Early 30s M travelling solo for the first time. Also the first time visiting Kyushu. I have visited other parts of Japan pre-covid.
I mainly would like to visit nature and historic sites, with some light shopping this trip. My must visits this trip are the Hells of Beppu and Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum.
I will be staying at Beppu (2 nights), Kumamoto (2 nights) and Hakata (4 nights)
These places of interest main come from japan guide website, but if there are must-sees that I have missed out, please let me know!
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**Day 1 Beppu**
Land in Fukuoka Airport at 10.30am
Collect SunQ Pass and reserve 3 trips Aiport to Beppu (day 1), Beppu to Aso (Day 3), Aso to Kumamoto (Day 3)
Bus to Beppu and arrive by 3.30pm
Beppu Park for Sakura and shopping around Beppu Station
**Day 2 Beppu**
Morning – Hells of Beppu
Afternoon – Umitamago Aquarium and Takasaki Monkey Park
**Day 3 Mount Aso**
Morning – Bus to Aso Station, arrive by 11.30am
Afternoon – Bus up Mount Aso, Kusasenri Grassland
Evening – By 4pm, bus back Aso station and bus down to Kumamoto
**Day 4 Kumamoto**
Kumamoto Castle
Kumamoto City Hall
Suizenji Garden
**Day 5 Hakata**
Collect Northern Kyushu JR pass at Kumamoto Station
Train to Hakata
Ohori Park, Fukuoka Castle Ruins, Shofukuji Temple
**Day 6 Day trip to Nagasaki**
Nagasaki Peace Park, Atomic Bomb Museum
Kofukuji Temple, Sofukuji Temple
Confucius Shrine, Oura Church, Glover Garden
**Day 7 Day trip to Kitakyushu**
Tanga Market, Kokura Castle
Manga Museum, TOTO Museum
Moji Port
**Day 8** I’m torn between going to Saga, Huis Ten Bosch or staying in Hakata and visit teamLab Forest Fukuoka.
**Day 9**
Head to Fukuoka Airport in the morning and fly back home.
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**Main questions:**
\- I would love to visit Yufuin, but is it possible to fit into the first 2 days of my trip?
\- Does the side trip on day 3 to Mount Aso sound feasible? I reckon I will be spending around 3 hours atop Mount Aso. Would that be enough time or should I skip it completely?
\- Any good recommendations for day 8? My JR pass would have expired by then so any day trips out of Hakata could be potentially expensive.
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Thanks in advance for your advice and recommendations!
3 comments
Fukuoka is awesome. You could definitely spend more time there and just enjoy the vibes.
Heya! We just did Kyushu in early Feb but did slightly different things!
– Did not do Beppu but instead did a ryokan stay in Kurokawa Onsen near-ish to Aso – amazing scenic onsen town accessible via Kyushu highway bus. But we’re more onsen people than we are geology people.
– Did not go to Mt Aso but passed through and it seemed like the caldera might have been closed due to volcanic activity. Definitely check!
– And I think there are trains to and from Aso, just buses going into the mountains. Unless you really like buses better? Also as the buses are reserved, make sure they don’t fill up before you’re ready to reserve them.
– Kumamoto Castle was great – the exhibits are in Japanese but there is an official app with English translations that I only figured out after the fact
– Ohori Park is fine, just a big city park, not sure if you want to see castle ruins after seeing an actual castle. Hakata has many shrines/temples and Fukuoka has many museums. We did a day trip to Dazaifu for the temple and Kyushu national museum but that may be out of your way.
– Hakata to Nagasaki there is a new Shinkansen only half the way but I think there maaaybe still is a direct too (we did Kumamoto to Nagasaki and lol don’t do this)
– Enjoyed Glover Garden but skipped Oura Church as I’m already Catholic there’s no way someone’s going to charge me to go to a Catholic church lmao. The Atomic Bomb Museum is also probably great but we went to the Hiroshima one already.
– There is also a famous outlook in Nagasaki that’s worth visiting (we missed this unfortunately)
– When planning I didn’t see anything too interesting in Kitakyushu and would personally opt for another day in Fukuoka or day trip to one of the nearby islands or beaches
– I would vote for Saga (I’m a growing ceramics enthusiast) but Huis Ten Bosch sounds cool too
Kurokawa Onsen/Aso area was beautiful even in early Feb/winter and the highlight of the trip. Kumamoto is also such a chill place, really loved it there.
Enjoy! It’s going to be great!
You could easily stay another day in Nagasaki, by far my favourite city in Kyushu. Kokura Castle is cool but Kitakyushu isn’t the nicest or most interesting city aside from that tbh, if you’ve got spare time or you really love castles then by all means visit but otherwise I think it’s pretty skippable.
Yufuin is very nice but it’s pretty small, unless you were planning on staying in a ryokan there I think there’s better places you could visit!