Visited the Aomori Museum of Art. Lucky to bump into a special exhibition of Marc Chagall – The Third Dimension, apart from other works by local artists such as Nara-san.
Had lunch in museum and headed to the Aomori Port.
Visited World Heritage in Hiraizumi, which was fairly close to Hanamaki onsen by JR Tohoku local train in less than 1 hour.
From Hiraizumi station we took a shuttle loop bus stopping by Motsuji, Chusonji and a few other spots. As it was a rainy day, we visited the two temples only.
As it was raining quite heavily at times, we skipped the treasure house and walked around the Pure Land garden in less than 1 hour.
Walked uphill in about 15min reaching the Treasure Hall. It contained some impressive treasures and artifacts. A video explained the Konjikido (literally gold-coloured hall) in details (in Japanese). Not only was it covered in gold foils but also decorated by beautiful sea shells. Though it was much smaller than Kinkakuji in Kyoto, it was the resting place for 3 generations of the Fujiwara family.
The Konjikido nearby was housed inside another hall for protection. Inside, all visitors could only watch it behind glass at a distance. Photography was prohibited in both the Treasure Hall and Konjikido.
After visiting the Hitachi Seaside Park and Ashikaga Flower Park, we headed to northern Tohoku for sakura in late April as per original plan.
The first stop was Kitakami in Iwate Prefecture – a top 100 sakura spot. Arrived from Tokyo by Hayabusa Shinkansen train in about 2.5 hours direct. The venue was along a 2km river dyke on the other side of a river. We took a temporary boat service crossing the river in 5min, landing in the middle of the venue.
There were well over 1000 sakura trees – mainly of Somei Yoshino, of which 500 of them were over 90 years old. Sakura was in full bloom with temperature in low teens – about 10C cooler than in Tokyo. As usual, the pink Shidarezakura (weeping sakura) attracted more crowds.
Though there were more sakura trees to the south of the venue where lots of temporary food stalls were selling cooked food, we left the venue after 2 hours.
After late lunch in Kitakami station, we headed to Hanamaki onsen where we stayed for 2 nights in 1 of 4 onsen hotel premises belonging to the same group. According to its exhibits, some of the premises were nearly a century old and the Japanese royal family members had stayed.
Just opposite to our onsen hotel there was an indoor rose plantation, while sakura was in full bloom. Roses were totally unexpected in April.
(湯の児チェリーライン)
The cherry line was 5km long skirting along the coastline of Yunoko in Minamata.
Stayed in an onsen hotel in Yunoko onsen town. Sea was calm so nice reflections were caught easily.
Before leaving Yunoko on the next morning dropped by this farm uphill. Scenery was gorgeous with panoramic views of the sea and coastline.
Returned car in Izumi city and took Kyushu Shinkansen back to Kagoshima city. Checked into onsen hotel on Shiroyama, which overlooks the city and Sakurajima on a hill.
Strolled along the river banks again before departing Kyushu. After 1 week since our arrival sakura was in full bloom.
On the next morning stopped by this park in Isa town before reaching Hitoyoshi in southern Kumamoto Prefecture.
It was awesome with about 1000 Sakura trees in full bloom, while many seniors were competing in croquet.
Arrived at Hitoyoshi castle ruins where sakura was in full bloom as well. Plenty of locals were having picnics beneath the sakura trees.
After lunch, dropped by this temple of about 600 years old. (Sekisui literally means stone water).
From the main entrance, a megane-bashi (spectacle-shaped bridge) crossed over a stream where it led up to an eye-shaped stone in front of the main hall.
It was serene with Magnolia and Sakura in full bloom.
Before leaving Hitoyoshi on the next morning, visited this Jinja of more than 1000 years old in the city.
Dropped by this limestone cave while driving onward to seaside onsen town Yunoko in Minamata. It took about 30min for an unguided visit inside the cave. Turquoise Kumagawa was along the way.
It was first established in the 7th century AD though due to multiple eruptions of nearby Kirishima volcanoes it had been destroyed and rebuilt. The current site was built in 18th century.
