Kyushu Awaits! Discover What Japan Has to Offer with This Fukuoka, Oita, and Kumamoto Travel Course

Third Day (Course 1): Aso and Kumamoto’s Magnificent Nature

During the last day of the tour, you can admire the splendor of Kumamoto’s nature at Aso, located a little way away from Kumamoto City. Aso is famous for its natural scenery like the popular Mount Aso at the Aso Kuju National Park. Mount Aso is actually the largest complex volcano in the world, and it must be seen in person to be fully appreciated.

To reach Aso Station, you have to take either the Sanko Bus or the Kyushu Odan Bus from Kumamoto Station, which should take about 2 hours. You can also reach Aso from the Aso Kumamoto Airport in about 50 minutes. By car, the trip from Kumamoto City takes about 1.5 hours.

A car is probably the easiest option, which is why we rented one at a rental place in front of Kumamoto Station in order to introduce you to a driving course that will take you through all of Aso’s most picturesque scenery, including the scenic Milk Road. This gorgeous scenery will continue even once reaching Aso. 

However, those who don’t drive shouldn’t worry, because we will also be introducing a Kumamoto city tram course as well. If you are more interested in that, please scroll down to Course 2.

Click here for the Kumamoto city exploration course.

Admire Aso from the Daikanbo Lookout Point (9:30 am)

First, we arrive at the Daikanbo Lookout point. It’s free to enter and it offers spectacular views of Aso. There is a parking lot and a rest area by the entrance, and it takes about 10 minutes to reach the lookout point from there.

On your way there, take a moment to admire the surrounding park scenery, including the rustling grasslands and the seemingly never-ending hills and mountains.

Once you get to the lookout point, your breath will surely be taken away by the amazing views of Aso stretching out in front of your eyes. You will also see Mount Aso, which is actually composed of five peaks said to resemble the image of Buddha entering nirvana. Look further and you’ll lay eyes on the mountains and grasslands of Aso Valley, as well as residential homes, which will look so tiny from where you are.

The breathtaking contrast between the blue sky and the green meadows is one of the best parts of this panoramic view, although the scenery does change depending on the season. In the summer, the mountains are positively bursting with fresh verdure, but during cold winters they take on a browner, more imposing coloring. We visited the area in early autumn, so we were treated to the sight of a sea of clouds over the area. But no matter when you decide to visit, you will always find something beautiful here.

There are many great photo spots in the area, so it doesn’t matter where you point the camera, because you are always bound to take a great picture. Just be careful not to lose track of time, because there are many other great tourist spots to explore!

Before you head on to your next destination, visit the rest area near the parking lot. Inside, you’ll find a restaurant serving Kumamoto specialties like Aso beef and karashi renkon (lotus root with Japanese mustard).

Of course, the rest area also offers other things like snacks, locally-made souvenirs, and loads of Kumamon goods. After a bit of shopping, you can head to the restaurant where you will try a famous Aso specialty.

Try Local Aso Dishes at Imakin (11:00 am)

Imakin is a restaurant located just a 15-minute drive from the Daikanbo Lookout point. It’s always busy here thanks to Imakin’s gyu-don (rice bowl dish with beef), which is very popular with both Japanese people and foreign tourists!

We recommend you try the Aka Gyu-don (1,760 yen) - a huge bowl of rice with a generous helping of beef topped with a soft-boiled egg! It also comes with soup and pickles.

The secret to this dish’s flavor is the beef from Japanese Brown cattle, which are raised around Aso. It’s kind of a local secret, accounting for just 1% of all Japanese beef production! The meat used in Imakin’s gyu-don consists of deliciously red cuts of beef thigh seasoned with the restaurant’s homemade miso. You can see that the meat is marbled, making it amazingly soft—more so than other kinds of beef out there—which works so well with the sweetly fragrant miso.

