luxurious night at Sakurajima

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The drive from Kumamoto to Sakurajia was quite scenic. Yatsushiro, Hitoyoshi and Kirishima were all beautiful places. Sakurajima is an island with active volcanos. Whenever there is volcano there is onsen water. This is why we are here - to try the famous onsen by the sea Furusato Onsen. It was gonna be our once-in-a-lifetime experience.

For obivous reasons photos are not allowed in the onsen. But the hotel's official website should give you some idea http://www.furukan.co.jp/. This onsen is great. It's finely docorated the whole thing looks like a shrine on the water. There are rocks under water for people to sit on and enjoy the ocean view which is only a few meters away.

Our room is 12 tatami size and quite spacious. The balcony is facing the ocean so you can imagine the view. There is a bath tub on the balcony which is big enough for two people. So couples can sit in the bath tub and enjoy the view together. On the side there is an area where you can brush your teeth, dry your hair, put on make up and etc.

Dinner was something we really look forward to as its suppose to be a seafood banquet. We thought it would be inside the room but we were led to somewhere better. The dining area has at least 30 private dining rooms. Depending on the type of banquet selected, each room is designed for different type of food. First we had sashimi, then lobster, then pasta with lobster. I counted the dishes. At least 5 of them had lobster. Even the miso soup is a lobster miso soup! The service was so good that we felt like we were treated as someone really important. Well I guess there is no such thing as bad service in Japan. This is our most expensive night in Japan but it was such good value and we really enjoyed the change from our usual budget accomodations.

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