December 2024 Kansai/Kyushu/Hokkaido Travel Blog
Background
Since I have previously been to all the main cities, Osaka, Kyoto, Tokyo and Nagoya, the main focus of the trip is Kyushu and Hokkaido, with a couple days spent in Tokyo and Kyoto for transit purposes.
Unlike other blogs, I will not be documenting every transit decision and the exact date on which I went to certain spots, unless the transit options are actually tricky. Instead I will rate every city and tourist spots I visited out of 5 stars (5). The two things I like are observatories and shrines, so there will be plenty of them. More pictures will be uploaded including shared ones under media when I have time.
Exceptionally, my travel to Kashima, Tokyo and Ibusuki, Kagoshima will be documented in separate blog posts with greater detail in the future.
宇治 (4)
We reside at 花やしき浮舟園, which has a window view of the Uji river. The streets are completely empty after 9, which is a feature of these smaller cities. Streets are almost entirely single-family houses and compactly situated.
Two of the most famous things the city is known for amongst the tourists are probably Uji matcha and the anime Hibike Euphorium. In the morning I walked around the city before touring the Ujibashi-dori street, where most of the shops open around 10 am. After a brief trip to Nara, in the night I visited the Ujikami-jinja and Daikichiyama observatory.
Uji City (4)
Not really a tourist spot, but I recommend crossing Uji river from Biwako Quasi-national park and Asagiri bridge. There is a path towards Uji-jinja once you get off Asagiri bridge which leads to Ujikami-jinja and Daikichiyama Observatory. One can come back crossing the famous Uji-bashi before entering Byodoin Omote-Sando Street and Byodoin temple garden.
In general I think the scenery is quite good, particularly in the Uji Park and one can recoginize a bunch of iconic images from Hibike Euphorium if you care. The streets are clean even by Japanese standards and there are plenty of matcha based tea cafe, which oversees the Uji river. I am taking a point off even though I am a big fan of these traditional towns. The reason is by comparison I still think Takayama has the best traditional Japanese town and the building style there is a bit more picturesque, even though the similarities between two river-centered town cities are palpable.
This scenery route is a must if you are going Uji
Ujibashi-dori Street (3)
Uji being world’s largest Matcha export city, this street is Matcha-themed, but quite empty compared to larger city core shopping districts. Matcha based cuisine and souvenirs are plenty though for certain reasons I did not try them even though under other circumstances I would.
However, I did try several Matcha favored chocolate from several highly praised shops, and my recommendation is probably Itohkyuemon’s Matcha chocolate.
Ujikami-jinja and Daikichiyama Observatory (4.5)
For me this is the highlight of Uji, Ujikami-jinja and Uji-jinja are two connected back to back shrine that takes you to the starting point of Daikichiyama. At night it is absolutely spectacular even though it is not that of a popular tourist spot. It’s aboud a 10-15 minute walk up the mountain and the view from the observatory is absolutely worth your time.
奈良
Most of Nara can be completed in an afternoon. I visited Nara Park and climbed Wakakusa. In general it was quite miserable, not only do I not particularly care about deers, Mount Wakakusa and famous sweet shot Nakatanidou were also closed. We ended up taking a small trail up the mountain which took like 3 hours with limited feedbacks. Anyway Nara is quite a famous first-time Japan-visiting city so I won’t cover this.
福岡 (4)
The most populated city of Kyushu, which is built around the underground network of Tenjin and Hakata, which are absolutely massive and it’s easy to get lost. In addition, Fukuoka is also known for hakata tonkotsu ramen and the origin of the Ichiran ramen. It absolutely lived up to its name and I had nothing but Hakata ramen, but I am not the one to elaborate on food. In my opinion one should at least spend 2 or 3 days in Fukuoka, one of which can be spent around metropolitan areas in Hakata, the other of which is better spent around the city in Fukuoka’s numerous islands or neighboring cities such as Itoshima.
Oohori Park (2.5)
Very walkable from where I live, which is around Tenjin 3-chome. It’s a famous park that encloses a pretty sizable lake. I suspect it’s better for summer because it was freezing cold. The park is extremely empty and though scenery was good, it quickly becomes repetitive, from which you can’t easily escape because how massive the park is. The better option is probably to rent a bike and bike around the park. A bit of a hit-or-miss for me, although this place started the addiction for seventeen ice.