You’ll get the most flavor out of the dish by splitting the soft-boiled egg open and letting it trickle all over the beef. But let’s talk more about the soup, which just like the pickles is made by hand in the restaurant. It's lemon soup seasoned with soy sauce, and it’s made from Japanese Brown beef stock! It’s delicious and you won’t find anything like it anywhere else.

Besides gyu-don, Imakin also serves noodle dishes, as well as milk and yogurt straight from the pastures of Aso.

After you fill your belly, it’s time to continue the tour! On the way to the next stop, you are going to see some picturesque scenery, so keep your camera handy because soon, you are going to come face to face with beautiful grasslands and mountains. 

Take in the Splendor of Nature at the Kusasenri Plateau (12:30 pm)

Located just a 30-minute drive from Imakin, the sprawling Kusasenri Plateau is a can’t-miss Aso spot. It features two large ponds and offers majestic mountain scenery. The above picture was taken at an observation platform reachable by stairs from a large parking lot near Kusasenri, from which you can survey the entire plateau.

Before reaching the Kusasenri Plateau, you’ll see a large parking lot. There you’ll find a rest area, a restaurant, a volcano museum, sightseeing information spots, and more. So, park the car and start strolling through this magnificent grassland! The plateau is so huge, you could spend hours just walking around it, not being able to capture all of it even with a wide-angle lens. The wind can get a bit strong here, though, so be sure to wear a jacket.

The entire plateau is actually a volcanic crater area, and the more you walk around, the more you start to understand the power of these fire mountains.

In the winter, a touch of snow decorates the brown mountains which, together with the grasslands, create beautiful scenery. You’ll feel like coming back here again and again just to take more pictures. If you get tired, you can also tour the plateau on horseback. A staff member will always accompany you, so there’s no need to worry if you’re not an experienced rider. However, if you see any grazing horses or cattle, it’s best not to go near them.

If you go left from the parking lot, you’ll be able to admire the Nakadate Crater. Nakadate is the only place offering you a look into the steam- and ash-spewing mouth of an active volcano. There’s also a cable car nearby that will take you even closer to the crater, but when we visited the area in September 2019, the service was suspended due to a dangerous concentration of volcanic gasses in the area.

For more information, visit: https://www.kyusanko.co.jp/aso/lang_en/

During autumn, the silver grass fields rustling in the wind create beautiful scenery that you’ll definitely want to capture on film. We took the above picture during early fall.

After some more walking, you can relax at a cafe, buy some souvenirs at the gift shop, or learn about the history of the Aso Kuju National Park at the volcano museum.

There is one more interesting spot not far from the Kusasenri Plateau: Komezuka, the most recent addition to the Mount Aso area. It’s a volcanic slope in the shape of an inverted bowl with a crater on top, although the crater and the entire surrounding area are not accessible to the public due to safety and conservation concerns.

*All grasslands and fenced pastures besides the Kusasenri Plateau are typically off-limits to the public.

After taking more pictures, it will be time to say goodbye to Aso and head back to Kumamoto City, which should take about 1.5 hours. And that concludes the last day of our tour. However, those with a little bit more free time left can still make part of the Kumamoto city exploration tour (Course 2) detailed below!

Third Day (Course 2): Out on the Town in Kumamoto

This is the course for people who want to see Kumamoto without having to rent a car! There are many amazing places to see all over the city and you can easily reach them by bus or the city’s cute trams, so let’s get going! 

Enjoy Walking and Shopping at Sakuranobaba Josaien (9:00 am)

After getting off at the Kumamoto-jo/Shiyakusho-mae (Kumamoto Castle/City Hall) tram stop, walk a little bit and you’ll see Kumamon, the prefecture’s beloved mascot. Welcome to Sakuranobaba Josaien!

It’s something of a shopping square with many souvenir shops and restaurants. You’ll find plenty of Kumamoto specialties here, including breaded and deep-fried patties (menchi katsu) made from horse meat; ikinari dango desserts made from mochi rice dough, sweet potato, and sweet red bean paste; and karashi renkon (lotus root with Japanese mustard). If it’s delicious and from Kumamoto, you’ll definitely find it here.

