Hello, this is a trip report of my recent road trip during golden week 2024 (April 27 – May 2, 2024). I am living in Nagoya, Japan and last year got an electric car which I can charge for free, so I thought it might be fun to take a longer road trip this year, and challenged myself to drive to and around Kyushu and back. Golden week is one of the main travel seasons, so I planned the timeframe by checking the traffic jam forecast, trying to avoid the peaks. This paid out and like a miracle, I didn't experience one single traffic jam during my time. Kyushu and Shikoku are beautiful places, so I'd like to share my experience.

6 Day Itinerary (April 27, 2024 – May 2, 2024)

Day 1 (Saturday): Nagoya, Awajishima, Naruto Whirlpools, Matsuyama

The first day started by getting up at 4:30 in the morning. Since it was the first day of the Golden Week, there was a major traffic jam forecasted for the highway from Nagoya to Osaka starting from 6am in the morning. With that in mind, I decided to start driving at 5:00 and it workout out just fine without any delay until I arrived in Kobe. Once there, I charged my car even though it still had 50% battery, but wanted to be on the safe side, because there are no dealers I can charge for free on Awajishima. While charging, I took a stroll through Rokko Island and the beach there. After like 40min I was done and continued to my first goal, the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge connecting Kobe and Awajishima, the second largest suspension bridge in the world. Once I crossed it, I took a break at the nearby service area, enjoying some coffee and the view of the bridge, the sea, and Kobe in the background. Until there it took me about 2.5 hours.

After that, I continued my road trip for another hour and drove through Awajishima, until I reached the southern end of the island and crossed the Onaruto Bridge, connecting Awajishima with Shikoku, after eating lunch (Japanese Curry) at the service area right before the bridge. There I reached my second destination of the day, the Onaruto Bridge and the Naruto Whirlpools. After enjoying the view of the bridge, I got to the pathway underneath it. You need tickets for it, and I bought them online in advance, so I checked in with my smartphone. Once inside, you can walk along a about 300 meters long pathway underneath the bridge until you reach the main observation room. From there, you can look down onto the whirlpools. On the website you can check the times for the whirlpools which is critical. There are strong timezones and weak ones, so I advice to check beforehand. Luckily I was able to get there for the peak time, able to witness especially strong currents.

When I was done there, I made my way to the final goal of the day, Matsuyama. This I only planned in because after thinking about it carefully, driving all the way to Kagoshima in one day would take 12 hours by car, and that would be just too stressful and I would not be able to do sightseeing on the way. After around 8 hours of driving in total, I arrived in Matsuyama at around 19:00 in the evening. Once there, the main purpose was to rest at the hotel, so all I did was having a look at the beautiful illuminated Matsuyama Castle before calling it a day and resting at the hotel, APA Hotel Matsuyama-Jou Mae, which I cannot recommend because it was rather old and dirty, but for one simple night it was enough. But driving in Shikoku was a dream. The scenery is beautiful, the highway is big and has 2-3 lanes, and there are only few cars, so you can drive fast without any worries.

Day 2 (Sunday): Matsuyama, Ferry, Oita, Miyazaki, Kagoshima

Day 2 was the most exhausting one, because this was mainly driving without much sightseeing. In the morning, I continued my road trip, starting from Matsuyama and heading towards Misaki Port which took me about two hours. The way there was beautiful, because you drive along cliffs with the sea right next to you, giving you beautiful views of the scenery around. When I arrived, I had around 30 minutes before the ferry would take me to Oita, so I took the time to look around and enjoy some coffee at the cafe nearby. Once the ferry arrived I parked my car inside and enjoyed the trip with the ship which takes you to Saganoseki Port in Oita. After arrival I drove to the nearby dealer to charge my car before taking the probably worst part of the trip, the "highway" from Oita to Miyazaki.

Why was this the worst part? Because even though it is declared as "highway", it is far from that. On the map, it looked like it was close to the sea, but it was not. Also, it says "highway", but if you are expecting several lanes, you are mistaking. It was only one lane per direction, and a rather narrow one as well. On top of that, since there are many, many mountains, most of the time you are driving through badly illuminated tunnels. Because my car is one of the larger kinds, it was rather stressful. What made it even worse, there are no service areas until Miyazaki, so I did not have anything to drink, eat, or a toilet for about 3 hours.

After I finally was out of that hell, I charged my car one more time at the dealer in Miyazaki, before heading to the final goal of the day: Kagoshima. Since my Japanese girlfriend did not want to join from day one, she took the plane on this day, so she would arrive in the evening. And like a miracle, we arrived at Kagoshima airport at exactly the same time. With that, we headed to a dinner with her friends from there, before then going to her parent's house, where we would stay 2 nights.

Day 3 (Monday): Moai Statues, Udo Jingu in Miyazaki Prefecture

If you like sceneries/nature, then you will love Miyazaki. It has mountains, the sea, beaches, and anything else you need. On this day we first had lunch and bought some souvenirs at the Michi no Eki in Miyakonojo. Afterwards we went to the Udo Jingu, which is a temple inside a cliff. From there you can enjoy beautiful scenery of the mountains, the sea, and the temple itself. There are also rocks with a rope on top of it in the sea. You can throw stones at them, and if you manage to land inside the round rope, it is said that you will have fortune. After the temple we went to the nearby Moai statues, which are beautiful to look at on top of the mountain with the sea in the background. Apparently those are the only officially approved Moai statues aside from the original ones. In the evening, we had Yakiniku at the parent's house.

