KYUSHU, JAPAN 4 Apr -13 Apr 2023

Almost two months have passed since our 2nd overseas trip with ahbao, to Japan in April. 

And I think I'm finally ready to pick up my thoughts to record the trip here for.. hmm. safekeeping?

To be frank, the trip was difficult. We faced ahbao's meltdowns first hand, on an intensity that we never had. And being on the go, a lot things were not within our control and we had to adapt and react. 

When people asked how was the trip when we first returned, all I could recall was the mental and physical tiredness. If anyone were to ask if I enjoyed the trip? I felt like the truth was, ofcause not, you kiddin??

But as 2 months passed, the painful feelings seem to have fade away. And browsing back the album made me realize, ah, it's good that it happened after all? Compared to 9 days of normalcy at home. 

It's not like we had to drop all our itineraries and stayed hotel whole day, or fell sick, or had major mishaps, etc. Yes ahbao broke down most days, maybe more than once, but we still get (some) sleep, ate (gobble down) food, visited scenic places that we can never find in Singapore, da da da. 

Maybe, it wasn't a 100% poor decision? Though ofcause we could have planned it better, elsewhere, etc. 

But really, who knows what would have happened in those one thousand other possibilities? 

  

worth recording this ^ as it's probably the last time ahbao could fit into the bassinet on plane. 

Although ahbao was really excited/overly simulated at the airport and refused to sleep until we were close to boarding, at near 1 or 2 am? 

Recall we were really anxious thinking how to deal with her if she does not sleep at all even on the plane.

thankfully she was kind enough to sleep through most the flight. 

Maybe it's a must to go through, but our first day after landed in Fukuoka was yet another tiring day. 

despite the lesson learnt from our last Jeju trip, seems that we had no much choice but to go through almost the same experience again. 

The immigration was long, about 2 hours? as it's a small airport. though we do observe that there are some expansion works ongoing.

Took the shuttle bus to the car rental company to collect our car, realized the e-SIM we purchased on changirecommend didn't work work. 

Drove back to airport to purchase SIM card before starting our trip proper. 

Being the birdthplace of Hakata ramen, we went to the Ichirican main store for lunch.

The queue was, about 30min? Mangeable but slightly tough with a 17 months with us. 

#Lesson 1- Don't go for restaurants that need to queue when travelling with toddler. 

We had to do a bit of walking as the distances between places were too near to drive, and parking is limited, while a little walk is easy, sometimes not so with ahbao. 

She may want to walk, or to be carried, or not be carried, or stay put, or going in another direction, or everything at once. so a short 10min walk could easier take us half an hour.  

Though on hindsight, I'm really delighted with the streetscape with pretty tulips on the road side during the walk. 

How pleasant. 

While we didn't plan our trip to coincide with the cherry blossom, we were lucky that there are some late bloomers during our trip (though not much). 

although ahbao, or maybe even both of us, weren't in the best mood to view  the hanami. 

sometimes I love how mini her hands are, though it's much stronger than it appears. HAHA. 

Also, ft my manicure. which has a lil touching sidestory. My cheaper homebased manicurists cancelled on me last min and I was a little sian about it. Though I didn't say much, Lnr offered to sponsor a manicure session at nail salon on the day we flew because 'I know you have been keeping your nails really long for this'. keke. 

Anyways after a 2 hours long drive we reached our first hotel, a ryokan in the Benppu onsen town,

which everything was great, has it's own private onsen, a nice tea/zen area on 2nd floor, clean and neat,

all except that it was also the start of our 'nightmare' because ahbao had difficulties coping with the change in environment and all. She get really panicky and burst into tears whenever either of us are out of her sight, and she was really scared of the semi al fresco toilet. Shower time was miserable. We ended up having to forgo the space on the 2nd level mostly.  

It was a long day, everyone was tired. but we still squeezed in a bit of time for good sake (kudos to Lnr for suggesting to get it) before we K.O for the day and wonder waht the trips ahead awaits. 

The ryokan offered traditional Japanese breakfast, which is small portions of various local dishes. 

Kind of a novelty to us, though we had to take turns to come out and eat as ahbao was still asleep. 

Thinking back, I enjoyed them. Cold air seeping into the dining room through the windows. 

The smell of breakfast mixed with a little sulphur in the air. Peaceful start to the day. 

We stayed in Oita, Benppu for 3 days and planned our itineraries around the town, mainly within 30min drive from place to place. 

On the 1st, we went to the Yufuin floral village. which was a small shopping area in the mountains which gave off a Ghilbi studio vibes. 

Took a short walk to the nearby Lake Kirinko. 

Did a simple search and had some yummy local claypot rice for lunch.

 

Purchased the 'Hell of Benppu' pass which give access to the natural Onsen in the area. 

