All things bright and beautiful: (2023) 6-days in Kyushu, Japan. Day 3 --- Yufuin 湯布院 and Nagasaki 長崎

The rain in Yufuin continued on Day 3 of our Kyushu trip, though not as heavily as the night before. The Oita Prefecture 大分県, where Yufuin is located, is renounced for its many hot springs. Among other towns, Yufuin is popular for its ryokan and onsen.

On the Ekimae Dori street, front of Yufuin train station

Outside a souvenir shop on the main street

Cats...

... and dog...

... and Catbus and Totoro (characters of My Neighbour Totoro)

The centrepiece of Yufuin --- Lake Kinrin 金鱗湖

Mist over Lake Kinrin 金鱗湖

Lake Kinrin 金鱗湖

Lake Kinrin 金鱗湖 and Mount Yufu 由布岳

Hotel by the lake

Noodle making at Yufuin

Nostalgic

As the rain eased off, we walked through the Yufuin Floral Village, which was filled with well known characters from Japanese and foreign animations, cartoons and stories.

At Yufuin Floral Village: characters from Hayao Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli

Peter Rabbit also has a presence at the Yufuin Floral Village

And Moomin ...

... as well as Peter, Heidi's grandfather, Heidi and Clara ...

... and Joseph the St Bernard

Heidi at Yufuin Floral Village

Local cafe

We then took a look in the Comico Art Museum. It is not a very big museum of contemporary art, but features art works of several prominent artists, including Yayoi Kusama草間彌生 and Takashi Murakami 村上隆.

Comico Art Museum in Yufuin

Comico Art Museum

Light and shadow

Art work of Takashi Murakami 村上隆

Large outdoor sculpture at Comico Art Museum, with Mount Yufu 由布岳 in the background

After a very full morning exploring Yufuin and a bit pushing for time, we had a quick ramen lunch at a local restaurant before rushing back to the ryokan to pick up our luggage and head for the train station to catch the train towards our next stop, Nagasaki. We would have liked to take the iconic Yufuin-no-Mori train again as we did on the way here, but the train schedule did not suit our time. So we settled for a standard Express instead.

It was late afternoon by the time we settled in our hotel in Nagasaki, where we would be staying for two nights. We were glad there was no rain at the time, so we could go ahead with our plan to see the renowned night view at the top of Mount Inasa 稲佐山. To get there, we took a bus from near Nagasaki train station to Fuchi Shrine 淵神社站 of the Nagasaki Ropeway. The cable car took us to the Inasadake Station 稲佐岳站, which was a short walk to the Observation Deck.