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This is my first time doing hotel review, hope it useful.

Japan is a country if you speak English only as the locals can only understand Japanese. If you know Chinese, you can read the Chinese words in the Japanese words and guess roughly the meaning

Kyushu is a country if you want to see scenery, there is not much shopping except for small shops at the local attraction where you can buy souvenirs.

Kyushu is a country you ought to go during spring, most of the scenery are more for spring like the dolphin and seagull

But, prepare thick clothings or gloves and mask as the wind blowing are super chilly especially when you go up Mt. Aso.

Dustbins are quite minimal, cant really find them

Recycling is highly emphasise by the country. There are many recycling bins for people to throw their rubbish in

Quite surprised to see farming still practice in Japan. Being a developed country, you do not really expect large fields set aside for farming.

Smoking is quite a common scene in Japan even the toilet also provide ashtray for smoker. Vending machines selling cigarettes are also available but you need to scan some ID to buy it.

The bus driver left me the greatest impression. Being the guy who is driving the whole 2 hours while we sleep and while we have fun, he is there with the bus. But the most impressionable is he unloaded luggage from the bus alone and things on the bus while the rest of us went to try the city tram. And he even travel 4 hour there and back to change the bus for our comfort even though we were leaving soon.

This marks the end of my trip to Kyushu. Will be uploading photos soon

Canal City Fukuoka Washington Hotel

Hotel that is part of the shopping centre, Canal City. The hotel is very inconvenient, no drop off point in front of the hotel. The nearest drop off point is the car park opposite the road. The illegal way is to jaywalk. If not, you can walk further abit and cross the zebra crossing. If not you can walk into the east building up the linkway to the south building then go down the escalator. So you can agree it is super inconvenient. There is lift to the hotel in the middle of the north and south building. However, the sign is not prominent. Wifi is available at the lobby and room but both have different SSID. There is also lan cable available for laptop as well in the room. Room is super small as well.

Day 7

Today woke up at 6 plus again for breakfast. Breakfast variety is limited and there is not much carbohydrate variety apart from bread and rice. However I like the personalize omelette. You can choose what goes into the omelette from a set of 6 ingredients, mushrooms, ham, cheese, onions.. Other than that nothing much to expect from the breakfast. Then we travel 20minutes to Nagasaki Peace Park to see sculpture that Japan did in remembrance of the atomic bomb explode and what other country gave to Japan to remember the incident. Then a walk down the road, there is the place which marks the exact ground zero of the incident. Near ground zero there is a part of the chapel which stood the test of the atomic bomb. Then another walk down is the Atomic Bomb museum. Inside, there are lots and lots of 1000 paper cranes which is a symbol of prayer of peace. The most unique is one that is made by ceramics and zinc plate. There is a petition for the total destruction of nuclear warhead. The exhibition below shows ground zero, what was like nearby. The things that were destroyed and the things that were managed to be kept by the government to keep as memory of this incident. I think one of the most startling exhibits are the different clocks which shows exactly the time the atomic bomb exploded. It really proves that 1102 is the time the atomic bomb landed on Nagasaki. The exhibition also show the sequence of events which led to bombing of Nagasaki. But the exhibition was also made to create awareness to nuclear warhead in and around the war which I feel should be an exhibition by itself and not combine with the atomic bomb exhibit. There are also books of survivors sold at the bookstore at the museum itself. Then was 2 hours plus of travel to Yanagawa. Lunch was eel bento. The shop itself was just near the river. The only issue with it, is that you have to eat with chopsticks and not with spoons. Then we board a boat to cruise down the river which was once thriving with boats doing trading. Italy has Venice, Japan got Yanagawa. The boatman will share with you the local sights, but you need an interpreter as they speak Japanese. But what I like most is when the boatman sing local dialect song. Then was on the bus to a nearby grocery shop for people to buy vegetables. Then was to Fukuoka City to visit robosquare after 2 hour bus ride. A waste of time there unless you are truly interested in robots. The robots exhibited are only there so that people will buy them. There are very limited robots on display and limited assistants to share with you the robots. But the only fun thing is for people to buy parts for products or buy robots to build it. Other than that it is a waste of time. Then travel to hotel which is just beside Canal City Hakata. A messy shops without much proper organization like Platinum Mall. Shops of the same type are everywhere in the mall. But the east mall is still quite new and shops inside generally occupine one or two levels of the mall. The north and south mall there are so many shops to go and the guide does not cover all the shops that are inside. So I wont recommend this shopping centre. Dinner was at a BBQ store, there are free flow of chicken and beef so feel free to request for new plate when your current one is finished.

