a day tripping destination. Even though it quieten down in the evening but the shops kept their decoration when they closed up, so maybe the only less busy time was when the shops just opened for business.

Yufuin Orugoru no Mori - music box shop

Donguri no Mori - Totori shop

Retro Motor Museum
I didn't go in but the outside is cute too.



Yufuin Floral Village
Yufuin Floral Village is a very small scale village which could be seen from the main street. It is modeled after Cotswolds, UK. Makes pretty photographs but they are mostly shops but also owl and cat cafes. It is nestled between 2 streets so there are 2 entrances. They barred the entrance passed opening hours but best bet to avoid waiting too long for photographs without too many visitors are in the early hours before the day trippers arrived.









Chicken tempura (Toriten とり天)
Chicken tempura is a popular local dish in Oita Prefrecture. As Yufuin is in Oita, this was what I had for lunch. As I arrived in Yufuin at noon, there was a short wait to lunch. I was seated at the bar initially but when there was empty table, I was asked if I wanted to move. I like sitting at the bar though, there's so much to see. I had a toriten set meal, ¥831.




Snacks
I had a few snacks, there are plenty of options. The only one I didn't manage to get in Yufuin was the apparently very famous B-speak swiss roll. Apparently because I didn't know it is famous till I started to read up about Yufuin and many people bought it as souvenir, it was included in the introduction file in the ryokan I stayed and there were people posing with the cake outside the shop after purchasing. I went twice, once late in the evening on the day I arrived but they were sold out. The second time I went earlier of the day but the smaller size cake were sold out. I didn't want to buy the whole cake so I left without. I found it again later on though :)

Custard taiyaki + hojicha latte

Sakura honey tea latte

Korokke

I have no plans for dinner on the day I arrived, and most of the shops along the main street were closed. I asked for recommendation from the staff where I stayed, most dinner options were expensive and I decided to grab discounted bento from the supermarket.

These for ¥360

He suggested that I tried a burger from Yufuin Burger House for lunch. Being in Japan, I was a little apprehensive of having a burger especially since it wasn't even a Japanese burger. However, since it came highly recommended, I went with it for lunch the next day. It was indeed a good burger. The burger house is closer to the train station compared to the shopping street and I didn't want to miss my train so I did a takeaway and had it at the station.




Side note: No more PH till end of September! T_T