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.

 

[rbjhan]

Well life must go on...

So I went out to the Rakuen again.

During Sakura there was night time illuminations, but that was over.
So the park technically closed at 6pm.
However guests of the two ryokans could still enter.


There's a tea house inside who was opened for business.
Facing the tea house was this pond.


I didn't really want to take off my hiking boots to sit on the tatami...plus I saw a Chinese couple with a uncontrolled boy inside already ....

So I went back and visited the "Ruins" again.






**Imagine this, and 100X the people....
I was never tempted to go to any of the teamLab locations over the years.
Felt mighty justified at that moment.

 

[rbjhan]

Surprise surprise got hungray later that evening! No konbibi or shops of any kind in that place...
Luckily I had prepared some protein bars for the cycling and there were two left

Breakfast was in the same dining room. And the same cost cutting theme!
Each guest got one set of this, that was all the protein:
A piece of fish, half an egg, and the tofu!


There was a buffet too, but only had salad and rice...sigh...

The view was the only good thing...


Honestly, who came up with the idea of that half egg??!!!

 

[rbjhan]

Now let's talk about the room.

Like I said, I really loved the picture.
BUT, sigh....so many impractical things, where do I start?

First all, not much furniture there as you can see....the bench was concrete I'm pretty sure, cold, hard....everything you don't want as somewhere to sit. No cushion either!

Secondly, no lift in the building, that's clearly stated on their website.
What's not stated, was how many god damn stairs you had to climb.
Like this one going to the onsen.


My room was at least on the same level as the dining room and the "Ruins", oh there were like 5 steps but that's nothing compared to the rest of it.
Mind you, this hotel is not that old. And they clearly spent money to do all the art installations!
And don't get me start on the lobby, I had to walk so carefully every time...

We are big on barrier-free access, but holy sxx_ some countries are bad.

Anyways I think the general theme here, is aesthetic over substance.

I mean can you even use that thing to brush your teeth? Do they hold 10ml water or something?!


And why were there two TV remotes?


Ha actually I know why now...looking at the pic...
The silver one was the original came with the tv, the sticker on the black one says "Internet TV". So they didn't want to invest in some Smart TVs, instead probably added some Fire stick equivalent......damn how old was the tv?!

All the cheap business hotels I stayed had better tv than this.

 

[rbjhan]

Well you probably know how I feel about this ryokan now
So my recommendation is:
Go visit Takeo onsen, the beautiful library, Takeo Shrine, Mifuneyama Rakuen Park, are all wonderful places.
You can even pay to try the onsen in this ryokan, I think it cost 5000Yen or something. The saunas are really nice if that's your thing.
But do stay somewhere else!
On the other side of the city there's Takeo onsen town, many ryokans around.
Or, Ureshino onsen is only about 15KM away, and I LOVE that place.

 

[rbjhan]

Next stop Nagasaki, which was maybe 30 mins away by the Nishi Kyushu Shinkansen.
Booked reserve seats.


I was already hungray on the Shinkansen! What a bloody mess was that ryokan

Anyways, need to find something to eat, quick.


Looked like a restaurant isn't it?
Chez Dejima is the canteen of Nagasaki Prefecure Government Office
So I was reasearching something on the government website, then noticed "the canteen welcomes everyone", well must try it then!

Decided to have their daily set meal, only 650 Yen!
**Free rice and miso soup available with the set, I didn't take them.


I mean, it's not gonna blow your socks off, but it's a good meal, and cheap, and quick, what's not to like? Yes yes I was still thinking about the awful breakfast...