Amagase Onsen Hotsprings, Hita, Oita

We also made a stop at Amagase Hotsprings (天ヶ瀬温泉) in Hita, Oita prefecture. Along the Kusu River (玖珠川 -gawa) lies three quite, little spa towns, Amagase, Yonotsuru and Tsuetate, each with its own distinct characteristics. Amagase, in particular, has an impressive history of 1,300 years.

The 5 open-air baths of Ekimae onsen, Masujiro onsen, Yakushiyu (top photo), Jidenyu and Tsurumai are the local specialty along the riverbed. Nothing can beat the experience of the hot springs warming your body, surrounded by the sound of the flowing river. A fee of 100 yen is payable for bathing. Or you can buy the Onsen Passport (1000 yen) and it will provide you with entry to onsen baths at various hotels, a day pass for the ‘Flower bus’, tourist facilities and more. The passport is available at “Ten-no-kuni Plaza” at JR Amagase Station.

Visiting Chikugo-Yoshii again

In the morning, I went to Chikugo-Yoshii (筑後吉井). I've already visited there in March. That day was a weekday but there was held the Hinamatsuri (ひな祭り) dolls festival at Kagamida Yashiki (鏡田屋敷) Samurai Residence. We couldn't see all the attractions because it was very crowded with lots of people!

This time I visited to Igura-no-yakata (居蔵の館) near the Kagamida Yashiki house, a venue where the doll festival was held. It's a unique white-walled storehouse building of houses that remain from the old days to Yoshii. Built at the end of the Meiji period which was renovated in the early Taisho period, it seems to be moved the Matsuda family that had been involved in bank management as a branch of the landlord who made a wealth by wax models.

Noh masks welcome you visiting.  Be careful, you must take off your shoes before entering the house.

A house kitchen. Kitchenware that was used at that time are on display.

A view of Japanese garden from the living room. It's a large garden with some maple trees, we'll see beautiful autumn colors in November.

Tatami living rooms

A view of downstairs from upstairs. There is a family alter (神棚; kamidana in Japanese) in the center picture which is used for primarily to worship the God of Shinto, such as in home and office.

A distant view of the Minoh Mountains (耳納山脈 - sanmyaku) from living room upstairs.

A roadside canal running through the old town of Chikugo-Yoshii. On the opposite side of canal, there is a Shinto shrine, called Susanoo-jinja. This is an impressive tower gate painted in red.

Dokura (土蔵) is a rest and relax place. It has been renovated the aging old sake brewery to a tourist center. A specialty of this shop is a Japanese jelly bean sweet which is a made of persimmon. There are some cafes and restaurants inside, you try to taste some local dishes!

Seeing iris in bloom at Lake Kagurame, Beppu, Oita

On June 17, we had decided to take a drive to see iris in bloom at Lake Kagurame (神楽女湖 -ko) in Beppu, Oita. Located on the South-East hillside of Mount Tsurumi (鶴見岳 -dake), the lake is one of the best spot for iris in Japan, with 80 species, of 15000 (about 30 million) pieces of iris flowers has been planted. The best time to see the flowers is from the beginning of June to early July. Iris viewing garden will be open in the middle June every year.

Before coming here, we stopped at two sightseeing places on the way, Chikugo-Yoshii and Amagase Onsen hotsprings. What did I do there? I'll tell you about these places later.

The lake's irises are approaching full bloom, with over 80% of the flowers already open. We enjoyed for an iris blossom viewing party.

 Iris blossoms in bloom in the garden.

A view of Iris gardens from a path to the lake observatory.

A close up of some blossoms.

We also went to the lake observatory. There's so crowded with many tourists who have been shooting with a tripod.

 

Taking pictures of planes before boarding on 24 April 2015/2015年4月24日搭乗前の飛行機撮影

I took two pictures of planes before boarding an EVA Air flight BR160 to Incheon.
仁川行きBR160便搭乗前に撮影した飛行機です。

An EVA Air Airbus a330-200 Kitty Jet "Speed Puff" livery/エバー航空のキティジェット「スピードパフ」塗装機（A330-200）。

I was luckily to see this plane by chance, stopping at gate C5. The aircraft registration number B-16309 is the 5th fleet of its Kitty jet livery which is the nickname of Speed Puff, and the name of this plane is designed to a concept of the puffy cloud which appears to the romantic novel of China in the 1600s.
偶然にもこの飛行機がC5ゲートに停まっていて、カメラに収めることができてラッキーだった。機体番号はB-16309。キティジェットの5機目であるスピードパフは16世紀の中国の伝奇小説である西遊記に登場する觔斗雲（きとううん）をコンセプトにデザインしている。

