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 which 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 konbini 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.
**You don't have to reserve but check #91 to see what the non reserve seats were like


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 that awful breakfast...

 

[rbjhan]

Nagasaki being so close to other Asian countries, it had always been a major trading port in Japan.
For centuries it was one of the only few ports opened to foreigners.

Dejima
Dejima was a man-made island, built in the mid 1600s to house foreigners specifically.
First was the Portugese, then the Dutch - they had been there for 200 years till Meiji Restoration when the restrictions were lifted.
Dejima was made into part of a land reclaimation project in 1904 and merged into Nagasaki city proper, thus no longer existed....until 1996 when the restoration began, the project finished and Dejima reopened to public in 2017.
**There are some long term projected works remain.

Back when the Dutch were not allowed free movement, this bridge was the only connection to Nagasaki city.










I assume the empty slots are for future works.


Note:
Entrance costs 1100 Yen, which is VERY expensive by Japanese standards.
Kinkakuji in Kyoto was 500!

 

[rbjhan]

Nagasaki Prefecture Art Museum



The museum was designed by the famous architect Kuma Kengo 隈 研吾.
I came here to see the building, not the art works
Ah but then I saw this!


Just my luck!

Sigh...at least I knew there's a rooftop terrace.


And the view!!


Okay, now let me set the scene.
The terrace was huge, see pic above. I'd say at least 200 m2?
Anyways, I was the only person there at the time. And I was sitting on one of the benches enjoying life.


Then came two Korean women.
For some reason they decided the PERFECT place to take pics was right in front of me
So they came straight over, started taking turns posed for pictures, like less than a metre away.
WTF?

There was a Japanese women before them, she of course picked the bench that was furthest away from me.
Sigh, there's a reason the Koreans have a reputation in Japan....

 

[rbjhan]

Checked the time, it's almost 3pm, time to head back to hotel.

I don't normally stay in big global chain hotels in Japan. They tend to be (a lot) more expensive, just because.
But probably due to the high number of international visitors, the two hotels best situated in Nagasaki are Hilton and Marriott

Hilton was asking 21K on their own website, 16K on IKYU. Obviously you don't get the Hilton benefits booking via IKYU, but hey I don't think they are worth 5K Yen. Plus I don't chase status (of any kind).
**Marriott was considerably more expensive.

***Another observation, Hilton's price was consistently dropping during my planning. When I first checked 8 months ago it was something like close to 40K Yen! Very interesting as most of the Japanese hotels offer lower prices further out and the prices keep going up.

Hilton Nagasaki

Entrance on the ground level, looked good but the escalator only goes up
So I didn't use it during my stay. From the level 2 entrace there's a walkway and bridge directly connected to Nagasaki Station.


This was taken at the level 2 entrance, building behind Nagasaki Station is Marriott.


Room was spacious


Bathroom


The whole bathroom area can be closed off.


View was a rooftop
I'm sure higher levels can be great.

 

[rbjhan]

There's a public bath in Hilton, another reason I picked this one.
Ah but the operation hours are from 5pm to 10pm! Never heard of such a thing in Japan! Do they actively NOT want their guests to use it or what?

Sigh, I had plans for the evening. Took a quick shower and then off to an early dinner first.

Uomaruasa
This was a seafood don restaurant inside the station building.
I ordered the tuna don.


げそ下足，fried squid.


It was delicious!

 

[rbjhan]

Nagasaki's night views is said to be one of the 3 best in Japan (see the trend here?)
Originally I had plan to to up to Mt Inasa Overlook, but then I saw Glover Garden was doing a special evening time opening during my time, decided to go there instead.

Took the tram to Ishibashi, then followed the Glover Sky Road uphill.


This was a residential area, the lifts were used by a lot of locals too.


After two lifts, arrived at the No.2 entrance.
1300Yen! Oh my something is going on in Nagasaki...

 

[rbjhan]

Glover Garden is a Park with several of the city's former foreign residents' houses inside, and some other western style buildings.
I'm underselling it a lot here, but the history is long and I don't want to write another essay

As I entered through the back, first one I saw was the Former Mitsubushi 2nd Dock House.


And then kept going down.


Walker House, inside was not that interesting (to me).


But the front porch!! Who wouldn't want to live here?!

 

[rbjhan]

Entrance to the Former Glover Residence


Clearly Thomas Glover did well for himself...


The view!

 

[rbjhan]

Glover Residence was at the lower part of the park.
There were people movers to get you up.

And since their special opening was called "Lantern Night"....




Puccini's Madame Butterfly was said to be inspired by the events in Nasagaki...


This was Miura Tamaki, diva of the time.


I could hear "Un bel di, vedremo" throughout this area...

 

[rbjhan]

We're not finished yet!

This is the Ringer House.




Out front you could see Mt Inasa - that's the red dot in the distance.