Day 8, April 8th: Beppu and Yufuin

We were so tired this morning that we actually overslept!  Dennis had to knock on our door to wake us up for breakfast at 7:00. 

The Nogami Honkan Onsen provided us with a lavish Japanese breakfast.  There was a choice of Japanese or European.  It was a wonderful Japanese experience, but sitting on the floor was difficult for Mom's aching legs.  We requested a regular table for the following morning.

After breakfast, we walked about a block down the street to the famous Takegawara black sand onsen.  Mom and Dennis had said before our trip that they might be OK with doing this since they wouldn't have to remove all their clothes in front of everyone.

Unfortunately, there was a big, no-nonsense sign that said people taking high blood pressure medicine should not do the sand onsen.  We were very disappointed.  It would have to be just Art and me.

We caught the train from Beppu to Yufuin which is a popular hot spring resort town.

It was a short train ride to Yufuin.

I told mom that we have a lot of pansies in the states and that it's nothing extraordinary, but she insisted I take a photo of them.  In fact, she's gotten to like telling me what photos I should be taking.

Actually Yufuin was a bit of a disappointment.  There were long streets full of shops. I bought a little cloth hand towel because public Japanese bathrooms generally do not provide paper wipes or hand dryers.  Women carry their own small towels to wipe their hands.

We did grab a quick bowl of noodles here along with some rice balls.

It wasn't great, but it was quick, cheap and rather tasty.

We love soft serve!  We were trying to see  how many different flavors we could sample on this trip.  I think this is where Art tried soft serve with soy sauce.  Seriously!  That man will try anything once.

It had been a cold spring so cherry blossoms were delayed down south and we were treated to even more floral displays.

You can see Mt. Yufu in the background.

I think this is dogwood, but I'm not sure.

Dennis and Art were being good sports here.

This is Lake Kinrinko and the reason for this resort town.  It wasn't anything for us to write home about.  Oops!  But here I am blogging about it.

It was still fun to see what sort of things were being sold.

Returning to the Beppu Station, we got to try another hand onsen.  The water was very warm.

We returned to our Nogami Onsen ryokan (inn), put on our yukatas, and headed for the Takegawara black sand bath.  We were told to wear short little kimonos and lie down in little depressed sand beds.  Then sand was shoveled over us.  Four inches of warm sand on top of all of you can be a little heavy and I could understand why it might not be good for someone with high blood pressure.  After the 15 minute sand bath, we washed ourselves off and entered the regular warm water onsen which was quite nice.

I met a fellow, his son and daughter in the waiting room who struck up a conversation with me.  They were interested in the fact that I was from Hawaii and could speak a little Japanese.  I tried to encourage them to speak English, but they were hesitant.  It was a lot of fun learning about each other as I waited for Art.

After the sand onsen, we went back to our Nogami Ryokan.  Then Art picked up Dennis and they both went to the hotel water onsen.

Needless to say, Art came back looking red as a crab.

It was certainly an interesting day!

Day #7, April 7th: Beppu

We got up at 6:00 this time and got down to the first floor of Toyoko Inn for their breakfast.  Two years ago, their breakfasts were just tea, coffee, rice balls, miso soup and pickled vegetables.  We were delighted to find they were now offering a whole lot more.

There was a long line already forming for breakfast.

I really like having miso soup for breakfast and I quickly got used to having the rice balls.

Funny thing... even having rice or noodles with each meal, I actually lost 4 pounds during the trip.

Nobody had trouble finishing their meal.

We were out the door by 7:30 for our Shinkansen bullet trains bound for Beppu.  We asked for help from the train staff because of mom's wheelchair.

They were fabulous!  Train staff met us at each station and made sure we made the correct transfer.

This is important because we had to catch four trains.  Sendai to Tokyo to Shin Osaka to Kokura to Beppu.

I really loved this sign on the train.  How much clearer can you get?  Then again, what about the night?  Perhaps they thought NO SMOKING would seem a bit too harsh.

Japanese style squat toilets on solid ground is tricky enough, but put it on a step up on a moving train with handholds to keep you in place and you've got a challenge.

I managed... but only just.

We bought these box lunches in Sendai which was a good thing because we didn't have much transfer times to allow us to buy lunches anywhere else.

I LOVE these bento boxes!!!  In the middle row, extreme right is a pickled baby eggplant.  It was really yummy!  I even brought a package of them back with us.

After passing through a huge Sendai blizzard, sunnier skies appeared. 