A Hong Kong Airlines flight HX265 to Hong Kong (A330-300)/香港航空の香港行きHX265便（A330-300）

The plane was stopped right next to my EVA Air flight to Seoul Incheon. The airline is operated on the Taipei route to 4 flights per day.
飛行機はエバー航空のソウル仁川行き搭乗便のちょうど隣に停まっていた。同社の台北便は1日4往復運航している。

A China Airlines flight CI915 to Hong Kong (B777-300ER)/チャイナエアライン（中華航空）の香港行きCI915便（B777-300ER）

The airline was put the Boeing's state-of-art aircraft, 777-300ERs into this flight.
当便は昨年10月から最新鋭であるB777-300ER機を投入している。

The plane was taking off on Rwy 15R at 2:45 pm. At the time of takeoff, there were two planes doing actions at the same time. While an EVA Air plane was engine starting to taxi and take-off, a China  Airlines plane was ready for takeoff.
飛行機は午後2時45分に滑走路15Rから離陸。離陸時にエバー航空機が離陸に向けてエンジン始動、チャイナエアライン機が離陸に向けてタキシング中。

Boarding on the plane: An EVA Air flight BR160 on 24 April 2015, part 2/2015年4月24日エバー航空BR160便搭乗記（その2）

A flight report on BR160 from Taipei to Seoul Incheon.
台北ーソウル仁川間BR160便搭乗記です。

Flight info/フライト情報

• Flight number/便名：BR160
• Origin/出発地：Taipei Taoyuan/台北桃園
• Destination/目的地：Seoul Incheon/ソウル仁川
• Flight time/飛行時間：2 hours and 30 minutes/2時間30分
• Aircraft/機種：Airbus a330-300/エアバス330-300
• Registration number/機体番号：B-16332

Equipment is A330-300, it was nothing going to change their operational fleet. I've already taken this plane once in January 2014. At that time, I was flying from Fukuoka in a round-trip.
機材は予定通り「アップル」塗装のA330-300機でした。当機は昨年1月福岡線で往復乗って以来2度目です。

Hello Kitty welcomes you aboard!
乗ったときからハローキティがお出迎え。

The plane left on time, at 3:15 pm. But it took a long time to take off because of the arrival and departure limitations associated with a large-scale renovation of the current airport. Finally the plane was taking off on Rwy 05R at 3:42 pm.
飛行機は定刻通り午後3時15分に出発。しかし現在空港の大規模な改修に伴う発着制限のため離着陸に時間がかかってしまい、ようやく午後3時42分に滑走路05Rから離陸。

I choose a 30H seat, a right aisle seat of the middle. Passengers are almost full. Most of them are Taiwanese who goes to Korea on a holiday. There's no Korean crew in this flight, therefore they only have recording voice announcements in Korean before takeoff and landing.
座席は左後方の通路側30Hを選択。当便はほぼ満席でそれらの大半は韓国へ向かう台湾人団体客でした。この便には韓国人乗務員が乗っておらず韓国語でのアナウンスは離着陸前の録音のみとなっていました。

It's a meal time after a while the plane went into a horizontal flight. They have only one choice, sauteed chicken and vegetables with rice. The taste is delicious.
飛行機が水平飛行に入りしばらくしてから食事タイム。機内食はソテーしたチキンと野菜のご飯和えの一食しかありませんでしたがとてもおいしかったです。

Welcome to Star Gallery/Sky Concert, EVA Air's in-flight entertainment system. It's available in four languages, English, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, and Japanese.
エバーの機内エンターテイメントシステムであるスター・ギャラリー（Star Gallery）のスカイコンサートウエルカムスクリーン。英語、簡体・繁体中国語、日本語の4言語に対応しています。

I enjoyed listening my favorite program, the classic performance by the Evergreen Symphony Orchestra during the flight. This song is Mozart's masterpieces, Turkish March.
フライト中はお気に入りプログラムであるエバーグリーン交響楽団によるクラシック演奏を聴いていました。この曲はモーツアルトの名曲であるトルコ行進曲です。

