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The original was posted on /r/japantravel by /u/KuroMango on 2024-10-04 00:16:15+00:00.
Hello all! I’ve decided to post this trip report in particular because I found it a little difficult to find solid resources for planning my trip to the south of Kyushu this past September. I will include a detailed itinerary of how I spent my time, and a collection of tips/thoughts at the end. I arrived on September 14th and returned to my home prefecture on September 21st. So it will be a long one but I hope a couple people find it useful. After the itinerary/commentary I’ve included a notes section at the end.
Overall, I think this was a good amount of time to spend in these cities and prefectures, and I don’t think I missed out on much. If I had stayed for longer, I may have gotten bored.
Night 1: Arrive in Kagoshima (staying at a friend’s house)
- Arrived at Kagoshima Airport at 4:45pm.
- Went outside and bought bus tickets from the booth to go downtown, closest to friend’s house. I should note that you can’t use a regular Pasmo/Suica to pay bus or tram fares here, so either get the Cute Pass or pay in cash.
- Arrived around 6pm, dropped bags and together we went to a community Mochi Making Event held at the Kagoshima Kenmin Koryu Centre. It was to celebrate the upcoming Tsukimi holiday and was a lot of fun! Very foreigner friendly. Though apparently advanced reservations were required, I think they had enough space that potential drop-ins in the future would be fine.
- Friend and I parted ways momentarily so I could grab some dinner and they went to a party that I would later join. I ate tsukemen at Vagabond Ramen and I HIGHLY recommend getting the tsukemen with chashu – the portions were so delicious and succulent. I actually chose to eat here again later in the trip because it was so dang tasty.
- Attended the party at Luck Apartment (not actually an apartment, it’s a café which usually closes at 6pm but they seem to have frequent events that lead late into the night). I’m not really a huge party person but it was fun enough. Had a couple drinks, they had a DJ, made some friends (also a very international crowd here and there were many Japanese people in their 20s who were very practiced at casual English conversation).
- Headed back home around 10pm, and the party was still boppin when I left.
Day 1: Sakurajima and the city
- Got a latte at Luck Apartment, was good.
- Set off to the ferry terminal around 9am, took me about 15m to walk from the café though I went a bit of a roundabout way to stroll through Minato Odori Park on my way, which was pleasant. It was quite sunny so I was using my umbrella to give me some shade. It was already 25 degrees despite being 9am.
- Boarded the 9:40 ferry to Sakurajima. When you get to the terminal you just walk on to the ferry and you pay the fare when you get there.
- Bought a Cute Pass at the info booth in the arrival terminal which was all-encompassing for city transit (basically anything that isn’t JR). Proved to be worth my money since it will also cover the ferry.
- Got on the 10:30am red line tour bus. There are two buses every hour, one blue and one red. The red seems to stop at every point whereas the blue skips a couple I think? At least that’s what it looked like to me on the diagram. Line up ~20mins early to get a good spot. (Used Cute Pass for this, there is also a bus day-pass you can get on-board for 500yen)
- Finished my tour around 11:30, at which point I had the “ash” ice cream at the café in the ferry terminal which came with *the* perfect sweet potato chip. The softcream was fairly standard otherwise but was nice to cool down.
- Took the 12pm ferry back to the mainland.
- Walked to the tram and took a 1-hour journey to Amaminosato, where I had a reservation for the hand-looming experience. This was super fun, but you have a hard deadline of 1h30m to work, which is was the reservation was for. I think it would be easiest to do if you have basic Japanese (key words being left, right, up, down). If not for this reservation I would have spent more time on Sakurajima. But it proved to be worth it. They have other things you can make reservations for, and there was a couple making the little woven keychain thing they offer which seemed fun too. I enjoyed the garden on site as well as the little museum/displays of the Oshima Tsumugi ash-dying fabric process. I probably spent 2 1/2 hours here, between my weaving and exploring.
- Took the tram 1 hour back to my friend’s place where we met up and we went out to dinner. I had Kurobuta tonkatsu at Kurokatsutei Kurobe Tenmonkan. It was tasty!
