Today wasn’t how I imagined our first full day was going to be in Miyazaki, it exceeded those expectations. We started with a western breakfast made by Ryoko-san. Joanna got the mochi waffles and I chose the crepes. This place is SO serene and peaceful. I’m sure I’m overromanticizing it but gahh I don’t know if I could have picked a better place to spend a few days. She gave us some suggestions on what we could check out and saved me from making a huge mistake of going to Takachiho Gorge without making a boat reservation first. I looked online and there was literally 1 boat that was available for Thursday, which I immediately grabbed. It would have been a +2 hour drive just to be disappointed we wouldn’t be able to ride a boat into the gorge (more on this for that blog post on Thursday).
We met her husband Harry and we complimented him on such an amazing job building the cabin. He said it took him 2.5 years on and off but it’s not done yet. He also invited us to visit their chickens. I wasn’t prepared to see 40 chickens in their coop plus 2 roosters.
Random observation: I bought a carton of milk yesterday, Joanna recalled a video she watched that the cap is shaped like this so the physically impaired can more easily twist open the cap. What simple but functional design! If you haven’t had Japanese milk yet, it’s amazingly creamy and best of all, lactose free for us Asians.
Our new plans involved driving an hour south to check out Cape Toi where wild horses roamed around. Ryoko-san recommended we check out a shrine built into a cave not too far from where we were staying.
There were a bunch of tourists at the cave shrine and we were kind of curious where they were staying or what was out here that would bring so many people to be in this part of the island. Driving farther up the mountain we came across an overlook point and saw a huge cruise ship in the port, which would explain the tourists. As we drove south, we made several stops because we didn’t have a set agenda and just really took in the views. The road was windy around and through the mountains, it reminded us of the Road to Hana on Maui.
The drive down to Cape Toi took about hour from where we’re staying. It’s the southernmost point of Miyazaki and juts out into the Phillipine Sea. This is a wildlife reserve for wild horses called Misaki-uma said to be descendants of the horses bred for samurai from 1697. There was a lookout point where we parked our car after entering through the gate where a tour bus of Singaporian tourists were parked too. I turned around and there was a band of horses chilling on the very steep hill. The signs all say not to approach the horses closely but that didn’t stop this group of older people to take selfies and make a bunch of noise around them.
You could see pretty faraway from where we were standing and it looked like a wall of rain was coming towards us but it didn’t bother the fuzzy horses.
The rain started coming at us sideways and in large globs so we headed back to the car and made our way farther into the park. There was a famous lighthouse I didn’t feel like paying $2 to go in and see nothing considering the rain. It’s clear that the horses don’t respect the rules around here though.
The rain started coming at us sideways and in large globs so we headed back to the car and made our way farther into the park. There was a famous lighthouse I didn’t feel like paying $2 to go in and see nothing considering the rain. It’s clear that the horses don’t respect the rules around here though.
Ryoko-san recommended a strawberry farm not too far from where we’re staying. We got there an hour before close which worked great because we elected the $11 all you can eat for 1 hour deal. We were given a small plastic tray to hold the strawberries and a plastic bag for the stems. There was no one else on the farm besides so it felt like a very personal experience. It started downpouring while we were in the greenhouse so this is a highly recommended rainy day activity.
We tried 3 varieties of strawberries:
- Amaotome: flesh was very delicate, juice would come out from just holding it in your fingers. Tasted most like the standard strawberry from home. Joanna thought we were getting scammed because these tasted normal.
- Sutaanaito: She changed her tune when she tasted this one, it was a firmer bite but tasted like flowers and very sweet
- Ohisamaberii: these were short and fat, even better than the 2nd variety that we tried.
As we were walking to our car with our tray full of stawberries, one of the workers waived us down. I had to pull out google translate to understand what he was saying. Apparently the all you can eat price only covers what you can eat on the premises so we had to pay an additional $7 for the strawberries we took to go. A delicious mistake.
We were given free entry passes to use the local onsen about a 5 min walk from the house. It was a very welcome way to close out our very busy day. The cat manager of the onsen welcomed us as we walked in.
Every onsen is certified and regulated closely by the Japanese government. There’s an official Onsen Association which consists of 40 scholars with the highest authority in such fields related to Onsen as medicine, law, chemistry, geology, geophysics, hydrology, agriculture, engineering and tourism. I like looking for the certificate of authenticity whenever we visit a new onsen to see what the temperature of the water is rated for. Here it’s 51c/123.8f. I didn’t think the water was that hot and looked up my past entry of the hottest onsen that I visited on Yakushima Island which was 49c/120.2f so maybe my heat tolerance is going up?
I was also excited that this onsen had a milk vending machine stocked with local milk because no trip to the onsen is ever complete without a tiny bottle of milk.
As part of our minshuku experience, we’re served a home cooked meal every night. This is very similar to a ryokan but just less fancy and more personal. Dinner was absolutely delicious.
First course was fried tofu in a soy sauce, Shiitake mushrooms in like a sweet vinegar, large green onion in miso, tamagoyaki, spinach with sesame seeds, pickled carrots, pumpkin like a potato salad
Entree was fried croaker fish in a sweet and sour sauce, salad, miso soup, yuzu jelly
Ryoko-san said almost all the veggies were grown in their garden. The eggs are from their chickens.
wow superb experience! The horses, views, homegrown food, hand-built cabin, chickens, strawberry farms, onsens, LACTOSE FREE MILK!!! Why bother coming back to America? Throw those passports away and stay back.
If only….