Day 4 (Tuesday): Kumamoto, Nagasaki

At 7am in the morning, we said good-bye to her parents and went on to Kumamoto, where I charged the car real quick and had a little shopping trip in the nearby mall. After that we went on straight to Nagasaki, which took us overall about 2 hours. At the hotel, they had a charging spot, so I was able to charge the car until the next morning, and we used the hotel bus to then go to Nagasaki station. After we arrived, we did some sightseeing at the nearby Chinatown and then head over to Dejima for some historical education, although I am personally are not too much into museums etc. After that we went to the beautiful Ouratenshudo church. On the way back to the hotel, we bought some Nagasaki castella. Our hotel was on the top of Isa Mountain, so we did not need to go to the observation deck, it was our hotel. The hotel also had an infinity pool, so we went inside the pool and relaxed while enjoying the view of the beautiful Nagasaki port.

Day 5 (Wednesday): Kita-Kyushu, Fukuoka Ferry to Osaka

The checkout of the hotel was at 12:00, which is late for Japanese hotels. Since it was a beautiful place, we decided to enjoy every single minute before finally checking out and then driving on north to Kita-Kyushu. On the way there, we stopped at a service area where they sold Sasebo Burger, which are apparently famous because of the U.S. military base nearby. It was the first time I have seen an American burger, and even though it was tasteful, I felt my man boobs and hips growing with each bite I took. Afterwards we went to Kita-Kyushu and strolled around Majiko Port, which has a lot of older European style buildings. It also has an observation tower which you can go up for only 300 Yen! We went up, had a look at the port, the sea, and the nearby bridge connecting Kitakyushu (Kyushu) with Shimonoseki (Honshu). At the nearby plaza you can do some shopping and there is some kind of museum inside the old customs building as well, which was more interesting than expected. Once it was time to board, we went to the port where our ferry would start, the "Ferry Fukuoka" from the Meimon Taiyo Ferry. This ferry connects Kitakyushu and Osaka. There are 2 rides a day, one at 17:00 and one at 19:50. We took the later one so that we arrive in Osaka at like 8:30 in the morning.

The Ferry Fukuoka is a new ship, so everything was still new, good-looking and generally beautiful. We went on board at like 19:00. There are charging terminals for EV cars which you can use for free if you register in advance, which I did. Thanks to that, my car was fully charged when we arrived in Osaka. There is also a restaurant you can use, and you can go eat dinner right after you boarded. The ticket for dinner and breakfast together costs 2,400 Yen, and it is a buffet like restaurant, where you pick what you want. There are also different rooms. If you really want to save money, you don't need to pick a room, but then you have to spend the 12 hours in the public rooms. There are several public rooms for watching TV, a lounge, a game center with crane games etc., a convenience store, and the open deck. Since you don't go on such a ship every day, we took the most expensive suite, which there are only two, for about 40,000 Yen. But oh boy was it worth it, this was as large as a hotel room, had a big TV, two beds, a couch with a small table, and a desk as well as your own bathroom with shower/bath and toilet. After eating dinner, we took a stroll around the ship, but then relaxed in our room and slept till the next morning.

Day 6 (Thursday): Arriving in Osaka and driving back to Nagoya

The last day of the trip began at 7:00 when the ship crew made an announcement that we would soon drive through the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, the same bridge I crossed with my car on day 1. So I quickly went out of the bed and headed towards the deck, where I was taking pictures and videos as we drove through underneath the bridge. After that we head breakfast at the restaurant before then getting ready to get off the ship. Once we arrived in Osaka, we simply drove the last part about 2 hours from Osaka back to Nagoya, as my crippling depression was slowly kicking in, realizing that the boring everyday's life was about to start again, even though I still had days off till May 6. After arriving in Nagoya, we went shopping in Sake, before arriving at home again.

Tips

If you are travelling by car during Golden Week, check the forecast for traffic jams. Also don't start the trip on the first day and return on the last day, since that is what everybody else is doing. On the first day, you can still avoid traffic jam by starting early in the morning. For the returning day, I usually prefer to be back a few days before the official last day, because that is usually the one with the worst traffic jams.

EV cars: The Japanese highway has a lot of charging spots, so even if you are driving an electrical car, you do not have to worry too much. I personally was a bit of an exception, because I had the free charging plan from my company, so most of the time instead of using the highway charging spots, I went to the nearby dealer to charge for free.

One thing I regret is that day 2 was mostly only driving. So if I was about to plan another long road trip, I think I would insert another stay in-between so that I have more time for sightseeing and resting.

Accommodations

Matsuyama: APA Hotel Matsuyamajo-Nishi – 1 night for about 10,000 Yen

Kagoshima: 2 nights at hotel mama and papa for free ;D

Nagasaki: 1 night at Garden Terrace Nagasaki – 1 night for about 40,000 Yen

Ferry Fukuoka: 1 night inside suite A for about 40,000 yen

Last thoughts

Overall, Kyushu is a god-damn beautiful place, and I have by far not seen everything about it yet. Therefore, I am definitely planning on coming back, be it by car, train, or plain. But since Kyushu is rather countryside, in the end I was glad that we had a car, especially in Miyazaki. If you are visiting with public transport, it probably makes sense to get a rental car nearby. I hope this report could increase the interest for Kyushu for anybody reading it, cheers!