The free days part 2 (Chugoku/Kyushu)

Hi!

I posted here back in September for information on some thoughts on free days in Chugoku/Kyushu for me (been to Japan many times) and 7 year old daughter (3rd trip). The trip is just the two of us, no other adults, my spouse has no vacation time. :( I have talked to my daughter to get input on what she wants to do, as I try to balance her top choices and my top choices.

I thought I had a decent itinerary worked out, when I realized June 25th, the day I was planning to go to Naoshima is a Monday. OOPS!

For travel I plan to use either the 7 day Sanyo pass that goes from Shin-Osaka to Fukuoka (19,000 yen) or the Northern Kyushu /Sanyo Pass (22,000 yen) plus rental cars/buses when necessary.

So... what makes more sense:

Mon Travel from shin-Osaka to Shin-Yamaguchi take bus to Akiyoshidai spend night in Okayama
Tues go to Naoshima and then spent night in Fukuoka
Wed unsure lots of options, possibly BioPark/Huis ten Bosch? See some of Fukuoka?
Thurs go to Kurokawa for the night
Friday drive to Takachiho Gorge sightsee and return to Kurokawa for the night
Sat Drive to Kumamato Airport and fly to HND with Airpass.

or
Mon visit Himeji, maybe Korakuen (I've been) and then go to Naoshima see Benesse House and the pumpkins which might be quieter since nothing else is open and overnight
Tues see everything else in Naoshima early and then head to Fukuoka for the night
Wed From Fukuoka take the shinkansen 30 minutes to Shin Yamaguchi, see the caves and then go back to Fukuoka,
Thurs unsure of what we'll do earlier but take the shinkansen eventually to Kumamato rent a car and go to Kurokawa for the night.
Fri drive to Takachiho and go back to Kurokawa for the night
Sat spend morning in Kurokawa and then fly out from Kumamato Airport

or

Mon go see the caves and overnight in Fukuoka
Tues-Sat do Kyushu things like Kurokawa and Takachiho before flying out from either Kumamoto or Fukuoka airport.

My daughter really wants to see the caves, I really want to go to Kurokawa or Yufuin onsen. (Found some amazing onsen in Kurokawa that say they handle dietary requests. We're looking at ryokan Wakaba and Ryokan Sanga. )

We're visiting Takamatsu earlier in the trip because I want to go on a non-Monday so we make fans at the fan museum.

And finally one more question, in the case of the fan museum, it's in Marugame, our pass is good until Utazu, the stop before, do we just pay the fare adjustment of whatever the fare is from Utazu to Marugame and going back do we just buy a ticket from Marugame to Utazu and then use the pass for the rest? I'm happy to pay the additional, the two Sanyo passes are still much cheaper than the 1 week general pass and the majority of my travel is covered by the pass, plus using Nozomi/Mizuho speed up my transit times. I think the fare from Utazu to Marugame is under 500 yen.

Thanks in advance!

Mon Travel from shin-Osaka to Shin-Yamaguchi take bus to Akiyoshidai spend night in Okayama
Tues go to Naoshima and then spent night in Fukuoka
Wed unsure lots of options, possibly BioPark/Huis ten Bosch? See some of Fukuoka?
Thurs go to Kurokawa for the night
Friday drive to Takachiho Gorge sightsee and return to Kurokawa for the night
Sat Drive to Kumamato Airport and fly to HND with Airpass.

This option 1 seems to be very rushed. And I don�Lt understand Monday. Do you go to Shin-Yamaguchi in Yamaguchi prefecture and then spend the night in Okayama which is way back towards Osaka? Just to go on the next day to Naoshima?? Sounds to me like a bit of a crazy trip.
Also Naoshima and then night at Fukuoka in general seems to be quite challaging. I believe you said on a previous post that your daughter is not a night person, so I guess you will want to arrive at Fukuoka relatively early, but from Naoshima you first need to take a ferry. Naoshima is a very nice place and you could easily spend there two days (one night). There is even a small beach. Nothing that an adult would be totally enthusiastic about, but I could see that a child could enjoy it quite a lot. Its close to the Benesse house.

