Devil’s Washboard at Aoshima island, Miyazaki, Japan

Aoshima island (青島) from the mainland, Kyushu (九州).

The next city we visited after Beppu (別府) was Miyazaki (宮崎). With the Shinakansen, the journey down south from Beppu was brief and comfortable. At Miyazaki we stayed at the JR Hotel, a clean and comfortable accommodation located at the very doorstep of the train station. Making a day trip out of the main city area, we took a local train to Aoshima train station, another brief ride south. It was a pleasant walk through the town from the train station thanks to the good weather we had that day. We headed towards the sea, passing fruit stalls and ice cream stands, towards a bridge that connects an island to mainland. In 15 minutes we caught sight of our destination, Aoshima island (青島). Along its shores were the geological formations we had come to see known as the Devil’s Washboard.

The 8 Hells of Beppu, Japan

The beautiful blue water of the largest hot spring at Umi Jigoku.

One of the reasons we were in Beppu (別府市) was for the famous 8 Hells (Jigoku or 地獄), which is essentially a collection of hot springs. Each hell was distinct, individualized by the hot spring itself, although the decorations did add to the diversity. Six of the Hells were located in close proximity in Kannawa District (鉄輪) while the last two were in Shibaseki District (柴石). On the day of our visit, the weather turned against us and even though the steam from the hot springs clouded practically everything in sight, the grey sky and the drizzling rain made our tour a bit colder. Perhaps that was the appropriate weather to fully appreciate hot springs! 🙂 

The Ryokan Kappo Sekiya, Beppu, Japan

Stepping off the train platform, we arrived at Beppu in the evening and started the search for our accommodation for the next 2 nights. After having had a wonderful experience staying at one traditional Japanese inn (read about that here), we were excited about our next experience at the Ryokan Kappo Sekiya in Beppu.

Hiking up Mt. Yufu, Yufuin, Japan

Yufudake, the twin peaked mountain in the background from Yufuin. On the right, Iimorigajo (飯盛ヶ城) to conquer first before hiking up Mt. Yufu.

Aside from the hot springs, we were drawn to the town Yufuin for the twin peaked mountain, Mt. Yufu also known as Yufudake (由布岳). Like our previous hikes on Yakushima (start reading about that here), we had first read about this hike on Lonely Planet’s “Hiking in Japan”(details of our edition of the book were posted here) and decided to walk this trail as a day trip. After checking out, we left our luggage at the Ryokan Sanso Tanaka (read about this awesome accommodation previously posted) for the day and took a local bus to the starting point, Yufu-tozan-guchi (由布登山口) for our hike up Mt. Yufu.

The Ryokan Sanso Tanaka in Yufuin, Japan

Greeted by Mount Yufu as we stepped out of the train station into Yufuin.

Our next port of call was a small, hot spring town called Yufuin. We took the sight-seeing train, Yufuin-no-mori from Hakata, Kumamoto to Yufuin in the afternoon (read about that in a previous post). Two hours later, we stepped into the town with dozens of other tourist and made our way by foot to our accommodation, Sanso Tanaka.

The Kumamoto Castle, Japan

The picturesque view of the mountains from the Kumamoto Castle.

A must-see tourist attraction while in Kumamoto was the castle. It sits on top of a hill making the view of the surrounding landscape spectacular.

The JR Kyushu sight-seeing trains, Japan

On the Isaburo/Shinpei sight-seeing train as it was about to whizz into a tunnel.

After spending 3 nights in Kagoshima, it was time to move on. We made use of the JR Kyushu trains to head up north to Kumamoto. While there were faster train options to cover the distance, we were excited to take the “sightseeing” trains that traveled through scenic locations at a more relaxed speed…for sight-seeing!

Japan’s biggest Camphor tree, bamboo charcoal-baked chiffon cake and an abandoned mountain pass in Aira

In the middle of a bamboo forest in Aira.

We spent 3 nights in Kagoshima, the southern tip of the Kyushu island. While that sounds like a long time, I was glad we took this “rest” before moving on. But resting didn’t mean we were deterred from exploring the region. One of the areas we wanted to visit was the Aira district for the biggest and one of the oldest Camphor tree in Japan, Kamoh no Ohkusu (蒲生の大楠).