I went to Ikebukuro this time. There are various places to enjoy in Ikebukuro such as the Sunshine City that includes various facilities, Ikebukuro Theatre that carries on the traditional arts, the Otome Road that various Anime and game shops are lined, and so on.

Started from East exit.

Ikebukuro East exit. Bic Camera main shop and Yamada Denki LABI that opened in 2007 are going through intense price competitions. It is said to be the best place to haggle the price of electronic products.

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After check out, we headed to Yufuin station, in the rain.
From here we go towards Oita station by train. Before getting on the local train to Oita station, we take a picture of the express Yufuin-no-morigo.

Because it was the tourist express, after arriving at Yufuin station a lot of tourists were getting off.

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The “Murata Mountain Cottage” that is located on the foot of Yufudake, is only accessible from the center of Yufuin by climbing a steep hill.

On our way there was a natural original source of hot springs.

The “Murata Mountain Cottage” stands quietly in the green forest.

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Starting from Karuizawa, there are preserved land spotted in different areas of Japan, and the Yufuin Onsen in Kyushu is one of them.

The Yufuin Onsen located in Oita prefecture is a hot spring land that spreads across the foot slopes of the Yufudake an active volcano, proud of its eminent amount of hot water across the nation. It excludes the ordinary large ryo-kans and hotels all over Japan and amusement areas due to the exploitation limits based. Therefore a country-side atmosphere is left, and is a popular area for onsens.

*Accessing Yufuin
Generally the Yufuin is entered coming from either Fukuoka or Oita.
【JR】
Hakata station（Fukuoka）→Yufuin station：Express Yufuin-no-mori/Express Yufu 2 hours
Oita station→Yufuin station 1 hour
【Bus】
Within Fukuoka city/Fukuoka airport: 2 hours
Oita airport：1 hour
【Car】
About 5 minutes from Oita-jidoushadou-Yufuin IC.

*The journey to Yufuin
To go to Yufuin, going from Tokyo to Oita airport is often, however this time we decided to go towards Fukuoka airport.
This is because we wanted to ride on the train to Yufuin.

From Tokyo to Fukuoka is about an hour and a half.

On our way, we pass over Mount Fuji with snowcapped on top.

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