North Kyushu 1 Week Trip Report

Hello everyone, this is my trip report for my 1 week trip to North Kyushu. The cities me and my partner stayed in were Beppu and Fukuoka, with day trips to Yufuin, Nagasaki, and Kumamoto. We went from March 26 thru April 3rd, before flying to South Korea. These cities we visited aren’t nearly as popular as the golden route ones (but definitely still touristy), but I think I enjoyed my time here more than my last trip to Tokyo/Kyoto/Osaka. This post will be long but I want to be detailed for those planning to take a similar vacation as me. I found researching things for North Kyushu to be a bit more difficult, simply because there isn’t an abundance of information on them as there is for Tokyo and such. Hopefully my report here can help or inspire others to visit the underrated Kyushu island!

General Tips:
Suica on the apple wallet is super useful. You can load up on the fly and see all your transaction history. You can also load it up with tiny amounts like 60¥, which I did so that I could leave with 0 left on the card.

JR North Kyushu pass is a great deal. Its 15000¥ and covered our trip from Beppu to Hakata, day trips from Hakata to Nagasaki and Kumamoto, and of course covered local trains such as the ones to Nanzo-in and Uminonakamichi. This also gives you 6 seat reservations I believe. We didn’t reserve a seat once and were fine in the unreserved cars, just line up early!

This one is said alot but I didn’t think I would need it: bring 2 pairs of shoes, or at least one really comfortable and FITTED one. Especially if you visit Nagasaki, walking up and down those slopes is a blister machine.

Finding food is very easy if you just walk around for a bit, especially in Fukuoka. If you wait for a bit into the night, there will be food stalls scattered about. If you’re picky, looking up food in Japanese helps you find stuff quick. This took us an embarrassing amount of time to realize.

English usage was pretty decent here, made it around fine with the occasional need for a translator app.

Airalo e-sim is great, had no issues. They have a regional e-sim that works in both Japan and Korea.

Flight Day
– We decided to fly into Oita airport from Austin TX to start off our trip. Due to weather we had flight delays, which made me worry that there wouldn’t be any buses and that we’d have to pay the expensive taxi to Beppu. Luckily it seems they make sure to have buses on standby for the latest arrivals.
– Oita airport was cute and quick to get out of after landing.

Day 1: Beppu Hells
– Started w/ Beppu Park. The park is beautiful and has many bamboo trees, cherry blossoms, plum blossoms, and many beds of colorful flowers.
– We then attempted to visit the Global Tower a few minutes walk away, but it seemed closed off, despite their website saying they were on normal business hours. We visited again the next day and it was the same
– We took a bus to Kannawa for our first hell: Umi Jigoku. This is the most popular one and has a big gift shop. Look for the onsen bath salts!
– All the hells cost 450¥ to enter, or you can buy a general ticket that allows you to enter into all 7 for 2250¥, so after 5 hells you save money. The first 5 are all right next to each other with a few minutes of walking. The last 2 are farther and would need a bus. We didn’t plan to go to the last 2 so decided to not get the big ticket even though we spent the same amount. However I wish I did because it’d have been a cool souvenir and each hell has a unique stamp that you collect on there.
– After the hells we decided to go to Hyotan onsen. Super popular and very hyped up, don’t know why it didn’t occur to me all the private onsens would be booked. If you want a private onsen, book ahead!
– After taking the L on Hyotan onsen, we went to the also very popular Jigoku Mushi restaurant where you cook your food using the hot spring steam. Of course, there was a 90 minute wait at the time we arrived, so we ended up eating somewhere else.
– I HIGHLY recommend walking a few minutes past the Jigoku Mushi restaurant to a little spot called “別府温泉フルーツファーム”, you’ll see signs with bananas outside their building. They have some incredible banana soft serve, I had to go back twice for more.
– The last thing we did was walk from the soft serve place to Kifune Castle. Its a small castle, but its only 300¥ to enter and it offers beautiful views of Beppu. You can also enter the inside and see some art and even touch a white snake. The tour guide there spoke decent English and was super cheerful. Fun little castle that looked cool and had nice views, definitely a bit of a tiring walk up hills to get to it.
– After this we returned to our airbnb and rested. We ate dinner at the big red BBQ Yakiniku place next to the Beppu tower. It was good and not super pricey.

