Kyushu road trip: Beppu & Yufuin adventure | Japan travel vlog

Good morning from Beppu. It's day three of our road trip in Kyushu. Yep, we stayed the night here. We had a really nice onsen. This hotel is very nice. Highly recommend it. And today we're going to explore Beppu a bit more. Yep, I think we're going to do the castle, Kifune Castle. We're going to do the Yukimuri Observatory and then we're going to do Hyotown Onsen. Three of our must-sees in Beppu. If you've not seen our Ultimate Beppu Guide where we talk about all these things, go watch it. I think either here or here or in the description. I can't speak today. I'm a bit tired. It's been a long holiday. But anyway, we have had an onsen this morning at our private onsen. Very, very nice. With its, of course, shower area and nice view out the window of Beppu. We're about to check out. We're a bit late, so we're going to go and we'll see you in the car. Before we do though, let me just show you the traditional Japanese breakfast we had at our hotel, the Ryokan Nagomitsuki. It was properly decent with grilled fish, pickles, miso soup, you name it. Also, here's a quick look at the public onsen in the hotel. You've seen the one in our bedroom. Here's the one in the hotel. Apart from having this nice sticker as well, foreign country. From a foreign country. Is driving. Is driving. Heartful friendship in Fukuoka. This one literally says friendly driving because a foreign person is driving this car and they may not know how to drive very well. Back in the car. Day three of the road trip. Time to do some of Beppu's best activities. Well, sites. Yeah. All the ones that we highly recommend you do. I thought the weather was meant to be better today, but it's definitely not. It did say zero clouds and I see many clouds. I'm sure they'll just sort of disperse as the day goes on because it's supposed to get up to like 18 degrees, which is very different to yesterday morning in Kurokawa where it was like 2 degrees. So we're heading to the observatory. Yes, the Yukemuri Observatory, which gives you a very, very good view of all of the steam. That's why I'm concerned about the weather. So we're on our way to the observatory, the Yukemuri Observatory, and we've just spotted a really odd shrine with gold torii gates. I've never seen gold torii gates before, but it's probably a good photo spot. It's like Fushimi Inari with all the red torii gates, but this one is gold. I think it's a hotel. Oh, it is a hotel. It's a hotel. That's cool. You can stay here. So we've just got to our next stop, the Yukemuri Observatory. You can already see the amazing view behind me. Effectively, you just need to pop up the stairs here and then head up inside this. Well, head up the stairs in this weird sort of concrete-y thing. Up to the top here, and you get a really, really great view of Beppu in all its glory. On second thoughts, the view is actually better downstairs. And this hill here is where they do the fire festival, and it looks like this. Here you are. This is what it looks like normally and during the fire festival in April. So if you're coming in April and you're planning to do a Kyushu visit, it's definitely worth coming to Beppu because you can see the fire festival. It's a shame about the weather today. It was really sunny yesterday, but there you are. Anyway, onwards to the next viewpoint, which is the Kifune Castle, and I'd say one of my favorite castles in the entirety of Japan. Stylish. She's so hot right now. No pep, no pep. Magnum. Magnum Dom. Don't put that in. Why not? That's the jingle they play on a loop for eight hours. What is the sunflower? It's the ferry from Beppu to Osaka. That we got. Watch out overnight. To watch that video. The ferry video. And it's just over there. The zoom lens probably isn't good enough, but... You just stick her at the point. Stick your finger out. More right. There. Wait. He's gonna show us the snake. Get the point as well. Yes, the snake. We know it's coming. Boys. If you touch the snake, you get money. Yeah, apparently. They let it out at night. That's what it said on the sign last time. Yeah. And it does have like that bathtub, doesn't it? It's just a snake in a bag. Apparently it's really old. It's just a snake in a bag. How old's the snake? Apparently it's 70 years old. The snake? Yeah. Fucking hell, it's pretty old. It's a super authentic castle, this. This is why it's my second favorite in Japan. After Himeji, because you can see all the sort of... The wooden supports with the columns. The original tatami. The shrine and, of course, the snake. It's a wish. It's a... It's a fortune. The good money one? Yes, the good money one. Good money? Good money. Good money spent. Look at all these... All these prints. Traditional Japanese print art. I really like this one. All the different rooms. Yeah, it's amazing. These are all originals as well. Up the stairs to the top of the castle. And then you can come outside to get an even better view of all of the surrounding area. God, I love it here. This castle's amazing. It's so sort of authentic compared to things like Osaka and Nagoya Castle. This is a real good one. Beppu is just amazing. It's definitely one of my favorite places to come in Japan. The castle here, Kifune Castle, is brilliant. The view's amazing. You get to sort of roam around freely within the castle. Big bamboo forest there. Mount Tsurumi up there. And you can see all of the onsen steam rising out of the ground. It's just amazing. It's definitely, definitely worth adding it to your itinerary. It's a great, great castle because you get, like, full-roamed. It's a cool one. And you can walk all around to get a good view from the top. Touch the lucky snake. Poor old snake. It's 