First Train Ride

Tom and Doris

Today our JR Rail Passes kicked in, so we decided to start in style and get the Yufuin No Mori Limited Express to Yufuin - a spa resort.  The train is quite famous within Japan and for good reason, it is quite striking.  A forest green colour on the outside and inside lots of wood, and seats covered in forest print.  The seats even had trays stored inside the arms - just like on an aeroplane, and there were a large number of what we call 'Dorises' - dolled up train stewardesses who are very demure and talk in a very cutesy voice.  To be fair to them, the Dorises did lots of work, including a photo call with a date board, another photo call for children wanting to dress up as Drivers / Doris, ice-cream waitress, trolley waitress, sweet waitress etc etc.  We were the only Europeans on the train, but by no means the only foreigners, nearly everyone was Chinese.  It took us a while to realise it - but no one was speaking Japanese on board.  They have an interesting dilemma the Chinese here, because they can read the Kanji around them, but because the language is not phonetic, they can't speak it.  So, they read Kanji and then have to converse in English to be understood.  They all lined up for maps at Yufuin when we got there, and most were taking 2 - the one in Japanese to be able to read it and the one in English to be able to speak it.

Anyway, we were taken through lots of lovely Japanese countryside to Yufuin.  Lots of mountains, villages, even a waterfall for which the train slowed down so everyone could take photos of it.  The rice fields aren't full of water at the moment which is a shame, that always adds to the scene.  Tom was transfixed to the window - there really is very little similar between Japanese landscape and English landscape, which means everything you see is different and interesting.

The Yufuin No Mori Ltd. Exp. at Yufuin

We got to Yufuin around 11.30, Matt asked Tourist Information for info on the best hot springs to visit and we headed to one.  They were much much cheaper than yesterday, but the facilities were a little more basic too (no yukatas to wear today I'm afraid!).  The spas were segregated, so Matt went into the men's and Tom and I into the ladies.  We had a good soak and then met afterwards ready for lunch.  I thought I would ask Matt what his spa was like as I had a sneaking suspicion that all is not equal in the spa world.  The ladies spa was upstairs, we had one indoor stone rectangular spa and one outdoor rectangular stone spa and what I would describe as 3 pots - over sized round wash basins which can house 2 adults at a time.  It was all very nice, but not amazing, there wasn't a sauna or anything.  Then I get Matt to describe the men's: they had 4 (four!) indoor pools, a sauna and 1 cold and 1 hot outdoor pool.    hummmmmmmmmm!   Then he told me that he had taken a photo of the outdoor pool as there was only about 3 men in the facility.  Wow!  There were about 20 plus women sharing the 2 pools in the ladies, and then I saw his photo - a beautiful outdoor pool set in the scenery, with waterfalls, rocks etc etc.  Ours was literally a stone rectangle.  I was right!  There is an inequality between ladies and men when it comes to spas, and considering you get more ladies using them than men, it seems quite unfair!!!!!!!  Rant over, but really!!!!!!!

Today's onsen

We met up red in the face and a little floppy and went looking for somewhere to eat.  There was a 'all you can eat buffet' next door, but considering I can't eat loads at the moment, it would have been a waste, so we carried on into the town.  Everything was quite expensive (it is a tourist resort after all) and everywhere that seemed more reasonable was closed.  We were about to give up when Matt spotted a ramen shop down a side street.  We went in to find a stall with about 8 seats run by a old man.  Fantastic, Matt ordered for us and in no time we had 2 bowls of steaming ramen and a plate of gyoza to eat.  Very welcome after the bath, just perfect and of course very very cheap.

Totoro!

We then went for a ramble around the town, there were lots of shops so we did some browsing and Matt did some shopping (he turns into a shopping prodigy in Japan).  We found a rather large Donguri No Mori - a studio Ghibli shop with massive Totoros outside to pose with.  Wow.  Such a shame all their stuff is soooooo soooooo expensive otherwise we would buy the place up.

Foot spa on the platform

We completed a lap of the town and then headed back to the station as we had discovered on our arrival that there was a foot spa bath on the platform.  So we sat down and soaked our feet whilst waiting for the train to arrive, how very very civilised.  The trip back to Hakata was good, so good that I fell asleep for a bit.  We got back at 6pm and went to Yoshinoya for tea - traditionally a gyudon (beef and onions on rice) restaurant, but they have diversified, so Tom had curry and rice (an adults portion which he snaffled up in no time by himself) and I had gyudon and steamed vegetables on rice.

A good first day on the trains.