Yufuin 由布院: A colourful onsen resort town

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

Kurokawa Onsen 黒川温泉: A quaint onsen town and kaiseki

Kurokawa Onsen is one of Japan's most attractive hot spring towns. It is located to the north of Mount Aso, and is less than an hour drive away. Nestled in a valley surrounded by hills and Tanohara river running through the town, it is popular for its rotenburo (outdoor baths).

While this small onsen village isn't exceptionally quiet, it also is free of massive huge hotels and just dotted with traditional ryokans and small shops or cafes. It definitely isn't out of place if you go onsen hopping in your yukata.

Ryokan stay with kaiseki dinner is considered a splurge for me. So prior to making the trip, I was weighing choices of Beppu vs Yufuin vs Kurokawa Onsen. Of course, there are also other options like Saga but let's not make it way too complicated.

E and S who are annual Japan holiday makers stayed in Saga and Beppu on their visit to Kyushu and remarked that there wasn't much in Beppu plus they didn't recommend the ryokan they stayed. In consideration that Beppu is a bigger city and the only places I wanted to visit are the Beppu Hells, I narrowed it down to Yufuin and Kurokawa Onsen.

I personally prefer a smaller, cosy hot spring town and geographically, I'm partial to it's distance to Mt Aso, so I picked Kurokawa Onsen over Yufuin to have enjoy my full ryokan experience. That said, there was also an outdoor bath at where I stayed in Yufuin.


Getting to Kurokawa Onsen from Mt Aso
I took another Kyushu Odan Bus.
14:12 - 15:00 Aso station - Kurokawa

The timetable online indicated 14:02 as opposed to 14:12 but I remember the bus arrived at 14:02, had a short break and departed 10 minutes later at 14:12.

Many websites recommend to reserve seats in advance but it made me wonder, how far in advance it is needed. I don't have an exact answer to this but to give a better idea, I made a seat reservation online about 2 days before my travel date (15th April night and travel on 17th April). The bus was quite full with less than 10 free seats.


Around Kurokawa Onsen
After checked in and left my bag in the room, I walked out determined to check out the place for a bit before I returned back to the ryokan for a soak pre-dinner.

Source: https://www.kurokawaonsen.or.jp/eng_new/access/surrounding.php

Maybe one will be more beautiful after soaking onsen here

I think this foot bath is free but the onsen eggs nearby were payable by honour system

It is a small town and you could finished walking the "downtown" area in 30 mins. However, I arrived at 3:00PM, after checking in and bag drop, I only leave the ryokan again to wander around just before 4:00PM. I feel another hour or two extra would give me more time to poke around, going in some shops, take photos, and especially if you are onsen hopping. There are also walking routes you could do. I found this on the office Japanese website, don't think I noticed it on their English page.


In the short span of time, I still managed to score some snacks.

Terakoya Senbei-Ten 寺子屋煎餅店

Fresh senbei and you get to choose the toppings for your senbei. I bought a shichimi senbei, ¥120.

Patisserie Roku パテイスリー麓

From Kurokawa Onsen's official website, their choux cream buns are popular but I got a swiss roll. It was good despite it looked non appealing on my photo because I did a takeaway and left it in the paper bag.

Swiss roll, ¥400

Not photographed was an onsen egg (¥50), a packet of Amakusa salt potato crips with cute Kumamon picture on the packet ¥400 (I may or may not bought it because of the Kumamon) and a local boxed snack. I would've also gotten a dorayaki from Dora-Dora too but the shop was closed.


Ryokan Ichinoi
I made a reservation for a night with breakfast and dinner at Ryokan Ichinoi. The ryokan had someone already waiting at the bus stop when I arrived. My arrival timing coincided with their check-in time of 15:00 so I was checked-in by a mandarin speaking staff as I arrived.

Definitely a luxury to have all the space to myself. There are private onsen that can be reserved with a charge, as well as both indoor and outdoor hot spring to be enjoyed without additional cost.

I went for 3 rounds and only once I met another person who was on their way out. Else I pretty much had the whole hot spring to myself, both indoor and outdoor. Hot spring at Ryokan Ichinoi are sulphur springs (iousen - 硫黄泉). It is said to be useful in the treatment of acne and skin complaints.

Male to the left, female to the right

If you want to try onsen in other ryokan, you can buy a nyuto tegata (入湯手形) for ¥1300 to try 3 different outdoor baths and it is valid for 6 months.

Dinner

This meal made me and my tummy very happy. I finished everything including rice. It was so good. Plum wine was served as aperitif.

From top left, clockwise: Raw beef (this is before cooked), basashi (raw horse meat), chicken sashimi and karashi renkon,  raw trout and salmon

I was really pleased with the food offered, not only because they were delicious but also because I was looking forward to try karashi renkon when I was in Kumamoto city as it is one of the local specialty. I'm also open to try basashi and raw chicken but may not necessary game enough to order them as a full size dish. I was more apprehensive on eating chicken sashimi compared to basashi, perhaps because the brain has been conditioned that chicken should be cooked or could be past history of accidentally consuming under cooked chicken. Interestingly raw chicken tasted better than under cooked chicken.

From left, clockwise: Beef being cooked, chawanmushi (the one inside a pouch at the first dinner photo), soy milk pudding with kuromitsu

Breakfast

Side note: There's a firefly night tour in June/July in Kurokawa Onsen!

Mount Aso 阿蘇山: Smoke of Aso-san

Mount Aso (阿蘇山 Aso-san) is the largest active volcano in Japan. Aso ia a group of mountains consists of five peaks - Mt Neko, Mt Taka, Mt Naka (Nakadake), Mt Eboshi and Mt Kishima.

