Hello all! My husband and I are travelling to Japan on the 4th April. We will be doing 3 weeks in Kyushu (starting in Fukuoka) ending just before golden week begins (in Beppu – to be able to get the ferry across to Shikoku).
We are nature lovers but also want to enjoy the food, culture and history that Kyushu has to offer. We are also keen to try some great onsens that we see Kyushu is famous for!
We would be grateful if you could review our itinerary for pacing, if anything ‘must see’ is blatantly missing, or any hidden gems you really think we might enjoy! I ask this in particular because we plan to rent a car, and hope to make the journey between places more interesting with some nice pit stops.
edit- I should add we do have the option to shorten our trip and spend more time elsewhere in Japan. We have a total of 9 weeks in Japan. But if you see anywhere on our list that really can be missed, please be honest!
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Day 1 – Ferry to Fukuoka, arriving in the evening. Explore Hakata night life and dinner (Night at Fukuoka)
Day 2 – Day in Fukuoka. Ohori park and Hakata Castle. Evening in Canal city. (Night at Fukuoka)
Day 3 – Day trip to Dazaifu. Evening explore Tenjin (Night at Fukuoka)
Day 4 – Travel out of Fukuoka to pottery village Okawachiyama. Spend the day here. Evening head to Hirado (night at Hirado)
NOTE: we were not sure about Hirado. Does anyone who has visited have any opinions if we should keep this in the itinerary?
Day 5 – Day at Hirado. Visit the Hirado castle, stroll along the beach, pick a museum to visit. Evening head to Nagasaki. (Night at Nagasaki)
Day 6 and 7- exploring Nagasaki including Nagasaki peace park and museum, Glover Garden, Mt inasa, Chinatown. Maybe battleship island, anyone been who has any comments on it? (Both nights at Nagasaki)
Day 8 – Travel to Kumamoto, visiting the Yutoku Inari shrine on the way and the Fruit bus stops just for a quick picture – any more suggested stops, particularly a nice town for lunch? (Night at Kumamoto)
NOTE: Any opinions on whether to skip the night at Kumamoto and head straight to Kurakawa?
Day 9 – travel to mount Aso. Day of hiking. Evening and Night at Kurakawa (or would you suggest staying in Aso? We preferred the idea of staying at Kurakawa so long as this is not totally inconvenient)
Day 10 – a second day hiking at Aso (is this overkill? We were trying not to move around too much. If this is excessive, we can skip to day 11) Night at Kurakawa.
Day 11 – travel to Takachiho to visit the gorge. Night at Takachiho.
Day 12 – Travel to Chiran. Any suggested stops on the way? Otherwise, we will spend the time we have left in the day in the samurai village or kamikaze museum (Night at Chiran)
Day 13 – Village or museum (whichever we didn’t have time to do) and travel to Ibusuki and spend the rest of the day in the onsen and sand bath. Evening travel to Kagoshima (night at Kagoshima)
Day 14-15 – Kagoshima city. first day exploring Sakurajima, second day exploring the city. (Both nights Kagoshima)
Day 16-19- morning ferry to Yakushima on day 16 – afternoon ferry on the 19th back to Kagoshima. This allows us to Spend 2.5 days basically just exploring and doing various hikes on this beautiful little island. (Total 3 nights in Yakushima). Does anyone suggest more time?
Day 19 – as said above, arrive in Kagoshima and that same day drive up to Beppu. Rest and spend the night at Beppu.
Day 20 – day exploring hells of Beppu, trying onsen. Night at Beppu. (I forgoed Yufuin – would anyone suggest spending the day at Yufuin instead? We are only going to Beppu for the ferry to be honest! We are a bit put off by how touristy Beppu and Yufuin seem to be). The alternative was to drive to Usuki instead as there is also a ferry departing from here. I understand they have an excellent samurai district here.
Day 21 – Leave for Shikoku.
by pink-melon