Kumamoto 熊本県 and Nagasaki 長崎県 2017 2018
This winter, I had the chance to visit western and northern Kyushu. Here are a few things from my Kumamoto and Nagasaki portion of the trip.
Kumamoto 熊本
Kumamoto has one major tourist attraction: Kumamoto Castle. However, during the earthquake in 2016, it was heavily damaged. Until that is repaired, I would have to say that the city itself is not the most interesting place, although there are several nice places in the prefecture.
Kumamoto City 熊本市
I was not sure whether or not the castle would be worth it. The website was unhelpful and the tourist information centre, which was supposed to be open, was not. So, here are a couple of pictures of the castle under repairs.
There is a nice little park in the city, called Suizenji Jojuen Garden (水前寺成趣園). It was really nice, although of course in December it was a little bit off season. Still, a nice little spot.
Mt. Aso 阿蘇山
I actually had a hard time finding information about visiting this mountain, so I just drove into it. It is an active volcano and something called a "caldera", which means that it's a volcano within an old volcano (this is not a scientifically accurate description, probably 100% wrong). After arriving, they have a very helpful tourist information centre, so I used their maps to go for a hike. Because the volcano has been especially active lately, visiting the crater was closed off, but I enjoyed hiking around for a couple of hours, especially since I was above the clouds.
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| Mt. Aso 阿蘇山 |
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| Top of the ski area, end of December 2017. Mt. Aso 阿蘇山 |
Amakusa 天草
My guidebooks suggested going to Amakusa for two main reasons. First, there are some beautiful churches from the early Meiji period and there are some phenomenal views, especially along the coast (which is most of Amakusa, since it consists of a peninsula and islands).
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| View of the water in Amakusa. |
Nagasaki 長崎
As I took a ferry from Kumamoto to Nagasaki, the skies cleared up:
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| Leaving Kumamoto. |
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| Arriving in Nagasaki. |
If there was one place I wish I had spent more time on this 10-day trip, it was Shimabara. Besides the interesting historical sites, it has some spectacular views and Unzen Onsen, which is a resort town in the mountains. Just take a look:
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| View from Mt. Unzen |
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| View from Mt. Unzen |
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| View from Mt. Unzen |
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| Unzen Onsen resort town, complete with visible hot springs |
Hashima Island or Battleship Island or Gunkanjima (軍艦島)
The only way to visit this island is to go on a tour. First, the problems: it takes a long time to get there, the area you can visit is very small, and it was clearly an overpriced photo spot for many people. However, the interesting history (it claims to have been the most densely populated city ever, but is now abandoned) and the sort of eerie beauty of the abandoned island is definitely worthwhile. 
A few sites around Nagasaki City
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Old living area for Europeans in the early Meiji period.
Glover Garden, グラバー園
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| Night view from Mount Inasa, 稲佐山 |
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At one point, the small (now non-existent) island of Dejima was the only place that Europeans were allowed to live in all of Japan. It has been rebuilt into an uninteresting tourist attraction.
Dejima 出島
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The food in Nagasaki was great. Here are just two of the things I ate.
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| Champon. It is a Japanese version of Chinese noodles. It has pork and seafood. A Nagasaki specialty. |
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| Home of the Sasebo Burger, which is a Japanese adaptation of a classic American burger. After eating here, today's Japanese burgers make a lot more sense. Also, it was really good. 佐世保バーガーですよね。めっちゃ美味い。 |
