Hi! Appreciate all the help I’ve gotten indirectly from this sub, but now hoping for some thoughts and ideas for a three week itinerary going south. This is the second trip to Japan for us. We will be have 3wk JR passes, and ideally will use them for as much travel as possible.
When travelling, my preference is to very much stay in one place for several days and get to know the area before moving on. My travelling companion wants to fit as much in as possible. Since I am spending all of April in one hotel in Tokyo, I agreed to go for a lot more travelling from place to place this time. There is a lot of time on trains, and a lot of changing hotels.
We are most interested in shopping and food, also into pretty sights and interesting places and galleries/museums, not terribly interested in castles and shrines unless they’re a bit unusual.
Most of the accommodation is booked but currently unpaid, so we have a good bit of flexibility. The stuff we can’t change is really just in Matsuyama and Beppu.
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So. The Plan. Sorry it’s a bit long.
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**April 28 – May 1:** Naoshima – I’ll be heading down from tokyo in the afternoon or overnight – and this is really all about the galleries. All I can find about gallery opening times around golden week is a post from about 2018, but I appear to be able to book entry tickets online. *If I can book a ticket online for an attraction, that’s likely to be open that day, right?*
**May 1:** Leave Naoshima early for Onomichi, hopefully sending our luggage ahead to Matsuyama. Here we will pick up bikes to do the Shimanami Kaido over two days. Staying this night on Omishima Island, a little over halfway along.
We are… not strong cylcists, so we would prefer to hire e-bikes. This is a problem: the Giant store in Imabari is closed Tuesdays, the Shimanami Rental Cycle site does not offer e-bikes for multiple days, and the other services don’t seem to have offices at the Imabari end. *Does anyone have a recommendation for somewhere other than the Giant store for multi-day ebike hire? Alternatively, has any one used services (like Wakka) to send bikes, or even just to return a bike the next day?*
Note on this whole plan: I suppose we could rearrange things to stay in Onomichi overnight, then have a single day cycle booked via Shimanami Rental Cycle on the 2nd. Seems less fun though.
**May 2:** Finish Shimanami Kaido and travel from to Imabari to Matsuyama where we will stay for one night, right by Matsuyama City Station. Main plan here is the Dogo onsen area, as I expect we’ll be tired. I’m really looking forward to this; we didn’t try for onsen last time because of our tattoos, but it looks like Dogo is fine with them!
**May 3:** Travel to Beppu. *Most likely we will train down to Yawatahama, then catch the ferry to Beppu; does that seem like a reasonable way to do this?* We could also just take the train, which will take a similar amount of time but go all the way back up to Honshu, through Fukuoka (our next destination) and then along to Beppu, but I don’t like it as much – too much doubling back.
**May 4:** Explore Beppu. Definitely find some tattoo-friendly spots in the hells, maybe one of the steam cooking experiences? I’d also love to take the ropeway if there’s time, I’m a sucker for a view from high up.
**May 5:** Day trip to Yufuin, very relaxed. Particularly want to poke around Donguri no Mori, Lake Kinrinko, and potentially an onsen again, since the whole area is good for them. We’ll have a lot less time for them in the back half of the trip!
**May 6:** Travel to Fukuoka via the Yufuin no Mori Express, which I’m pretty sure the JR pass is valid for. There is a band based in Fukuoka I’d love to see, so if they have a gig on this night I’ll deal with being tired and just go, and otherwise we’ll wander through the yatai along the river.
**May 7:** Explore Fukuoka. There’s a lot I’d like to do here, and going to struggle to narrow it down! I’d like to visit Tenjin Central Park and the Tenjin itself, Nokonoshima island (although I really don’t think we’ll have time for this… ), Kyushu National Museum, Hakata Traditional Craft and Design Museum, Fukuoka tower. *I think we’ll just have to see what we most feel like doing that day, but I’d love to hear a) opinions on the above and b) other ideas you might have.*
**May 8:** Arita, Imari, Karatsu pottery villages. Travelling partner does pottery and is very excited to visit historic pottery sites. Probably go Karatsu -> Imari -> Arita, then stop for dinner in Saga because apparently the ramen there is amazing. However… that’s about six hours of transport, and not really doable in a day. *Do you have any recommendations on how to reorganise this all?* I think we have to drop at least one, and probably two, of these locations.
**May 9**: Travelling to Kagoshima, and I’m torn. *Do we stop in Kumamoto? Or go straight to Kagoshima?* Because next few days are wild. I’d like to see the contemporary art museum and Shimotori shotengai, but if we went down to Kagoshima immediately we could probably fit a lil half day trip over to Sakurajima on this day, which is the main thing I’m interested in around here. *If we go straight to Kagoshima and want to head to Sakurjima, any thoughts about ferry vs bus?*
**May 10:** A night in Yakushima. *I’ve read someone’s recommendation about flying there and taking jetfoil back; does anyone have a different opinion? And once there, should we hire bikes, a car, book some shorter tours? Other?*
**May 11:** Back to Kagoshima for one more night, probably at lunch time. Maybe another short tour in the morning on Yakushima, and relax in the afternoon, picnic in Sengan-en or similar.
**May 12:** Travel to Miyazaki and explore. If we’re not still dying from Yakushima, then a walk along Horikiri pass or towards Aoshima, but if we are probably either or both of Aeon Mall for last souvenirs or the museum of nature and history. *The Phoenix Seagaia resort also looks stunning; if anyone knows if you can get like a day access pass please let me know!*
**May 13:** Takachiho gorge. This is right at the top of my Kyushu to do list, and is apparently most sensible from Miyazaki. *If anyone has been; is it better to manage this day trip for ourselves (get a train, book a rowboat, wander round etc), go through an organised tour for the whole day, or a bit of both?* I’ve read the queues can be long on the weekends, which is one of the main reasons I’m thinking about a tour group.
**May 14:** Big travel day. The JR passes will still be valid, so a day of sitting on our asses up to Himeji. Yes it’s a 6 1/2 hour trip, but we’ll be so wrecked. I don’t think that’s too big an issue. Might try to get off at Iwakuni for an hour or two break, I’d like to see Kintai bridge, or I’d like to see Hiroshima again, or Fukuyama.
**May 15 and 16:** We want to try to find a shukubo for two nights in the mountains. *The current plan is Koyasan, but they’re quite expensive, so any other ideas between Himeji and Tokyo would be very welcome.*
**May 17:** Get back to Tokyo, last visit to favourite areas.
**May 18:** Enjoy the day, and then I fly out in the evening.
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Any answers to sections in italics would be really appreciated, as are thoughts and ideas 🙂 Thanks!!