1 full day in Nagasaki wasn’t enough. Especially with the rainy weather slowing us down and reducing some of our activities, I wish we could have spent at least another full day here but our time is limited and we need to move onto the next place. Of course on the day we leave, it’s sunny and not freezing cold.
I love how easy and affordable it is to travel around Japan. Normally, I’d buy the unlimited bullet train pass but because this trip is mainly concentrated on the island of Kyushu, there are limited bullet trains here and we would have paid more for the pass than gotten the value out of it.
I love how easy and affordable it is to travel around Japan. Normally, I’d buy the unlimited bullet train pass but because this trip is mainly concentrated on the island of Kyushu, there are limited bullet trains here and we would have paid more for the pass than gotten the value out of it.
On my trips, I really like to get a mix of cityscape and rural countryside. I feel like getting out to see nature is really rejuvenating to see God’s creation and be reminded that there’s a lot more to experience out there in the world. Yakushima Island on our last trip was phenomenal and I would go back in a heartbeat so I wanted to emulate a similar excursion out into nature. I found Miyazaki prefecture is not frequently traveled by tourists as you need to rent a car and it’s a little challenging to get to.
It was $35 to train it back to Fukuoka where I scheduled a 3pm flight to Miyazaki. I could NOT believe it when I was doing the initial trip plans that the 30 min flight was only $75 a person including check in bags.
I used to take hundreds of photos on my digital camera but with cell phone technology getting better and better over the years, the best camera to use is the one you always have with you. I think I’ve only taken a hand full of decent camera photos on this trip so far. For those airplane aficionados, here’s a few pics I took while waiting to board our plane.
When you’re boarding a plane in Asia, it’s typical to get on a bus at your boarding gate where it drives out to the tarmac and you get on the plane directly from there. I don’t know why they do it that way but it’s different than just getting on the bridge back home. This was probably the fastest flight I’ve ever been on. Take off at 3:15, landed at about 3:40.
Miyazaki is a coastal town on the south eastern side of Kyushu. I got a few pics of the city as we were landing. Kind of cool seeing the river meet the ocean.
I spent days looking for where to stay in the area. I knew that I did not want to do a hotel and instead stay at a minshuku instead which is a bed and breakfast owned by a local family who cooks usually cooks breakfast and dinner for you. The place I found was https://www.woodbegoodinn.com/ about 30 min south of the airport. We got our rental car and hit the road, while also constantly reminding myself that they drive on the left side here.
The car rental guy told me where on the car to stick in the RFID toll card but I didn’t have one so he said “No problem”…I think? within 5 minutes we hit a toll which just issued out a ticket similar to a ticket at a parking ramp. I pulled off to the side of the road to read it because I had no idea where to pay. There were 2 police officers parked a bit farther down who approached us immediately. I was sweating with the upcoming interaction because I didn’t want to get in trouble for not knowing what to do. Thankfully google translate was available to get clarity. Basically, if you don’t have the toll card, you get the ticket and then insert it wherever you get off the toll road and you pay the distance you drove. I found it very interesting compared to back home where you just pay a flat rate to use a toll.
The scenery here is just amazing. We drove miles of tunnels through rolling hills covered with densely packed evergreen forests which eventually turned into rice paddies with little baby rice shoots coming out of the water.
Since I was completely unfamiliar with the area, I wanted to check into our minshuku stay before it got dark and then figure out dinner plans afterwards. We met Ryoko who manages the place. She said her husband built the cabin himself which I was so impressed with. The place is beautiful and is in such a serene location. She gave us a really cute drawn map of the property and welcomed us to walk the farm, feed the chickens, and pet their dog Chyango. There’s also a local onsen about 6 minutes walk down the road.
She gave us recommendations on where we could get dinner for tonight and she would cook breakfast and dinner the subsequent days that we’re here. It was a 20 min drive into town where the restaurant she recommended was but they said they were full. We went to another restaurant nearby but they also said they were fully booked for an event. Not sure if they truly were full or if they didn’t want to serve us gaijin (foreigners). We were hungry so we dove into the closest restaurant just called “Cheezu”. Yep it was accurately marketed as we did get a lot of cheese.
After dinner I wanted to go to the nearby grocery store to grab some milk for the protein powder I made Joanna carry all over Japan for us. We got the milk but also a bunch of snacks and booze…you know, because we’re planning to go hiking tomorrow.
This town has big island of Hawaii vibes. I think everyone is on island time and I welcome it for this portion of our trip.
The river and the sea view is beautiful as well as the drive with paddy fields and tunnels. Even the trees look orderly in Japan.
In India too you’re bussed to the plane because weather is not an issue and they don’t have to build a jet bridge/walkway to back up the plane to. I think bussing to where the plane is also makes it easier to plan runway/takeoff space.