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Published: January 27th 2021
I may be slightly biased because that’s the island we called home for 13 months, but I think Kyushu is my favourite of Japan’s main islands. It doesn’t have the globally famous sights that people come from around the world to visit. There is no town as rich in temples, shrines and palaces as Kyoto, there is no mountain as picture-perfect as Fuji, and there is no city as big, as modern and as vibrant as Tokyo. However, the few tourists who make it this far south – most of whom seem to be Japanese, who are mostly from elsewhere on Kyushu – are spoilt for choice in places to visit and things to do.
I have realised that I really like small islands off of big islands. Don’t know why. My favourite could be Yakushima. Mention Yakushima island to most Japanese and they will likely swoon telling you they have always wanted to go there. Of all my Japanese friends, only one has actually visited. And it’s her favourite place in Japan. Yakushima is about 65 km south of the southern tip of Kyushu thus it isn’t the easiest place to get to. First you need to
get to Kagoshima then there is a choice of a fast but expensive jetfoil, a regular ferry, or if you want an adventure you can go on the cheap but slow and overnight cargo ship. We chose the latter. It was a lovely and quite dramatic to approach the island at sunrise as the cloud still grips the mountain peaks. The highest mountain in the Kyushu region is on Yakushima, 1936 m Mt Miyanoura. As the island is only 25 km in diameter, the island is pretty steep and people generally come for the hiking. It is most famous for two things: Firstly, the UNESCO recognised cedar forest – there are massive ancient cedars with the oldest, Jōmonsugi, estimated at over 7000 years old. Secondly, Yakushima is famous for rain. This is the wettest part of Japan with the mountains receiving about 10 metres per year and it is commonly said to rain 35 days per month. We had intended to visit all year and regularly checked weather forecasts for a dry window, but it wasn’t until one of our final weekends in October when we made it. Yakushima alone could be a reason to visit Japan. It is unlike
anywhere else in the country. The hiking up the mountains through the forest is best described as magical, mystical, mesmerising, any other m-adjectives? magnificent, marvellous, etc. There are mountain huts to stay in because the well-marked traverse takes a couple of days and there are side routes that could keep you up in the mountains for longer. As well as the views and the forest, we were often joined by Yakushima’s indigenous wildlife: small but very furry monkeys (it gets cold up in the hills at night and they get snow in the winter), a sub-species of sika deer, and inquisitive but skittish weasels. Yakushima is also famous for flying fish, which I saw plenty of gliding away from the ship as we approached the island and which we later discovered make delicious tempura.
While we are down at the bottom end of Kyushu, I’ll talk about Kagoshima. Sometimes called the “Naples of Japan” due to the presence of the very active Sakurajima volcano across the bay. Kagoshima itself has a great eating spot in Yataimura (yatai are food-stalls) where you can sample all sorts of local treats; it’s hard to imagine how a fish cake can
be so good. However, Sakurajima is the highlight. It is Japan’s most active volcano with the current eruption having begun in 1955. The streets of Kagoshima are constantly covered in ash and there is a special yellow bin bag for you to sweep up the ash from your house for collection. Apparently, there is lava up at the top but what you see from town are constant small vents of steam and smoke punctuated every hour or so by an eruption of a big ash cloud. There are frequent ferries across to Sakurajima, which used to be an island before a lava flow around a hundred years ago connected it to the mainland. There are some nice short walks and the obligatory outdoor hot spring foot spa. We decided to rent bikes and cycle the 36 km around the volcano. There are a surprising amount of people, even whole villages, who are comfortable to live on the slopes of this perennially rumbling volcano. Though children do wear hard hats to commute to school and the ring road has evacuation shelters every kilometre. Our bike ride was great until we ended up downwind of three sizeable ash clouds. It isn’t easy
to cycle with your eyes and mouth closed and we were thoroughly grey by the time we got through it.
Moving into the middle of Kyushu you come across Takachiho Gorge. It’s a lovely spot where the romantically inclined (and rich) may want to hire a rowing boat to paddle between the basalt column walls and under the waterfalls. It’s very lovely but I’d recommend incorporating it into the longer “olle” walking trail that will take you through terraced rice and tea fields, bamboo groves, mystical shrines in the middle of the forest, and in our case just above or beside a lot of snakes (five in total – all non-venemous).
Just to the north you have Mount Aso, another volcano that provided the lava to form Takachiho Gorge. Mt Aso is Japan’s biggest active volcano with a caldera so massive that it has roads, railways and towns within it. In the middle of the 25 km wide caldera are the currently erupting volcanic cones. There are some really nice short hikes though the paths and ropeways leading to the active crater rim had been closed for over a year when we visited due
to their high activity. So you can visit when we did in June 2020 and watch the ash and steam eruptions from nearby or go when activity is much less dramatic but get right to the crater edge. I’m not sure which is better.
