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Surfin’ Japan Continued…

Even though Japan is a relatively small country in comparison to Australia, there are many places you can go surfing. You can find some great surf spots in Chiba, Shonan, Shizuoka, Wakayama, Kyushu (Miyazaki), Okinawa and Hokkaido (if you don’t mind the cold).  

Tips to surfing in Japan

Rent a car with English Navi, bring a good map in case Navi doesn’t work, bring own board if possible and own water, learn some Japanese surf words (wave = nami). Most important - don’t drop in on the locals.

I thought I’d leave the best till last - ME!

The End!

Have you ever thought about surfing in Japan?!

Well…..why not check out the photos below and see if you are interested…

There is a place in Southern Japan, on the Island of Kyushu, called Miyazaki, or to the local foreigners who have ended up in this small paradise ‘The Zak’. Before the Gold Coast, Bali and Hawaii, this was once the honeymoon destination for Japanese newlyweds. While boasting beautiful scenery, it is also famous for ‘Chicken Nanban’ - Deep fried chicken, eighty dollar a pop mangoes and is one of the surfing meccas of Japan. It has even had the pleasure of welcoming pro surfer Kelly Slater!!

Like all great surf articles, I can not reveal where these photos were taken, but please enjoy the ride…… 

To be continued……..

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

From here we head some to Takachiho, located in Miyazaki prefecture.

Takachiho has a beautiful gorge where you can do some short walks and row a cute boat along the bottom of the gorge. It is not a big area but very quaint.

Next stop was Mt Aso

Now this is a remote area with very few buses running to the lookout and no English signs. For the first time ever, we hitchhiked up as we had to wait 2 hours for the next bus!! Luckily for us a grandma and grandpa couple picked us up in their flash sedan and even though we could barely communicate we were treated so kindly with continuous supplies of chocolates and hot chips being passed over the back seat! Only in Japan……If the weather is not good, then you can not take the ropeway to the top and not much can been seen – this happened to us. But friends who have also visited Mt Aso were in luck and raved about the walks and views from the top.

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.

Trying to see the most of the country that I could with this ticket as I could, my friends and I decided to go south, to Kyushu. From Nagoya to Hakata was something like a 14 -16 hours train trip, starting at about 5.30am. You really have to plan ahead which trains you need to take because to give you an idea we had to change about 8 times on this leg!!

A great website to do this is `Hyperdia’http://www.hyperdia.com/cgi-english/hyperWeb.cgi

First stop was Fukuoka which is a lovely city famous for fresh crab, blowfish and Ramen. Of course I ate my way around as well, must try everything on the way!! Blowfish looks just like this (below) if you have as sashimi. I didn’t think that it had too much flavor but I don’t think that my palate for Japanese food wasn’t very refined at this stage

When we ordered it though, a man came out with a net and grabbed one out of the pond in front of us and we could see the chef in the kitchen slicing it up for us – talk about fresh! Before we knew it, it was in front of us, body also on plate as a decoration….

FUNNY TALES….. 

Hitch-hiking

In most countries I would never think to hitch hike but Japan (in a rural area) I think can be a great form of transport. Had the day planned to see Mt Aso, volcano in Kumamoto Prefecture but be warned the transport in the this area is very few and far between hence we found ourselves in the freezing cold with nothing open with a 1 hour wait for the next bus to take us up. 3 young girls thought `Should be okay to hitch hike or at least try…’ At first hesitant to put the finger out soon came more easily. After only 10 minutes a lovely sedan pulled up and to our surprise and relief an elderly couple greeted us. We could speak enough to let them know where we wanted to go and they seemed more than happy to drive us there. As if this wasn’t good enough, from the front seat the `obaasan’, grandmother, proceeded to pass over hot chips, chocolates and Japanese sweets. After a short trip up the hill, a brief photo op and a smiley thanks, we waved them goodbye.

Ahhh…sweet memories!

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