Our 4th stay in this onsen city with about 8 different onsen areas.

2nd stay in huge onsen hotel/resort in Kankaiji onsen. Selected a spacious room with distant seaview. Had onsen in its huge sea-facing rotenburo. Stayed in this hotel again (since 2008) to try its Italian dinner whose main chef was from Ginza. Super-delicious course with seafood and local beef, apart from great service.

Usuki Seki-butsu

As we had visited the Jigokus’ in Beppu in previous trips, drove to Usuki for its Seki-butsu (Stone Buddhas) sculpted into cliffs. The Stone Buddhas are grouped in four separate clusters. Took less than 1 hour to complete an easy trail which covers them.

Mt Tsurumi

Back to Beppu and headed up to Mt Tsurumi by ropeway. From the top station, we took a short hike of 20 min and reached the summit @1375m. Caught sight of some early blooming Miyama-Kirishima, apart from panoramic views of the Bay of Beppu stretching all the way to Oita to the south – as in the featured photo.

After descending from the ropeway, had a coffee  before checking into another onsen hotel close to the JR Beppu station. The rotenburo was huge – akin to a swimming pool. Had a nice fusion dinner with free flow of alcohol – wine/sake/whisky.

After checking out on next morning, took JR Sonic express train to Hakata direct in 2 hours.

===>   Fukuoka   ====>