Japan: Southern Explorer

The Nakasu ‘Pleasure District’ is the best area in town for the local, and much loved, ‘tonkotsu ramen’. Rows of wheel-along stalls set up in the evening in its neon-lit streets to feed hungry local night-owls bowls of this tasty, miso-based broth, which is typically served with thick slices of roasted pork, spring onion and various flavoursome sauces.

Fukuoka seems at first-sight the most modern city imaginable, but it has ancient roots, as the old temples surviving in a quiet enclave downtown demonstrate. Start with the five-storey, red-painted Tocho-ji pagoda, a 9th century Shingon shrine housing a huge wooden Buddha, and then Shofuku-ji, Japan’s oldest Zen shrine, set in a serene moss garden.

With its winding streets stacked in terraces overlooking the harbour, Nagasaki, where you’ll arrive in the afternoon, is one of Japan’s most alluring cities, and one with an eclectic array of monuments, ranging from Confucian temples and Shinto shrines, to remnants of the earliest phases of European contact.

Begin your sightseeing at the Peace Park and Atomic Bomb Museum, centred around the black stone pillar marking the spot where the American atom bomb exploded on August 9th, 1945. Then visit the residence of the Scottish tycoon, Thomas Glover, who introduced steam locomotion and created the country’s first coal mines and breweries during the Meiji period. Facing the harbour, his former home was the setting for Puccini’s opera, Madame Butterfly. Echoes of older European influence are to be found in the Dejima enclave, where the Dutch sited their first trading post in the 17th century. Other ‘must sees’ downtown include the Shrine to the 26 Martyrs, commemorating the persecution of Christians by the Shoguns of the late-16th century, and sumptuously decorated Sofuki-ji and nearby Kofuku-ji temples.

The ranks of palm trees lining Kagoshima’s streets attest to the mildness of the local climate – one of the factors that first attracted European traders and missionaries to the area in the 16th century. A legacy of this early contact with the West is the prominence of sweet potatoes in the local cuisine. Centuries of ash deposits from nearby Mount Sakurajima have resulted in stupendously fertile soil – a boon for farmers (though not so great for local car owners!). If time permits, jump on a ferry for the trip across the harbour for a closer look at the volcano, which is still active.

Small, mountainous and astonishingly lush, Yakushima is one of Japan’s natural wonders, with a mist-shrouded core cloaked in mystical forests of moss-covered Japanese cedar (some specimens over a thousand years old). A network of paved trails makes trekking through the woodland a joy, though you’ll need to come equipped for rain – Yakushima is officially the wettest place in Japan!

A number of open-air thermal baths are dotted around Myoken Onsen, a quiet town on the Amorigawa River. Full of Japanese atmosphere, this is a great place to unwind, and our preferred accommodation choice – a traditional ryokan inn – provides the ideal base from which to explore the local onsens and forest trails.

Start your tour of Kumamoto with a visit to the town’s enormous castle – one of the largest and best preserved in Japan – which dates from the 17th century. What you see today is largely a replica of the original, which was destroyed in the Seinan War of 1877, but it’s still impressive. In its grounds stands the 300-year-old Gyobu-tei residence, a fine example of a samurai mansion dating from the Edo period.

After the castle, Kumamoto’s main visitor attraction is the beautiful Suizen-ji– a classic Japanese stroll garden centred on a spring-fed lake. The handsomely restored Kokindenju pavilion on the waterside holds a traditional open-sided tatami tea room where you can order bowls of matcha tea and a Japanese sweet while enjoying the lake views. Afterwards, call at the Traditional Crafts Centre nearby where you’ll find examples of locally made gold paper Yamage lanterns – lovely, lightweight souvenirs!

The region around Mount Aso, inland from Kumamoto, is one of the most spectacular in Japan. Clouds of sulphurous steam belch from the blue-green lake hidden inside the summit cauldron of Mt Takadake (one of Aso’s five cones), whose rim can be scaled on foot, by car or via a ropeway.

The horrors of August 6th, 1945, when the Americans dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, still cast a shadow of this impressive Japanese city. A museum in the Peace Memorial complex, close to the epicentre of the explosion, displays the few photographs taken in its aftermath, along with testimonies from survivors. Despite the fact that an entirely new, vibrant centre has since been built over the radioactive ashes, visiting the site tends to evoke strong emotions. Only by coming here, however, is it possible to fully comprehend the scale of the tragedy – and astonishing resilience of those who survived it.

Miyajima is home to one of Japan’s most revered Shinto complexes, whose pagoda roofs take shape above the treeline as you approach the island. Once you’ve explored the shrine, follow the pilgrims’ pathway behind it up the wooded slopes of Mount Misen to a sacred summit. The boulder-studded peak affords a wonderful view across the ocean and surrounding islets. You can catch a cable-car ride to within half an hour’s walk of the top, or climb all the way through dense forests of maple, cherry and conifers.

Featuring a labyrinthine interior of winding stairways, passages and bathing chambers, Dogo Onsen is a wooden public bathhouse dating from the Meiji Period of the late 19th century. The surrounding neighbourhood holds a wealth of fascinating temples, shrines, museums and a pleasant park, where you’ll see lots of ryokan guests strolling in their silk yukatas!

Matsuyama’s hilltop citadel dates from the early 16th century, and ranks among the most compelling of its kind in Japan. Climb the flight of stone steps or jump in a cable car to reach its fortified main gate. It’s well worth allowing time for the little museum in the keep, where visitors can dress up in authentic samurai costume. The Shiki Masaoka Museum is devoted to a master of Japanese haiku, with an impressive display of old manuscripts, paintings and antique photographs of the city.

Considered one of Japan’s finest ‘strolling gardens’, the park is laid out among stands of black pines, chestnut trees and shimmering lotus ponds spanned by pretty red-lacquer bridges. End your tour with a tea ceremony in one of the Riturin’s wooden tea-huts, or chashitsu – our favourite is the Edo-period ‘Chrysanthemum Moon Pavilion’, which juts onto an emerald-green pond framed by flowering trees and low, wooded hills.

Laid out in 1700, the Koraku-en was one of the first ‘strolling gardens’ in Japan to feature large expanses of lawn, interspersed with plum, pine and cherry trees. It also incorporates a pond crossed by classic – and highly photogenic – red bridge. The nearby castle was factored into the garden’s design, and looks rather splendid as a backdrop, its upswept eaves and distinctive black walls rising above a mist of cherry blossom in the spring. The castle’s interior holds a military museum with an impressive array of samurai weaponry.

This wonderful cycle route passes a succession of Shinto shrines, pagoda-roofed temples, 4th century burial mounds and farmsteads on its winding route around Okayama’s outskirts. You could also take an excursion to Naoshima Island, a large, open-air venue for modern sculpture and art installations.

A great way to get your bearings, and experience an incredible panoramic view of Osaka’s futuristic skyline, is a ride on the giant Tempozan Ferris Wheel. Sightseeing highlights include the Museum of Oriental Ceramics, with its world-class collection of Chinese, Japanese and Korean masterpieces, and the wonderful Bunraku Puppet Theatre, the country’s main venue for this extraordinary art form, in which plays are performed by elaborately dressed puppets over a metre tall (headsets are available for English translations).