黒川温泉 Kurokawa onsen

After a hearty breakfast (which I forgot to take any photos of cos I was too busy gorging on the fabulous sweet miso, natto and barley mix cooked on a piece of leaf and raw egg with rice, amongst other things), we bade the ryokan staff farewell.

Then, we headed to our ryokan's sister inn 山みずき Yama-mizuki, which is renowned for its riverside baths. The open-air baths were next to the river and was very open but it felt safe enough cos it was quite far away from the walking paths. On the ladies side, there were 2 baths connected by a 200m-long path partially shielded by plants. (Photos taken from internet. Couldn't take any pictures cos the baths were crowded.)

いちのいで会館 Ichinoide Kaikan

For lunch, we went to Ichinoide Kaikan, a bento shop with its own outdoor bath! The owner is an onsen lover and built large outdoor baths near his shop. Order a bento and you can dip in the bath for free (but the water here is quite hot!). The baths are very big and located halfway up a hill so you get a good view of Beppu city.

The men's bath

The ladies' bath is big enough to swim in...I was swimming 20m-long laps in it!

Good view of Beppu city from the ladies' bath

Enjoying our lunch after our bath. Our lunch was dango jiru set. Dango jiru is a Beppu signature dish, miso soup with vegetables and dumplings.

花見 Hanami lunch. Nice view of sakura from the window of the eating hall.

別府 Beppu

Beppu is the hot springs capital of Japan. There are many hot springs and different varieties as well - usual hot spring bath, sand bath, mud bath, etc.

The main highlight in Beppu, though, are the 地獄 Jigoku (Hell Baths). These baths are only for viewing and not for bathing in, unless you want to be cooked alive. The temperatures of these are around 100 deg.

白池地獄 Shiraike (White Pond) Jigoku

かまど地獄 Kamado (Oven) Jigoku
Giant thermometer to show how hot the water is
Throat and skin bath. Daddy is somewhere in the steam.
Interesting phenomenon. If you hold a lit cigarette near this hole and blow at it, lots of steam will be produced. Uncle giving it a try.
And it works!

A Korean tour guide demonstrating the same phenomenon at the bubbling mud pool.

And the same thing happens! The curious thing is that smoke is only produced at the particular mud bubble he blew at, and not the others.

天の岩戸 Ama-no-Iwato cave

This is believed to be the cave where Amaterasu (the sun goddess) hid herself. It's a scenic 20-min walk from the Ama-no-Iwato shrine down to the river bank where the cave is.

There is a shrine in the cave. Not sure why but there seems to be a practice of stacking stones on top of one another in and around the cave.

Daddy and Uncle at the torii gate of the shrine.

Mummy and Daddy at the shrine.

高千穂峡 Takachiho Gorge

Next stop, the beautiful Takachiho Gorge. The gorge was formed about 100,000 years ago due to lava flow from an eruptionat Mt. Aso.

Uncle and I rented a boat. I rowed. Did quite well - only crashed into other boats twice...and it was the other boats' fault ;P

Not easy ok...the gorge is quite narrow so you have to keep well to one side to avoid the spray from the waterfall.

Since Mummy and Daddy did not take the boat, we walked along the boardwalk for them to enjoy the view.

阿蘇山 Mt. Aso

Then we drove to Mt. Aso, one of the world's largest active volcanoes, with a crater measuring 128km in circumference!

When the smoke clears a little, you can catch a glimpse of the tranquil turquoise green water in the crater. It's kinda hard to get a shot of that though cos it steams up almost immediately.

Shelters around the crater for people to take refuge in case there are rocks spewing out from the crater.

黒川温泉 Kurokawa onsen

There are many onsen towns around Mt. Aso. We stayed at a renowned ryokan in the highly reputed, very traditional Kurokawa onsen town. It was expensive, but a really good experience.

新明館 Shinmeikan, the ryokan we stayed at. Well located in the centre of town, across the river with little connecting bridges.

Uncle admiring the ryokan from the bridge.

The ryokan has many kinds of baths, indoor, outdoor, family, but it is most well-known for its cave baths. The cave bath was really interesting - there was a small network of tunnels leading from one cave to another and it was a little dark so you feel a little lost as you wander through the caves.

Dinner was served in our room and it was spectacular spread.

The highlight was 馬刺し basashi (raw horse meat), a signature dish in Kumamoto prefecture. Need to get used to it, then it tastes oishii!!
Went out for a night stroll after dinner but it was cold!

So went back to ryokan to free coffee around the irori (fire pit).

Look, my name on the guest list!

平和台公園 Heiwadai Park

The centrepiece of the Heiwadai Park is the Tower of Peace, built in 1940. It's not exactly the prettiest thing around.

But if u stand in front of it and clap your hands, you will hear a strange metallic echo.

There are quite a lot of pretty flowers in the park though.

And some clay figurines called haniwa.

西都原古墳郡 Saitobaru Burial Mounds Park

菜の花 Na-no-hana (don't know what it's English name is, sorry) were in full bloom!

There are 311 burial mounds of various shapes and styles estimated to have been built between the 3rd and 7th century.

The Oni-no-Iwaya burial mound was built for a local chief in the 7th century. It is very large, with a diameter of 37m and a height of 7m. It even has a moat surrounding it!! I've never seen a moat around a tomb. It is the background of this picture.

At the entrance of the tunnel under the bank of the moat
Entrance of the tomb; Mummy and Daddy are standing in the moat, I'm on top of the bank.
In the stone burial chamber

Uncle on top of the bank; Mummy and Daddy climbing up from the moat; 菜の花 na-no-hana field on the other side of the bank.

Many people enjoying お花見 (literally means flower viewing picnic, but usually used for cherry blossoms viewing) under the soon-to-bloom cherry trees and in the park.

Chicken Namban

Lunch was an original Miyazaki creation - Chicken namban! Chicken cutlet with a vinegar tartar sauce. Yummy!

馬が背 Umagase (Horse's back)

At the look-out point for Umagase, but we realised that the walking trail was very very long so we just took a photo at the viewing point and left ;P

高千穂 Takachiho

Checked in to our little ryokan at Takachiho and tucked into a sumptuous dinner!

Yokagura dance

After dinner, we rushed off to catch the ancient Yokagura dance. The full dance is a repertoire of 33 dances performed through the night only during the festival in Nov. A shorter version of 4 dances is performed every night at Takachiho Shrine.

The first 3 dances are about how the other gods try to find Amaterasu (the sun goddess), who was hiding in a cave. (Notice that in the last photo the cave is exposed)

Video link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1xQRtjfdUQ

The last dance is known as the creation of Japan dance. It shows Izanagi and Izanami, the god and goddess who created Japan, making and drinking sake and then becoming amorous, with rather explicit actions.