Last Stop in Japan: Beppu

We caught an early train to our final destination in Japan, Beppu.

Beppu is on the eastern coast on the island of Kyushu, and is famous for its onsen (hot spring baths).

The light rain we had in Nagasaki turned into a heavy downpour in Beppu. A typhoon was passing through on the other side of the island. And so we couldn’t see the views of the ocean we normally would have had. But we had planned to spend most of the day inside anyway, so the rain didn’t really damper our activities.

While we waited to check into our hotel to change into swimsuits, we bowled. Fun was had by all.

After that, it was time to get wet. Our hotel has two main water areas. One is a water park, while the other is a huge onsen.

In the afternoon, we went to the water park. We started out in the wave pool that was so crowded that we barely had room to wade. The place was loaded with families with small kids. The lazy river was also crowded, and was not so relaxing.

We wanted Kai to try one of the water slides. Though he enjoys the slides once he goes down, he is often scared whenever it comes time to try a new one. This time, like before, it took some persuasion but he loved it once he went down, and then wanted to do it again.

But two runs down the slide were enough. He wanted to get some wifi time before dinner.

While Kai was using the wifi (with his grandfather watching him), my wife went for a massage and I played ping pong with one of my nephews.

And then it was time for dinner. The buffet was the highlight of the day. With steak and sashimi (raw fish) headlining a vast selection of western and Japanese dishes, we had plenty of great choices.

And the enormous dessert selection was exquisite. (Sorry I was too busy eating to take a picture of the dessert.)

After dinner, several of us went to the onsen to watch the nighttime fountain light show. The following photo is from the hotel website:

The show is similar to what you can see at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, with ever changing colors illuminating fountains of water. Kai seemed to really enjoy it. I think the experience was enhanced by being able to view it while relaxing in the open-air swimsuit hot spring.

The next morning, we enjoyed the breakfast buffet that was just as good as the previous night’s dinner.

Here’s my tray with made-to-order omelet, bacon, sausage, onigiri (rice ball), kinoko omochi (sticky rice cake), and ozoni (Japanese soup).

And then it was off to the train station as we would be traveling much of the day, taking three trains to get back to Tokyo.

We had woken up at 5:40AM so that Kai could use the wifi before breakfast, and he was feeling tired. He napped at the train station on his uncle’s lap…

And the whole time on the first train (along with Mom).

He was a tired kid. But who can blame him? He had done a whole lot on this remarkable vacation.