What’s more, all the buildings here are styled after a castle town from the Edo period (1603 - 1868). There’s nothing better than taking pictures, eating delicious food, and walking among a slice of history come to life. But Sakuranobaba Josaien is about more than just souvenirs and restaurants. There’s also the Wakuwakuza History and Cultural Experience which teaches people about Kumamoto’s past and present. Its highlights include a projection mapping display of Kumamoto Castle from its beginning to its restoration after the 2016 earthquake, or the live camera showing the castle’s ongoing repairs. If you’re interested in knowing more about Kumamoto, then this is the place for you!

After you’re done shopping, please return to the entrance. You can board a free shuttle bus here that will take you to the Ninomaru parking lot at Kumamoto Castle, which takes about 15-20 minutes. It’s not very far, so you can also just walk there. In any case, the next spot is the long-awaited Kumamoto Castle!

Experience the Majesty of Kumamoto Castle (10:00 am)

Kumamoto Castle, the can’t-miss tourist spot on any tour of the city, boasts a history spanning more than 400 years. It’s considered one of the most beautiful castles in all of Japan, although the many turrets surrounding it also give it an imposing image. Around spring time, the entire Kumamoto Castle area becomes bathed in color as the many beautiful cherry trees in the area start to bloom.

Large portions of the castle and its stone walls were damaged during an earthquake in 2016, and access to them remains tightly regulated as they undergo repair. However, there are 24 spots nearby from which you can admire the Tenshukaku (Castle Tower) and its many turrets.
*Note: The Kumamoto Castle repair works are scheduled to conclude in 2037.

We took the above picture from Ninomaru Park after arriving there via the previously mentioned Kumamoto Ninomaru parking lot shuttle bus from Josaien. (The park is located right next to the parking lot.) From here, you can take more similar pictures capturing the Castle Tower or the Uto turret.

After a short walk from Ninomaru Park, you will get to another great photo spot where you can admire more parts of the castle, like the Inui turret seen in the picture above. As you can see from the photo, the 2016 earthquake has destroyed the underside of the turret, leaving it supported by just a few stone blocks.

Next, if you continue on the path a little more, you’ll get to the spot nearest to the Castle Tower: Kato Shrine!

Here you can see the Castle Tower captured from Kato Shrine. Even when it’s under construction, you can really feel its imposing power. No wonder that Kumamoto Castle is considered the pride of the city.

After you’ve had your fill of Kumamoto Castle, let’s get back to the Ninomaru Square and visit the rest area where they also sell souvenirs. Sales from the souvenirs fund the reconstruction of the castle, so after buying something, let’s get on the shuttle bus and return to Josaien. We did a lot of walking today, so now it’s time to relax and enjoy some delicious food!

In 2019, Kumamoto Castle will be opened to the public for the first time since the earthquake. Please check the official website for more details.

Katsuretsu Tei Shintengai: The Last Culinary Stop on Our Tour of Kyushu (11:30 am)

Celebrate the last day of the tour with lunch at Katsuretsu Tei's main location near Shimotori Shintengai. This restaurant serves tonkatsu (fried pork cutlets) which are very popular with foreign tourists. The restaurant can get a little crowded around noon, so it’s best to get there early.

At lunch, Katsuretsu Tei serves a special lunch menu. Don’t worry, they also have an English menu and you order using the number of the dish you want.

This is the amazing Jo Rosu Katsu Zen (1,580 yen), a set meal made with pork from designated pig farms in the Kuju Highlands of Oita. It comes with a freshly deep-fried pork loin cutlet, plenty of shredded cabbage, white rice, miso soup, pickles, grated radish, and a mortar and pestle for grinding your own sesame seeds fresh. The restaurant also offers a limited number of tonkatsu dishes made from specially-selected Roppaku pigs. Roppaku pigs are raised in Kagoshima and they are called “Roppaku” (“six white”) because although they have a primarily black coloration, they have six white spots on their bodies.

