Kurokawa- Aso-Nagasaki, Our final leg of our holiday

From our relaxing Onsen trip at Kurokawa, we move on to the final leg of our trip. Toward Nagasaki via Aso.

The view of Aso

Bus alights us directly at the train station of Aso. We should have stopover at Aso and do some hiking which we do see many Japanese doing. My hubby says they hike at Mt Aso. Will love to do that someday too. As the trip to Nagaski will take a few hours, we need to take away some bentos on the train for lunch. Just beside te train station, there was a wholesale market that sold their harvest and fresh bentos sets.

Strawberries were in Season when we were there in May, and it was really a bargain. It was going for as low as 100 yen but we select 150 yen range as the strawberries were slightly bigger.

Our Destination Nagasaki Station. sad to say, it will also be our final stop and we will be going home after the trip. 

We stayed at Chisun Grand Hotel, Nagasaki and the rooms although small was really comfortable and nice. Nice business hotel, service staff was also friendly. Highly recommend this hotel, as beds are great and the location is good. Within walking distance from Nagasaki Station and directly outside the hotel is the tram station which brings you to all the attractions easily. And if you do not feel like venturing off , a walk at the pier/harbor is about 5-10 mins walk. its a nice place to grap some lunch or dinner overlooking the pier. 

Nearby, there are shopping malls with supermarket at the basement and if you will like to grap some dinner, you can easily get them here and bring it back to the hotel.

Oh, and the rooms comes with a view too. This view was from our room.

We actually walk over to the pier after we check in to the hotel, and the sun was soon setting.

In Nagasaki, i was looking forward to visiting the peace park and Atomic bomb museum. Having been to Hiroshima before, whereby the museum was done up very nicely, i wanted to see what Nagasaki had to offer. A walk to the museum can be done from first visiting the peace park follow by the museum.

We did noted that we need to pay for an entrance fee here whereby we didn't had to when we were at Hiroshima.

Overall, we felt that the museum at Hiroshima was better.

Fountain of Peace at the Peace park

Peace Park

The famous Peace park statue. This Statue is by the Nagasaki citizen and is symbolis PEACE. The Sculptor is  Seibou Kitamura. The raised right hand points to the heavens to signify the threat of atomic weapons while the left arm is raised horizontally to represent the wish for peace. The figure's eyes are lightly closed in prayer for the souls of the atomic bomb victims. Every year on August 9, the anniversary of the atomic bombing, a peace memorial ceremony is conducted in front of this statue and a peace declaration is made to the people of the world. 

A short description on the atomic bombing incident

Urakami Cathedral 

This Cathedral was completely destroyed when the atomic bomb fell.

View from the top of the Cathedral 

After the tour of the peace park and museum, we proceed on to Chinatown to lighten up the mood. 

Nagasaki Chinatown

The tram that we took

oh gosh, sushi was so fresh here. We couldn't help it but bought a sushi set. 

After 2 nights at Nagasaki, it time to say good bye to Japan and its back home again. Every time, its sad and i am sure all travelers feel that same. I am looking forward to the day that we can continue what we have done before traveling around without an itinerary. 

Lets hope that the day will come soon. (I do miss our backpacking days)

  

The morning after- Kurokawa

Early morning Mist- view from our room

Our Private dining area for breakfast

Breakfast!

We had an enjoyable time at this place, peaceful and quiet with such amazing view. But one night was sufficient for us in the town of Kurokawa. 

Waiting for the bus to our next destination !

Leaving Yufuin and towards Kurogawa

It feels so sad to be leaving but before we left we had the opportunity  to soak in the Onsen and a wonderful fulfilling breakfast to make it more memorable for us.

It may be sad to leave but i do hope that we will be back soon.

Excitements lies ahead as we take the bus and head on to another Onsen destination- Kurogawa

The bus ride was not boring at all as it makes stop along the way for breaks. And although we do not speak the common language, the bus driver will write on the white board to let us know what is the time to get back onto the bus. 

There are menu available on board the bus but nobody seems to be ordering

Lots of lush greenery along the trip

We finally reach the small onsen town and when we got off the bus, we were pick up by our accommodation's assign driver. Again, they do not speak English and we had to try to make out what he was trying to say to us. In the end, we managed! As we were too early for check in at our hotel, we were send to the tourist information centre which spoke limited English as well. There we ere given a pack that consist of a towel and things we may need if we decide to go on a Onsen Crawl at the town just like a pub crawl.

We were told that we can request for pick up any time should we decide we will like to go back to the hotel. But check in was at 2pm abt we have a couple of hours to burnt.

The town is so small that one can easily cover it in less than 30 mins or quickly i you will like too. But the buildings are really nice.

All the accommodations provide onsen and you can purchase for a day pass that allows you to hop around or you can choose to pay as you visit. the option is all yours.

If you purchase a day pass, you will have a simple token as the above but smaller for you to flash it to the Onsen that you are visiting.

A yummy snack shop that we saw

Yes, if you are wondering it taste heavenly

Can for some boiled egg by onsen water? it is suppose to make to you more youthful and live a little longer

Finally, its time to check in and this view is from the hotel that we are staying.

This is the view that lure us to book and stay at this place. It is absolutely stunning and breathtaking.

Check out our rooms:

Our Onsen accommodation comes with breakfast and dinner provided too. And after you have check in, you wouldn't go back to town anymore and it is quite a distance. We spent pur time relaxing in our room, walking around the garden and sipping Sake. This hotel has a couple of onsen and if you are interested in a private onsen, one can book in advance but only allocated a 1 hour slot. They do have mixed onsen here and male and female onsen are swop daily in the morning and evening. 

Dinner was really private, they allocated all guest their private dining room which i am really impress and we have our own server too waiting outside our room ready to serve us any time.

Our dinner menu:

Menu was in Japanese which we had no idea what was going to be serve. That kept the dinner interesting.

What a sumptuous meal!

And the best way to end the night? A soak in the private Onsen