Crowne Plaza ANA Nagasaki Gloverhill

A hotel that is near the hill, with excellent exterior. But that is only in the exterior. Inside, the room are quite small. There not much space available for people to walk around without banging into something. Wifi is only available in the lobby. But there is lan cable available for everyone to use in the room. Breakfast was good because they lead you to the place to sit so you are guarantee place to sit. However, the food choice are very limited.

Day 6

Waking up at 6am. A super early day! After breakfast we travel over 2 hour to Kumamoto Castle. The scenery is quite nice, especially with the river and all. The castle is quite huge! Well inside the castle there are many small buildings. One of the buildings that you can enter is the main buildings of the castle which is where the generals were most of the time. But sadly everything is gutted out so the only thing you see are exhibits of the castle ruins, structure and blueprint. The redemptive point of this building is the roof where you can see the Kumamoto city from the top and also the castle structure. There is 2 lofts, go to the taller one, there is much more to see from that height. Nearby there are people giving out free origami products and even give you instruction on how to do it. On closer look on the origami paper, there is a company name. Another building which I enter is the emperor room. This you must take off your shoe and put it in the plastic bag and carry it around. Nothing much to expect about this place as it place emphasis on the restoration of the castle. One of the most well kept area is the place where the general met the people. In one of the wall, it was said that the painting depicted Diao Chan, one of the Chinese 4 beauties. Then it was another 30 mins ride to the jetty to take a ferry to Nagasaki. You must pay 50 yen for feeds for the seagull if you want to feed them. Last time, the feeds was free and available on board the ship. The seagull was immensely a lot and they fight a lot for the food which you feed. When you have no food, you will not expect the seagull to be near to you anymore. The ride to Nagasaki take about half an hour. Then we went to Mizunashi Honjin Fukae Michi no Eki roadside park for lunch. No no not at the site, but at a restaurant nearby. The lunch was good and sumptuous, so you can eat at the restaurant before you visit the park. The park is quite depressing as you see how houses which was once standing tall is burired all the way up the roof. Rocks are see littered everywhere at the site. Sadly, you cant see how the building was like last time, but you can tell how deep the lava built up to cause it to reach the roof. Some buildings are protected by a dome, some are not. Not sure how are they chosen to protect by the dome. Then it was another long ride to the dolphin cruise area. The total trip was one hour. So we too the boat to location of the dolphin, then we stay around the area with the boat master guiding the boat here and there to see more dolphin then we are back to land after one hour. After which was a long long ride to Nagasaki City to have dinner. Really shock to find that there are still restaurant that have piano playing live. Buffet were more like housewarming than buffet cause they use plates to display the food and not metal container like buffet. The whole experience is a big plus plus. Then we took a tram to our hotel. The tram is quite small actually but it is a fun experience. The payment for the tram is at the end of the trip. You do not need to worry getting lost on board trams cause there are maps with English words.

Kirishima Royal hotel

A hotel that is big with east and west building. With it being so bad, you can expect yourself to get lost. The redemptive point about this hotel compare to Miyazaki Kanko hotel is that, you have a connecting pathway to link between the two building. So you do not nee to brave the wind to go to the east building or vice versa. The hotspring is in the east building. Dinner and breakfast is in the west building. Not specified in the voucher though. In the room there is a metal panel, do not touch it. It is for the heater in the room and not the aircon. Aircon is beyong your control. There is a few mountain near the hotel ,quite spectacular. But the most nice of the whole hotel is the chapel which is built for people to get married. If you stay in the hotel, you will get a 5% voucher to buy things in their gift shop. Compare to their dinner, their breakfast is quite substandard. Quite little variety

