Kyushu Japan Road trip Day 2 - Takachiho

Set off early in the morning.  

Got breakfast from the patisserie and also from the souvenir shop by the Aso train station 道の駅 

They sells tonsssss of different products/bento/fresh vegetable etc with a sitting area if you want to eat your food straight away.  

http://tabelog.com/kumamoto/A4302/A430201/43006622/dtlrvwlst/

We've bought some very nice prawn cracker and this rice ball.  

Rice ball with minced horse meet and a soft boiled marinated egg in the middle!! 

Look at the colour of the yolk!!!!

Back on the road

On the way to Takachiho, we stopped by this traditional Japanese bbq restaurant called 高森田楽の里
熊本県阿蘇郡高森町大字高森2685-2  Tel:  0967-62-1899
dengakunosato.com

We've ordered a set each.   

You can see the menu (with pictures) here: http://dengakunosato.com/teisyoku.html 

There were also 3 bowls of different miso to accompany different food.  

I particularly loveeeeeeee the yuzu miso. 

We didn't know you are supposed to spread the miso onto the food when it's nearly done and grill it for a little longer before eating (we saw that's what the Japanese couple next to us did!)  

We just dipped it into the miso just as we eat  - o well.. next time :p

Normally I'm not a big fan of sweet potato but those the baby sweet potato they serves there are super sweet and tastes great with the crispy skin after grilling.  

Beef and spring onion skwer

Stewed dumpling miso soup

Next door, there is also a cafe and souvenir shop.  

Amazing view as you step out of the restaurant

We stopped by the old train station - which is now a souvenir shop and the tunnel is used to store Japanese Shochu.

W

We love these little dried fish, seaweed and little crabs!!!

I noticed they are available at Mitsubishi at Tenjin  too :p so I guess it's not something special from the area) 

Why is every corner we go to looks so stunnningggggg

This is just outside the train station

Got to the gorge :-)
rented a little boat and rowed along the river for 30min.

prob not a good idea to go anywhere near the fall :p 

A lazy little kitten :p 

We were still full from lunch so we didnt' get to try this out :( 

We then drove to the Amano Iwatoshrine

To get to the Amano Yasukawara (天安河原), follow the path - it's roughly a 10-15

min walk (if you don't stop by the icecream store :p ).  

You will see lots of little piles of stones - these represent the wishes and prayers from the previous visitors.  

Apparently, the higher the pile the better. 

On the way back to Takachiho, it goes past many rice fields and sake/shochu factories :p

We stayed at a family owned guest house called Kariboshi.
http://www.booking.com/hotel/jp/kariboshi.en-gb.html
and here's the view from the hill

We had such a hard time looking for a restaurant.  found this little local eatery but they ran out of rice  x.x
We didn't have much time before the dance performance at the Shrine so we just had udon there (which was so so)

At night there's this "shortened version" of Yokagura - a ritual ceremony to pray for good harvest.
It was interesting but frankly - I find it a little longggg.  It lasted an hour.  You can see people started clicking their phone after a while.

making mochi together