Jives and I woke up at 4:00am to have a bath in the onsen. This time I had the bath to myself for the entire time. It is a really lovely way to wake up. I bathed in both the inside and outside bath, taking a plunge in the cold bath in between. I met Jives out by the vending machine later. He had a weird melon milk and I had a cold hot chocolate without milk. It is traditional to have a cold drink of milk after a bath in the hot onsen waters, but being lactose intolerant, the chocolate drink was a good alternative. 

We went back to the room after enjoying our drinks. Harith woke up and we headed out to the bus that would take us to Heiwadai park where the Haniwa Garden and the Haniwa are (traditional clay figures that have been uncovered and found all over the area.) Most of the Haniwa look like ghosty guys, but others resemble warriors or horses, even boats! 

We got on the bus and rode for about twenty minutes to the base of the hill, leading up to the park. We then walked up the road and then up a wide set of stairs through a forest to the top of the hill where the park is. 

There was a huge peace memorial, which is what we investigated first. The peace memorial was in a garden and up a large flight of stairs. The tower looked almost like it was from the set of the Lord of the Rings. We climbed to the top of the steps and had a great view over some of the park. Afterwards we climbed down the steps and turned left where we entered the forest of the Haniwa. 

These little traditional clay figures were dotted throughout the mossy forest knolls. We spent quite a lot of time here taking photos of all the different types of Haniwa.

We then made our way back down the steps to take the bus back to Miyazaki station to take the train to Nichinan for the coastal caves.