Kyushu or Kinki and Kii peninsula

I Know no one here will have had to make this choice but hopefully someone may know enough to be able to advise me.

Trip period here is 10 March to 22nd March

I'm travelling by bicycle. and my original trip plan for the first part of my journey included riding to Mt Koyasan then down over the mountains to Kumano Hongu Taisha, on to the coast and up around back to Wakayama before continuing.

Recently I've wondered if i should go to Kyushu instead. I had understood the weather would be cold in the mountains but i'm concerned about a lot of rain and miserable conditions. I don't mind it being cold but i don't want to travel in a lot of rain as i will probably have to deal with this in the second part of my japan tour through the alps in April.

My kyushu trip plan would be arrive fukuoka by plane, ride to nagasaki via imari, then on to shimabara , Mt Aso, a famous gorge, and shrine, then on to Beppu for a day before taking ferry to shikoku.

And views/insights?

As far as I'm aware there isn' a massive difference in the expected amount of rain between those two regions at that time, but I'm basing that off of some graphs I just looked at. Do you expect it to rain more in Kansai, or just that the route is less forgiving if it is actually raining?

I think if you looked at the graph for Kansai it might not be relevant.

I read on a blog of a guy who did this route in May one year, that this south coast area is about the wettest part of the country.

Yes i expect it to rain and because if that's the case the route would be tougher because its mountainous and in the bush and far from any comforts most of the time.

Also the forest might not be so enjoyable if its raining very much. I can cope with the cold but i'd like it to be somewhat sunny most of the time.

Actually I was checking the coastal towns such as Shirahama. Actually the wettest place in Japan is in Kyushu ironically enough, but you're not going anywhere near it so it's not really relevant haha! In fact Wakayama is slightly drier than the Kyushu region you're talking about for that time of year, but I can appreciate if cycling perhaps the terrain would be much tougher as it's pretty much in the middle of nowhere.

Both of your routes look pretty cool and you will be sure to find amazing stuff along both. I'm slightly biased because Koyasan and the Kii Peninsula are one some of my favourite places in all of Japan, but I think if you are concerned about enjoying a trip like that in rain perhaps Kyushu would be better for you.

Anyhow I have some suggestions of great onsen if you would like to visit them on your trip! Yufuin is in my opinion much nicer than Beppu, and is located between Mount Aso and Beppu. I highly recommend it there. Also if you do decide to go to Koyasan then you should check out Ryujin onsen, it's remote, in the middle of a cool river valley in the mountains surrounded by forests and also worth a visit in my opinion!

Yes i have heard of both placers and ryujin was on my route.

As for yufin, how do you get the most out of the place if you are not intending to stay overnight in an actual onsen.

I read something positive about it too but going there instead of Beppu would probably add a fair bit more time to my route and its already fairly tight, given i'm not so fit and want to be able to take my time without feeling rushed and getting exhausted.

I am leaning more and more towards Kyushu and thinking that if i come back again, then maybe kii peninsular would be lovely in autumn. What do you think of that idea?

When I visited Yufuin I didn't stay overnight there so it's definitely possible to enjoy without doing that. I went to an onsen called Shoya no Yakata, it has pretty unusual water, kind of like a cloudy bright blue colour, pretty unique. I didn't use the communal baths as I have tattoos and it was restricted, but the private bath was fairly cheap, available at short notice and had lovely views over the mountains from the bath, it was really very nice. Unfortunately that was the only onsen I visited there so, I can't say how it compares to other establishments. Other than that I also visited the shops, walked around Lake Kinrinko and went on a horse drawn cart tour. The scenery is really one of the main attractions, so I imagine just visiting an onsen and the lake would be enough along with simply riding through the area. Also since there is no public transport and things are fairly spread out, you'll have an advantage with your bike over me!

As for your plan to visit Wakayama in autumn, I think that's a good idea. I would recommend some time in early to mid November, that's probably the best to balance avoiding rain and not being too cold! Plus the autumn foliage will be changing around that kind of time so that should be great!

VEry helpful. I think you've helped me make up my mind.

I have an opposite opinion. Ohdaigahara in Kii peninsula has a record of annual rainfall in Japan, but it is mainly due to heavy rains in autumn, such as typhoons. Kii peninsula belongs to the Pacific Ocean side of Japan, thus it is basically dry in Mar. On the other hand, North Kyushu has a character of the Sea of Japan side: wet in Mar.

Statistics confirmed my guess. Here are Mar ones for Ryujin, Wakayama:
http://www.data.jma.go.jp/obd/stats/etrn/view/nml_amd_d.php?prec_no=65...
and for Aso-san, Kumamoto:
http://www.data.jma.go.jp/obd/stats/etrn/view/nml_sfc_d.php?prec_no=86...
Rainfall in mm is in the first column and snows in cm in the last two columns. Aso-san has worse figures than Ryujin.

Weather is weather. No one has a definite answer. But Kii in March looks nicer to me.

Thanks for you input. The date you showed is in Japanese. Could you please provide a link to the page in English. I can't find it.

I don't know what i'm looking at as it is.

Also i won't be spending much time in the north of Kyushu. Most of time would be spent crossing the middle. But still its helpful to know all these things.

I would like to be able to read the charts though to understand it better.

Here are the sites I used to find information. As I said before I think Kyushu is slightly wetter at that time of year but still maybe better for you, in all honesty though the difference is marginal in my opinion.

Shirahama http://www.worldweatheronline.com/Shirahama-weather-averages/Nagasaki/...
Koyasan http://www.worldweatheronline.com/Koyasan-weather-averages/Wakayama/JP...
Fukuoka http://www.worldweatheronline.com/Fukuoka-weather-averages/Fukuoka/JP....
Aso http://www.worldweatheronline.com/Aso-weather-averages/Fukui/JP.aspx

As you can see because the places you are going to are fairly spread out the rainfall can vary a bit between places in the same prefecture. Overall I wouldn't say there is a massive difference between them, but please check the data by yourself, I only glanced at it really so it could be worth checking a few more places along your route and looking and rainy days not just average rainfall!

Thanks for that. Tonight i ran into someone i know who used to live in Japan. He said Kyushu was lovely so that's decided me. I'm going there. Of course i'm sure the other part is also lovely but it will be more lovely in November probably and if i am happy with this trip, i've no doubt, i will go back to Japan.

There seems to be a lot of good reasons to enjoy travelling there so its likely.

Yep, I think the most important thing is that you are happy with the choice so it's great you made one! There are great places all over Japan so you will never run out of places to come and see. Enjoy your trip!

As far as I know, there is no English sites for the detailed statistics for JMA's observing posts. Though I think units (mm) for rain and (cm) for snow would be suffice to recognize the tables.

You may be understood why I take mid and north Kyusyu in one category by looking Rader and Precipitation tags of the Japan map in
http://www.jma.go.jp/jma/indexe.html
We can roughly divide Japan to north-west and south-east parts with a diagonal line.

The global tendency might be clear, however, I agree with PhilipJFry that averages for a few points are not sufficient. Do check dispersion at as many points as possible. I think it would be better to use WeatherUnderground to check
weather histories back in a decade or so. This kind of calender views
http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/RJBD/2014/3/21/MonthlyHist...
can be got by clicking any observing post (after zooming up) in
http://www.wunderground.com/wundermap/
and click "Visit local weather page...". Go down to "Almanac" section and click "calender view".

But the number of observing post is still higher in the JMA site...
http://www.data.jma.go.jp/obd/stats/etrn/select/prefecture.php?prec_no...