Saturday April 8
We arrived to Fukuoka, stood 2 hours in immigration line, and then took a taxi to our Nikko Fukuoka Hotel next to Hakata station. After checking in, we went to a couple shrines nearby. It’s really cold and windy in Fukuoka which is totally unexpected. We went for lunch to Din Toi Fung in Hakata train session. After that, we tried to find Uniqlo to buy puffers and sweaters, did not find it and gave up and went to take a nap. After that, we walked to eel place called Yoshisuka Unagiya and had very decent eel dinner in lacquered boxes. Then we found Uniqlo and bought some warm clothes.
Sunday April 9
We had an amazing croissant in a nearby bakery for breakfast. Then we took a ferry to Nokonoshima island where we switched to a short bus drive to a flower park.
Coming back to Hakata, we stood in a short line to get famous pork broth ramen at Hakata Ikkousha Sohonten. Took a nap, and feeling refreshed went to pick up our rental Toyota Yaris nearby. Parked it in the hotel underground garage and went on foot to Tianjin area of Fukuoka which was very lively. Landmark Acros building there is a typical sky scraper from one side and a multilayer multidimensional garden from the other side, with a small waterfall. Great dinner at Chikae Sushi restaurant known for prepping fish while it’s live.
Monday April 10
Woke up at 6 and got on the road. After 2 hours of driving we got to Nabegataki waterfall. Then stopped at pretty Kurokawa onsen village. From there, another 30 min to Mt Aso national park. On the way we stopped by a vegetable stand to admire birds and other sculptures made out of live trees and buy local oranges.
Went for lunch in town of Aso and had a donburi with very tender local beef and soft egg on top in a charming restaurant with wooden beams and lacquered tables. They had oshinko buffet which was also very good.
Aso shrine was big but old and non remarkable. From there, another 30 min drive to Aso mountain. We had hard time finding a trail start but then found an end and went up in reverse. The climb was pretty short but steep and the view from above was expansive. We wanted to do another trail but the parking next to it and the trail itself were closed.
Then we checked into Aso Granvrio Hotel on a huge golf course and in great forest setting. The hotel itself is a large 80s style building with most obsolete finishes and plumbing I’ve ever seen in my life. We went for a walk on the golf course chasing resident raccoons around. The hotel had a buffet style dinner with crab legs and fountain machine for sparkling wine, beer and whisky.
Tuesday April 11
After non-remarkable breakfast in socialist-like cafeteria of our hotel and a brief fight with an out of control shower, we rolled out on the road. About 90 min to reach Amanoiwato Shrine and a descent to Amanoyasujawara cave. This is the cave where various deities gathered to discuss a plan to lure goddess of sun Amaterasu out.
Quick drive from there to Takachiho shrine which dates 1900 years back but features a bas-relief of a guy with a rifle shooting a pig. From there we went to Takachiho gorge, walked the path and looked at waterfalls. Budget stop at lunch set place where we had chicken with abundant mayo sauce.
We drove for almost 3 hours to get to our next destination, Miyazaki. Tried to take a scenic route next to the ocean but then lost interest and went back to the highway. There we visited a beach and went around Aoshima island surrounded by “devil washboard” rippled stone. Our hotel, Sheraton Grand Ocean Resort is very upscale and is the place for April agriculture ministers G7 summit. Our room had a huge picture window with ocean view, and the bar downstairs had a large colorful fish tank. We went for dinner to a great omakase restaurant Isshunsushi Koyo and had 12 piece nigiri course with tempura and dessert. The owner even showed us his wine cellar.
Wednesday April 12
We ran through the hotel grounds to check out beautiful onsen and pools of our hotel. To satisfy sudden pancake craving, we headed out to Kyushu Pancake House nearby and had pancakes with ham hollandaise and raw egg which was wonderful.
Another 2.5 hour drive, and we are in the parking lot next to Mt Kaimon. With no restaurants or places to get a sandwich, we stocked up on protein bars. The hike up took about 2.5 hours and it wasn’t great. In the beginning it was going deep through the forest in a trench. Once that ended rock scrambling began. It was very cloudy and we couldn’t see much of a view. As usual, the way back took longer and was entirely unpleasant. Overall it’s a solid C+ hike. Maybe it would have been better on a clearer day, with better views from the top.
After a 20 minute drive, we quickly checked into our hotel Ginsyo and drove to Satsumaaji restaurant just 2 min away. A very sweet but confused old lady took our order while trying awkwardly to enter it in iPad like tablet. We ordered nigiri, pork katsu, and shrimp tempura. Returning back to the hotel, we were shown to a traditional but at the same time modern suite with 2 rooms and private onsen on the terrace with an ocean view.