- We walked around the Tenmonkan area for quite a while, and stopped to have dessert at Mujaki Main Shop, known for its Shirokuma Shaved Ice. It was pretty good, better than the average I’d say.
- We tried going to a local izakaya named 017 Yokaban, which came HIGHLY recommended by several people I spoke to before going on this trip and unfortunately it was completely full when we got there around 7:30pm. I think if you want to have a chance getting in you need to either go early or late. The owner came out and spoke to us for a minute, and she was super sweet. She recommended we come back around 9pm, but we didn’t end up having the energy.
- Returned home for the night after this.
Day 2: Last full day in the city before heading to next destination
- Went to Reimeikan for 9am. The gates were open a little early and it was very dead when I got there, and when I left. I think there was only one other group of people. I took my time around the ground and inside the museum to appreciate the history. My Cute Pass got me a discount for entry.
- Walked over to Tenmonkan area again after I was done to eat a donut from Satsuma Jokiya Kakashi Yokocho, as recommended by my friend the day before. It was good, and I think if you don’t like super sweet things you’d enjoy it but I wouldn’t go out of my way for it. The shop was cute and had a lovely water feature where you can sit and eat your snacks.
- Spent some time at CenTerrace Tenmonkan, which was fairly standard for malls in Japan but they had a few shops that were owned by locals making their own products and art which I enjoyed. I also found these small soy sauce plates that looked like traditional Japanese plate art but had dinosaurs on them – absolute 10/10.
- Took the bus to Sengan-en Garden. I was really looking forward to this because it was a beautiful clear day and they had really good views of Sakurajima. It was quite a dynamic park with many different areas that felt unique. I ate mochi at one of the first shops there that are prepared traditionally to the area and they were very tasty. I then made my way over to the craft workshop area, where I paid 4000yen to do pottery painting. This does not require a reservation, nor is there a set amount of time you have to complete your work. I did a plate, and I think it came out quite nicely! You do need to have an address in Japan though for at least another week and a half after you do this because you use glaze paints, so they have to fire it in the kiln and then send it to you (all included in the initial price) before you get to keep it for good. They also had cups you could paint, or other little charms you could make which you would get to keep right away. I think I painted for about 2 hours, and was at the park for 3 hours overall. My Cute Pass got me a free post card upon entry.
- Took the bus to Ishibashi Memorial Park. It was nice enough for like 15mins. I just wanted to see the bridge architecture and that was about it, so I didn’t stay too long.
- Realized that I forgot my mobile battery at CenTerrace so had to make a detour back there to get it back. The staff were very helpful.
- While I was in the area I decided to get a matcha latte and chocolate tart at TEAWAVE, which was highly recommended by a local and I thoroughly enjoyed their offerings. I don’t like my matcha too sweet, and this was perfect. The chocolate tart was also quite rich and delicious.
- Returned to my friends place to drop off stuff, and then went back out to eat at Vagabond Ramen again where I had the tsukemen again and enjoyed it even more than last time. If you like thicccc noodles you’ll like this place.
- Turned in for the night.
Day 3: Shinkansen to Kumamoto (staying at another friend’s place).
- Had a breakfast sandwich as Seattle Coffee (chain) at Kagoshima Chuo Station, was a standard egg salad.
- Took the 8:30am shinkansen for Kumamoto. Cost about 8300yen for the green car (7000 for regular).
- Stored my backpack in the coin lockers upon my arrival to Kumamoto station.
- Took the tram (used my regular Pasmo here) to Kumamoto Castle. Sure, there are better castles in Japan but this was nice enough, and the area around it like the river and surrounding parks were quite beautiful. I liked seeing the view of the city from the top. There are also some areas that are under construction because they were damaged by a recent earthquake, so it was pretty interesting to see the process of refurbishment. Also walked around the traditional shopping area here and got a yummy honey-blueberry drink mix syrup.
- Bided my time until 12pm, where I had a reservation a…
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