In the center of the caldera, Mount Nakadake's crater is accessible to tourists. It is important to note that though the crater is not also open, sometimes partially and other times completely closed off due to emission of volcanic gas.

Unfortunately, on the day of my visit the eruption level alert was raised to Level 2 and entry around the surroundings were restricted.

Let me digress a little with another bit of story. I bought the 3-day Northern Kyushu SunQ pass because for some reasons unknown, I mistook that Takachiho is in Kumamoto. Unknown reasons because I can't explain why I misread the map every single time I checked and that was many times, which resulted to me buying a northern pass. Takachiho is in Miyazaki Prefrecture and unfortunately for me, not covered under the Northern Kyushu pass that I bought. On the minor bright side though, the loss I incurred wasn't too much but don't be silly like me.


Seat reservation for Kyushu Odan bus
If you have a SunQ pass and want to reserve a seat for Kyushu Odan bus, it can be made by:
Within Japan phone: 096-354-4845 (08:00-19:00).
International call: 002-81-96-354-4845 (08:00-19:00)
In person: At Kumamoto Kotsu Center
Online: http://www.atbus-de.com (must be in Japanese only, won't work in other language including google translate, else it would ask for payment)

I've put it here because you'll need to call different bus center depending on which bus you would be travelling with. I managed to make a reservation online for Mt Aso - Kurokawa Onsen trip but the rest I reserved in person at Kumamoto Kotsu Center. If you are buying the tickets online, there would be no issue with bus reservation.


Back to Mt Aso. The reason for the above side story was I initially made seat reservation the day I landed at Fukuoka Airport and Nakadake crater was open for visit. However, when I went in to Kumamoto Bus Terminal to check which bus stop that departs to Takachiho the day before, I saw a notice at the ticketing office that access to the crater has been closed. I decided to still go even though the crater is not accessible.

Getting to Mt Nakadake crater from Kumamoto
This was my initial plan plus seat reservation timing (reservation made 4 days before) on the first leg of commute, thinking it would give me a bit more time to get to the crater.

06:50 - 08:55 Kumamoto Kotsu Center - Mt Aso station (Yamabiko Express)
09:20 - 09:55 Mt Aso station - Asosan Nishi Station (This is where one gets on the Mt Aso Loop Shuttle Bus to the crater)
(Note: When I am blogging this post, I cannot find this bus timing again... so please recheck!)
Mt Aso Loop Shuttle Bus, which runs every 15-20 minutes and costs ¥1,200 for return trip.
(Asosan Ropeway is suspended due to earthquake damage, Mt Aso Loop Shuttle Bus is ropeway replacement)

When I found out that the crater is not open for access, I requested to amend my seat reservation to a later time. In addition, for some reason I cannot find the 09:20 bus from Mt Aso to Asosan Nishi Station when I am searching now, so it is probably a blessing in disguise.

Anyway, this was my revised seat timing (Kyushu Odan bus) - reservation made a day before travel
07:44 - 09:27 Kumamoto Kotsu Center - Mt Aso station
09:40 - 10:15 Mt Aso station - Asosan Nishi Station


Asosan Nishi Station (阿蘇山西駅)
Coin locker: ¥300

Building wise, there isn't much at Asosan Nishi Station. Just this one.

Good view though but I didn't trek far.

Then I took the bus to Kusasenri.

Here's the link to all the stops

Kusasenri (草千里)
Kusasenri is a prairie with background of Mt Naka, complete with grazing horses. Opposite the prairie is a large building which houses some shops, eating places and a museum. At the back area of the building is a lookout point.

I carried my backpack when I was at Kusasenri, simply because I felt wasteful to have left my luggage at Asosan nishi station for such a short period of time. Ideally I would've left my backpack at Asosan Station but I was running out of time and didn't want to miss the connecting bus. There were more coin lockers at Asosan Station but at ¥600. Thank goodness my backpack wasn't that heavy!

Inside the museum - the free bits

I missed getting the ikinari dango to try when I was a Suizenji. A shop before the entrance of Suizenji was selling some ikinari dango but closed after my visit. So when I saw it again at Mt Aso, I got one to try.

After breaking the dango I had into half, it looked like this. Guess I need to work on breaking food prettily as it doesn't look like the ones I saw online. It doesn't taste like the rest of dango and the sweet potato tasted prominent. Quite yummy despite the look.

Ikinari dango, ¥160

I got this leaflet from the museum and just want to put it here if anyone is looking for a short trek. I didn't do any of the trek but definitely wish I have time to. I missed the crater as well so the more reason to return to Mt Aso and allocate more time.

Komezuka
A volcanic cone in Aso that is about 50 meters in height on northern slopes of Nakadake.

From the bus

Returning to Mt Aso station from Kusasenri
12:35 - 13:03 Kusasenri - Mt Aso station

I took the 12:35 bus back to Mt Aso station so that I could make the 14:12 bus towards Kurokawa Onsen. That also gave me some time to grab lunch. I didn't go to far but just settled for a hot meal at a shop adjacent to the station. I had curry beef rice with salad, ¥850.

There's also a nearby tourist info that comes with a marketplace. There were cooked food including bentos on sale. As I had already eaten, I settled for a milk cheese pudding dessert. I also almost bought a box of dango as they were yummy but put it back because the expiry was within a week's time.

Yummm - on the way to Kurokawa Onsen

Side note: Detective Conan, episode 720-721 (Aso part episode 720)