Kyushu road trip: Mt. Aso & Kurokawa Onsen | Japan travel vlog

Day 1 of our epic Kyushu road trip! From snowy Mt. Aso (Japan’s most active volcano) to beautiful Kurokawa Onsen, this Japan travel vlog has a bit of everything!

Join us as we kick off our road trip adventure after renting a car in Fukuoka, ready to explore the scenic landscapes of Southern Japan. Along the way, we make pit stops at charming Japanese roadside spots, immersing ourselves in local culture and cuisine.

We have a snowy and somewhat chaotic adventure trying to get to the top of Mt. Aso, Japan’s most active volcano, without proper winter tires or snow chains (whoops). After our mountain adventure, we refuel with a delicious lunch at a traditional Japanese railway café, savouring the flavours of authentic local Kyushu cuisine.

We then arrive at our home for the night, Kurokawa Onsen, a historic town renowned for its picturesque hot springs. Be sure to stick around for a complete tour of our Ryokan, Oku-no-yu, a traditional Japanese inn, where we indulge in the ultimate relaxation with visits to three different onsens.

But the highlight of our day? An amazing 12-course traditional Japanese fine dining experience known as “Kaiseki” where we try local delicacies like “Basashi” (raw horse).

Where we rented our car from: https://maps.app.goo.gl/baysFDHU8u12qjXF8
Where we stayed/ our Ryokan: https://www.okunoyu.com/en/

#roadtrip #kyushu #lifeinjapan

Timestamps:
00:00 Hirokawa service station / rest area
06:18 Mt. Aso
09:24 Aso Panorama Line road
12:21 Lunch at Aso JR Station cafe
14:41 Driving through Kyushu countryside
17:30 Kurokawa Onsen
18:42 Oku-no-yu Ryokan
19:50 Ryokan room tour
22:40 Wearing traditional Yukata
26:15 Yashi-no-sato Kiyashiki Onsen
28:41 12-course “Kaiseki” dinner
31:37 Ikoi-no-yu Onsen
33:06 Oku-no-yu Ryokan Onsen

