Kyushu 2023 - Beppu Rainy Morning, Breakfast, and Hell Pass

In the morning when we woke up, it was cloudy and drizzling. We do have windows in our room, and it looked out into the hills of Beppu. And because Beppu is a volcanic area, there are perpetual steam rising from random places all over the town and hills. It was quite unique sight for me.  

Here is a zoom in photo from our room. I can't really tell the steam and the rain clouds apart. But I could see a cool bridge in the mountains covered in mist/steam/cloud. It was such a cool sight. Now I can understand when I see anime where the whole village has steam coming out everywhere. It is real after all. This was just the very start of my surreal journey in Kyushu. I saw other surreal sights further along my trip too!

While waiting for the rain to stop, we had our breakfast. Strawberries, cause they were at the end of the season and selling cheap. Milk, cause milk is cheap and delicious here as compared to anything in Singapore where everything is imported. And an onigiri, cause again, it's cheap to eat these here instead of at our home country. Plus I really enjoy all the food here. 

Since the rain won't stop, I also have a cup of coffee and some rice cracker. The brown sugared rice crackers are my favourite. I just love the smell of burned sugar. The coffee is black, just black. Looking at the photo makes me wonder if I should go make myself a cup of coffee now, lol. But it's already 730pm.... Kinda late I guess?

Here's a book I couldn't help myself and bought yesterday. I love Japanese books like these. Simple joy in life. I think I read more Japanese books after I dropped out of my language school than I did while studying there. My vocabulary has increase quite a lot, but mainly on topics about food, money, simple joy in life :P

I also got some stickers from a 100yen shop. They are a lot cheaper to buy here than at home, or even in Taiwan! I love these stupid stickers and I love sticking them all over my journal organiser. I know it's a waste of money, but they bring so much joy to my life. Same goes for Friction Pens refill. I must have spend a fortune on them!

Since I wasn't in Beppu just to spend the whole day in my hotel, rain or shine, by 9am or so, we ventured out towards the Beppu station, a 10 to 15 minutes walk away. I was gonna see all the 7 hells of Beppu even if there was going to be a thunderstorm! Or at least see as many as I could since I was already here. I managed to purchase the 1000yen ticket, which includes a bus pass for the whole day, and tickets to all 7 hells. What a great combination tickets! I love these concepts. I don't know why western countries don't do more of these. 

We had to indicate the date we were gonna use the 1 day bus pass.  And then off we went! Interesting thing was, my husband lost his pass after the first ride, hahahaha. It blew away in the wind. So he had to pay for the bus ride back, which wasn't a lot, but still a shame.

Here's me, walking towards the first entrance to the first Beppu Hell. I didn't know what to expect!