Oita & Miyazaki Schedule Recommendations

Hi All,

During Jan/Feb I'll be completing a driving holiday around Oita & Miyazaki prefectures for roughly 12 nights. I've travelled around Japan more than most but have found that some people often have excellent advice on this forum for locations which are a little bit quirky or out of the way.

I'll list my basic plan below and if your aware of a couple of places which are close to these locations I'd love to hear your suggestions

Nakasu - Yamagawa Onsen: Nakasu is a castle town with some nice nature attractions close by. Nakagawa Onsen is at the base of the Kunisaki peninsula where I can visit Usa on the way

Yamagawa Onsen - Beppu: Visit the main sites around the Kunisaki Peninsula

Beppu - Oita: Visit main sites around Beppu and some sites in Oita

Oita - Yufuin: Back track to Kitsuki to check out the samurai districts. I also have a full day in Yufu (any suggestions??)

Yufuin - Usuki: Visit the Stone Buddhas & Samurai district in Usuki

Usuki - Takachiho: Visit via Takeda which has some nice waterfalls and Oka Castle Ruins

Takachiho - Miyazaki: Visit the main sites around Takachiho and get to Miyazaki in the late afternoon. I also have 1 full day in Miyazaki

Miyazaki - Kobayashi: Visit some minor sites in the Kirishima mountains.

Kobayashi - Tosu: Basically a long driving day - and there are a couple of sites I wanted to visit in Kurume near Fukuoka.

For those who are interested - I'm a little bit of a completest and prefer to not visit sites in prefectures which I have not visited yet. As such - I'm happy to drive through the vast majority of Kagoshima to get to Fukuoka airport but want to spend 2 weeks at another time visiting Kagoshima and Kumamoto....

How about the Nichinan Coastline?

Aoshima
Udo Junju
Obi castle ruins

Miyazaki has onsen and mountain trails. Not commonly known outside of the locals. I second Udo jinja. It is pretty unique. So is Aoshima.

The idea of Yufuin is just to soak up the atmosphere and see the small traditional-onsen-town-shops.

I find Beppu to be over rated. The waters aren't that nice.
There are many different type of baths like cave, and hot stone...etc I prefer the usual onsen though.
Only point to note is that the sunrise, if you manage to get a nice hotel facing the Pacific.... Though during different times of the year the sun rise may be blocked by the mountains/hills south of Beppu.

Kirishima should be done with Kagoshima on your next trip. Taking time to trek the grounds, various onsen towns, visit the Jomon museum...

Part of the charm of Miyazaki prefecture is just going from coastal town to coastal town. If you don't have a car, trains or buses are readily available. Take the nichiran train (themed train) or the bus (closer to the ocean for more views) south of Miyazaki city. Note that some Miyazaki stations are unmanned.

Takachiho. I did not like the Kagura dance. Liked the food (was there during new years, probably the least lively Hatsumode). Get a hotel that provides free shuttle service to the gorge, I taxi-ed there but had to walk uphill (on roads without pedestrians pavements) back.

I would place a day just for Nobeoka (the city you transfer to a bus to go to Takachiho). It has a number of countryside-town charms and it is nice to contribute to striving society. Also, the bus ride to/fro Takachiho goes through many small towns, some built onto cliffs (with sharp turns and windy roads). Some of these towns have less than 10 households! Perhaps they ran out of cliff-space and build another 10 somewhere down the road? (Do help me ask how they park their cars!) The point is that if you take the early morning bus out of Takachiho (heading eastward) you would be in for a nice sunrise over the countryside as you get out of the mountains. (I took the 5-6ish bus out) Note I said nice sunrise, not great sunrise.

Am interested in knowing what sites you would be seeing in Oita city.

Two things to note: Miyazaki city would be warm, Beppu would have snow. In between regions would anywhere from hail storms to blizzards. If you can help me, do not drive anywhere north of Nobeoka.

Like normal - thanks for the info. I was thinking about heading South when in Miyazaki city - but some slight prodding is probably enough to get me to go.

Miyazaki probably has nice ocean towns, but I've already driven around many little towns in Noto Hanto and Shikoku (specifically Kochi).

I'm also aware that Beppu is meant to be average (with a feeling such as Atami near Tokyo but with better water). That's why I'm not planning on spending more than half a day there.

At present I've got a car which means I'm planning to drive myself around Shikoku. I drove myself around Shikoku earlier in the year in winter and I've experienced some of Japan's windiest roads (Yunomine Onsen on the Kii Peninsula) so know how to be careful with these types of roads. If there is a lot of snow - I change my plans period!

Are you sure about Beppu having snow? I lived in Yokohama for 3 years and I thought that Beppu was a little like Tokyo and Hakone - it does not have snow unless there is a big trough that can dump up to half a meter in 24 hours which only happens 1 or 2 times a year.

Your comment of Kirishima is a correct one. I'm not fully visiting it - just basically driving through and visiting some minor sites on the Miyazaki side. It seems as though the better stuff of on the Kagoshima side (plus visit in warmer months so I can hike).

Seconding the Nichinan coast down to the Toi Peninsula. Go see the wild horses!

As for Beppu I cannot be certain. I was there Jan 1 (from Takachiho). The train scenery was normal countryside with the occasionally solar powered farm (fields upon fields of solar panels).
Then I cross a mountain (tunnel), came out only to see a hail storm. The white stuff is literally hammering the windows. Anything more than 50m is nearly a white out; just shimmerings of a mountainous background.
Went on for more than an hour till I hit Oita prefecture. Beppu only had heavy snow and strong winds. A fry cry for warm sunny Miyazaki.

Whether it is the one off snow fall you mentioned I can't say. As you mentioned, I didn't see much point to stay more than a night in Beppu.

It was not snowing the next morning, but it was still pretty chilly. Then again, it was reported that elsewhere far away, Kyoto reported the coldest New Year in like 20-40 years. Can't remember the exact years but it was a few decades past and TV showed massive snowfall. Note: Fukuoka and the rest of Kyushu was warm without snow. Could just be a Beppu being surrounded by mountains kind of thing. Meaning climate is vastly different. (Though in all honestly so is Miyazaki)

If you plan your trip around snowfall may not be a good idea. Not sure about the rest of winter but Beppu was literally sold out in Jan 1. I took the last room at Suginoi, paid a bomb. The only other place was a place with a very sad looking indoor onsen bath. (I used Booking.com, Agoda, Jalan, Rakuten, Japanican) Winging it may not be such a good idea.

Winter isn't a great time to travel in locations know for sunny beaches/coastline.

Thanks for the update jh. This is what I thought. I was planning on visiting the Iya valley in Feb this year but decided to cancel dude to the windy roads and high elevation. Ironically I would have been safe but there was snow on the roads there 2 or 3 days later.

Hakata - you are also right about sunny beaches in winter - unless you like isolated coastlines (which I did until I drove 800 km's in Shikoku in Feb and saw similar coastline......)

Either way. I'll enjoy your travel report. Good to see someone giving Kyushu some love. It is a very underrated location in Japan.

A post just came out about this.
May be of use. Apparently only sold in china and SK
https://www.jrkyushu.co.jp/english/pdf/south1604.pdf

Thanks for this jh. I won't use it this trip (I have a car for 12 days) but it seems perfect for an upcoming trip to Kagoshima and Kumamoto (no specific date planned.....)