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where’s the key ohayo gozaimasu from Kyushu it’s the last week of our trip and we are coming to you live from a service station rest area in on a an expressway Motorway in kyushu just outside for qua Cafe is called creamland really excited cuz we’re just about to start our kyushu road trip we’re going to lots of exciting places we’re going to kurokawa onsen we’re going to beppu going to spend a lot time in onsen and driving around the kyushu yeah it’s pretty much an onsen tour we’re doing all the best ones um this is what a rest stop car park looks like we’re about to go inside have a little snack toilet break and then we’ll continue with the journey I I love driving in Japan unlike in America we drive on the left just like in the UK so it’s very easy for us UK folk to drive in Japan Japanese like service stations or rest stops are generally really good they have loads of local Delicacies and little shops where you could get food much better than like a Burger King or whatever that you get in England and they always have like really clean toilets generally it’s just a much nicer place to stop [Music] yeah hioa got some crisps there we go the cow bee I got this uh chalky bread a large barley tea stay hydrated this is roasted green tea and it’s hot I wanted something to heat me up cuz it’s really cold today it is indeed when you get down to this part of the world in Japan in sort of South Japan so like hu area there are so few tourists one of the big noticeable differences when we go when we went from Hiroshima to Fukuoka was that suddenly no tourist there were suddenly no tourist we’ve picked up the car in Fukuoka we’ve started driving it’s only a short road trip three days is jam-packed full of onsen and good stuff and good stuff so stick around and we’ll see you on the road Happy Trails we’re on this trip with my family my parents and my sister and um they’ve just red off into the distance uh in their other Toyota they’re in a Cora we’re in a yaris team yaris it took us it took us a while to figure out what the car was saying and we were like why is it yelling at us but I think it’s basically saying that lanes are going to merge soon so be careful I’ve deducted deduced deduced deducted means you’ve like taken it away I’ve minused you’ve minused some brain cells from my mind oh [Music] cracking open the uh roasted green tea it’s quite an acquired taste it’s pretty bitter but I like that cuz you’re a bitter person I am I’m salty and I’m bitter we have been cranking up the tunes but obviously can’t show that because it’s copyright unfortunately you can’t see the true Vibes within the car let’s okay let’s emulate The Vibes without the music ready I’m absolutely not do 3 2 1 it’s a bit like that Christmas to but soon there’ll be a free way yeah ruining my [Music] karaoke on Holy Ground with a thousand Asahi Theo is driving um he’s chauffeuring me around because I cannot drive which is not handy but it’s kind of Handy cuz I can be passenger princess the whole way just enjoy the snacks the amount of holidays where I’ve had to drive us around the worst one was Okinawa in Ishigaki when as the only driver I couldn’t enjoy a cold beverage uh on the beach Japan has zero tolerance for drinking and driving so you can’t even have one drink and like the UK Sophia has to be sober sober driver go sober in October go sober for your just say no November decrease your drinking December right [Music] so um yeah we just drove past a sign for Takachiho George George Takachiho Gorge um which is a really famous Gorge with uh boats that you can go on we went to that in 2020 I’ll put a photo up on screen now and um yeah it’s really beautiful around here like I’m loving this m of mountainous scenery get yourself down to Kyushu rent yourself a car they’re not that expensive I think this car cost maybe one man a day £50 a day 150 quid for 3 days which isn’t bad so we just missed our exit uh because I was talking to the camera not ideal but the next one’s just up ahead uh and there’s a really cute little train little train line going along that’s abandoned uh a single track ooh I can see Steam directly ahead I said there’s not one single Mount Aso it’s made up of five in a in at the central region is made up of five peaks with many outer and then there’s mountains as well but they’re all part of the Aso mountain we just got a beep and it was um an ice warning because we’ve gone up so high that it’s now very cold yeah and then we actually we’ve just noticed it’s started to snow yeah it’s snowing a little bit nice it was nice very um Scenic yeah I’ve been watching the temperature on the dashboard go down and down so it was sort of like 12 where at the bottom of the mountain it’s now two it’s just dropped two from three good thing I bought my winter coat I should have brought my gloves and hat though look snow on snow on the side of the road now driving to Aso for Christmas that was that didn’t work Mountain Road die ski snow snow whoa we be cruising at that hope we get to to the rest stop soon though because both them and I really really need the [Music] L I’m a slightly concerned the um one of the things the attendant at the budget rental car place um one of the things she said was there’s no winter tires or snow chains and um there’s definitely a lot of snow and lots of cars that look uh beached and that’s the same car as we have the yaris if we get stuck you’ll be the first to know absolute Carnage all the cars can’t go up right and now now it’s our turn and we’re also stuck uh we’re going we’re going to reverse we don’t have winter tires and we can’t go any further up the road we want wanted to go see Mount Aso but unfortunately we don’t have the right tires and it’s well snowy and icy and lots of cars are sort of beaching themselves they’re all yaris is it’s the same car as us the yaris can’t make it up the hill well we did see some of the nice snow and we got sort of close very annoying because me and Theo both need the bathroom very urgently and we were 8 minutes away from getting there but it’s I can see it on the map it’s