So maybe Monday to Osaka to Naoshima, enjoy the island, sleep there, then enjoy more art on Tuesday and Tuesday after lunch leave for Honshu and on to Fukuoka.


or
Mon visit Himeji, maybe Korakuen (I've been) and then go to Naoshima see Benesse House and the pumpkins which might be quieter since nothing else is open and overnight
Tues see everything else in Naoshima early and then head to Fukuoka for the night
Wed From Fukuoka take the shinkansen 30 minutes to Shin Yamaguchi, see the caves and then go back to Fukuoka,
Thurs unsure of what we'll do earlier but take the shinkansen eventually to Kumamato rent a car and go to Kurokawa for the night.
Fri drive to Takachiho and go back to Kurokawa for the night
Sat spend morning in Kurokawa and then fly out from Kumamato Airport

The Monday would be still to busy for me. Your have Himeji, Korakuen, Ferry, Benesse House and pumpkins. That`s quiet a lot for one day. Himeji is nice (at least it was nice 20 years ago when I was there). If you go to Okayama, my personal favorite would be to stay 2 or 3 days there and see Korakuen, then do some light cycling around Kibi plain (I remember your daughter is not an experienced cyclist yet), but in Kibi plain, it is really a plain and the streets are very rural, no cars, so very safe for kids as well, and you get to see some temples and shrines. And a half day in Kuroshiki maybe combined with Takahashi castle, which is a very nice castle on a hill top.

https://bicycletraveljapan.blogspot.com/2017/11/day-46-okayama-and-tak...
https://bicycletraveljapan.blogspot.com/2017/11/day-45-kibi-plain-and-...

or

Mon go see the caves and overnight in Fukuoka
Tues-Sat do Kyushu things like Kurokawa and Takachiho before flying out from either Kumamoto or Fukuoka airport.
This seems to be a much more relaxed plan. You could visit Dazaifu, Nagasaki, maybe go down to Kagoshima, just enjoy 2 days of relax in Kurokawa, get close up to Mt Aso (if it is open then), and you will need a car there...
I don`t know if your daughter or you know Asterix, but if you do, a visit to Yoshinogara in Saga prefecture could be nice:
https://bicycletraveljapan.blogspot.com/2017/11/day-53-yanagawa-to-sag...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterix
There is a curious museum for toilets in Northern Kyushu. I haven�Lt been there, but it definitely sounds interesting.

Enjoy your trip to Japan!

Hi LikeBike,

I did the Kibi Plain in '07. It was very flat, but I found at least from Kibitsu jinja, the path was not well delineated and we got lost for a bit. It was fine for us, but would be problematic with my daughter because the streets she uses here are much much wider. We work on bike riding when we can, but it's hard, we live in the country and while our roads are wide the road .4km from our house has a speed limit of 65 kph, and people often take it faster and do stupid things. (I've converted all measurements to metric, though we do live in the USA.)

I also don't want to make any bike plans unless I am 100% sure there actually are rental bikes for kids. I've noticed many bike rental shops do not have kid sizes and mine is only 116 cm. She can't use an adult bike. So far a park in Kyushu and a few places in Kyoto definitely have them, but that really limits things.

I am going to Osaka for dinner the night before, and we're going to USJ our first day in Japan. That is more than enough time in Osaka . I've been there enough and I am more than happy to not spend more time there.

I did train times for the Akiyoshidai, I can take a shinkansen at 9:48 and get to shin Yamaguchi at 11:47 in time to catch the 11:55 bus since I have my doubts Shin-Yamaguchi is a big bustling station. I leave the caves at 16:40 and get back to Shin-Yamaguchi by 17:23, I can take a 17:46 to Hiroshima, get dinner from 18:16-20:00 and be in Okayama by 20:30. It's later than I want since I try to get her to bed by 20:30, but we'd not be super late for bed and could stay at the Granvia for short and easy walk. To me, that is completely do-able. But yes, it's going backwards to go forwards because of Naoshima being mostly closed on Mondays and the fact that going to the caves is a non-negotiable for us. Visiting Kurokawa and eating a dinner in Fukuoka are also non-negotiables since I want my onsen and I have a friend in Fukuoka. I am concerned that adding more days to Naoshima/Chugoku is going to prevent us from doing what we want in Kyushu. If we rent a car in Shin-Yamaguchi it would speed things up since the drive is only 20 minutes, but would increase the cost.

Yeah, I've been to Himeji, I am not sure we would do it and same with Koraku-en. I am more just trying to decide what is vaguely appealing on the way to Naoshima for Monday. I also don't want to go to Kobe. I think a lot of people visit Osaka and Kobe to eat and we have dietary restrictions and so are less interested in both locations for that.

I think going to modern art museums with a 7 year old is different than going with another adult. My child loves making art and tends to prefer more realistic work but I would like to open her eyes to other forms of art and the art houses in particular sound really well done and interesting. I expect she will find them more appealing than any of the formal museums. I'm not even sure we would do all of them.

