Shrines, museums, parks, and the spots in between, with the access details worked out.
Seven vividly coloured hot springs in Beppu - from a cobalt-blue pool to a blood-red pond - too hot to bathe in, but spectacular to see.
Beppu · OitaLarge aquarium featuring marine life from around the world, local exhibits, and interactive experiences including diving with dolphins.
OitaPublic park in Saga Prefecture with ornamental gardens, cherry blossoms, walking trails, and recreation facilities for families visiting the area.
SagaA museum in Minamisatsuma honoring the pilots of Bansei Air Base, Japan's last kamikaze airfield, with aircraft, artifacts and personal messages from WWII.
Minamisatsuma · KagoshimaA temple at Emukae in Sasebo where the maples of the garden are shown upside down, reflected in a panel set into the floor of the hall.
Sasebo · NagasakiThe tutelary shrine of Nagasaki, re-established in 1625 after the city had been church land, and home of the Kunchi festival.
NagasakiThe garden and villa of the Shimazu lords at Kagoshima, laid out in 1658 with Sakurajima and the bay borrowed as its scenery.
KagoshimaMuseum opened in 2005 on the site of an Edo-period magistrate's office, covering Nagasaki's history as Japan's gateway to overseas exchange.
NagasakiA park at Arita in Saga built around a copy of the Zwinger palace of Dresden, marking the porcelain that went from here to Europe.
Arita · SagaA hillside park in Nagasaki holding the Western houses of the foreign settlement, among them the oldest wooden Western building in Japan.
NagasakiThe fan-shaped island in Nagasaki that was Japan's only opening to the West for more than two centuries, now rebuilt street by street.
NagasakiAn abandoned coal mining island off Nagasaki, once the most crowded place in Japan, left empty since the mine closed in 1974.
NagasakiA gorge in Miyazaki where cliffs of columnar rock rise from the Gokase River, with a waterfall that can be reached by hired boat.
Takachiho · MiyazakiThe only Confucius temple in Japan built in full Chinese style, put up in 1893 by the Qing government and the Chinese community of Nagasaki.
NagasakiA brick church of 1908 on an island in Nagasaki that now has no inhabitants, built by seventeen households of former hidden Christians.
Ojika · NagasakiA shrine at the centre of the island of Iki, founded in 811, to the small god Sukunahikona and to Sugawara no Michizane.
Iki · NagasakiA local museum in a park built around Hisagozuka, one of the largest burial mounds in Nagasaki, covering the area from the stone age to the Edo road.
Higashisonogi · NagasakiA Chinese temple in Nagasaki founded in 1629 by merchants from Fujian, with two buildings that are National Treasures.
Nagasaki
