The Japan Adventures, Part 3: Fukuoka to Beppu

We arrived at Fukuoka on the morning of Saturday, June 4th, and had cleared customs by 11:15. Due to my work schedule (I work from 2PM to 10PM), I usually roll out of bed at 11:30 in the morning. Having completed international travel before the time one normally gets up certainly can leave one feeling a tad exhausted! From the Fukuoka airport, it's a short subway ride to Hakata station - the place you need to go in order to catch a train to pretty much anywhere else on the island of Kyushu.

At Hakata Station we met up with one of my cousin's friends, SF, who lives in Fukuoka. She suggested we go for ramen. I'd heard over and over that Fukuoka was famous for ramen, and that I absolutely needed to eat some ramen while I was there... my thought had been: Ramen? Seriously? I mean, I eat ramen almost every day for lunch (it's cheap, it's not disgusting, and it's easy to make at work), but I couldn't imagine going out for ramen, no matter how delicious it was purported to be. However, as my cousin and his friend SF were the Japanese speakers of our trio, I followed meekly along. The dish of ramen I had was not only the most delicious ramen I've ever eaten, but it was one of the most delicious meals I've ever eaten. It had such a rich variety of spices - and not hot spices like Korean ramen - that it was a complete mouthgasm. Absolutely wonderful.

Deliciousness!

My cousin and his friend SF in front of Hakata Station

After lunch, my cousin and I said goodbye to SF and hopped on a train to Beppu, approximately 2 hours away. I was quite surprised by how much the Japanese countryside looked like the Korean countryside.

Leaving the train station in Beppu, the first thing one sees is one of the creepiest statues I have ever seen:

The caption engraved in English just below it reads "The man called "Shiny Uncle" who loved children" - which does not make it any less creepy.

Beppu is known for its hot springs - this is actually the reason most people travel there. Granted we had gone there for monkeys and abandoned amusement parks, but hey, I figured I should point this out. Next to the creepy Shiny Uncle statue is the first hot spring visitors to Beppu are likely to see - and it's described as a "hand bath" (which mainly means a good place for children to splash).

Plan A was to head straight from the train station to the Takasakiyama Monkey Park... unfortunately, by the time we got there, it had closed for the day. I could have cried. [In case you want to visit, take bus AS60 or AS61 from in front of the Beppu train station. It leaves for monkey mountain at twenty minutes past the hour, every hour until 4:20pm, and the trip to the monkey park costs 230 yen.]

This way to the monkeys! Unfortunately, they close at 4:30pm.

Following our thwarted attempt to visit the monkey park, we checked into our hostel, the Happy Neko ("happy cat"), which is located right in the center of the main hot spring area of Beppu. This would have been a bit more useful had we gone there for the hot springs, but hey, live and learn. The area where the hostel is located is not only filled with hot springs, venting steam into the air, but it's a great pedestrian area, with paved walkways and tons of restaurants. (And did I mention hot springs?) After a yummy dinner of yakisoba, I decided that even though it was barely after seven, it was time to go to bed. There's only so much I can do on four hours of sleep.

In a bar in Beppu...

Yakisoba!