December 29, 2020 – January 5, 2021
New Year’s Holiday is an objectively bad time to travel in Japan. Outside of major cities like Tokyo or Osaka, the main New Year’s celebration for most people involves resting with family in your hometown, eating soba at home with your family, and making your first shrine or temple visit…with your family. Most people have this time off to spend with their family. So many businesses completely shut down for 2-3 days. It’s like trying to plan a vacation in America during Christmas. Like, in most cities you’ll be fine, but in a lot of places you have to really cross your fingers that at least one Chinese restaurant has stayed open.
With that in mind, we decided to spend our New Year’s Holiday in small, semi-remote Kyushu. The island of Kyushu, consisting of 7 prefectures (not including Okinawa), has roughly the same population as the Tokyo metro area spread over more than 10 times the area. I definitely enjoy driving around the countryside and seeing Japan’s less populated areas. However, if you’re taking my advice, go during a time when businesses are open. It makes eating food way easier.
Day 1: Utsunomiya –> Ueno
We scheduled an early flight from Narita Airport, outside Tokyo, to Oita Airport in Kyushu. So, we booked a hotel in Tokyo the night before our flight to reduce our travel time in the morning. After Andrew’s work day ended, we walked to the JR station and took the Shinkansen to Ueno. We decided to stay near Ueno so we could catch the earliest high-speed Skyliner train to the airport in the morning.
Of course, we made time for train beers and snagged Taco Bell before the Covid Curfew.
Day 2: Ueno –> Narita –> Oita Airport –> Usa –> Fukuoka
We booked our Skyliner tickets the night before so we could sleep in as late as possible. I think we still needed to be up and out of the postage stamp-sized hotel room before 6am. We flew Jetstar, an Australian budget airline. I can’t really complain, but it is a budget airline and it feels like it. The check in process is easy, but the baggage limitations are very strict. I recommend reading the rules carefully and weighing your bags before you check in if you can. We packed carry-on size bags in addition to our backpacks, but we had to gate-check them based on weight. Which of course, costs more than if you check in your bags in advance. Live and learn, folks.
Despite Covid, our flight was mostly full. Another word from the wise: Oita Airport – like many Japanese airports – is one runway built out onto the ocean. When we flew, a storm was blowing into the area and the landing was, uh, a bit bumpy. Not unsafe, or unexpected but if you’re like me and easily suffer from motion sickness I would take precautions to avoid needing to use a barf bag.
From the airport, we rented a car for the week. Andrew did some research before the trip and found some interesting WWII landmarks that are free to explore in Usa City. Before our trip, all of our research indicated that it rarely snows in Kyushu – like, basically never. Well, we got to experience high winds blowing snow sideways in Usa. Which was great. Added a lot of ambiance to the WWII airplane hangars dotting the countryside.
I gave up on Usa pretty quick, I’ll be honest. After the first stop, I let Andrew “explore history” by himself while I kept the car warm. Once he reached his limit, we drove about 2 hours west to Fukuoka. On the way into the city, we stopped at Nanzoin Temple. Nanzoin’s main attraction is their bronze reclining Buddha statue. The same size as the Statue of Liberty, Nanzoin’s reclining Buddha is an impressive sight. Is it clear in the photo that I thought Kyushu would be warmer?
At this point, we decided to go thaw out at our hotel. To keep it simple, I booked a hotel near Fukuoka’s Canal City shopping mall. There are tons of shops and restaurants both inside the mall and in the surrounding area. Once we felt sufficiently warm, we ventured back out for dinner.
I was curious to check out Ramen Stadium at Canal City. To be honest, it sounds a lot cooler than it is. Basically, one section of the mall is a food court with several ramen shops that also have locations throughout the city. It is a convenient place to eat different styles of ramen, including the Hakata-style ramen famous in this region. But I struggle to finish one regular bowl of ramen, so having a variety of types in one area doesn’t really do anything special for me. I don’t have any complaints, the Hakata-style ramen we settled on was tasty. But I wouldn’t go out of my way to come to this area again.
After a long day of travel, we decided to head back to the hotel and turn in early.