Day 5

Waking up at 0630, oh man I feel so lazy! Had breakfast, not bad the breakfast, but quite limited in variety. Then was a long ride to Sekino-o Waterfall. The only sight worth seeing is the waterfall. Not really as spectacular as I expected. The only redemptive part of this is the bedrock which has weathered under the pressure of the water which form tiny boulder along the course of the river before the waterfall. If you come during autumn you could see red maple leaves around the waterfall. Quite interesting was that there is 2 waterfall. So the people name the bigger one male waterfall and the smaller one female waterfall. So meaning, that the two will never meet but will hear each other. Interesting right. Then it was another 1.5 hour up to Kagoshima. Then was lunch at one of the shops there. It was quite small so space is quite limited. So when our whole group was there, many patrons who want to eat had no space. You could easily spot many office workers in the restaurant. It was not bad especially with the sauce on the pork katsu. Then was lunch at where the restaurant is, Tenmonkan. Nothing much to shop there. Daiso is super small. Macdonald is overprice. But there is a 100yen shop that is worth exploring. A shop that sell lots of rilakkuma behind where daiso is. Nearby there are many memorial for remembering one of the warrior during the time when warrior rule Japan. Then it was a short trip up the mountain to Shiroyama Observation Platform. The only objective is to spot Mt. Sakurajima, a dormant volcano. The smoke emitted from the volcano was white so could not see the smoke properly. But could spot the shape of the volcano. If you go other time, you may not even see the volcano, so it really depend on your luck. There are stores at the bus park which you can buy from and collect old 100 yen notes from. But sadly, the day I go (Wednesday) it was not open. Then was another long long trip to Kirishima Shrine. Here was another spot to spot the Sakurajima volcano. Not much to expect as the Kirishima itself is shrouded by fog. Other than that, was a walk to the temple. There you can spot a 800 plus years old tree, square bamboo and a weeping cherry fully bloom. Other than that, the shrine is like any other shrine. The shrine is to commemorate the first emperor who came from the sun to rule this land. Oh, the shrine close about 1700. You can see people coming out and covering the binoculas, lowering the flag, etc. Then was a short trip to Kirishima Royal Hotel. The dinner was awesome, it has the most varieties of food for people to choose from.

Miyazaki Kanko Hotel

A hotel situated in the city with not much scenery. The best thing about the hotel that it provide lan cable for all guest. So if you got your laptop, you can feel free to use it. Wifi in the hotel is quite troublesome, cause you must type a set of user name and password for you to connect to wifi. So everytime you disconnect, you must type the values to connect again. Furthermore, the wifi is available is only available in the lobby in east, so you have to brave the wind if you stay in the westThe hotel is split into east and west. Most of the things are in the west(I stayed in the west). But the hotspring is only in the east. Breakfast is a positive experience cause instead of searching for your own table for breakfast, the staff will get you table. So no need squeeze with other people or unable to find your table.

Day 4

Waking up at 0615, it is another day. Breakfast is western heavy. Then we took a 20minutes drive up to Mt Aso. Well, instead of taking cablecar, we have to take another bus up to the crater. But other than taking a bus you can take a stroll or drive up. The place to view the crater is split into 4 regions, B2, B, C, D. Depending on the sulphur concentration, different areas may be open. B2 and B are the area nearer to the crater while C and D are further away. It is also quite unpredictable, one moment B2 and B could be open but another moment they may be close, so must really see your luck. If you ever get to be near to the crater grab the opportunity to take the photo of it. But there is nothing much to see except to see the water, which is green and the overall shape. But I still prefer to see from D at least photo are much nicer but B2 and B is really where you can get close to Mt Aso crater. But this volcano is expected to erupt anytime soon. Then it was a 3 hour ride to lunch. The salad was good especially with the sesame sauce that they provide. Udon was good too! Super bouncy! Then it was another 1 hour ride to Aya Suspension Bridge. The walking from one end to another end provides many nice photos for tourist. But it is not for the fainthearted as it is quite high from the ground. If you have the free time, do take the time to explore further as it has signs to lead you to waterfall. Then was to a nearby aya winery which produces many varieties of alcoholic drinks but there is nothing much there actually. The only redeeming point of this place is there is a place that is able to let you collect spring water. The water is said to prolong your life. But beside the place there is an altar. The water is also one which is of the highest quality even the emperor also drink this. Then it was another hour ride back to hotel. Dinner was awesome! A lot to eat and the food are delicious, but the udon was not as bouncy as lunch. I like the egg pudding cause this is the first time I ever had one!

Mt Aso Farmland

Overall an interesting experience, because this is my first time staying in a Mongolian Yurts. Though it look small from outside, it is actually quite spacious in the inside. In the morning you can depend on natural light that will peek in from the ‘roof’ of the room. There are also a lot of Yurts in the place about 300. So you really need a person to show you around so that you wont get lost. Minibus are also provided so that you can take the bus from you room to the reception or vice versa. But you will freeze to death by the time the bus come during spring. And don bring big luggage there cause you have to move up and down to get to reception area only. Being a health village so other than there are hotspring there are also exercise area as well. Overall a good experience and nice scenery.