I know Asterix, I spent a month in France in High School. :)

There is a lot to see and do in Kyushu. We would definitely rent a car there. I've been looking up what I would need to do for that and read that children over 7 do not require car seats! Yeah! Though I might buy a special mini booster for travel. As of right now, you can't get super close to Aso, but I would love to go as close as you can and I've wanted to go to Takachiho for years.

So I guess... should I just do Kyushu and forget about Naoshima, there is always 2019. :)

well, you need to know what is the right pace for you, but for me option 1 would be too hectic. Specially if you plan to come back to Japan anyway the following year, I would do travel more locally and explore one region more in detail leaving you also more flexibility to adapt to each day (e.g. weather, mood...) if you can stay in one place several nights I would think that is preferable, with child or without.

Regarding Kibi plain, it is now well indicated, and you will not get lost. But I did not search if child bicycles are available. Maybe this is something to do in a few years time, once your daughter has more cycling experience or at least can decide for herself if she enjoys cycling at all.

@LikeBike,

Before I had my daughter I use to go to Japan a few times a year, though I also use to stay with friends. Ideally, I now like to go to Japan 1x a year though we are stuck with Summer because that is when my daughter has off. I know in 2020, I will be avoiding Kanto as much as possible because I do not want to be in Tokyo during the Olympics.

I prefer to spend 2-3 nights at places, but I also like having lots of activities to do. I suspect we do move at a faster pace than you, but we're not as hectic as some of the people who post here who want to do a temple in 30 minutes. There are certainly things I can skip though or just don't take a lot of time for. There are places I've been to once or activities I've done once and I don't feel bad if we don't do them again. I was not impressed with that boat trip in Arashiyama and I could easily never do the boat at Hakone again.


I do try to keep things somewhat flexible. Last year we were hoping to do a day hike in Kamikochi, but my daughter was sick so it didn't happen. We also left Nara early because of the buckets of rain. But in the case of the caves, I know it is something she really wants to do and since it's underground rain won't be a huge deterrent. Most of our Kyoto days are open, though I have sights I would ideally like to see.

Hmmm.. I guess I should figure out what we would do on Monday in all the scenarios if it is raining.

Unless we go straight to Fukuoka, we're going to try to break things down to 1 night in Okayama or Naoshima and then 2 nights in Fukuoka before 2 nights in Kurokawa. I'm hoping in the case of staying on Naoshima, we could visit the pumpkin near Benesse House in the morning so we can be at Chichu Museum at 10 when it opens and then after head straight to lunch and then the art houses. If it is raining it will just make us very dependent on buses.

Benesse (we've been 3 times - twice with our daughter who was 4 and 6 at the time): if you're going to shell out to stay the night, SERIOUSLY consider being there at the end of the week when you can do the James Turrell night sky program. It's a fantastic experience and totally worth shifting other things around for.
Otherwise- if you really can't do that - then absolutely make sure that you do breakfast (or dinner- but I prefer breakfast) in the museum restaurant so that you then have the museum to yourself before visitors arrive - again, an amazing experience.
If you're not doing the night sky program, and feel like splurging, have dinner in the French restaurant where they have the most amazing tasting menu (one for kids as well as one for adults- our daughter still remembers her meal and it was 4 years ago).

Kurokawa: my preference is to hit it in the daytime and do the onsen-hopping thing with the pass (?tegata, I think they call it?), where you can walk from inn to inn and visit their baths. Kurokawa is a place with some awesome rotemburos, and in the daytime they can be wonderfully quiet. Staying the night there is great, but there are also some other places nearby where you can have a wonderful time. Two of the best ryokan I've stayed in are within 5 miles of the town, and I've stayed at another amazing place about an hour's drive from there which had unique baths and fabulous food.
My other tip for Kyushu with a child is the Toto toilet museum in Kitakyushu (in Kokura).
Happy to spill any details if any of this interests you. Send me a message.
Happy planning!

Thanks! Will PM while I work on food for Thanksgiving. OT, but I've just learned the hard way not to buy Brussel Sprouts still on the stalk lol.

Unfortunately, I don't think we can get the Open Sky show to work. Our first week end, I think my daughter won't have adjusted to the time change yet based on this past trip, and will be falling asleep before the start. :/ Our next week end, I'd have to change to regular JR pass and would then have a super long trip back to Tokyo on Saturday the 30th. It would take me 375 minutes by shinkansen to get to Tokyo or 278 by plane from Okayama Airport. I mean I could see if I could start in Kyushu and work east and then fly back from Okayama on Saturday... but I don't know how feasible that would really be. (Fukuoka/Kumamoto seem to have a lot more flights.)