70 years old. 70 years old. And there's the previous snake. The previous snake in the shrine just there that you can just about see the coils. But yeah, well worth 1 pound 50 or the 300 yen to come and visit Kifune Castle. We're just going to Hyotan Onsen. It's our favorite onsen in Beppu. Michelin starred. Three stars, apparently. We just arrived. And yeah, check out our other video about Beppu if you want to see the inside of Hyotan. Otherwise, it's onsen time. Onsen time, baby. Woo, let's go. So you put your money in and choose your ticket. We chose the public bath set ticket. You hand your key in and your ticket. Grab your clogs. You get a towel. And then you go outside. Here's the map. Men's bath over there. Women's bath just around there. And this is just an amazing onsen. There's so many different types. And there's a sand bath here as well. And then the Michelin restaurant. Yeah, this is a relaxed area where you can come out. And this is the sort of central area where we relax afterwards. Onsen time. In we go. No onsen is complete without an onsen pudding steamed by the onsen. Smile. Feeling good? So relaxed. We're actually going to eat here because it's like noon now. And why not? It's meant to be really good, so. Michelin rated something? Restaurant Yurari. So we finished at the onsen. At Hyotan Onsen. One of our absolute favourite ones. It's really modern. And it's got loads of different types of baths. Steam baths. Outdoor ones. Roth baths. Coconut baths. Fishbash. Bosch baths. Bars? Baths. And yeah, it's really nice. We're super relaxed. Very, very relaxed. And we had lunch there. I went for a curry. Which I think is actually quite filling to have after onsen. Usually I wouldn't have food for quite a while. I'd usually just have like some milk or an ice cream. But the ice cream vending machine was not working, which is sad. Are you feeling car sick? Is it my driving or the mountainous road? Both. What? I'm a good driver, what are you on about? Anyway, now we are back in the car, obviously. We are heading back towards Fukuoka. But we are stopping. Where are we stopping? We're stopping at Yufuin Village, which is a very, very scenic little village up in the mountains just sort of northwest of Beppu. And the drive that we're taking to get there is amazing. We've driven up the most insane mountainous road. And we're now sort of cresting the ridge where there's, you know, a couple of volcanoes. And the scenery is absolutely amazing. Ashley, spin the camera around and show them what's going on out front. I think it's about a 30 minute drive. It is a 30 minute drive. You see all these big rocks up here on the right hand side and stuff. Those are boulders and stuff. Those are boulders from previous volcanic eruptions. Look at this view. Oh my god. And yeah, anyway, here are the rocks that I was talking about. They're big, massive boulders that have been spewed out by past eruptions, you know, probably thousands of years ago. So scenic. It looks like a windows background or something. The only thing is, while beautiful, very bendy roads. And I do suffer a little bit from the old car sickness. Not my driving, just the mountain road. Maybe it's a bit of both. Yeah, I don't know why I decided to go on a road trip along the mountainous roads. I do. No, it is beautiful. But yeah, I am struggling a bit. I have to have the window open. I'm not. I'm loving it. We've just stopped off at a sort of lookout point. Very, very nice. The views are amazing. Good to get some fresh air as well. But you know, great views that way. But also, up here. It's because it's a crater. It's a massive volcano. This isn't Mount Aso. It literally says Aso lookout point. I don't think this is Mount Aso, but it might be. I'm enjoying the fresh air. What about the wiggly road? Do you like wiggly road? It's very beautiful. It's quite hard to appreciate it when you feel sick. And a bit hungover? No, just... Trotterdake? No, I actually feel fine. Oh God, the car sickness makes me feel sick for so long as well. It lasts for a good hour after I feel car sick. It's good to get some fresh air though. You'll be all right. You'll be fine. Yeah, I know. It's fine. It's just the way of the road. Oh look, you can see the wiggly road. Oh, brilliant. Going down there. Although one thing that's really annoying is I've got water stuck in this ear from the onsen. Which is sort of disorienting me. Disorientating me a little bit. I can't really hear much out of this one. This one's fine. But yeah, not ideal. Feeling really ropey. But health. We're only eight minutes away though, right? So it's very close now. There's so many people here. Where do they all come from? Where did they go? Where did you come from? This whole area is super volcanic, which means it's really famous for onsen, of course. Shame that we don't have enough time to go to an onsen. I mean, we already went to one this morning. We've done like eight in the last two days. No, but not one here in Newfoundland. Because we're going to have to go back to Fukuoka to return the car today. We have to do it by five. So we do have a deadline. But it's been very nice. Apart from the... I mean, the mountain roads were nice, just not nice for my car sickness. Nice for me. These are helping my car sickness. Food aid. Zingy, gummy sweets. Always good. We eat beef curry. Hello, kitty. Hello. Hello, I lost you. Yeah, I went to look at some sweets. It's nice, isn't it? Yeah, it's nice. It's famous for its cafes and boutique shops. This just seems to be shopping. It's a nice little tourist spot. Nice shopping. And the scenery. Yeah, very nice. Is very, very nice. You can definitely get yourself some nicer souvenirs here. It's quite noticeable that there's