Cycled the Shimanami Kaido, and Yamaguchi, Saga, Nagasaki etc.

[rbjhan]

2pm, shuttle bus from my ryokan arrived.

Mifuneyama Rakuen Hotel
Named after Mifuneyama Rakuen 御船山楽園 of course. The Rakuen is a park at the base of Mt Mifune，built by the daimyo of this region Nabeshima Shigeyoshi in the mid 1800s.
The park is about 50 hectares and features thousands of trees and flowers covering the vast grounds.

There are two ryokans onsite, Mifuneyama Rakuen Hotel and Onyado Chikurintei. The latter is however, quite over my budget...

So we arrvied about 2.30pm (I booked on the hotel website directly, which gives a 30 min early check in and 30 min late check out - otherwise it's strictly 3pm & 10am, this being Japan don't expect anything else).

The entrance didn't look much...picture obviously was taken later.


But as the door opened and I walked in, bang! It went dark and I went blind


Ah yes, this place had a collaboration with teamLab.


I must say, it looked good but it was highly impractical!
The photos were a lot brighter than what you see in person....that is to say, I couldn't see much at all.
Neither were the stuff.
That's why everyone of them was carrying a torch
During check in, staff had to shine a light to the piece of paper with hotel info so that we could both see what she was talking about!

Then I was led to a separate but not separate area, handed a menu to order my welcom drink. Luckily I remember my phone can also be a torch!
Cold green tea iirc?


Ah you see, they knew this was bs...that's why there's an actual light on the drink counter where they had to work.


Definitely not recommended for the vision impaired...

 

[rbjhan]

After the drink a young lady came and showed me my room. She tried to speak English but couldn't manage a full sentence together...I quickly ended this misery. Generally when someone proactively speak English I really appreciate the effort but clearly here she was forced to do it....

The room was stunning, first sight at least (we'll go into details later).


Sink area


Bathroom


There's a private sauna.




Most of the rooms here are Japanese style. But there are a few newly renovated ones in western style.
I kinda fell in love with this one the moment I saw the pics on their website.

 

[rbjhan]

The day was sunny and warm.
Quickly put down everything and I went to Mifuneyama Rakuen next door.

16 April, Sakura season was already over, but Azalea was just peaking!


I went straight to the Valley of Kurume Azaleas
OMG OMG OMG







Wisteria was also nice but those Kurume Azalea was something else!

 

[rbjhan]

Back to the ryokan.

Time for onsen.
This was the most complicated bath house I've ever seen (excluding super sento obviously), and I've been to a few!
You definitely need the map.


In the afternoon and evening the pink one was women's bath.
Below photos all from hotel website.

This ryokan is most famous for their sauna. There are 3 each in men's / women's bath.
A wood fire sauna


A steam sauna


Normal sauna I guess?


Cold water bath


There's also a lounge.


Here's when things got tricky....coz there were drinks and snacks in the lounge.
So do you eat naked or what?!
Seemed like no one knew! So I saw some naked, some covered with the small towel, some with the big towel (generally you are not allowed to bring the bath towel into the onsen but here people were just all doing their own thing...so strange....)
Staff were in the bath often, changing towels, refilling food and drinks, etc...they never said anything so I guess everything goes....

 

[rbjhan]

The collab with teamLab brings in more guest and visitors I assume.
**You can buy a ticket for 700 Yen to come and see the artworks only.

Apart from the lobby, there were another two nearby.

Light Sculpture of Flames.


Life survives by the power of life.


Then you must climb the stairs to level 2, walked past all the guest rooms to a separate "Ruins" area.


Megaliths in the bath house ruins.


Next door was not opened during the day.

Universe of fire particles in a decaying underground passage.


Holy sxx_ this one was scary! Much much darker than the photo and I just dare not walk in....

 

[rbjhan]

Dinner time.

Dining room was nice.


Menu looked okay.
Note, this was supposed to be an "Premium" dinner. Since I booked a higher level room, I was not given the choice to book the standard dinner.



Starters...ah you can already see the smaller portions compared to previous ryokans....


A fish pie. At that time I was thinking it's a bit strange to see a pie...later realised it's very well suited to their purpose: to hide the quantity and quality (type) of fish.


I guess this was the upgraded part? Saga beef, very thinnly sliced.


Chawanmushi was alright.


Curry rice, WTF?


On the menu this was "Rakuen Nabe" which tells you nothing. There were good reasons for it, only one piece of chicken!


Generally at the end of a nabe course they make rice porridge for you, but this was the first time ever I had one without the egg!


Not to mention they already served a rice dish before... Ah, so not enough meat, more carbs!

And dessert, one scoop of ice cream.


Damn I paid 60K Yen to eat this?!
TBF everyone is cost cutting these days. But at least every other ryokan I've been to managed to feed their guest enough! At a fraction of the price!

I was so angry at this point.