[2014 Kyushu Family Trip - 1] Off to Kyushu & to Kurokawa Hot Springs!

I personally wanted to go to places like Hokkaido or Kusatsu Hot Springs, where it's likely to snow, for the winter break. I wanted to go skiing or snow boarding (both of which I have no idea how to do) during the day, and at night relax at some really nice open-air hot springs.
Basically, I wanted to see a lot of snow.

But my mom hates the cold, and she wanted to spend a night at a ryokan really badly.
So we decided to go to Kyushu for my family trip instead.


Before the dawn on December 22nd, 2014,

My family headed to Incheon International Airport.

We valet-parked our car, checked-in,
and just when it was almost boarding time!!
.....
.........

It snowed at the airport...
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! WHY CAN'T IT SNOW AT THE DESTINATION INSTEAD?!

Anyway, my family boarded the plane,
and had to spend about 5 hours in it until we got off at Fukuoka, because the door to the baggage compartment froze!!
(normally Fukuoka is only 75-minute plane ride from Incheon)

so my father watched 2 movies.
and I watched 2 episodes of the Big Bang Theory and slept a couple of hours.

by the way, I recommend you avoid flying with Korean Air for now.
They suck these days (in many ways).

Nevertheless, my family arrived at Fukuoka Airport, 5 hours behind in schedule.
It was one of the smaller and older airports I've been to.

My parents bought the round-trip tickets for the bus to Kurokawa Hot Springs, with uh... almost non-existent Japanese skills.
(No one in my family is good at Japanese, and yes, that includes me too.)

Since we were going to take 2:30 PM bus to Kurokawa Onsen, my family had some extra time.
All of us were pretty hungry, so we bought 2 bentos from this store.
I mean, this is one of the cheapest things you could ever eat at an airport, you know.

After having lunch, my family boarded the 2:30 PM bus to Kurokawa Hot Springs.
It was a 3-hour ride, so we all took a nap on the way.

My dad spent more than half of the bus ride awake, and he was really surprised to see a giant bus drive through tiny roads.

and we've finally arrived at Kurokawa Onsen Station!
The shuttle from the ryokan was waiting for us to arrive at the bus station!

Tada!

After a ridiculously long day (about 5 hours of which were wasted on the airplane), my family had finally arrived at the ryokan called 'Okunoyu', where we were going to spend the night.


to be continued in the next post...