日本に着いて３日目は、湯布院に移動しました。「ゆふいんの森」で往復するつもりだったのですが、博多から由布院まで２時間の運転のはずが夏の大雨の被害のため今は迂回していて、なんと５時間近くかかります。５時間も電車に乗るのはしんどそうと思ったものの、この時期はまだ雪は大丈夫とは思うもののごくたまに年末にドカ雪が降ることもあり、雪で道路が閉鎖されてしまったらどうしようと心配だったのと、夫は電車に乗るのが好きなのもあり、結局行きは電車、万が一雪が積もっていたら帰りは変更出来るということで帰りはバスにしました。

On the 3rd day, we moved to Yufuin.  We were going to go up and down on the train “Yufuin no Mori” but I found out that it takes almost 5 hours between Hakata and Yufuin instead of usual 2 hours due to having to avoid the damaged tracks caused by heavy rain in the summer.  I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be on a train that long but I was also worried about snow stopping the bus service.  In the end, as my husband loves being on trains, we decided to take the train “Yufuin no Mori” from Hakata to Yufuin, but take a bus back (2 hours) to Hakata on the return journey.

５時間もと思っていましたが、寝ているうちに着きました（笑）。

Although I thought 5 hours sounded so long, I ended up sleeping most of it!

ちなみに、すぐ近くに所謂電車オタクの方がお２人座られて、会話がとても興味深かったです。

There were a couple of train enthusiast men right behind us and it was very interesting to hear some of their conversation.

お宿は、「山のホテル　夢想園」。９年前に泊まってお値段の割りにとても良いと思ったので、今回もこちらに決めました。湯布院の旅館はお値段が高いところが多いので、その中では比較的リーズナブルですし、お部屋もサービスもとても良かったです。

For accomodation, I chose “Yama no hotel Musoen”.  We stayed here when we were in Yufuin 9 years ago.  Staying in ryokan is in general quite expensive because it includes a huge breakfast and a lengthy dinner and it’s very labour intensive to look after customers and Yufuin is an expensive area to stay.  Considering all that, this ryokan is quite reasonable and their room and service were very good.

お部屋は３部屋。玄関を上がってすぐのところに囲炉裏のある土間があり、その奥に畳の間（ここに夜はお布団が敷かれます）、その奥はやはり畳のまでこたつとテレビのお部屋、その奥にはソファーが置かれています。

This time we stayed in this room.  It had 3 rooms.  After you go up the genkan, there is a wooden floored room with Irori, then there is a tatami room, where they will prepare futon for you, then another tatami room with a kotatsu and TV.  Kotatsu is a traditional heating system in Japan.  It’s a table with a large duvet type of thing around the outside and the table has a heater underneath so you keep your legs warm under the duvet.  The trouble is, you don’t wan’t to go out of it!

福岡の２日間はそれほど寒くなかったのですが、３日目は急に気温が下がりました。由布は元々福岡より気温が低いのですが、この日から最低気温はマイナスになりとても寒かったです。それに、都会はビルがあってある程度風が防げますしホテルのお部屋はとても暖かいですが、田舎は風をまともに受けますし、旅館のお部屋は本当に寒いです。暖房もありましたし使っていましたが全体が暖かくはならないですし、あまり入れすぎてさらに乾燥するのも嫌なので夜は消しました。

The 1st two days in Fukuoka hadn’t been so cold but it got much colder on the 3rd day.  Yufuin is colder than Fukuoka anyway and it was below zero when we were there.  In a city, you don’t get the wind in your face so often because you are sort of protected by the buildings, and hotel rooms are always very warm (sometimes a bit hot), but in the countryside there is nothing to stop the wind from hitting you directly and also these ryokan rooms tend to be cold specially when you have a large room.  They did have heating system on the walls and we did use them but we didn’t want to keep it on during the night.  It’s very dry in winter in Japan so we didn’t want to make it even drier than it already was.

女性用の露天風呂は２つ、内風呂１つ、家族風呂が４つ。今回はわたしは最初の日は露天風呂に入りましたが、あとはとにかく寒すぎて内風呂の方に入りました。内風呂と露天風呂が続いていると助かるのですが、露天風呂は体を洗うところも外なので温まる前に体を外で洗うのは寒すぎて。。。夫は毎回露天風呂に入っていたそうです。（入っている方がおられなかったので、写真を撮りました。）この露天風呂は写真に写っているのは一部で、とても広いお風呂で景色も良くて素晴らしかったです。

There were 2 outdoor hot spring baths (protected from viewing from outside) for women, 1 for men, 1 indoor bath each for men and women (separately) and 4 family outdoor baths.  I used the largest one of the ladies outdoor baths on our first day but used the indoor one for the rest of our stay because it was just too cold for me to wash my body before warming up!  You have to wash your body before getting in the bath to keep the bath clean but the washing area was also outdoors.  Some places have an indoor area where you can wash, then go out to the outdoor bath, but not here.  My husband used the outdoor bath every time, though.  (Nobody was in the bath when I went so I took a photo quickly.  This shows only a part of the bath, it’s much large than what you see here and the view is fantastic.)

山のホテル　夢想園
大分県由布市湯布院町川南1243

Tel: +81 977 84 2171

Yama no Hotel Musouen
1243 Kawaminami, Yufuin-cho
yufu, Oita 879 5103

Tel:+81 977-84-2171