Kyushu Day 4 - Kirishima - Kagoshima

 Great scenery from our room early in the morning.

  

After several minutes, smoke starts to spew out from Sakurajima! 

Breakfast is buffet style, you can choose from a wide selection of Japanese or western.

 This is the best find from Kirishima. It's a kind of miso paste where you can eat directly, goes well with piping hot rice, meats or you can do a cucumber dip with it.

Official check out time is 10am. As there was still time before the bus departs, we went to the nearby market to have a look. 

There were some stalls selling steamed corn, sweet potatoes, even steamed eggs. 

The steam coming out from the basket is all natural steam from the onsen as Kirishima is an onsen resort. 

We were a tad too early in Kyushu before the Autumn leaves started turning red, and as Kirishima onsen resort is up on the mountains, this was the only place where we caught a glimpse of Autumn leaves. 

I just couldn't resist taking more photos of the autumn trees while waiting for the bus to come.

More beautiful scenery along the bus ride back to Kirishima Jingu station. Can you spot the smoke coming out from Sakurajima ? 

 

Catching the train back to Kagoshima. 

Wonderful scenery especially of Sakurajima during the train ride back.

We alighted at Kagoshima station this time round instead of Kagoshima chuo station as Sakurajima was closer to Kagoshima station. 

Right adjacent to Kagoshima station was the Kagoshima ekimae (鹿児島駅前) city tram terminus station and the starting point for both the tram routes. 

Love these trams.. they look so vintage. 

Nice weather, nice surroundings. 

On the way to the Sakurajima Ferry terminal, you could see fantastic views of Sakurajima. Sakurajima (桜島) is one of Japan's most active volcano, with eruptions of up to 6 times a day. You can take a ferry from Kagoshima ferry terminal to Sakurajima.

The ferry takes 15 mins and 150yen per way. 

We took a 15 minute walk from the ferry terminal to Yougan Nagisa Park (溶岩なぎさ公園) where there was a long foot bath available for visitors, as well as the Sakurajima visitor centre. 

Relaxing foot bath !

Great view of Sakurajima from Nagisa Park. 

100yen for a bag of mandarin oranges? self service.

Ferry schedule from Sakurajima to Kagoshima mainland. Ferry runs for 24 hours!

Dinner was at an Izakaya - Warawara (笑笑) near our hotel. Scrumptious dinner of sashimi salad, yakitori, beef steak and yaki udon. Comes with all you can drink (alcohol inclusive) at additional 1000yen per pax. cheap! 

Kyushu Day 3 - Kagoshima - Ibusuki - Kirishima

Today is gonna be one hectic day of travelling! 

  Took an early train from Kagoshima cho station to Ibusuki station (指宿駅). Ibusuki city is located at the southeastern tip of Satsuma peninsula and at the entrance of Kagoshima bay. As the train runs along the coastal line of Kagoshima, you could see the scenery of Kagoshima bay along the trip. 

After an hour train ride, we finally reached Ibusuki station.

Ibusuki is famous for it's hot sand bath, and also the reason we spent an hour's train ride here. The sand bath resort is about half an hour walk from the train station, so we did a leisure walk over to the resort. 

Along the way, you could see farmers harvesting Satsuma-imo (薩摩芋 or sweet potatoes). The reason it is called Satsuma is because this region lies along the Satsuma peninsula. They are mainly harvested in fall in Japan.

Finally reached Ibusuki Natural Sand Bath center (砂むし会館 「砂楽」). According to the brochure provided, the steam sand bath has many medical benefits and also good for beauty treatment. 

 You can purchase a ticket for the sand bath at the 2nd floor reception for 900yen. You would also need a small towel (to support the head during the same bath) as well as a bath towel (to clean your body after onsen). 

Yukata is also provided and you can change into the yukata to enter the sand bath. The sand bath area faces the sea, and the staff will shovel hot sand over your whole body. You can lie under the sand for approximately 20 minutes and the sand will sweat out your body impurities and leave you feeling refreshed. 

After a 20 minute body "workout", you can walk back to the onsen area, wash away the sand from your body and enjoy the hot onsen. 

 

We managed to get reserved seats for the Ibutama (Ibusuki no Tametebako or Ibusuki treasure box) train for the trip back. There are limited seats on the train, and it is an express train direct from Ibusuki to Kagoshima chuo station. There are only 3 round trips a day. 

 The interior of the train looks like a children's library, with books on the shelves, and seats facing the windows for guest to catch a glimpse of the Kagoshima bay.  

 

As we had to catch the train from Kagoshima to Kirishima, we had a quick lunch at the basement of the supermarket. Food was so so only.

After another 1 hour plus train ride, we reached Kirishima Jingu station (霧島神宮駅), the nearest train station to our Ryokan for the night.

 The bus ride from Kirishima Jingu station to the Ryokan takes about 30 minutes and costs 500yen. There was some great scenery during the bus ride.

There was even a waterfall on the way!

When we alighted the bus, there was a signage of all the ryokans at the area. Where is our ryokan? 

 This place is called Krishima Maruo onsen area (霧島丸尾温泉). You could see steam coming out from everywhere!

 The ryokan for our night was a 15 minute walk. Sun was already setting by the time we reached the ryokan.  

Managed to book the room which has an attached foot bath. Great scenery from the foot bath! The package also came with a selection of yukata as well as 45 minute private onsen usage. 

 Love the footbath!

There was also a shochu cellar at the hotel. They have approximately 170 different types of shochu. You can also purchase them, or try out your favourite from 400yen onwards per shot or 100yen for 3 tasting cups.

Dinner was at the main dining hall, and we chose all-you-can-eat kurobuta shabu shabu package. It also comes with various side dishes. The kurobuta pork came in 2 different cuts... and they were so tender to the bite. Yum!