Kurokawa and Takachiho
Nature makes lovely things
Kurokawa Hot Springs
Kurokawa
hot spring is collection of 24 onsen ryokan - Traditional hot spring
baths with attached traditional inn's. The inns are booked for
months in advance, but are beautiful traditional buildings. We
drove the half hour from Oguni and arrived in Kurokawa just before
lunch. We visted our first hot spring (split up - we were a large
group). After a relaxing soak we got together and had lunch
at a vegetarian tofu store. Mmm, so good.
A few Inn's sell hard boiled eggs, cooked
in the hot spring water. We visited two more springs - we were
getting very clean!
I was to busy soaking in hot springs to
take photos (and I doubt the inns would appreciate my camera), so you'll
just have to visit yourself!
Takachiho Gorge
If you read the guide book, there is one
route from Kumamoto to Beppu - through Takachiho. When we got our
hands on real maps, we found the route wasn't as direct as we
hoped. We arrived late at Takachiho and missed the play they are
famous for, but we didn't miss the Takachiho gorge - a wonderful bit of
geography.
The boats are available for rent (they hold 3 people) at 1500 yen for
20 minutes. The gorge itself is carved out of volcanic rock and
water falls gently cool the air. We arrived early in the morning
so the gorge wasn't very crowded.
We had a great
morning, but we had to get to Beppu (and the rail network) and get Eric
and Gabi home so they could teach the next morning. We decided to take
a twisty road to Beppu (it was an unbelievable road). We arrived
at Beppu shortly before dark and with the help of a kind taxi driver, we
found our hotel and said goodbye to Gabi and Eric. Thanks!
John Harvey Photo > Trips out of the Country > A Second Trip to Japan > Kurokawa Hot Spring and Takachiho Gorge
Last Modified Tuesday, January 1st, 2008 at 22:14:23 Edit
Copyright and Contact Information.