Day 3: Fukuoka –> Saga –> Nagasaki City (NYE)
I scoped out a local coffee shop on Google that promised to open in time for actual breakfast. Somehow, this is unusual in Japan. Lots of cafes here don’t open until 10am or later? I’m fully addicted to coffee and don’t plan on quitting, so locating a decent coffee shop is very important to me. At Manu Coffee, they roast their beans in-house and serve a mean pour over. There are a few baked goods on the menu if you’re hungry, but if you require a more robust breakfast this probably will not cut it. We enjoyed the coffee so much that we bought a small bag of beans to take home with us.
From Fukuoka, we drove to Okawachiyama Village in Saga. The Imari area of Saga is well-known for their unique porcelain ceramics. If you’ve been following the blog for a while, you’ll know I’ve become a bit of a pottery fanatic since we moved to Japan. No shame. We spent about an hour wandering around the village window shopping before I finally decided on a set of two small dessert plates to bring home with us.
We got lunch at a kaiten sushi restaurant nearby before pushing on to Nagasaki. I anticipated that Nagasaki, which has a large Chinatown, would be a more vibrant place to spend New Year’s Eve. We got to the city about an hour before sunset, which gave us time to explore the Peace Park. Unfortunately, the Atomic Bomb Museum closed for the New Year’s Holiday. The park has high quality translations of all of the signage, it is a sobering place to walk through. I wish we could have seen the museum.
Fun fact, Nagasaki boasts “one of the top three” night views in Japan. From the summit of Mount Inasa, accessible by ropeway, an observation deck gives visitors 360-degree views of the city. Once again, I really thought Kyushu would be warmer.
I probably could have taken the hint when we saw that the Atomic Bomb Museum closed for the holiday already. But I still had really high hopes for a lively New Year’s Eve when we checked into our hotel near Nagasaki Chinatown. Unfortunately, we tend to eat dinner around 8pm. By that time, Nagasaki fully shut down. Yeah, even Chinatown. Dream crushers. We managed to track down a Sukiya that was open for takeout and a 7/11 that stocked a warm bottle of sparkling 7/11 branded wine. With this bountiful feast secured, we headed back to our hotel to ring in the new year.
Happy Year of the Cow!
Day 4: Nagasaki City –> Kumamoto City –> Kagoshima City
Waking up for the first sunrise of the new year is a tradition celebrated by many Japanese people. I feel like it goes without saying that we did not partake in this part of the New Year’s celebration. After a couple lemon sours, some cheap sparkling wine, and big beef bowl… We slept in. I maintained 0 hope of finding a fun and open coffee shop in Nagasaki, so we settled for a conbini breakfast before driving out to the car ferry port in Shimabara.
From Shimabara, the car ferry to Kumamoto only takes about an hour. This is fastest and easiest way to get from the peninsula of Nagasaki back to the main section of the island. This was our first time using a car ferry in any country, so it was fun to fumble through the experience.
In Kumamoto, we bee-lined for the castle. One of the many reconstructed castles in Japan, Kumamoto Castle suffered serious earthquake damage in 2016. As of this writing, the repair process is still ongoing. During the New Year’s holiday, the elevated walkway constructed in 2020 to give guests a view of the inner grounds during the repair process closed. However, we were still able to get good views of the castle. Also, we had a chance to visit Kato Jinja for Hatsumode, the first shrine visit of the new year. My favorite part of holidays and festivals in Japan is the food vendors that set up to sell everything from yakisoba to grilled squid on a stick. So, lunch was tasty festival foods at the shrine.
With full bellies, we settled in for a longer drive south to Kagoshima City. On our way to our hotel, we stopped at Shiroyama Park Observation Deck for our first views of Sakurajima. At 1,117 meters this massive volcano is almost constantly active, minor eruptions can take place several times per day.
Because we planned to wake up early to spend the bulk of the following day exploring Sakurajima, I booked a business hotel not far from the ferry port. That left us with nothing left on the agenda but to wander around the city until we found a restaurant open on New Year’s Day. I think our shrine visit might have granted us a little bit of luck this night. After wandering for 20 or 30 minutes, we stumbled upon Noodle Laboratory Kintoun HEAVEN (ヌードルラボラトリー 金斗雲 HEAVEN). I’m not a total ramenhead, but we have sampled our fair share of noodles in Japan, and this is probably still one of my top 5 bowls of ramen in Japan.
