Stayed in this newly opened (5 months old) 5-star onsen hotel in Beppu. Due to its location, it has panoramic views of the city and Beppu Bay below.
Onsen is sourced from nearby Kanawa onsen, though not as smooth as earlier onsens in this trip. Rotenburo also has nice views. Our room is spacious with a balcony (70 sqm).
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.
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.
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.