Katsuretsu Tei’s secret isn’t just their carefully selected pork, but also the amazingly high quality of their specially blended oil and their oil skimming technique, which together bring out the natural savory flavors of the meat. They also use a special kind of breadcrumbs. You simply won’t be able to get enough of their golden brown color and crunchy texture! It's no wonder that the restaurant has many regular customers.

The restaurant offers two tonkatsu sauces: a light, sweet Japanese-style one, and a salty Western-style one. You can choose whichever one you like, but we personally recommend the Japanese-style sauce which becomes better and more fragrant if you add the freshly mortar-grinded sesame to it! The resulting rich flavor is, in a word, delicious! All this said, the amazingly juicy pork coated in crispy breadcrumbs does work well with both sauces, even more so when you add the white rice to the mix! Besides a tonkatsu menu, the restaurant also serves alcohol, light snacks, and take-out-only bento lunch boxes for people who can’t get enough of Katsuretsu’s cutlets! 

Once your amazing lunch is over, let’s get on the city tram at the Hanabatacho stop (A Line) and head on to the last stop on the tour.

Take It Easy at Suizenji Jojuen Garden (1:00 pm)

Get on the tram at the Hanabatacho stop and ride it for about 20 minutes until you reach Suizen-ji Koen Eki (Suizen-ji Park Station). Get off and you’ll find yourself at the entrance to the Suizen-ji Joju-en garden, where there are many souvenir shops, restaurants, coin lockers, and free Wi-Fi! But for now, hurry up and go inside!

The history of this beautiful Japanese-style garden spans more than 300 years of continued work by three generations of the Higo-Hosokawa family, who used to be the lords of the Kumamoto domain. As soon as you enter, you’ll instantly see an artificial hill in front of you, which looks exactly like a miniature version of Mt. Fuji. A little further inside, you’ll find a pond fed from a spring which flows all the way from Aso. Today, carp big and small can be found swimming leisurely in the pond waters. If you wish, you can buy food for the fish and feed them yourself.

Suizen-ji doesn’t just have beautifully green trees. It also boasts a flower garden full of plants representing all the seasons like cherry (spring), hydrangea (rainy season), plum (winter), etc. No matter what time of the year you visit Suizenji Jojuen Garden, you are bound to be greeted by beautiful scenery. The garden also organizes seasonal festivals!

The garden’s other big attraction is Izumi Shrine, a renowned spiritual spot that venerates the Hosokawa family. It’s a great place to pray or buy everything from o-mikuji (fortune slips) to talismans.

Slightly ahead of Izumi Shrine, you will also find its subordinate Inari Shrine, which venerates a deity split from the famous Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto. The vermilion torii gate seen in the distance makes for amazing photo opportunities.

Suizenji Jojuen Garden has so many beautiful views to offer that it’s easy to lose track of time as you walk through it taking pictures. Once you’ve decided you’ve had your fill, why not buy some snacks or souvenirs at one of the shops in front of the garden, which is the last stop on the tour. We don’t think you’ll forget it any time soon.

Travelers with plans of doing more sightseeing in Japan later should head on to the Aso Kumamoto Airport by taking the airport limousine bus. It stops Suizenji Jojuen Garden, located about 30 minutes from the airport, as well as many other main tourist spots, making it easier to plan your return trip. There’s also the convenient option of taking a 2-hour shinkansen ride to Fukuoka and returning home by plane. But don’t forget to set some time aside at the airport for a little shopping!

All It Takes Is One Trip to Fall in Love with Kyushu

This concludes our Kyushu travel itinerary of Fukuoka, Oita, and Kumamoto. This Japanese island really has it all, from beautiful nature scenery to delicious food, interesting historical landmarks, photogenic spots, and many more! So, please visit Kyushu! It’s going to be love at first sight!

 

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