Day 5: Kagoshima City –> Sakurajima –> Sakamoto Kurozu Tsubobatake Info Center –> Nichinan
In the morning, we grabbed some pastries from a bakery near our hotel and drove out to another car ferry port. At this point, we’re old car ferry pros so it was nothing to worry about. 40 minutes on the ferry will get you as close to the volcano as people are allowed to go. We spent 3 or 4 hours driving around the volcano, checking it out from different observation points, marveling at the ash cloud, feeling dangerous. It was really awe-inspiring and it didn’t hurt that the weather cleared up so we got to enjoy a beautiful, sunny day.
Once we got our fill of the volcano, we drove north to Sakamoto Kurozu Tsubobatake Info Center – a really long name for a place that makes Japanese black vinegar. I’ve loved black vinegar since I lived in China, and I use it a lot when I cook. So, I wanted to see how it’s made in Japan. The facility is really modern, which is an interesting contrast with the very traditional, 200-year-old method of aging black vinegar in large stoneware pots outdoors. We had lunch in the restaurant onsite. They make all of their dishes with different types of their vinegar. The food was really good! Overall, I really enjoyed the experience but I wouldn’t necessarily go out of my way to stop here.
From Sakamoto, we drove about an hour and half east to Nichinan. Andrew did some research and decided to splurge on one really nice hotel this trip, the Nazuna Obi Onsen Resort. From their website:
Nazuna Obi Onsen Resort is a 5-room luxury ryokan renovated from an old samurai residence built over 140 years ago, consisting of a 350 sqm house and 45 sqm barn. All 5 guest rooms are equipped with a private open-air bath, with natural onsen water drawn from Kitago Hot spring in Nichinan city.
This is one of the nicest hotels I have ever stayed in, I can’t recommend it enough. The service, décor, amenities, and surrounding area were all incredible. As a bonus, Andrew discovered his deep love of Japanese New Year’s TV programming at this hotel. I had to tear him away from a reality show about people being chased around an amusement park by, like, agents from the Matrix? As a downside, the average samurai was not as tall as Andrew and he definitely left the hotel with a few bumps on his head from smacking into the low beams.
Day 6: Nichinan –> Sun Messe Nichinan –> Udo Shrine –> Miyazaki City –> Umagase –> Nobeoka
Miyazaki prefecture is definitely one of the most beautiful prefectures in Japan. After breakfast at the hotel, we drove towards to coast to Sun Messe Nichinan. This seaside park has the unique, nonsensical honor of being named the only official replicas allowed to be made of the original Moai of Easter Island. Why? Your guess is as good as mine.
Just a quick drive south of the Easter Island Heads lies Udo Shrine. One of Andrew’s coworkers recommended this shrine as the place where he had his wedding ceremony. Built into a cave on a cliff face, it is one of the more unique shrines I have ever been to. It was understandably busy as people were still making their first shrine visits of the year, but it was worth the wait.
From the shrine, we drove north to Miyazaki City to sample Miyazaki’s soul food: chicken nanban. Influenced by the cuisine of the first Europeans to arrive in Japan in the 1500s, the Portuguese, chicken nanban consists of bite sized pieces of fried chicken tossed in a tangy soy-based sauce and served with tartar sauce. It is one of my top five (possibly #1??) favorite Japanese foods.
Because I knew we wanted to visit Takachiho gorge the following morning, I wanted to pick a strategic location to stop for the evening. I landed on Nobeoka. By chance, we were driving past Umagasse around sunset. So we decided to stop and make the quick hike out to view the columnar rock formations. The area was deserted and we got some really nice photos during golden hour. But again, I wouldn’t necessarily go out of my way to visit this place.
Nobeoka was a real bust for us, to be honest. We couldn’t find any restaurants open nearby, so we ended up eating conbini snacks in our crappy budget hotel room. They can’t all be beautifully renovated samurai houses, right?