Mom hoped it would be a lot warmer down south where we were headed.

We just loved the very solicitous and polite help we got at all the train stops.

I wonder how often they get to use this contraption.

We arrived in Beppu on the island of Kyushu at 5:21.  We were pretty tired after 10 hours of travel time.

This is a hand onsen (hot spring).  The water was very warm.

We love to take photos of the manhole covers in Japan.  They are all unique to each city.

Dinner was in a hole-in-the-wall restaurant.  Noodles.  Not very good.  I think we were spoiled in Tokyo and Sendai.

The Nogami Onsen was the best pick in the Lonely Planet travel guide.

It's a little tired with age, but was quite comfortable.  The furoba (bath tub) was deep and Dennis thought the water was also from the onsen since it was extremely hot and bubbled when it came out.

You are supposed to soap and wash yourself while sitting on the stool and then soak in the tub.  You do NOT enter the tub with a dirty body.

This hotel/onsen is also close to the sand onsen that Art wanted to try.

The futons were laid out for us before bedtime.

We were able to reserve times to go into the onsen.  This was the onsen that Dennis and Art went into.  I didn't bring a camera with me to the onsen that Mom and I reserved.

Art said their onsen was very nice.  Mom and I nearly got burned in ours before I noticed the cold water pipe.

The air temperature was pretty cold so we were chilled while washing ourselves and then the water was so hot we ended up looking like lobsters when we came out.

The onsen provided yukatas (cotton kimonos) for us to wear to bed.  They're not all that easy to sleep in, but it's fun.

I took a photo of Art, but he doesn't want me to post it.  He doesn't think lavender is quite his color.

As you can see, Dennis and Art have energy to spare.  Here they are doing the laundry and you can see what the time is on the wall.

It was quite an exhausting day!

Day #2, April 2nd: Visiting With Mom's Brother

We got up at 5:30 and had a lovely breakfast at the New Sanno's Emporium Restaurant.

Outside Shibuya Station

We then went to the Shibuya train station to pick up our 2 week JR train pass that would give us unlimited JR train and bus transportation throughout Japan.

The JR pass is only available to foreigners. It took a while to figure out how to get where we needed to be.

We returned to the New Sanno after lunch to await mom's brother and his wife who were planning to take us to the Rikugien Garden.  It is a few blocks to walk to the Hiroo train station from the New Sanno.  The weather was cool, but tolerable for mom.

Uncle is only 3 years older than Art and Auntie is a year older than me.  Uncle is mom's baby brother and a retired high court judge.  Although the family is very proud of him, mom still thinks of him as the baby brother she carried on her back before she had to leave for Hawaii.  Auntie wore a mask because she suffers from seasonal hay fever.

Uncle, Mom, Art, Dennis, Me, Aunt

The Rikugien Garden was just starting to put forth its display of cherry blossoms.  The tree showed the promise of  beauty it would be exhibiting in a couple of days.

We watched workers painstakingly tending to the many matsu (pine trees) in the garden.

Here's my brother, Dennis and me taking a photo of the same thing.  I just checked and saw that with our combined cameras we have a little over 25 GB of photos.

The most wonderful thing about our trip wasn't the scenery or the food.  It was mom being able to spend time with her siblings.  The quiet time she had with her baby brother will always be a happy memory.

After the park, Uncle and Auntie took us to the Top of the Yebisu building.  We had a glorious dinner at the Hinone Mizunone restaurant.  We could see Tokyo spread out below us.  Then while we were eating we saw the sun go down and lights begin to twinkle below.

Then came the incredible, artistic, delicious delicacies.   This dish was squid with daikon (radish), tako (octopus) and white fish.

This was called yuba. They said it's some sort of tofu skin.  It's mostly the mixture of herbs and sauce and spices that really make it memorable.

I was surprised that the tempura did not come with a sauce, but with a dish of sea salt.  It was really, really fabulous!

These were scallops and some other seafood.  I'm not usually a huge fan of raw seafood, but these were amazing too!

There were a WHOLE LOT of other dishes that appeared.  By the time these platters of sushi arrived, we could barely eat them.  Mom was a little upset that it would be wasted.  Dennis made a good attempt at reducing that waste.

Me and and my brother, Dennis

My cousin, Kanako arrived during the meal.  She'd had to travel 45 minutes on the train to join us.  It was such a beautiful evening and when they accompanied us back to the New Sanno, it was sad to think that this could possibly be the last time mom would be able to see them since my uncle does not like to travel.