no western tourists here. Well, I haven't seen any apart from us. But I do think there's quite a lot of Chinese tourists here. So I think there might be some tour groups that come here. There are a lot of buses parked just outside of town. Yeah, yeah. I guess it's known for being a day trip from Fukuoka. Because you can take a train here as well. It takes two and a half hours. The scenic train. Let's travel around the Kyushu. It's also famous for this little street that they've made to look like the Cotswolds. Oh, Floral Village. Floral Village. But I looked at some pictures and stuff here. It looks, I don't want to say naff. But if we wanted to go to the Cotswolds, as we're from England, we could. Just go to the Cotswolds. So we're giving that a miss. We're giving it a miss. But there are plenty of other videos on YouTube. And you can make up your own mind on where you want to go. And I recommend coming here. But I reckon you need quite a lot of time to go fully enjoy everything that Yufuin has to offer. At the rest stop, because Theo's about to fall asleep. So he's getting himself an energy drink. I'm so knackered. It's important to take a break when you're driving. It's a long drive. It's about two hours from Yufuin to Fukuoka. I've got myself a real gold lemon flavoured drink. Gone for the classic Coca-Cola myself. And yeah, take a little rest. Anyway, we've rested. We've used the loo. We've got a drink. Back on the road. Back in the car. Ready to go. The little Toyota Yaris is doing us proud. Sad. We've got to say goodbye to the car. We've got to say goodbye to the Yaris in about an hour. We have to take all the trash out. Digging out the trash. Get out. Anyway. You didn't get my Toyota. Because you're the trash. Woo-hoo. Fukuoka, baby. Shuten. Shuten desu. Fukuoka. Yeah, we're back. We're back. We're about five minutes away from the petrol station where we need to fill the car back in Fukuoka before we drop the bags at the hotel and then say goodbye to our lovely little Yaris which just serves us very well on our road trip. Yeah, Fukuoka, baby. We're back. Top tip for renting a car in Japan. A lot of places will actually charge more if you use the English version of the website. If you have Google Translate, the extension on Google Chrome, I would suggest using that and then translating all the pages automatically because then you can take advantage of the cheaper rates for Japanese customers. But yeah, Fukuoka. I love Fukuoka. Shuten. Shuten desu. Amanaku Fukuoka. We're right near the sumo. Yeah, we've just pulled past the Kokusai Center from the sumo and this here is a car full of sumos. One driving and three... I think there's one in the back as well. Love the sumo. They've got to get home too, you know. And they've clearly driven so fair play. It is cool when the sumo's on and you're in town because they are just about and you see them around and they are massive. Like they're just so big individuals. And we went to the sumo here a couple of days ago. Highly, highly recommend it. Just got to the hotel in Fukuoka. Lamplight Hostel. That's where we stayed before. Lamplight Book. Lamplight Books Hostel. Hotel. Lamplight Book Hotel. And yeah, unpack, check in and then take the car back. So that's what we're going to do now. We only have about 15 minutes until we are late for returning the car and it's taken about 10 minutes to drive about 100 meters. There's some traffic because it's getting into rush hour in Fukuoka on a Monday. So I hope we make it. I mean, it's just there. I can see the sign. It's under that Chintai building down there. Chintai. It's directly underneath that. So if we can make that in 15 minutes, we should be okay. I think I'll walk there in 15 minutes. You can walk there in two minutes. Looking so good. Fukuoka golden hour. Come on. Come on, Mr Prius. Come on. Oh, the next one, I thought you were going there. We're literally rolling up to the Avis. Here we go. To the Avis. This is not a return gate. We'll get there somehow. Oh, no, this is the wrong way. Theo, you didn't look at the sheet they gave you. No, it would have the sheet on me. Where did you put it? I don't know. Where's that book? The book is just here. Was it in there? Crisis averted, almost. Well, we're still not there yet. I think we go in here. That looks like a car park. No, it's a road. But how the hell are you going to turn in there? Oh, I don't like this. This is really ridiculous. A few moments later. What a stress hole. 10 minutes. I almost got stuck in the back streets because I missed the entrance to the return gate. So total expressway fee. Total spending, which we now need to pay. So an extra 7,500, 7,050. Bye-bye, Avis. Bye-bye, Yaris. And now back to the hotel. Walking shimasu. There's some yatai's here at the crossing. I think they're going to cross and all of their stuff that they need. Ingredients for today. Yatai van. Oh, here it goes. Well, they're not even waiting for the green light, they're gone. It's business time. There's one there. There's one here. Oh, and there's another one here. It's yatai time in Fukuoka. Speaking of yatai's, they're one of the most famous things in Fukuoka. They're basically mobile mini restaurants that open around 6pm and can be found throughout the city. Our camera actually ran out of battery so we couldn't film any of our dinner at the yatai's, but we have this footage from the last time we were in Fukuoka. Anyway, that's the end of our road trip. If you have any questions about road tripping in Kyushu or in Japan or about renting a car, please let us know in the comments. I promise to answer every single one. Thank you so much for watching. Remember to subscribe for more videos from us and we'll see you again very soon.