literally two corners away but apparently the Corners are steep as well like extra steep oh and definitely don’t want to get stuck I don’t want to fall off the mountain no so I think it’s okay sensible thing to do turn back there’s lots of people I think they parked lower and they’re going to walk up they’ve abandoned their cars here on the right go show them show them there’s lots of abandoned cars there’s lots of abandoned cars here with hazards on and uh people walking up and people walking up from here [Music] we’re now heading towards ASO station there is a a northern Lookout which we can which we’re on the way to now um and hopefully there’s toilets there fingers crossed I need weed um but yeah I mean the mountain roads are amazing this view is beautiful look at this look at this bloody lovely [Music] so it’s quite windy so I have to speak quite loudly but we’ve just pulled over on the way down to ASO station uh and take a look at this amazing view not this one that’s also quite nice but this one here it’s very bright and my poor hair it’s super cold up here as well and much noticeably more cold than uh down at the bottom I’m not surprised cuz you can see well you can see all the snow and all the chaos it’s causing on the roads it was a bit of a fail to be honest trying to go up and then having to come back down cuz our car’s not not worthy enough for the uh for the windy roads the wintry conditions I don’t think we’ really considered how snowy it would be up there or how cold I mean it’s freezing I my coat on me cold it is an active volcano so um not sure how much I like being around it anyway ASD was erupting last time we were here only a little bit that is true it was erupting like a couple of years ago and I think it erupts quite often but yeah really good views toilet time close the door it’s so cold oh oh God go [ __ ] me it’s freezing oh its like being in Hokkaido you can enjoy us driving down the mountain where’s the key there it is ah just joking oh so cold it’s definitely wakes you up though it’s better than a cold shower that damn the scenery is amazing around here I love it oh the camera’s sliding a little bit camera’s going to go can you like put it more centrally no you should be watching the road anyway I am watching the road no but you keep looking at the camera so know you have to keep watching the road and then I’ll turn it more to you oh you’re going too quickly oh I hate mountain roads I love him I need to go like a fisherman’s friend or something Fisherman’s friend for those International viewers they are like a really strong [Music] mint I think it do that thing like the old that’s what we’ve ordered um I don’t know what you’ve got that’s katsudon katsu tonkatsu Mountain soba beer tomato juice Cola Curry and delicious Curry what you make of the place it’s very cosy very um mountain hut it’s very inaka very rural yeah very inaka it’s in the station so this is the restaurant in ASO Jr station and we just saw let’s travel around the Kyushu train yeah we mentioned that in a different video bring it up on the screen let’s travel around the Kyushu but I swear the one that we saw was black it was a different Line This is the total cost and um let you know how it is looking forward to eating some delicious Curry Japanese food Mountain soba very tasty what is it soba with vegetables from the mountain I didn’t get I’m so sad oh so I’ve gone for the tonkatsu which I’ve not had yet on this trip looking forward to it very much so so tonkatsu is just traditional just katsu I also got a large portion of rice cuz I’m a big boy a few moments later that didn’t last very long tasty didn’t last long did it oh so we just had lunch which was absolutely absolutely super delicious very local spot I would say very great value for money as well cuz it was about 1,200 Yen which is I don’t know in pounds I’ll put it up but very cheap it’s about6 for the amount of food that we got anyway so we’re back on the road again look at the scenery and we are heading off to Kurokawa now which is where our traditional Japanese Inn is um we’re staying at a ran which we’re very excited for it’s a bit of a treat towards the end of the holiday and um [Music] yeah on the way to Kurokawa and you drive past one of these amazing viewpoints that loads of them up on the mountain where you can get a really good view of the scenery but this one’s really nice bit windy a little bit windy but um great view woo onwards and upwards over the ridge we go to kurokawa time let’s go [Music] look at this definitely in the local uh town now this is great look how look at this tiny tiny roads tiny tiny town and all the signs say Onsen this way or onsen cuz there are loads in this part of town World Village I’m assuming we just we just go don’t see a light oh there’s a car right I’m just going to go because there were no traffic lights for us so I’m going and now we’ve gone oh I’m feeling a bit sick because of all of the uh the curves B roads bendy Mountain Roads Mountain Roads that’s how you go take me up to the top of the mountain kurokawa in kyushu can’t use that I always feel a bit sick on the mountain roads if you’re sick in the rental cart you’re paying for it I’ve never actually been sick just feeling sick feel what if I gave the steering wheel a wiggle oh don’t do that I tell you what if you want to go see some bamboo forests don’t go to Kyoto come here or literally anywhere in the countryside Japan was once covered in a massive bamboo forest feeling The Vibes very Studio Ghibli around here I’m loving it I’m loving it loving it loving it we are 2 minutes away wow this is amazing uh oh we need to turn we need to turn left here head into the centre well heading into the centre welcome to kurokawa Okunoyu you oh [ __ ] we were up there yeah I told you you have to turn and then turn again whoops I literally just said it uh can we go in here always holding it up yep whoopsy Daisy I got it wrong I’ll go nice and slowly he says I hope we don’t oh dear we’ve got another uh okay oh he’s nice many thanks to you good sir in the kei van many thanks indeed W these these on are looking lovely who