13/12/22 Tues: We reserved the 9am slot for breakfast, so
three of us woke up at 7am and walked up flights of stairs from the second
floor of the ryokan to the open-air gender-separated bath, Takimian, for both
guests and public and that overlooks the Sakura Falls. Jess and I said that we
wanted to try that before breakfast, and at first I was reluctant too because
the futon was so comfortable that I didn’t want to get up that early, and it
was so cold outside!
Still, I kept to our promise in the end, so Jess and I soaked
ourselves in the onsen, and coincidentally, there was no one else around. I
think it’s so cold in the morning that we easily sank our bodies into the hot
spring haha. *You hear the sound of the waterfall, but can’t see it when you’re
in the onsen.* We were in there for about half an hour before we met Potato
back in the room to go for our breakfast area at level one.
Our tables were already reserved for us at one corner. Though
not as sumptuous as the Kaiseiki dinner, the breakfast was still a spread!
After that, we visited the gender-separated baths along the
Goraku River for ryokan guests, Takesansui (for men) and Hibikinoyu (for women),
and both had open-air and indoor baths. Potato took a quick look at the men’s
one and said they were not as “secluded/protected” as the womens’, which Jess
and I went in and saw. *I took a short video as no one was around but the
stone floor was too cold for my feet la!*
The check-out was done at 11am, and the staff were as usual
nice to carry our luggage up to the carpark area. *Very enjoyable stay and
if I were to visit Kyushu again in another season, another stay here is definitely
possible!*
On our way to the Takachiho Gorge area, Potato drove passed Senbatsurushika Park and we saw some deers. There were also lots of animal sculptures made from trees which were amazing.
I think we got there at 12+pm and parked at Ohashi parking lot which was free, but it was quite a walk that required us to go down a few road bends towards Takachiho Gorge area. Found the Nagashi-somen Chiho-no-ie eatery quite easily at 1pm, where we got to try the flowing bamboo somen which were more commonly found in Summer instead. There weren’t queues, but not one entertained us either, so we just grabbed empty seats available by the bamboo slides. *Could
tell there were Taiwanese, Singaporeans and Malaysians around us…*
One Japanese auntie helped took our orders: two somen (1,200 yen) and one set which includes fried fish, shoots and huge rice balls (1,500 yen). We were seated just next to the machine where the auntie would put a small handful of somen everytime and we were supposed to “catch” them using our chopsticks. Potato’s筷子功is very good, so he can catch a lot at one go, and then Jess and I would have nothing much left lol. *He feeds us la~ <3.* Even if we missed some strands, customers sitting down the line seems nice enough as they didn’t eat what’s not theirs haha. Those that we missed would end up in the blue basket at the end and auntie would hand it to us at after she’d served everything.
It was an interesting experience and I think I really enjoyed somen too… maybe even more than soba or udon! After that, we visited some snacks shop and bought one lime custard puff to try which tasted only okay.
Good for us there were no queues for the boat rental at Takachiho Gorge, so we rented a boat for three (4,100 yen for 30 minutes) and went down immediately to the dock to get our safety vests on. Potato ended up being the paddler while Jess and I took photos and videos hehe~ *cute mandarin ducks swam close at
times*
As we walked back up to the carpark, Jess found some bamboo
by the roadside and we took some photos too haha.
We had no time to visit the
Takachiho shrine nearby, so Potato drove towards our Aso Maple Airbnb (S$284
for two nights for three pax) at Aso straightaway. This was the most spacious
Airbnb we stayed in and it was well-equipped, so I liked it most out of all the
Airbnbs we stayed in actually. It was already 4.30pm when we reached, so we put
our stuff down and walked to Monzen shopping street, which was supposedly only
ten minutes away but felt like it took us more than that to reach by foot…
probably because it’s cold in winter?
Aso Shrine was closed by then, and many of the shops at the
small shopping street was not opened either. We tried the horse meat baroquette
(180 yen) which was okay. Horse meat and sashimi is widely available there it
seems. Jess chanced upon a bakery and bought one cream puff to try, and both
she and I thought it was yummy! She ended up buying four more back to the
Airbnb later. *A pity it was closed the next day, if not I’d have bought
some more myself hmph!*We decided there’s not much dining options there, so we
bought ready-to-eat meals (2,647 yen) at a huge supermarket on the way back. *The
Suntory there was really cheap! Slightly cheaper than eslewhere in Kyushu too.*
The dinner we had tonight cannot be compared to the “atas”
one the night before at Sanso Tensui, but it’s still a hearty meal with our own
desserts, strawberries and beer haha! We also bought ready-to-eat meals (1,759
yen) at the FamilyMart nearby for tomorrow’s breakfast.
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