HOLIDAY IN JAPAN - YUFUIN

We took a break from the city to the countryside of Yufuin, a small town famous for natural hot spring spas. Yufuin is located in a green valley beneath the spectacular Mount Yufuin in the Oita Prefecture. 

 

It's a 2 hours drive from Fukuoka.

 A scenic drive with "Sakura" still blooming along most of the way. 

 Entering the Yufuin town.

 Parked our car near the beautiful Lake Kinrinko.

The breathtaking scenery.

Quiet and peaceful. 

Yufuin is in a flat river basin surrounded by mountains. The most prominent feature of Yufuin's skyline is the twin peaked Mount Yufu, a back drop for many scenic views.

 A picture to remember.

Crystal clear mountain stream.

 

 Cherry Blossoms in full bloom.

A brown-eared "Bulbul".

The streets lined with cafes, boutiques and small museums where many visitors were seen shopping for the local product and souvenirs.

Yufuin has many good food, like the "Croquettes" and "soft cream". This was the best Croquettes stall.

Flowers were everywhere.

 Visited a Koi fish pond before checking in our accommodation for the night.

We put up at the Kashii-so Ryokan, a typical old fashion Japanese "Onsen" inn. 

We have 2 traditional Japanese "Tatami rooms" in our unit - A sitting room and a bed room.

 Our unit come with a private hot spring bath.

The open-air "Hot spring bath" of the Ryokan.

The Kashii-so is an old ryokan and situated at a convenient location with free parking. Staff were very friendly but English was a problem. Furniture were old and needed refurnishing.

HOLIDAY IN JAPAN - BKI-NRT-FUK

We took a holiday to Japan visiting Fukuoka, Yufuin, Beppu, Oita and Tokyo. In the early morning of 06April, we departed on a Malaysia Airlines flight direct from Kota Kinabalu to Narita.

Taxing for take-off at 07:40, right on schedule. It's a 5 hours and 40 minutes flight.

Within minutes, the majestic Mount Kinabalu appeared on the starboard.

The breathtaking view - zoomed in.

Cursing towards the Philippines.

Poor quality inflight meal - the unappetizing breakfast consisting of soggy omelet and tasteless sausage.

After some 4 hours, we entered the Japanese airspace cruising towards Tokyo.

 Approaching Narita International.

A perfect landing.

 Malaysia Airlines use Terminal 2 for arrival and departure.

From Terminal 2, we took the airport shuttle bus to Terminal 1 to catch our connecting flight to Fukuoka.

While waiting for our flight, we had the popular Japanese "Katsudon" in one of the restaurants.

Boarding gate for Fukuoka.

 Boarding ANA flight.

 A B737-800.

 The flight time from Narita to Fukuoka took about 1 hour and 40 minutes.

 This time, we stayed in Nishitetsu Grand hotel, Tenjin.  

 

Enjoying a "Tempura" dinner at a specialized "Tempura restaurant" near the hotel.

MANGO AND AVOCADO IN OUR GARDEN

We have 2 mango trees in our garden and they are flowering. In about 3 months time we should see the ripening mangoes falling from the trees.

Close-up of the flowers.

  Full bloom flowers !

Masses of tiny mangoes already appeared in one of the branches.

We also have a couple of avocado trees planted few years ago. These beautiful trees are providing more green to our garden. 

  For the first time, this avocado tree is bearing flowers.

 Avocado flowers on a closer look.

I was told that Avocado flowers are self pollinating with male and female flowers from the same tree. Hopefully, we could see lovely bunch of avocados appearing on the tree in the very near future.