The theme song of star wars movies played by the same one. Of course they have some famous Chinese and Taiwanese songs and even Japanese folk songs, such as Shireko Summertime. While listening to music, I thought that they provided Japanese oldies songs in their in-flight entertainment. I know some Taiwanese really loves Japanese popular cultures, such as AKB48, Arashi, TV shows and dramas. When taking a metro in Taipei, I saw a promotional advert which held on a Japanese cultural festival somewhere in the city. The AKB48, Japan's No.1 girl group, came here and they held a concert.
映画スター・ウォーズ主題歌の演奏曲です。他には台湾・中国の名曲はもちろん知床旅情など日本の名曲までありました。さすが親日が最も多い台湾のエアラインならではのサービスだとつくずく感じました。

When entering toilet, I've noticed that amenities had been somewhat changed from the previous one.
トイレに入ったとき気ついたのがアメニティが前回より多少変わっていたこと。

They also have been changed its seat covers and cushions.
それにシートカバーやクッションも変わっていました。

Since the Incheon Grand Bridge have been visible from the plane, it seems to land on the opposite side of runway 33R. After landing, the plane was running on the runway and safely arrived at gate 125, 6:49 pm local time.
飛行機が着陸態勢に入りその後仁川大橋が見えてきたので反対側の滑走路である33Rに着陸するようです。着陸後滑走路をタキシングしながら午後6時49分にゲート125へ到着。

An American Airlines flight to Dallas was stopping at gate 123 next to my flight. This flight was arriving 3 hours late, it has been hastily prepared for starting. In addition, a Qatar Airways Boeing 777-300ER plane was parked at gate 121. Both companies are members of One world, one of the world's three major airline alliances.
隣の123番ゲートにはアメリカン航空のダラス便が延着していたので出発に向けてあわただしく準備していました。さらに2っ先の121番ゲートにはカタール航空のB777-300ER機が停まっていました。2社とも航空連合ワンワールドに加盟しています。

There's no arrival flights that arrived just before and after this flight so that the shuttle train to the main terminal wasn't crowded this time. At the immigration, there are only a few persons waiting, it ends immediately. After that I picked up my luggage first, and was resting for a while in the arrival lobby. Then I saw Taiwanese tourists who has been taking on the same flight, and crews of Singapore Airlines arrived after my flight. And I took an 8pm bus to the Lotte City Hotel Gimpo Airport where is the directly opposite of the Airport.   
今回はちようど前後に到着した便がなくシャトルトレインはガラガラ。入国審査は並んでいる人が少なかったのですぐに終了。その後荷物を引き取り、到着ロビーでしばらく休んでいました。そのとき同じ便に乗ってきた台湾人団体たちやその後に到着したシンガポール航空の乗務員たちが見えました。そして8時発のバスで金浦空港の真向かいにある宿泊地ロッテシティホテル金浦へ。

Boarding on the plane: An EVA Air flight BR160 on 24 April 2015, part 1/2015年4月24日エバー航空BR160便搭乗記（その1）

A flight report on BR160 from Taipei to Seoul Incheon.
台北ーソウル仁川間BR160便搭乗記です。

I arrived at the airport at 1:00 pm. It's 2 hours before departure, so I've enough time to check in. The check-in counter of EVA Air is located at terminal 2, the opposite side of Cathay Pacific that I've taken on the outward. This flight will be taking only few individual passengers, so it was done quickly. The group counter, however, was crowded with many Taiwanese tourists going to Korea on a holiday. There is a self check-in counter for Kitty Jet operating flights. But I couldn't do that because it cannot use for free ticket.
空港に着いたのが出発2時間前の午後1時。エバー航空のチェックインカウンターは往路に利用したキャセイパシフィック航空とは反対側であるターミナル2。ガラガラだったのですぐに終了。逆に団体カウンターには韓国に向かう台湾人たちで込み合っていました。ちなみにキティジェット専用のセルフチェックインカウンターもあるのですが今回は無料航空券だったので使えませんでした。

There have been made a long queue at the immigration, I have to wait for a time. After that I ate a hamburger meal at Mos burger, then went to the boarding gate. This time, they made the gate changes to C10 which is the end of gate, not the usual C3 gate used for Kitty Jets only. But I have a plenty of time, so I've decided to go to the Kitty shop right next to the gate.
出国審査はすごい列がでてきていてかなり待たされました。その後フードコートにてモスバーガーを食べてから搭乗ゲートへ。ちなみにゲートはキティジェット専用のC3ではなく一番端っこのC10でしたがまだまだ時間があったので専用ゲート隣のキティショップをのぞいてみました。

When going back to the boarding gate, they had been made an announcement for boarding.
搭乗ゲートへ戻るとすでに搭乗アナウンスがされていました。

I take the plane to Seoul on the way.
この飛行機に乗って一路ソウルに向かいます。

To be continued..
続く..