look at the leaves uh ok know you wow look at us is this it here I think this is it here yeah oh they’re here to help us check it hi [Applause] hi look how nice it is around here autumn bags um I need to get my bags shall I bring yours as well oh enter with your shoes on can’t find very nice love the Autumn fully mixed bath o I had not expected that one’s family with my parents let’s go get in the bath in a in a different in a different bath Welcome to our traditional Japanese room got a nice sink no seat which is actually nice to sit down and do makeup or hair hair dryer hair dryer toiletto over here we’ve got our fridge a bit of storage area for our bags down into the main room tatami obviously as a traditional Japanese Inn floor seats my absolute favourite floor seats very classic nice artwork this room’s actually quite large so we can we can close off the living room we now have oh gone too far open it up again I love VOA the bedroom it’s a traditional Japanese Inn so we have traditional Japanese beds two futons although although I can feel it already feels less thick than some other ones we have uh experienced oo it smell smells very eggy really good first impressions I’m loving it it’s great especially the drive it was just so stunning as you came in all the Autumn Leaves I don’t know where they’ve been for the rest of our trip but they’re all here nice Autumn scenery all the leaves and us but we don’t have very long um because our dinner is served at 6 6 on the dot and if you’re late that’s very bad manners they won’t be happy with you um so we have about two hours we’re going to go hit two other onsen in the town back here for dinner then probably do maybe an the onsen here the onsen here and the onsen here is massive it’s got so many different baths um a mixed bath let’s run you through exactly what they have in terms of baths at our hotel Ash if you can close the door to keep in the heat right this is the map they gave us of the hotel sort of complex we’re not in the new building we are in the main building we’re on the second floor uh here it says dinner at 6:00 p.m. breakfast at 8:00 in terms of baths first go in to the bath large pubic bath men and women gender gender split we have the mixed open air bath the cave bath and the Riverside bath which are all mixed open air that’s quite unusual um we’ve been to one mixed bath before but it was in um beppu and it was like muddy water so you wouldn’t be able to see anything anyway um but this isn’t going to be like that I’m here with Theo’s family which could be a bit awkward so I think we’re going to wait and go for the women only time we don’t have much time so we’re going to get changed into our Yukata which is traditional sort of kimono like oh yes hold the camera I’ll get it out so the yukatas for our room and all the other towels and stuff are in this box which is actually heated which is super nice so it means when you put them on they’re warm which is excellent on a cold day like today here we have two face towels we have two actual towels so that you can draw yourself off within the bath we have two bags for your things because Yukata don’t have any Pockets if you want your phone your keys your wallet passport as a tourist goes in here two utters these are the actual things you put on um the guy when we checked in said you’ll need two bigger ones because rude uh and then we have the sort of outer layer of the yukata which keeps you warm the jacket uh these are the ones that were too small and then you get socks men’s and women’s as well as a belt rope thing to tie you off because there’s no there’s no like fastening mechanism there we have it and um using the magic of editing 3 2 1 that’s going to be awful that’s going to be terrible but um ta-da and here we are in the get up um the leg are a bit spread there yeah but that was that was how I jumped the first time this is the you cut there a coat which I think is actually very necessary cuz it’s freezing got the um look at the socks socks which feel very strange stop trying come on shake my hand kurokawa one of the top onsen towns in the country we like our onsen we’ve been to a few so we feel like we can rate them fairly well we’ll let you know what we think and which ones we go to but the ones that we’re planning to go to now are really famous for their outdoor baths not their indoor on so we’re going to go see the nice Autumn Leaves outside get really zen zen zen time in the on got to change the hotel slippers for the outdoor slippers I’m got enough hands to pick up my slippers these are pretty comfy actually the gator the the socks are Tabby can we drive in this I guess I’ll find out so here we go about to embark on our onsen adventure in our yukata bit annoying actually the two onsen that we really wanted to go to closed at 3 which was which is we got which is a shame before we got before jacking opened but um we’ve got a third one another third one and a fourth one which I really want to go to stealing the hotel slippers where’s my Yaris there it is is it behind no no it’s it’s this one it’s this lovely lovely Yaris oh you can steam cook things and there’s one of the onsen for the hotel just there smells super nice and autumny here like smells like you’re in the woods got all my uh Onsen Goods that you need to take I bought shampoo and conditioner with me as well cuz sometimes they don’t have them um I think they will have them at these ones though cuz they look very nice the one that we’re going to now has a large outdoor bath which is mixed which again I thought was quite unusual but apparently here lots of them are mixed but it’s okay cuz me and Theo can uh enjoy the mixed on some together welcome to An Idiot Abroad two idiots abroad right off we go actually I don’t think we’re that idiotic we know what’s going on and look at us in the car in The Groovy Garms I’m actually going to drive barefoot I think because it’s probably safer so we’ve just arrived at Yashi-no-sato Kiyashiki one of the best on in I was looking at um some sort of blog post rating them and this one gets two which is two out of three the best so one is outstanding