Canal City Hakata (2.5)
In general it’s a massive scam to label general purpose shopping centers as some sort of famous tourism spot. In this case they have a man-made tiny canal with some waterworks, which gives it’s name the Canal City. The shopping center is multi-level and there is a ramen floor which is probably the highlight. I still think it’s a bit overrated because the structure of the shopping mall is nothing to be amazed about, in terms of size, it’s like probably not even one tenth compared to Ginza in Tokyo. Though we did catch some cool waterworks so I give it 2.5 out of 5 instead of 2. I don’t it’s worthy of more than 2 hours considering the streets and shopping centers around Tenjin and Hakata are more than enough and it’s not like Canal City offers some exclusive goods you can’t get anywhere else.
Itoshima–Sakurai Futamigaura (4.5)
I would give it 5 out of 5 if not for the fact that you basically had to be on the road for 4 hours just to see a Torii. But what a torii it was, it’s probably on every list of spectacular shrines. The shrine itself is in a neighboring city from Fukuoka called Itoshima. The recommended transport is the showa bus beginning from Hakata station and honestly the only real option. While the torii itself is very unique and view from the beach is phenomenal, there is nothing else around Itoshima that seems interesting.
Sakurai Futamigaura itself is a special white torii in front of two naturally formed symmetric rock called Meoto Iwa, you can also find one in Ise, giving it a quite unique look. The actual sakura shrine is on the opposite side of the mountain which we didn’t go. The day I went the wind was very heavy and waves were crushing the shore very frequently, probably elevating the viewing experience in some way.
Umi no nakamichi (2.5)
It’s the name of the road separating the sea while also connecting two islands. In one of the island there is a famous aquarium and some parks, neither of which I visited. This is because for some reason they closed at 4 the day I went, probably due to raining. But as a result I didn’t get to see any famous attractions and instead walked along the coast. Even still the scenery from the coast and the ferry back is quite beautiful and ferry is definitely the recommended transportation for this location.
熊本 (4.5)
We spent only a day in Kumamoto, and literally no time in Kumamoto city. In hindsight, one more day should have been spent in Aso, we couldn’t get to Mount Aso because the bus back doesn’t operate past 4:30 pm, people we want to visit Mount Aso should reside a day in Aso city instead of trying to make it a one-day trip back to Kumamoto. Other than the famous active volcano, Kumamoto is famous for the kumamoto bear and the manga onepiece. One piece characters can be found in many unexpected places and apparently statues of 10 strawhat crews can be found in 10 different tourist spots in Kumamoto. The only spot we visited was the Kamishikimi Kumanoimasu-jinja and town of Takamori on the way there. I think if I ever go back to Kyushu again, Kumamoto is a must revisit.
One thing to note is that starting from Kumamoto and Kagoshima, tram becomes a transit option and it absolutely sucks with large luggages.
Takamori (3.5)
There is only one local train to Takamori, but probably one of the best train rides ever. The scenery was breathtaking and at one point was a single bridge 100 meter tall from the ground. Takamori station is one-piece themed and we were lucky enough to ride the onepiece strawhat train back from Takamori.
Kamishikimi Kumanoimasu Jinja (5)
This shrine is one of the highlights for me during Kyushu travel, people may know it better as the shrine in the anime movie Forests of Firefly. It is literally in the middle of nowhere so the tourists there are not as many, enabling me to get several clean pictures. Admittedly during winter it doesn’t have the best view as it is not as green as advertised. However, it is nevertheless a great visit.
It is said that the shrine started to offer ritual service in 14th century to honer Izanami and Izanagi. The entrance is accompanied by a tall stone torii covered by light moss and decorated with a yellow shimenawa, forstalling the color theme of the shrine. The path leading to the second Torii gate is about 200 meters long and surrouned by tall trees and 97 stone lanterns. Walking slightly pass the second torii is the main hall, which is formed by a shrine and smaller upper-shrine. Situated even on top of the shrine, is a huge stone called Ugeto-iwa with a huge hole in the middle, allowing sunset to pass. Interestingly, once you walk across the hole in the stone after an additional 100 meters, there is another small path up the mountain. Even though there are signs of tourists treading, this path is not really intended for tourism and they take no responsibility if you fall to your death since it is by all means not an easy climb. Naturally we attempted the climb and after some adventure we were able to get some good pictures from the side of the mountain.
