Saturday, 20th December

Today was mainly a travel day. We got up and packed and took ourselves to the Shin-Osaka station where we booked tickets and got ourselves some yummy breads from a bakery. We took the shinkansen to Kokura (in Kyushyu), where we changed to a local express. The shinkansen was a fairly bad shinkansen experience, as the non-smoking car smelt like smoke. The local express got us to Beppu in under 2 hours. We thought it would take ages so we weren’t prepared when Beppu station arrived and we had to rush to get off the train in time.
It was a short walk to our hotel. We settled in and rested for a while and then set out again at around 5:30. We could walk right down to the water’s edge. There was no beach though, just a lot of concrete and bad smells. It was nice to see the sea though! We found a shopping centre where I saw a cool jacket that I didn’t buy. We went up to the 7th floor where there were restaurants. We both had sukiyaki for dinner. Sukiyaki is a hotpot dish with mushrooms, thin beef slices, cabbage, onion, noodles and tofu cooked in a soy based sauce. It is super tasty, and as usual comes with rice, miso soup, pickles and green tea.
We also ordered desserts at the restaurant. First we got a cake-type dessert which had cream in it and also had ice cream enveloped in sweet rice paste. Then we ordered another dessert which was sticky rice paste squares in a hot sweet bean syrup, with a side of yuzu ice-cream and hot yuzu drink. The hot sticky rice melted in the paste and reminded me a bit of marzipan and a bit of melty cheese. The taste was nothing like either though!
At the restaurant there was a self-serve drinks bar, with a variety of machines, cups, teabags and ice. It took me about 4 goes to find the machine with hot water to make tea. Then I realised that it said “hot water” on the label.
We walked back to our hotel as we’re both feeling really tired after a huge day yesterday and a travel day today. This part of Beppu is a nightlife hotspot, as there are people everywhere and neon signs and lots of buildings with pictures of inviting girls at the entrance. It seems our hotel is having a huge party downstairs and we’re not invited!