After the good news from this morning (my sock had returned). I was on a high for breakfast.

More inappropriate breakfast food today included Toriten (chicken tempura), an Oita prefecture speciality. I decided to leave later than normal. The ropeway didn’t open till 9 and it was only 7.30am.

I caught the bus at 9.20, and it was full. Very full. So full they needed two buses and still it was packed in like sardines. The ride was long and windy. Standing up packed together was not fun but made me glad I hadn’t taken the bus down from Yufuin (the beppu ropeway bus went to Yufuin as well).

Beppu ropeway was in the mountains and is supposedly the highest ropeway in Kyushu. Once again, though, the cherry blossoms are in bloom, but the landscape is dry and brown. The evergreens are the only green in the landscape. Green, pale pink and brown, mountains.

There are two cars, a pink one and a blue one. I got the pink one both up and down. They were both packed, so I didn’t get a good vantage point for photos from the car.

At the top, the cable car squeezes in so tightly that it touches both sides of the dock.

The view was clear, but there was a haze over the city making everything just a little bit grey. The clouds had cleared up from early this morning, however, so it was a clear shot to Beppu bay.

At the top is a shrine, a thermometer, and a pilgrimage for seven deity statues. Of course, if there was something to collect, I had to catch them all. Cough, cough. I mean, see them all.

To see all seven, you have to climb to the top of the mountain. A total of 1375m. Of course, most of that is taken by ropeway. But I took it slow and steady, and I got to the top. Got lots of wide panorama shots and saw all there was to see.

Once again, I am reminded of how the japanese love to queue. it was 20mins before the cable car was scheduled, and there was already a queue a mile wide. No good view on the way down either.

It was after 2 when the bus returned to the station, so I got convinence store lunch and went back to the hotel to rest. Tomorrow, I leave Beppu to return to Osaka. Then I leave from there back to Australia. My holiday is almost over and I’ve had an interesting experience travelling solo. Still next time I’ve decided I’ll travel with someone else.