Thursday April 13
Got up, took a shower in our amazing shower with ocean view, went to a traditional Japanese breakfast, had coffee on the beach, all the usual small benefits of being in Japan. Drove to the port to get our reserved tickets to Yakushima island. After 75 min ferry we arrived, met our guide Steve from Yes Yakushima, loaded in a van, picked up two more couples , one from Australia, one from Orlando and a traveling US navy guy. We went on a nice hike of a very green forest where trees grow on moss and some yakusugi cedar trees are several thousand years old. Lunch provided consisted of very good onigiri in bento boxes.
Coming back to the hotel, we checked out the main onsen on the top 9th floor. The view of a quiet ocean is very serene and relaxing. We looked for a dinner place and ended up in cool modern izakaya and had yakitori.
Friday April 14
We woke up to see the sunrise out of our private onsen. Went for coffee and a walk on a beach followed by another traditional Japanese breakfast. The sand on the beach is hot because of natural volcanic springs and one could take a sand bath. Breakfast consisted of grilled fish and other Japanese style little breakfast dishes.
We checked out a botanical garden. All of the tropical plant varieties look very familiar and some of them we have in our backyard. Next we drove to Chiran peace museum. The museum is located at the site of Chiran air base where kamikaze pilots trained and launched missions from during WWII.
It started raining and got cold. We stopped by a little okonomiaki place for lunch. Okonomiaki was big and had a pile of tasty mushrooms on top. Samurai houses and gardens were a challenge to find at first. There were 7 gardens from 18 and 19th century open for viewing, all of them very well maintained.
With difficulties we found our Richmond Tenmokan hotel and parking in Kagoshima. We went to explore nearby shopping area with covered arkades. Leon bought and thoroughly enjoyed a freshly baked donut. Kagoshima is famous for its award winning beef and pork. For dinner we went to yakiniki beef place Gyu-Do. The salad with fresh greens and micro greens was very tasty and wagyu beef was tender and finely marbled.
Saturday April 15
Rainy day again, which means that the famous Sakurajima active volcano is fully hidden in thick fog. We did some serious research about fish market and decided to go there for lunch rather than breakfast. After Starbucks, we grabbed our car from the most advanced parking structure in the world and headed out for Sengan-en house, museum and garden of Shimadzu samurai family. This family ruled Satsuma domain (modern Kagoshima territory) for generations and was the most powerful samurai clan in Japan, helped by far distance from shogun in Edo. The garden is large and very well appointed with amazing views, which would have been truly amazing on a clearer day. House is well preserved and looks almost livable. Apparently tzar Nicolas II of Russia visited it after his trip to Vladivostok on just built Trans-Siberian Railway and received 2 amazing porcelain vases (replicas are shown in the house) and loved his 40 course meal so much that he reportedly said he “could eat like that every day”. Among little Shinto shrines scattered around the vast property there was a cat shrine dedicated to several cats that one of Shimadzu warlords took with him on a campaign in Korea back in 1700s. Apparently he could tell the time of day by the shape of cats' eyes.
We drove back to Kagoshima fish market for lunch which was underwhelming because they ran out of some fish and maybe rice too. It’s still drizzling and pretty cold outside. We checked out a cosmetics fair next to one of the department stores and then headed out to Meiji Restoration museum. It was pretty interesting and interactive showing a rich military samurai history of the Satsuma area where a number of famous generals and statesmen came from. Some of them played pivotal roles in the development of Japan after its reopening to the world in 19th century.
Then we hung out at a large department store and went for early dinner to the same Gyu-Do yakiniki restaurant. This time we ordered sirloin, tongue, short rib, and tenderloin a la carte.
Sunday April 16
Leon found a bakery called Sumomo near us hoping for almond croissants. Croissants were still being baked, so we had curry danish and egg on top of milk bread with free coffee. From there we drove up to a very nice flower park with observation point for Sakurajima volcano which was finally visible due to today’s clear sunny weather.
Driving to Kirishima, we stopped by large Kirishima shrine which seems to be popular with couples with babies. From there, we found an amazing place for unagi which served char broiled unagi portions. Leon ordered super large kabayaki and I had similar amount of eel in a lacquered box. Then we drove about 20 minutes through mountain roads to get to Ebino plateau hiking trail that goes around 3 crater lakes. This hike took about 2 hours while it got cold and rainy. At the end we went through an area of very active fumaroles. The smell of sulfur was everywhere.
