Travel Japan - Japan Package Tours, Cheap Flights to Japan, Japan Hotels and Japan Rail Pass

I have to say that for me the best spot in Kyushu is Nagasaki. Nagasaki has such a beautiful location being by the water so by night you can see the twinkle of the lights on the sea. It is hard to imagine the severity of the Atomic Bomb on this city as it is green, locals are friendly, and there is a lot of European culture. If you can only get to one of the Peace parks I do think Nagasaki’s the better one as it is smaller, well laid out and humbling.  City is also famous for Castella cake, similar to our Maderia cake, fantastic for an afternoon tea break.

All photos courtesy of JNTO

 All in all I strongly recommend making your way down to Kyushu if you have time as it is a vastly culturally diverse island with many sites and food to tryJ 

If you would like more information about any of these areas, the Juuhachi Kippu or tours offered in Kyushu, do not hesitate to contact your friendly Travel Japan consultants.

 2 great tours we offer are:

`Nagasaki & Imari Pottery’ 5 days visiting Fukuoka, Imari and Nagasaki from $2388.00 per person
`Mt Aso and Kagoshima’ 5 days visiting Fukuoka, Kumamoto, Kagoshima from $2735.00 per person

After a night in Fukuoka we made our way to Beppu. Beppu is a famous onsen (hot spring) town where we heard that the mud onsen is something not to be missed. Travelling around Kyushu is not as easy as Honshu due the less frequent trains and lack of English but it is still a great destination.

The mud hot spring we got into was actually MIXED (both males and females in one area) and outdoor. For 3 girls this was all very daunting and new. The etiquette is to take of the modesty towel before entering but I have to say that we broke this in the mixed onsen as we got in with our towels on and then unveiled Great experience and the thick/warm mud felt amazing. Definitely recommend getting past the embarrassment to try this out.

The other thing to do while in Beppu is visit the `8 Hells’ which are 8 different types of hot springs, no swimming allowed and are all different colours and style. One even has crocodiles! They all have their own mascots as well which is fun for a photo op. Generally they are only to look at but some have a small foot hot spring that you can enjoy while eating eggs boiled in the hot waters.

FUNNY TALES….. 

Beef upon beef….

Took a great trip down to Beppu, famous onsen city located on the East coast of Kyushu, to experience a mud onsen! Arrived late in the afternoon and after checking into our hotel we headed out for dinner. We came across a small yakiniku restaurant which had a table so in we went. It was a challenge to order as the menu was in kanji and none of us could speak Japanese. Through the dictionary and pointing at the table’s food next to us we finally ordered and looked forward to some beef! As the plates of beef came out the hunger grew and looked amazing. Plate after plate came out and we all started to panic. We had enough beef on the table to feed 10 people and there were only 4 of us!! As we couldn’t send it back and explain the situation we called our friends to come and help us eat it. I did not want to see the bill…..

Finally we did our best and requested the bill. Total 28,000 yen, about $400.00!!

Note to all travelers: Learning the basics of Japanese language is essential when going to a rural area