Day 7: Nobeoka –> Takachiho –> Mt. Aso –> Yufuin
The important thing about our strategically-located hotel was that it was only a 55-minute drive from Takachiho Gorge. I wanted to get to Takachiho as early as possible to minimize the chance of running into any crowds. I’m not sure what I was so worried about? There actually wasn’t much of a run on row boat rentals on a cold January morning during a national holiday most people spend at home with their families. Who could have predicted that? Anyway, we were easily able to enjoy the world-famous, super-beautiful gorge. It was gorgeous!!
We decided to grab some lunch nearby the gorge before pushing onward to Mount Aso. As we pulled up to one of the very small handful of open restaurants, the owner came outside to meet us. From a safe distance, he inquired about our rental car, where we were from, and how long we had been in Japan before reluctantly allowing us to eat in his restaurant. Thanks, Covid. The food he made was really tasty and hearty. If allowed, I would definitely eat there again.
From Takachiho, we drove north into Aso-Kuju National Park. Home of Mount Aso and Mount Aso Nakadake Crater, an active volcanic crater. By luck, we were able to get as close as humans are ever allowed to get by car to the crater. As we approached the crater, announcements on constant loop over loud speaker in Japanese, English, and Mandarin warn visitors about the danger of the active volcano and gases it emits. It was wild! We called our parents from the side of the crater to show them how cool volcanoes are.
Once we were done marveling at the giant hole in the earth, we drove down from the crater toward Aso City. I am further convinced our New Year’s shrine visits brought us luck, because we happened to drive past a van on the side of the road advertising helicopter rides to view the crater. I looked at Andrew. Andrew looked at me. We pulled over to the side of the road to ask the van man about his helicopter. WE RODE IN A HELICOPTER OVER AN ACTIVE VOLCANO IN JAPAN. It cost ~$100 total for the two of us, we did not sign any insurance or liability waivers, we just hopped in a tiny helicopter AND VIEWED THE INSIDE OF A VOLCANO. I felt like I was in the Magic School Bus. Is that a cool reference? Whatever, it was amazing, the coolest thing I have ever done.
It is hard to top a helicopter ride over an active volcano, so I won’t try. I booked an Airbnb for the night in the hot spring town of Yufuin. I booked it based on the two private onsen baths located on the property – one indoor, one outdoor. We were able to easily find the house, so after a quick rest we popped out to grab dinner. We settled on a random-ish izakaya restaurant, the food was so-so.
Bellies full, we went back to our house to enjoy the hot springs. The Airbnb advertised their bath as 42°C, or 107°F. For reference, the standard max temp of a hot tub in America is 104°F. In my own inexpert opinion, this bath was at least 45°C. Also known as skin melting temperature, or 113°F. It was not possible to enjoy this bath for longer than 3 milliseconds. No problem, there’s an indoor hot spring as well that’s supposed to be only 38°C, or 100.4°F. The indoor bath was both much smaller and much cooler. Like, maybe slightly cooler than body temperature? I felt like Goldilocks, but there was no “just right” at this house.
We decided to leave the cover off of the outdoor bath to see if the below-freezing outdoor air would cool the water temp enough to be bearable in the morning.
Day 8: Yufuin –> Beppu –> Oita Airport –> Narita –> Ueno –> Utsunomiya
Since we didn’t have to leave the Airbnb until 10am, we gave the outdoor a second chance. After sitting uncovered for the night, I was able to enjoy the outdoor bath for a solid 5 minutes before I had to tap out like the slowly cooking lobster I am.
From Yufuin, it was only 30 minutes to drive into Beppu. Beppu is a famous hot spring town in Oita, conveniently located near the airport we needed to be at in the afternoon. Beppu offers a quirky “Jigoku Meguri” Hells Tour. You can buy tickets to tour seven unique geothermal “hells” each one with a different theme. They even have a passport for the hells so you can collect stamps at each one. I think that part is geared towards children, but I really enjoyed it!
We were able to hit all 7 hells in the morning before catching our flight in the afternoon. From Narita in Tokyo, we made the trek back to Ueno by Skyliner, then onward to Utsunomiya by Shinkansen. Easy peasy, thanks Japan!
Overall 10/10 would visit Kyushu again.
