Tuesday 24 March 2015

J day +7 Beppu…

Leaving the Mount Aso caldera we travelled to Beppu on the Pacific Coast of northern Kyushu, giving a real contrast to everything we’ve seen so far.
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Beppu is a centre for hot springs and onsen of which there are hundreds in this small city.
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The sulphurous smell hangs vaguely in the air around vents, although the see breeze ensures that it isn’t unpleasant.The mountains are never far away and they provide a dramatic backdrop.
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One of the risks associated with living here.
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Our hotel is another contrast to the Ryokan we stayed at last night. The Suginoi Palace Hotel is enormous and lit up like the Blackpool illuminations, which is at odds with the luxury interior – at far less than luxury prices, thanks to booking.com.
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The outside private bath on our terrace. It remains to be seen how we will take to bathing and showering outside tomorrow morning at temperatures around 4C!
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Dinner tasted good and the food was fresh, varied and of very good quality, but was an enormous buffet in contrast with meticulously served one last night.
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Tomorrow we leave Kyushu island and move north on to Western Honshu…

5 comments:

  1. Beautiful views! I'm amazed at the size of that hotel room - my recollection is that they were rather compact, to say the least.

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    1. Perhaps it is because it was a spa/onsen hotel?

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  2. Looks amazing... Bath together to keep warm Gaynor... It is the custom!

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  3. Amazing views and the hotel definitely looks like a great experience!

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