two is best in Japan three is best in the world so this gets to two best in Japan and I’m not surprised look at the scenery we’re getting around here Autumn Leaves Autumn lights and beautiful ladies super Autumn here I’m really excited because it’s got big outdoor baths so more outdoor scenery damn it’s so traditional here look at this tree amazing colours with the bridge I think it’s actually good that they um you have to walk a little bit to the front because it’s time to get cold enough that you really enjoy the onsen because it is very cold so it’s very cold I know I’m about to be ah M mine’s unfolding my legs your modesty is gone Dam these are real difficult to walk in really it’s fine if you do a sort of little jog the service here is amazing there they’re all buying ultra low I think this is the best service we’ve experienced in Japan man no you outdoor prob have oh my God no mine mine have got thick thick sols on yours are like Flats I’ve got heels oh you’ve got you got g g I’ve got like the traditional heel things I reckon we have to stop filming now as we’ve entered through the onsen gate more amazing colours yeah very excited woo we’ll see you afterwards 2000 years later I think I put my yukata on the wrong way around there’s one way that’s like really rude to wear it cuz it’s the funeral way I couldn’t remember when I was getting changed again really yeah I had no idea yeah you have to do it one way is that a mega mosquito on the light it definitely is not so unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to do another onsen but the plan is have a couple of beers now dinner which we’re looking forward to kaiseki style very traditional followed by another onsen followed by another onsen followed by another Onsen fear loves pointing an actual fact I think the plan is drink dinner an onsen that’s not this one come back to the hotel onsen have a little relax I’m slightly nervous about the Ki dinner that we’re about to go to because it’s often quite meaty I’m not a very big meat eater um but Gambar Mass we try our best gambatte gambatte Let’s nomimashou one of the great things about stay in a Ryokan is they cook kaiseki dinner um which basically means Japanese fine dining you get lots of very small delicate little courses um usually different courses depending on the way that it’s cooked so I think we’re going to get shabu shabu and usually some like sushi maybe a rice dish this is what we’ve got we’ve got a load of different stuff as you can see there are five of us and we’ve ordered some premium malts one of our favourite beers in Japan uh we’re really looking forward to this I’ve been looking forward to this for a long long long long time twist off head oh I can’t do it I can’t do it not look I can’t Twisted off something’s head actually look it’s very easy you just pull it pull the head off if you’re Spanish you then suck the head okay and then it’s peeled so all the scary here got you just rip off the tail and then it’s just a plain old shrimp plain old plain old in one it’s cooked it’s cooked if if they’re not cooked they’re grey they only go when they’re cooked okay we’re halfway through dinner and when I say halfway I mean literally halfway this is the list of dishes we’re getting and we’re about here so we’ve done this and we’ve got all this to go the last piece of horse raw horse basashi um it’s a delicacy in this part of Japan and I agree it is it’s delicious we have more Raw stuff today we have beef tataki which is sort of like lightly seared beef so we can highly recommend um the ryokan Okunoyu in kurokawa amazing food it’s not sponsored by the way just a honest opinion so full that was so good very delicious I was worried because of I thought it might be very very meaty but it wasn’t um so all good and definitely time for a night time on we’re going to head to Ikoi-no-yu which is actually the place I wanted to book when I was originally booking the real cans but it was the most impossible place to book it looks Ultra old school and the onsen matches that Vibe it’s like super old school check us out we’re heading out we’re still we’re still in the traditional garms we’re walking 9 minute walk 9 minute walk that’s fine we’ve gone the wrong way once twice you can see loads of stars you won’t be able to see it on our shy camera not on our Canon [Music] M50 going know you oh this looks nice really nice way they’ve um hidden the phone with like thatched roof and loving this this is [Music] vibey is this a foot bath it is a foot bath they drained it no they haven’t look footbath time to enjoy bijin no yu beautifying onsen we’ll catch up with you afterwards it’s freezing out here so I need to get inside my hands and extremities are cold one eternity later so relaxing in the Onsen that one was really nice there were two baths in the girls and one was like a standing bath you had to hold on to some like bamboo to float it was really deep and the other one was sort of outside bath with loads of rocks and um fountains that like splash down onto your back which was really nice and they were both like scolding hot which is right up my street ah that was so nice though it’s so nice again really hot on the Sun but again slightly annoyingly um the men’s had a lot more baths than the women’s and I think the thing here is you have access to a lot more baths if you’re like a staying customer cuz there’s a whole another women’s section but it said for like in staying customer only so do your research about which baths you want to go to and stay there because otherwise you might have not have access to them Hotel onsen time [Music] with this one checking in for the remix Dalé we’ve just been to the onsen in the hotel and I reckon that was the best of all three we’ve done today amazing absolutely so good it’s so big and we had it all to ourselves um and there was a mixed area which we also had to ourselves it was a really nice experience saw all the stars very Scenic there’s a waterfall there’s a cave there’s the Stars it was just amazing anyway bedtime for us tune in for day two of our trip in kyushu our road trip and we’ll see you tomorrow