鹿児島 (4.5)
We spent three days in Kagoshima. The city is built around an active volcano, sakurajima, that’s spitting out ashes daily. It is also the southern most major city of japan and the train ride to Ibusuki is famous for its scenery views. In the nights we traversed the city and it’s major red light district, Tenmonkan. In the days we covered almost all the major scenery spots. The only slight let down was sakurajima itself, which might be due to my own miscalculation. However, the city is still the highlight of the trip for me.
Sakurajima (3)
The island is reachable via ferry from the Kagoshima ferry station. The mountain is not hikable except for several observatories, which in my view aren’t that great compared to your average city observatories. The main tourist attractions are scattered around the island but it’s not walkable. The buses don’t run very late so the only viable options are e-bikes or car renting, since it’s impossible to bike around the mountain in reasonable times. I made the mistake of trying to bike and had to return after 6km, the main problem, as I said, the tourism spots around the mountain are too scattered so do be prepared. The main selling point is the view of sakurajima itself and I was able to get a few good looks.
Shiroyama observatory (4)
This spot is must-visit, it takes about 10 mins walk up the mountain from Tenmonkan districts and the view is quite good, compared to other observatories in for instance, Nara and Uji.
Tenmonkan (3)
Red-light district, good food
Sengan-en (3.5)
It’s a traditional Japanese-style garden which is designated as a meishoo of Kagoshima. It has a lot of chinese elements so it doesn’t surprise me that much but in general it’s still a good visit. Worth noting that there is a city view bus from Kagoshima-chuo station that takes you to the front of the garden, and there are no nearby train or tram stops.
Ibusuki (5)
This trip is so good that I will make a separate post.
さっぽろ (4)
This part is going to be slightly biased, because I was sick as a dog during the days I was at Sapporo, only starting to feel better during the last day. As a result, I was not in any mood to enjoy the snow scene. In Hokkaido, you get about 7 hours of daylight starting from 9 am to around 4 pm, which means you have to get most of the tourism done before 4 pm, after which it becomes cold and visibility drops by a lot. During the nights, most people spend time around Odori or Susukino, Sapporo’s biggest shopping streets, but I was so exhausted I spent two nights confined to my fireside.
Odori Park and Sapporo TV Tower (3)
Odori park is like a one-district long park that’s basically for people to play with snow in winter, from where you can get a pretty good view of the Sapporo TV Tower. I think the park is a bit overrated because the structures in the park aren’t that impressive but I might change my mind had I been healthier and it were Feburary. I think it’s possible to go up the TV tower, but obviously I didn’t.
Susukino (3)
It’s a pretty large district and in the snow there is a bit of special taste, so I’ll give it a pass for being a generic shopping district.
Hokkaido Jingu and Maruyama Park (4)
Hokkado Jingu is one of largest shrines. Situated inside a massive park and covered in snow, I think it’s for sure one of the more beautiful shrines out there. The maruyama park itself is a better spot for snow playing compared to for instance odori park.
Moiwayama Observatory (4)
This, together with Hakodate observatory and the tengu observatory in Otaru are considered three of the best ropeway observatories. I went in the morning where there were fewer people.
Otaru–Tengu Mountain (2.5)
This is the only place I visited in Otaru and I didn’t really like it: There were too many people and because of the heavy snow, the visibility from top of the mountain was basically zero. Obviously famous for one of the scene in the movie love letter, tengu mountain attracts way too many tourists, making it a bit of underwhelming experience for me.
Sapporo Suwa-Jinja (3.5)
This is a rather small shrine in the middle of sapporo city, I visited in the morning with 10 ten minutes walk from sapporo station because it’s rumored that they have the best omamori and it did not disappoint. The omamori there was decorated with lace and quite unique in that sense.
東京都
I have already been to Tokyo before and this time around I did nothing but shopping in Akihabara and Ginza, so this part I will not document. Although I visited Kashima and was able to capture great setting sun across the water-hedging Kashima Torii and it was great, so I will keep it as separate blog.
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