Our typical day consist of 2 place of interests, a tea break in the afternoon if time allows, and ahbao's nap usually happens in the car. Most days we tried to dabao dinner back to hotel. 

while ahbao isn't a toddler that love to nap in the day, she been able to sleep in the car rides, thankfully.

On the 2nd day in Benppu, we went to the Benppu park nearby for a walk, nothing fancy, but we are lucky again to see some cherry blossom still blooming. 

 I bought a couple pretty cute clothes for ahbao in hope to snap some artsy shots but it was tough. Ohwell. 

Maybe it was just us in a foreign land, even the walk alongside the canal was nice in Japan. 

Sometimes I cannot pin point what i love about the country, when I knew so little of it in fact. 

It's well, a mysterious land of rising sun. 

After lunch we made our way to the Safari zoo, which has both a petting animals session and a 40min jungle bus ride to feed the animals. 

Ahbao generally love to feed the friendly petting animals like genuine pigs and pony. 

We went to the Safari pretty late and close to closing but were lucky to catch the last jungle bus. 

It was quite a new experiencing to be feed animals like lion, bear and elephants just a few wire-barbs away.

Not sure how much ahbao seen or enjoyed but at least she sat through the bus ride.

(Look maybe it wasn't that bad after all)

one the 3rd day we depart from Benppu after taking a ropeway up Mt Tsurumi.

Though poor planning and dressed on our part to forget that it's super windy and cold at 1,300m elevation. 

So we kinda stayed inside the ropeway station without venturing out up there.

It was another pretty long drive before we reached the next hotel near Mt Aso, about 2hours away? Or perhaps longer cause we drove the wrong way on expressway. 

To our amusement, the 2nd hotel felt very much like a elderly care facility among the mountains, 

especially so that we got a barrier-free room with a lot of railing and assisted-living amenities in the room. 

Hah. At least it means it's also 'safer' for toddler? and she really love the Kumamon sighboard at the lobby. 

If I recall, ahbao was better was the 2nd hotel. Less volatile, though we already began felt like we are living on the needles everyday hahah. 

Despite needles and whatsoever, we went ahead with our plan to head up the live volcanic crater of Mt Aso, once again, ill-ed dressed in our thin clothes. 

The view was magnificent, wished we could stay longer but considering the coldness and the strong sulphur, we literally snapped a few photos or two and ran back to our car. 

 

We spend some time at the Mt Aso volcanic museum in the area and took a walk to the Kusasenri Plateau, a scenic viewing spot consist of a vast green grassland with a still crater ponds. 

The weather was warm in noon time, there's even a good coffee roaster cafe. Might have been one of the best places we really enjoyed, at least in the short time period that we were there. 

In the afternoon we took a drive to a farmland in a resort nearby. nothing fancy but a gimmick to attract family with kids but all's good. 

I remember ahbao took a really long nap in the car that day, it was nice. 

The next day we left our 'ederlycare' and travelled down south to the Takachiho George. 

Stunning, nature, beauty. Just like in the photos. 

If not wrong, ahbao was pretty cooperative there too. 

left our wishes there. 

Had flowing noodle for the first time, after seeing them in anime many times. 

Followed by another long drive towards Kumamoto perfecture on the west before we rest in for the day. 

With that it also marked the end of the nature part of the trip as we moved into the city. 

Did a brief visit to Kumamoto castle in the following day. Though we didn't have enough courage to go inside consider ahbao wasn't in her better behavior that day. 

Kumamoto is in my opinion, a small city. Not as touristic as I imagined given the popularity/success of their city mascot - Kumamon. hah.

Had our first Hashiro Coffee visit after seeing many of them in Singapore. 

Ah, I remembered. Ahbao had a bad breakdown along the shopping arcade. 

spinning on the floor. crying. kicking. We didn't know why. We didn't know how. 

But alats, we survived it. 

And we braved through to a strawberry farm the next day, nervously given her unstablity. Like a unfilled atoms. 

Not too bad. we had our fun plucking and eating fresh japanese strawberries at the farm. 

We had our strawberry cheers. 

And that was pretty much the trip before we made our back north to Fukuoka. 

which ahbao had, uhm, another few episodes of breakdown. 

the ultimum was the night before our flight back, she was screaming and crying unconsolably for god knows for long. Never been this panicked or lost or guilty or helpless. 

SOS-ed chua, tried all we could, she didn't even want us to touch her, didn't want to stay didn't want to go. 

While eventually we have learnt that these are normal, part and parcel. 

Facing it first hand overseas still left us in utter shockness. 

Maybe she had enough of travelling, or changes in the environment, missing her familiarity. 

perhaps it was the build up of all her pent up anger, of the many times we had to say no to her, 

it's gonna take us a long time to learn. and then new challenges will come.  

But. we will get better. we will get there. 

in the meanwhile, bye Kyushu, bye kumamon. 

Thanks for the beautiful nature, the freshness in the air, and everything that happened there.