Pack the Snacks!- that’s the name of the new game show I am devising. The aim of the game is to pack the correct amount of snacks for the journey you will be undertaking. Points are awarded for packing the correct amount of snacks needed so that you don’t go hungry. Points are deducted for over packing or wasting snacks. Contestants will have to wear a special monitor (currently in development) that indicates how hungry or full they are….🤣 What do you think? Do you think it will take off? Ha ha….this is the sort of thing my brain thinks of when I am on holiday….

Ok, on to our day….today we would be leaving Fukuoka and heading in to the mountains to Yufuin, an onsen town on the East side of Kyushu. We had booked to catch the special “Joyfull” train “Yufuin No Mori” to take us there, but the morning trains were all booked up so we weren’t leaving until after 2pm. And so we still had the morning in Fukuoka.

We checked out of the hotel (got them to hold out luggage) and decided to head back to Ohori Park to see if the Sakura had started to bloom a little more. Being a Sunday, we were expecting crowds – and crowds there were. There was even an angry American man on a bike who was so angry because “why is everyone walking on the #$%& bike path?” Uh…duh…because there is like a 1000 people here and it’s probably not the day to be trying out for the Tour De France. Sakura viewing is serious business here, and we were very jealous of some of the set ups. In fact, that lead us to come up with another game show idea – Rate My Set Up. Maybe less of a game show and maybe just a reality/variety type show….not sure…we have to workshop that one a bit more.

Anyways…the flowers HAD bloomed a little more and it was all starting to look really pretty.

We were there quite early and noticed the swan boats had just started going out on to the lake, so we decided we should probably go on them. We got straight on to one – no wait! And before we knew it we were pedalling out on the lake in a swan boat.

We got 30 minutes of swan boat fun before we had to return it to the dock. Then we walked around the lake a bit and decided to check out the Japanese garden that was there – I mean it only cost $2.50 so it’s basically free, so how could we not go in? It was a cute little park and every 1/2 an hour they spray fog over the water for a misty spooky effect. I thought it was going to be tacky but it actually looked pretty cool.

We were getting hungry by this stage, so went and joined all the picnickers and enjoyed some Lawson egg sandwiches that we had brought along especially. Man, they are so damn good!

Also there was this dog

Everyone was having such a lovely time, we just wanted to stay there all afternoon, but unfortunately we did have a train to catch. We said goodbye to the Sakura and headed back to the hotel to pick up our bags.

After getting our bags, we were a bit early for the train so we stopped off for coffees and croissants at the place we had breakfast yesterday.

And then before we knew it, we were lining up for our train. It’s a pretty cool train. The trainspotters were out in their hundreds (well, maybe not quite)

Train trip was lovely. Through the mountain – vey scenic. We enjoyed a bento for a late lunch, (the same type we ate yesterday at the park – for those taking notes – because they were so delicious we just had to have them again) and bought some original Yufuin No Mori goods, because I am a sucker for things like that.

And then, suddenly we were in Yufuin! (It actually took a bit over 2 hours)

It’s really quite lovely here. Very mountainous. We had to drag our suitcases up a hill for a while to find our accommodation, but our accommodation is really nice. We for some reason didn’t book dinner here, so after we had settled in we had to go out in search of dinner. Being a Sunday night, most things were closed, but we luckily found a supermarket so we bought a bunch of delicious things and ate them back at the hotel.