Ms Skinnyfat

Finally getting down to doing some travel posts and this is on my Kyushu, Japan trip. I've previously blogged on my SQ business class flight from SIN-FUK SQ656 (read about it here). 

We arrived at Fukuoka at 0825 and was bound for Yufuin, Oita. Most of you probably have no idea where's this and what's there to do here. Well, Yufuin is famous for her hot springs (onsens) and extremely popular with the domestic tourists. It is located beneath Yufu-dake (Mount Yufu is a volcano) and is a really chill town with nothing much to do. Well, the main purpose of this trip was to chill at the ryokans so that's perfect for me.

One of the main sights, Kinrin-ko aka Golden Scale Lake. It's a nice 15mins stroll from our ryokan, along the main shopping street, to the lake. Well I was expecting it to be bigger but it was just a large pond I guess. Nevertheless, a nice place to have a spot of tea. 

The Yufuin Floral Village felt like a Christmas market with little European houses and they also have a petting zoo on site. I felt like a kid again feeding hungry rabbits and little ponies. So idyllic!

The main shopping street is where most of the action is. Get your souvenirs and snacks along Yunotsubo Kaido. 

Couldn't resist a snack as usual. This potato croquette store seemed pretty famous with all the newspaper clippings hanging around the display. They have quite a number of flavors and we just randomly picked one to try. Nice crunchy crust with a creamy and tasty meat and potato filling.

We then popped into Cucu.Chi cafe which has a lovely outdoor garden with a view.
My guide to eating in Japan is just to leave all guidebooks at home and just wander into any eatery that you fancy. I've honestly never had a bad meal in Japan before and this turned out to be a great meal.
Our Yakiniku (sautéed beef) bento with some Japanese sides like botan shrimp, tamago and some maki. Comes with tea as well. The meat was very well seasoned and tasty.

Of course, sweets are a must. Just look at the presentation of this one!

Cucu.chi also has a candy store right next to the cafe and I went crazy with all the precious and exotic jams! They also have these amazing brown sugar chocolate with nuts that I could not resist. Make sure you grab a thing or 2 from them.

Another place to get some really good sweets at Théo Murata/B-speak. They are housed in the same spot and there is also a ryokan by the same group called Sansou Murata.

B-speak has this really popular Swiss roll which is called a P-roll and they've been serving this since 1999. Sadly it was all sold out at 2pm! Bah! We settled for the vanilla bean pudding (it's probably a panna cotta) with a nice brown sugar syrup at the bottom. Well if you missed tasting the P-roll, there are some bakeries near the train station which sells Swiss rolls and other delicious Yufuin cheesecake as well.

Yufuin is a good spot to chill out for a day or 2. There are some private ryokans that may be open to tourists but I'd certainly choose a ryokan with decent private onsens. We didn't do much after heading back to our ryokan because it was simply too lovely to leave. Will update with my ryokan stay at Ryoso Yufuin Yamadaya soon. :)

xoxo

Travelerintransit