Kyushu 2023 - Breakfast and Kunisaki Local 1-Day Tour

 

After having a full day visiting all the Hells' of Beppu, I have booked as a local day tour the next day. Since I didn't have to stress too much about it, we had a relaxing breakfast at our lodging area before walking to the Beppu Station to find the meeting point for the tour. So for breakfast, I had an onigiri, strawberries and milk, and some rice cracker snacked. I'm actually writing this blog in 2025, just returning from a trip to UK Scotland, and I realised I also ate strawberries and milk in Scotland. Must be my go to meal! But the main reason is because strawberries and milk are expensive in Singapore and Malaysia! 

At the Beppu Station walking around. It's the start of Spring time, so Kabosu is in season. Kabosu is a kind of lemon/lime. Kinda like a calamansi too. And since it's supposed to be refreshing for the weather as it closes in on summer, there are many advertisement of it here in Kyushu, from drinks to bath salt. I love the art of this advertisement. It's kinda retro, yet modern. 

We were to meet at the bus stop of Beppu Station, and there was already a designated waiting area with the sign, so it was a pretty stress free meeting. Once the bus arrived (on time as usual since this is Japan), we were able to just take attendance and off we went! And as expected, me and my husband were the only non-Japanese on the tour, lol. Well it did state it was a local tour conducted in Japanese....

Here's our colourful bus, even indicating all the places that we will be visiting! 

All of us got a badge to identify ourselves so that our tour guide knows that we belong to her group. I forgot her name, but she was so nice! She talked non-stop through out the bus ride, sharing stories and history of the place. I can't really understand all of it, but I just know she shared a lot, from agriculture to life stories of the people living at the places we visited, to myth and legend of the place. 

Lunch was not included in the day trip cost, but our guide would help us order it in advance at a local restaurant. Since we were visiting all Buddhist related places, it would be a vegetarian lunch being  prepared for us. There was only 2 set lunch provided as option, so we both pick one each so that we can experience both options.

The bus actually went about collecting more people for the trip, and one of the place it stopped at was a cruise center of Beppu.

The beautiful sea view as we drive along the coastal roads. 

The cruise center. You can actually take a local cruise here to Osaka. Maybe there are cruises going to the Princess Mononoke Island of Yakushima which was so difficult to get to!

I've watched from YouTube that the cruise between Beppu and Osaka was called Sunflower. And since it was a local cruise, I bet they do things very differently from the normal American Cruise. Hope I can experience it one day.