Day 2: Yufuin
– The bus to yufuin is about an hour. You drive through windy roads on the mountains so bring some motion sickness medicine. The day before, I had seen a few Yufuin bound buses filled to the brim at about 10am, so we got to Beppu station as early as possible. They ended up putting us on a nice charter bus directly to Yufuin for the same price
– It was rainy on this day but we still enjoyed walking through the small town. There were many smalls shops and restaurants lining the main street. We explored around for a while and eventually ended up at the Floral Village. Its a pretty small area but all the buildings are small ghibli themed shops, each building is its own movie store. (There was a totoro shop, Kiki shop, etc.) Great for pictures.
– There were also a lot of animal cafes around Yufuin. We went to one in the floral village that had bengal cats, and for a little extra, you could get a duo ticket to enter an owl forest. The bengal cat cafe was decent, but the owl forest really made me sad. The Owls each sit on a perch but they are chained at one of their legs to it.
– After seeing the floral village and all the shops (as well as the snoopy themed cafe and shop), we walked down towards Kinrin lake. It was a nice little lake to get some final pictures on before we left back to Beppu. There was a nearby onsen that we visited (thanks to our airbnbs recommendation, he was a great host “beppuairbnb”) called Nurukawa and got a private room for an hour for about 2000¥. It felt great as we spent the whole day in the chilly 45° rain
– We intended to visit the Beppu ropeway today but it was closed due to the windy weather
– Once we were back in Beppu, we finished our day at the YouMe town. The was a uniqlo and a GU here that we shopped at.
– We did walk through the Sol Paseo Ginza and Yayoi Tengu streets. We visited once in the morning and once a bit later at night. Both times were pretty dead, but maybe we came at bad times.

Day 3: Travel to Hakata
– We took the JR limited express to Hakata, it was about 2hours and 40minutes. We bought the 5 day JRpass for 15000¥ and activated it on this day so this ride was covered by that.
– After arrival in Hakata, I was really hoping we’d find a locker for our luggage but sadly we couldn’t, which I sort of expected.
– We rolled our suitcase through Hakata to canal city. We only spent a little bit here to eat, see the water show, and see a few shops. None of the stores really interested us, but there was a good tonkatsu restaurant we ate at.
– Then we rolled our suitcase through to Kushida jinja, which was a pretty little shrine with a cool art statue thing
– And then we rolled over to Tochoji temple, which had a really pretty pagoda. We then walked next door for some soft serve then waited until airbnb check in opened. We took a bus to Tenjin, and finally were able to drop off our bags
– After this, we decided to shop around Tenjin, specifically the Shintencho district. Tenjin reminded me alot of Harajuku. A lot of good thrift stores and high end brands, but not as over crowded.
– If you’re a fan of Japanese street wear brands like Human made and Bape, check out the FR2 store here for similar street wear.
– For other fragrance heads out there like me, “Nose Shop” in Iwataya has a lot of good niche (zoologist, nasomatto, nishane, etc.). We picked up a nasomatto fragrance for a good price after tax free and exchange rate. Tsutaya bookstore also has all the Jscents. We picked up Hanamizake and Roasted Green Tea. You can also find all the other good designer brands in the department stores

Day 4: Nagasaki
– we decided to start our second day in Fukuoka with our day trip to Nagasaki. This city is definitely a foot killer in my opinion. Pretty hilly and we did a lot of walking. But we also opted to walk to most places because I really wanted to just enjoy the city. I found it very beautiful and it was probably my favorite day trip.
– We started at the Atomic bomb museum and the peace park, definitely worth the experience. Its graphic, heart wrenching, and eye-opening. Can spend 1-2hours here depending on how much you read, it was pretty packed when we went.
– We then took a bus to Suwa shrine. Lots of stairs here but worth it. Great view of the city, has a little zoo, a pretty pond filled with koi fish, and a cool series of Torii gates.
– We then walked to the Megane bridge, was very pretty and photogenic
– We then walked to the Shinchi Chinatown. Sadly we came during the restaurants’ down time before dinner, so we couldn’t eat anything nice but it all looked delicious. Cool street with some panda themed souvenir shops and a cool Ghibli store. We ate some really good dumplings here.
– Next we walked to Sofukuji temple, a really cool Chinese temple I believe. Had 0 people here and the entrance was 300¥. Totally underrated, can get some cool pictures
– Lastly we ended off at Inasayama observatory. We took the ropeway round trip. The ropeway definitely gets crowded and cramped. The view from the top was amazing at both day and night. Please come here with layers, it gets super windy and chilly.
– I loved Nagasaki. It was such a pretty town and I enjoyed walking everywhere and taking it all in. I would definitely spend 2 days here if I could go back.