The Aso-Kuju National Park extends to the northwest and we visited that area in December 2019. The national park contains the highest mountains on Kyushu island with many peaks above 1700 m. It was great hiking, ticking off most of the peaks with expansive views in the crisp winter air. These mountains are also volcanically active, but it is mostly in the form of steam and gas vents. The mountain huts all have their own onsen fed by the hot spring water and which were very welcome in the cold December nights. The lakes we passed up there were frozen and the night-time temperature inside the hut was Baltic. It also became one of my few onsen experiences in Japan because tattoos are prohibited in almost all onsens so remote huts like this where nobody is checking were my only options.
On the east coast of Kyushu you’ll find Beppu,
a famous onsen town and the reason many people make it this far south. We only passed through, after arriving on a ferry from Shikoku that offers a good view of the quite grotty looking volcano backed town with plumes of onsen steam rising from seemingly every building. The general tattoo ban means we didn’t linger. Just inland is Yafuin, a quieter quainter more rural and traditional onsen town. We did visit Yufuin but mostly to climb Mt Yufu, a perfect looking volcano above the town. It hasn’t erupted for 2000 years and a good but steep path zig-zags through unusual (for Kyushu) grasslands up to the crater. From this crossroads you can take the easy-ish path to the east summit or the chain-aided scrambly cliffs to the 1-metre higher west summit. Obviously, we went west. The view is cracking; we were there in August when the 35C heat and haze had persisted for months, but it was clear on the top and we could see the mountains of Shikoku about 100 km to the east.
Across to the west coast you have the city of Kumamoto; most famous for its castle. It is a rare example
of a black castle where most in the country are white. You can look around the grounds but it was being renovated when we visited following significant damage in a 2016 earthquake. In Kumamato we discovered yuzu highballs. The heavily iced whisky and soda highball is about as popular as beer in Japan but the addition of yuzu – an ugly lemon-looking citrus fruit – turns it into a drink for kings. In fact, yuzu makes everything better. Kumamato is also known for horse meat, which was very tasty in the rice bowls and ramen we tried.
Nearby Yanagawa is called the “Venice of Kyushu” due to the canals and gondolas criss-crossing the little town. It’s a peaceful place to wander or be punted around, especially if you can catch one of the many festivals. We were there in March 2020 for Hinamatsuri or Girls' Festival when intricately made little dolls decorate the town. The famous food in this place is unagi, or steamed eel. It’s a lot better than it sounds.
Across to one of the many peninsulas on Kyushu’s oddly shaped west coast you have yet another very active volcano in Mount Unzen. It
offers more great camping and hiking, though, as with many other such spots on Kyushu, a car is definitely recommended. We often travelled by bus between cities, but for hikes we went with a rental car. A car also permits little side trips, such as to the cute little samurai town of Shimabara, where thatched samurai era houses lie beside koi carp filled ponds and drains.
Just around the coast you will find Nagasaki. Known mostly for one thing though should be known for more. We deliberately visited for Chinese New Year at the end of January 2020 because the city has a Chinatown and consequently was beautifully lit up with lanterns and offered amazing street food. Nagasaki was the first and for a few hundred years the only port in Japan open to foreign trade. Therefore, there is an old Dutch quarter, UNESCO recognised churches, and separately UNESCO recognised industrial sites when the city has a centre of Japan’s industrial revolution in the late 1800s. Unfortunately, Nagasaki will forever be mostly known for the atomic bomb dropped on 9
th August 1945. The bomb was much more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima three days earlier.
The target was actually Kokura, a port on the northern tip of Kyushu, however, Kokura was obscured by smoke from previous bombing raids so the B-29 headed for Nagasaki. The city was obscured by cloud but being low on fuel they dropped the bomb where radar told them was the Mitsubishi works. It actually exploded directly above the city’s catholic cathedral, at the time the largest church in Asia. In less than a second, 8 square kilometres of the city and 35000 people were incinerated. The fires and radiation ultimately destroyed a lot more of the city and killed tens of thousands more. The Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum is a sombre but must-visit destination. It is very well done managing to present an unbiased history of the event. Bring some tissues.
The final place I’ll talk about is Iki, an island off the north coast of Kyushu about a quarter of the way to Korea. Japan being a country that likes to follow rules, hence covid cases are much lower than Europe and the Americas, it has an official end of summer in early September. Iki is famous for great white sand beaches and when we visited
Haniwa (burial statues) in Miyazaki
The Haniwa were our highlight of Miyazaki.in mid-September it was still around 30C, but the beaches were empty because summer had officially ended. We had many of the beaches to ourselves and the clear sea was still very warm. We camped and cycled, the only bikes for hire on the island being electric, which definitely helps up the many short but steep hills. There are a few other sites, burial mound tombs, temples, a big rock shaped liked a monkey, but it was just pedalling around little back roads and stopping at the beaches that we enjoyed the most. And Iki steak – a type of wagyu beef (you have probably heard of Kobe beef, which is a type of wagyu) – to which we treated ourselves to celebrate having a paper accepted for publication.
If you visit Japan, yes the most well-known sights of Honshu are unmissable. But have another visit and just stay on Kyushu. It’s mega.
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