We checked into our hotel Kirishima Castle with super large room and super tiny cruise ship style bathroom. The onsen was very large but equally obsolete. For dinner we went to a yakiniki place called Wakimoto nearby mainly because they advertised their amazing salad bar which was quite ordinary. The one interesting thing there was that we got to try different cuts of local black pork yakiniki style, along with local beef.
Monday April 17
Today weather looks bright and sunny. We had a quick breakfast at the hotel and headed for a hike around Lake Onami. The trail is very well maintained with amazing views of crater lake. Somewhere in the middle we decided to climb mountain Karakunidake adding another 2 km to the trail. This climb became very vertical with narrow ladder going up. We gave up and turned back after we encountered dirt path with wet slippery rock scrambles. We went back, completed the loop around the lake and drove to make it on time for unagi lunch at yesterday’s place. The restaurant has an amazing garden around it and plays a quiet music for a full effect. Then we drove up to Maruo falls and Inakai falls, about 20 min drive to each. For dinner, we wanted to try famous local chicken. To get to it, we drove about 20 min on mountain roads in the dark. The place had a pretty good chicken yakuniki style and fried chicken but they ran out of chicken wings.
Tuesday April 18
We got up early and had a quick breakfast in the hotel cafeteria. After 2 hour drive, we were in Kumamoto at Suizeni gardens, very nice japanese garden developed 400 years ago by local Hosokawa samurai lords. From there we headed out to Kumamoto castle. It’s a very handsome tall castle which was severely damaged during 2016 earthquake. There is a pedestrian viewing walkway all the way around which leads into the main keep. Main keep has a museum and an observation space on the top floor but not much of the view of the original indoors. We went back, located our car and went to Katsuretsu Tei for katsu lunch consisting of a heavenly thick cut of local pork with all the usual katsu fixings. After lunch we explored local arts and crafts center, walked to samurai house Hosokawa Villa which was temporarily closed, and then explored very contemporary spacious shopping mall on the way and headed to the hotel. Nikko Kumamoto Hotel is nice and located in a very upscale shopping area. For dinner we went to a lively izakaya where Leon tried two types of local shochu - rice and sweet potato - with a sashimi platter.
Wednesday April 19
Woke up early to be at the car ferry to Nagasaki region at 9:25. We had breakfast at nearby Seattle’s Best Coffee which served nice eggs Benedict in a very slow fashion. The ferry ride was very comfortable and pretty quick. Upon arrival to Shimabara we drove up to Mt Unzen on a windy road. It was very cloudy and foggy so we couldn’t see much of a view down. We still took a cable car up from Nita pass to Mt Myokendake but opted against hiking in this weather.
Then we drove to Nagasaki and stopped by a katsu restaurant called Bunjiro in Urakami neighborhood. This katsu was very decent with unlimited cabbage salad and miso soup, but not as good as yesterday’s. Then we went to Atom Bomb Museum and afterwards to Peace Park and Urakami Cathedral. The latter was the largest Christian church in Asia built with donations from local population over several decades, and then utterly destroyed by the nuclear blast in 1945. Current cathedral is a much smaller reproduction.
Thursday April 20
We had a lot of ground to cover today, so fueled by Starbucks we headed out. First we went to Suwa Shinto shrine, and then to a couple of Buddhist temples - Kofukuji and Sofukuji. Nagasaki was the main trading port during Japan’s isolation, so the area had heavy Chinese influence along with some western influence. Then we went to see famous Meganebashi Bridge, and for an early lunch at Yossou - a restaurant serving delicious savory egg custard with seafood and vegetables, along with shimesaba (vinegared mackerel) sushi.
Then we explored the site of former Dutch trading settlement at Dejima, Nagasaki Chinatown, and Dutch Slope. Then we went to see former Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank (HSBC) building which had a nice museum with history of Nagasaki contribution to economic development of Japan during late 1800s and early 1900s. At a coffee shop nearby I introduced staff to a radical idea of iced espresso. Then we went to Oura Cathedral and learned about the history of Christianity in Japan.
For dinner we went to a small family run sushi shop called Shiozaki near our hotel. We had an outstanding 12 piece omakase dinner, including delicious local shimesaba and iwashi sardine in miso. And then we took a cab to Mt Inasa for amazing nigh views of Nagasaki, and then ropeway down.
Friday April 21
Grabbed Starbucks and headed out to explore Glover Garden - an area on hillside above Oura Church where many western expats used to live. Now it’s a beautiful garden with historical western style houses of those entrepreneurial Europeans who made their fortunes while helping develop Japanese industries in late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Then a quick brunch at Hayama Coffee shop, followed by a 2 hour drive to Fukuoka airport where we returned our rental car.
Bye Japan! Until next time…
