Saturday, decided to take the scenic train to the southern side of Nakadake, a spectacular ride with gorges and mountain views. Went to the end of the line. Viewed theTunnel Museum! Well it was meant to be a railway tunnel but it flooded so turned it into a walk, with Christmas decorations. Then took the return train, got off after 2 stops and visited the famous spring at Minami Aso Shirakawa. People were filling up large bottles with the water. Had a pancake and coffee in the station, the lads who run it are climbers and so run climbing expeditions. Very little English is spoken in this area and there is a lack of any foreign information, and it is meant to be a major tourist area.

We did manage to get to the Aso Shrine before our departure in the afternoon to Kurokawa Onsen. We saw a wedding there, the couple had been at our hotel. The shrine has a very elaborate gate and the street is full of shops but with lots of flowing water, it is a shrine for water.

Our next ryokan, had the air of a typical ryokan, set in the mountain side with individual wooden huts. Although the futon was perhaps slightly thicker, this time we had no chairs. The European body is showing its age! Dinner was far too early for us at 6.30, this time served in an individual booth, very Japanese style, there was a gap under the table so we did not end up sitting on the floor. As in the last onsen, the food all came at once and no help given to these foreigners as to when they needed to add the food for cooking. There is a lounge, which has seats, but is more or less in pitch black as you are meant to look at the lit trees on the hillside. Yes it is pretty, but we were only allowed wifi for 10 mins in a lobby. Here you were expected to wear your kimono.
The activity here is to take a slow walk and visit onsens, as our room had its own onsen we did not feel like sampling others; so we just started the walk, and found a very distinctive path up a mountain, extending what the town map says you can do. No other maps seemed to be available. So we walked up the path, beautiful views, but when we got to the top of the mountain, we had to retrace our steps. The path went on but we had no idea which valley it was dropping into. On the way back we met a young Slavic couple, they also were being a bit too energetic for this leisurely onsen walk. Some may think the ryokan is romantic and I am sure it is portrayed as, but it was a bit too quiet for us

The next day we caught the bus to Kuju Tozanguchi and on the way there the weather changed abruptly, the pass was covered in mist and on arrival at this famous marsh land area, the mist still had not cleared. However we went into the National Park Centre, again found someone with good English and she found a bus for us that would take us to the number one suspension bridge in Japan. The local bus journey through the villages was interesting and the bridge well worth visiting. The place was teaming with coaches. We still are not sure why this modern structure was built; perhaps it provided easier access to some onsen.

Our hotel here is back to western style, so far more comfortable (at least for us!). It has its own onsen again. Dinner again served at 6.30. it is meant to be French! Still it made a good change. Breakfast was fine, a mixture of Japanese, and western; well we had coffee and rolls, but also the soup. However the next day, it was so misty what should we do? Started to walk round the wetland area, couldn't see a thing and then saw the sign for a path, which we knew was meant to climb round Mt Minimota and up to the high grassland area at more or less 5,000ft. So off we set through the trees and climbing steeply, and we in fact climbed out of the cloud and onto the high bog, where eventually the path did level off, so interesting. However we realised that we were probably not quite half way round, and the path seemed to descend, but as we were unsure of the going we thought it safest to retrace our steps. However we had seen the famous bog area and it was very impressive.
Woke up the following morning and the temperature had dropped and the peaks were covered in snow. So we decided to go up in the cable car from Beppu, hoar frost on the top and very picturesque, cloud there, but the journey up and down on the 4 lane cable car not in fog.