Fifth time in Japan: Nov-Dec recommendations

Hi tomodachi,

I'm planning a two-week trip for my partner and I, starting from late November to early December 2018. We are looking for recommendations/inspiration for places to visit, food to eat, activities to try, sights to see. I can read/ write and speak basic Japanese, have visited Japan five times and want to visit places more off track. Places I've been to so far:

- Hokkaido: Hakodate > Otaru > Sapporo.
- Honshu: Sendai > Tokyo > Takayama > Kanazawa > Shirakawago > Nagoya > Kyoto > Osaka > Nara > Koyasan > Himeji > Okayama > Miyajima.
- Shikoku area: Naoshima > Takamatsu > Matsuyama
- Kyushu: I've only been on a school exchange to Fukuoka (many many moons ago).

I'm currently leaning towards catching some late-Nov koyo on Kyushu. I also think it may be a good chance to visit Yakushima and since hiking closes November, should start the journey there. My only reservation is that Yakushima is quite expensive and late November may not be the best time to visit. Some other places high on my radar for Kyushu:
- Mt Aso
- Kurokawa (for onsen)
- Takachiho gorge
- Yufuin (for onsen).

Any recommendations for 12 day itinerary on Kyushu? Any top tips for places to visit (I don't know much about Kyushu hidden spots and would love to hear where you'd been and loved).

Some things we love about Japan: Lots of delicious food, relaxing onsen, bathing in nature, beautiful art and crafts, discovering the new and wonderful!

Arigato!
Lanex

Get a car to explore the central inland areas of Kyushu.

Onsens towns worth a investigate- Takeo
Ureshima
Unzen
Amagase
Yunoko Hot Spring

I like you idea of a few days in Yakushima and the rest in Kyushu. You'll have more than enough to cover 9 days. Between what you already listed plus Kagoshima Nagasaki Fukuoka for 2 days each. Beppu and Kumamoto a day each. You have a full itineray.

Highlights from my Kyushu trip:

(a) Yatai food in Hakata. https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e4803.html

(b) Riding steam locomotive (SL) to Hitoyoshi from Kumamoto. http://www.jrkyushu.co.jp/english/train/sl.html

(c) Temple/Shrine along Nichinan coast of Miyazaki Prefecture.
https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e8005.html
https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e8032.html

(d) Dazaifu. There is an impressive shrine Tenmangu: https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e4851.html

What I enjoyed the most when I visited Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine was the kindergarten next to it. When I visited, it happened to be 2 days before the start of Kyushu Basho (sumo tournament) and one sumo wrestler came to the kindergarten to entertain the kids. The campus was off limits to the tourists, but the fence was only about 4 ft tall so I watched it over the fence. Each class of about 25 kids were trying to push the wrestler out of the rink, but they were no match for one giant sumo wrestler. That was so cute and most memorable.
http://michikusa-and-aikalima.blogspot.com/2018/05/gentle-giant.html

Toto toilet museum in Kokura, Kitakyushu: https://jp.toto.com/museum/en/

Kokura itself is a nice place to spend a day. The castle and grounds are pretty, and there's good food to be had in the town.

There are lots of NHK World programmes on Kyushu, often covering smaller places, and loads of them are available on demand. I googled "NHK World Kyushu Travel", and came up with these (amongst lots more):

- https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/travel/
- https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/vod/jtripplan/2059013/
- https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/tv/journeys/

I find these programmes often give some great ideas for trips that go off the beaten track...

Hi Lanex,
Kurokawa is nice, but it's very small. You can really walk the entire area where there are preserved and restored buildings in a matter of minutes, so I was glad it wasn't a centerpiece of my itinerary in the area and was just a day trip from Beppu.

I do recommend Beppu because, with the sheer number of onsen there (some say there are 150), you're likely to find one or more that really float your boat. My favorite is Hyotan Onsen because it has a huge room with numerous waterfalls you can sit under. The massage the hot spring waterfall gives is sublime. You can move around to let it hit you wherever it feels good. I could spend hours under those onsen waterfalls.

Yufuin is cute, but it's also best as a day trip from Beppu. There are a couple nice onsen worth visiting there, but nothing in Yufuin knocked my socks off.

In other words, your best bet might be two or three nights in Beppu and day trips from there to Kurokawa and Yufuin.

Having been to Yakushima numerous times in different seasons, I wouldn't recommend late November. The mountains do get cold in late Fall because their elevations aren't trivial. Not nearly as pleasant as when it's warm. Plus the snorkeling on Yakushima's coast is good in some places, but not when it's relatively cold like in November. If/when you go to Yakushima, I recommend Sen No Ie (http://sen-no-ie.sakura.ne.jp), Moss Ocean House (https://www.moss6.com) and Chinryu An (www.chinryu.com) for lodging, the latter of which offers a nice social environment and lower prices. http://yakumonkey.com is a great resource on Yakushima.

Given your interest in nature, onsen and arts/crafts, I'd suggest stopping by Izu and the Fuji Five Lakes areas and hooking up with Izu Hike (www.izuhike.com) and Fuji Bike Tour (www.fujibiketour.com) as well.

BTW this is Hyotan Onsen: http://www.hyotan-onsen.com/english/

Must say I disagree about Kurokawa - I love it!
For an overnight stay, or to spend a day with one of the onsen passes, trying out the various excellent rotemburos, it�fs hard to beat, IMHO.

Beppu itself is a bit tacky for me, but the �ghells�h are fun and there are supposed to be some really good onsens in the surrounding areas/suburbs.

Thank you everyone! I may give yakushima a miss this time (as suspected), and try to fly to Kumamoto, work our way around saga, aso, on onsen pockets, take a train from Fukuoka towards Tokyo stopping at either fujigoko or izu - as these areas are both so big, I'd love to hear any stories you may have about past experiences (good and bad). Thanks again!

I had a blast taking a bike tour around the five lakes. It was so worth getting out to the more remote, quieter, smaller lakes and away from the developed areas on the larger lakes. We easily covered a lot of ground on the bikes, so the size of the area wasn't much of an issue. We started very early in the morning when Mt Fuji was stunning as the sun rose and turned its peak red. Sunset with Lake Yamanakako in the foreground and Mt Fuji in the background was also amazing.

So much to do in Izu since you like nature. Shimoda City is well worth the trip for the amazing bays, coastal parks and beaches, excellent onsen and a pretty historic lane. The train ride down the Izu coast from Atami to Shimoda is really lovely. Shimoda has some mixed-gender onsen too.

I really liked Kagoshima as a city for it's rather unique history and landscape. I would calculate slightly less than a day for the city and half a day for Sakurajima, if you take the tiny Island hop on/hop off bus. Not sure whether it is seasonal, but it was a very interesting trip.