11/12/22 Sun: Woke up at 8am and we set off at 9am towards
Kokonoe Yume Otsurihasi, a famous suspension bridge. *Toll was 1,140 yen and
driving up that “intestinal” road was no joke man~* We arrived at the huge
free carpark at 10am and we spent about an hour there.We bought the entry tickets at 500 yen per person but the
Kokonoe Burger joint was not opened on a Sunday. They will take photos for
visitors before we even step onto the bridge, but we decided that we didn’t
want to buy the coloured photo since there wasn’t much in the surrounding
anyway haha.The 173m tall and 390m long bridge took us about 10 minutes
to cross one-way because the wind was blowing mercilessly at us that the bridge
shook a little la! I was freezing but still took some photos and videos along
the way…
Once we got to the other side, Potato bought a can of corn
potage from the vending machine and it was so warm and very yummy! We walked up
to the observation deck to take some photos of Kokonoe Yume Otsurihasi from
there. *Potato took a video on the return trip on the bridge~ 辛苦他了！*
For lunch, Potato initially wanted to bring us to Ikoi
Yakitori but the place was closed and the surroundings looked kind of deserted,
so we headed straight for Kuyju Forest Park Skiing Ground instead. It was
almost noon when we reached the carpark, which were full of cars at their
second day of opening! The weather had been gloomy and even foggy near the
skiing ground, and I was slightly worried they’d be closed due to the bad
weather.We bought the entry tickets for four hours (half-a-day) and
it costed 4,500 yen per person before going over to their canteen for lunch. I
went with photos I saw near the stalls and ordered jjamppong via their vending
machine (all in Japanese, S$9+). Potato had beef don while Jess only ate Takoyaki
because she wasn’t too hungry. There were lots of people in the park but mostly
Japanese it seems.PotaTOHs wanted to try snowboarding while Jess is at her
virgin skiing experience. We walked over to the clothes store where we had to
fill in our information like clothes and shoes size, try out the ski wear
before going over to collect our snowboards, boots and ski sets. *step-on
snowboard two-piece set was 5,000 yen and top and bottom was 3,000 yen* This
young female staff who helped me was from Hawaii so she spoke fluent English,
albeit she was only there for a few days to help out.
PotaTOHs collected our boots from a Korean student staff
working there while Jess took her ski sticks from another store. Jess and I
wore our outfit in the changing room and while I was unable to walk properly
with the boots at first, I could brisk walk in it after a few hours lol!
Stepped out into the man-made snow grounds and there were
many people at the beginner’s slope area haha. Jess had to get her skis fitted
at a corner first. Having watched some snowboarding videos beforehand, PotaTOHs
practised with one leg in the strap on the board first. My Potato is very brave
and athletic, so he went up to a higher slope within the first hour! *He
even filmed his own snowboarding trip down near the end!* Jess did not bad
with her virgin ski, though she needs to straighten and balance herself better
after she gains speed la haha.
The timid me? I took a while to step both feet onto the
slippery snowboard. *Took a while for me to get used to the clicking of our
boots onto the snowboard.* Potato helped me with balance every now and then
before I took off on the very gentle slope. Some of the references in the
videos I watched helped too, but it always feels different when you try to
navigate yourself. I liked how I took my time to do the turns, although not yet
perfect, at least I “got the hang of it” during the first few hours there.
I felt nervous when we went up the travellator because that
meant the slope was stepper and longer from there. Kick off-ed there with
Potato’s help and many times I fell, I managed to do the “bear turns” to get up
haha. Though it only takes your own body and limbs to help in the balance, I
thought it’s easier than skiing, which I tried on our last trip to Japan
because you have two less annoying sticks to handle haha!
After three hours or so in the snow, we headed in to get
some hot chocolate and corn potage. As we were unsure of when exactly the
‘four-hour cut-off’ time for us was, we decided to go for one more try for a while
before calling it a day at 4pm or so. *I was much more "daring" during the second trip haha. Jess only took photos for us then.* The park closes at 5pm. It was not cheap,
but definitely worth trying whenever one travels in winter.
Then, we drove over to find the free footbath at Sujiyu
Onsen area, which was behind Utase Daiyokujo. It was a quick five minutes’ dip
before we drove over to Kurokawa Onsen area, where I thought we could get to
see the beautiful light decorations near the river…Arrived at 6+pm and it was already dark in winter. Kurokawa is famous for their onsen but as we were not guests staying there, it’s hard to get inside for dinner. We looked for independent eateries around, but one was full while many were closed. *No reservations, so it seemed to be a challenge every time it comes to finding a dining place for dinner in Kyushu…* Finally found one cozy bar/Izakaya place called Iroriya at 6+pm where they had bar seats for us.
There was a “mandatory” appetiser which was the chicken gizzard
and spinach (300yen) and it was a nice bite. We shared fried beancurd which was
meh, fried chicken that was not bad, and Jess tried Shishamo for the first time
too. I had yakisoba as my main and it was quite nice, while Potato and Jess ordered
their salmon ochazuke which tasted great. Dinner costed 3,910 yen.
We left at 8.15pm and drove back to our Airbnb. *Road
toll was 1,140 yen and most of it were dark, which reminded PotaTOHs of when we
drove back to the city from Great Ocean Road in Melbourne and also towards
Yarra valley.* Stopped at Drugstore Mori to buy some tidbits and breakfast
for the next day (1,467 yen). Potato bought this cheap grape Suntory wine to try
and we all agreed that it tasted like sparkling Ribena haha.
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