Sakura was in full bloom while locals lined up to offer their worships in the Jingu.
In the nearby park on the hillside sakura were blooming as well, stopped by Maruo-no-taki (waterfall) before reaching Kirishima onsen hotel. Due to fallen rocks it could only be observed from a distance.
Picked up rental car in the city on next morning and headed south to Ibusuki, which is famous for its hot sand bath, apart from onsen.
Stopped by Chiran – a small town along the way, to visit former Samurai residences. There were seven of them though we visited a few.
After lunch, visited Kagoshima Park in southern Satsuma Peninsula for various Spring flowers.
Not far from the Kagoshima Park is a viewpoint for cone-shaped Kaimon-dake, which is highly prominent while driving in southern Satsuma Peninsula.
On next morning, headed uphill where plenty of sakura trees were planted in a park. The sakura were in full bloom and at the top it offered panoramic views of Ibusuki.
Lake Ikeda is the largest lake in Kyushu, stopped by before heading north to Kirishima.
The original conception of this trip in early February 2018 was to visit the Kagoshima Prefecture for onsen and local cuisines, after more than 20 years since our first visit.
However from mid-March, the weather in Japan had been much warmer than normal and sakura full bloom was expected to be 5 to 7 days earlier. We were lucky to bump into it, along with sunny days for the entire week in late to end March.
Our itin included Kagoshima city, Ibusuki, Kirishima, Hitoyoshi and Minamata. The last two locations are in southern Kumamoto Prefecture.
Visited this landscape garden by city view buses. Apart from Sakura, there were other spring flowers such as Momo (Peach), Shakunage (Rhododendron), Tsubaki (Camellia) etc. The Sakurajima volcano – a major symbol of the city, could be seen clearly across the Kagoshima Bay from the garden, including from its restaurants. Had a nice lunch there and took a quick stroll inside the Shuseikan adjacent to it before leaving.
Took ferry across the bay to visit Sakurajima. A loop bus served up to Yunodaira observatory – the closest point to the crater, in one hour and back to the ferry terminal. The loop bus also stopped by at a few points for 10 minutes along the way.
Volcanic ash and gases had been erupting for most of the time on that day. Though the ashes and plumes were blowing away from us towards an easterly or south-easterly direction, a thin layer of volcanic ashes were on the road uphill and inside the loop bus.
returned to the city in late afternoon to check out the sakura status. It was around 50% along the banks of Koutsukikawa – a stream.
Beautiful coastal line with isles facing the Shimabara Peninsula in the distance. The current Japanese Emperor and Queen once visited when they were Prince and Princess, as inscribed on a stone.
after checkout, drove back to Fukuoka but stopped by small canal town Yanagawa for famous Unagi-don. Along the main expressway between Kumamoto and Tosu, there were road maintenance here and there. In one section this had caused very slow traffic for more than 15 min as vehicles had to squeeze from 2 lanes to 1.
visited this western-style mansion with a large garden. From there, boat rides could be seen along the canals right outside of the premise.
Returned car in Fukuoka. Live music performance was outside JR Hakata City with plenty of food stalls and bars. Many locals were enjoying there.
Visited Shimabara Castle and town where carps were swimming in small clear streams. After lunch, took ferry to Kumamoto in about 40min and continued south to Kami-Amakusa. This way we saved a big detour drive though the ferry ride with a car was not cheap either.
Though the Shimabara Castle was not original, it was worth a visit. There were plenty of artifacts and historical information of this town.
On the way to Kami-Amakusa we bumped into a bunch of cute toddlers on the road, following their teachers orderly. They were holding on to a ring so they would not be running around.
We were looking for lunch before the ferry ride and luckily there was this old shop Kaneko opposite to the Shimabara ferry pier. A senior woman served us. Both the tempura-don and udon were in large portions but inexpensive.
Before arriving at Kami-Amakusa we took a brief rest and had a cake set in a small coffee house converted from warehouses in Meiji-era.