Day 5: Kumamoto
– We took a quick shinkansen to Kumamoto, then took a tram over to Kumamoto castle. The castle is very pretty and you can enter in to see a museum and go to the top floor for a view. The museum is all in Japanese but I believe they have an app to see English translations. Still some repairs happening but the main areas are good. Also a lot of cherry blossoms around the grounds
– Sakura no baba Josaien right next to the castle was filled with restaurants and street food, was a fun visit.
– We went to Kumamon square next and were able to see the Kumamon show right at 14:00. Totally accidental, totally cute and worth it. We originally went for Kumamon souveniers but they were lackluster there. We went to a place called Kumamon Village in a shopping mall and it was much better
– We skipped out on going to the Suizenji garden because we were tired for the day after the castle.

Day 6: Nanzoin and Uminonakamichi seaside park
– Trains to both places covered by JRPass
– Nanzoin was 40ish minutes away. Its a huge reclining Buddha statue, it was really cool to visit. It was in a cute little rural area, the grounds around the statue are pretty and filled with some shrines and such, however there are some no photos allowed spots. The main attraction however is open to photos and had soft serve up there. Be sure to dress modestly and be respectful when visiting as it is a sacred place
– Going to Uminonakamichi took about an hour. We rented a 2 seat 2 peddle bike for like 1500¥ and rode that around the park. Totally worth it and highly recommend. At the park you can get beautiful views of the ocean, a decent size zoo with kangaroos and capybaras and monkeys, and many flowers and sakura (depending on season of course). There is also a pool open in summer, and a nice playground that was filled with kids next to the cafeteria area. We spent a few hours here before returning the bike and going home. Marine world aquarium is also right next to the park.

Day 7: Dazaifu and Maizuru/Ohori park
– About 40min train from Tenjin. Tons of shops and street food leading up to the main temple area
– The temple was cool to visit and take some pictures, we then went to the Kyushu national museum near by. Also worth a visit and cheap entry. Not a huge museum but for the price, is a good way to kill an hour or so seeing some cool old artifacts
– We then went to Maizuru park and saw a ton of cherry blossoms. There was also a replica castle on the hill which looked cool. Then we walked a good distance to get to Ohori park and see the little red pavilion on the water. Worth the photo.
– We considered seeing Fukuoka tower with our last bit of time but decided not to because of fatigue. Used the time to go to Donki instead and get tons of kitkats. The sake flavor is good

Day 8: Travel to Busan
– We went to Fukuoka airport to catch our Korean air flight to Busan. The airport wasnt super busy at 8am when we went. The starbucks here sells all the Japan mugs.
– We opted for a flight instead of the ferry because its a similar time and price to get to Busan, except flights are a bit more smooth and safe, as in the ferry can get super bumpy and gets cancelled easily depending on ocean conditions. We didn’t want to risk cancellation, which it seemed we made the right choice, because on April 3rd it was raining pretty bad to a point our flight was delayed a bit.

Hopefully this write-up helps someone plan their trip or inspires y’all to visit Kyushu! Feel free to comment or DM me if you have questions I’d love to help!

Extra: If you’re looking to visit North Kyushu and have more time than us, some other places I’d recommend that we had to skip are Itoshima, Yanagawa, Aso, Kurokawa Onsen, and some things in Kitakyushu. Of course, Kagoshima and south Kyushu looks beautiful as well!

We made it around fine on public transport, but a lot of these places we cut would be better to visit with the convenience of a car. Public transport is pretty limited in Aso area and around Itoshima.

by lilnicksossa