Shrines, museums, parks, and the spots in between, with the access details worked out.
The first Chinese temple built in Nagasaki, founded in 1620, and the place where the Obaku school of Zen began in Japan.
NagasakiA hot spring town in Saga with 1,300 years behind it, a wooden bathhouse of 1876 and a gate that is an Important Cultural Property.
Takeo · SagaThe site of a seventh-century mountain fortress in Kumamoto, built against invasion from the mainland, with four buildings reconstructed.
Yamaga · KumamotoA wide, low waterfall in Kumamoto that can be walked behind, left by the eruption that formed the Aso caldera 90,000 years ago.
Oguni · KumamotoThe head shrine of the forty thousand Hachiman shrines, founded at Usa in 725, with three halls that are a National Treasure.
Usa · OitaA sand bath on the shore at Ibusuki, where hot spring water heats the beach and bathers are buried in black volcanic sand.
Ibusuki · KagoshimaA public bathhouse of 1879 in Beppu, rebuilt in 1938 under a great curved gable, with a sand bath as well as hot water.
Beppu · OitaA small lake at Yufuin fed by both cold springs and hot ones, so that steam rises from it on winter mornings.
Yufu · OitaA shrine at Takachiho that worships the cave where the sun goddess is said to have hidden, leaving the world in darkness.
MiyazakiAn active volcano across the water from Kagoshima, 1,117 metres high, joined to the mainland by the lava of the 1914 eruption.
KagoshimaA sacred highland at 970 meters on Mount Kirishima's slopes, legendary in Japanese mythology as where the heavenly grandchild descended to rule.
Kirishima · KagoshimaA shrine below the peak of Takachiho in Kagoshima, its vermilion halls of 1715 made a National Treasure in 2022.
Kirishima · KagoshimaA shrine on the coast of Miyazaki whose vermilion hall stands inside a sea cave, with a rock said to have nursed the god born there.
Nichinan · MiyazakiA memorial park near the Nagasaki hypocentre, built around the great bronze Peace Statue and peace monuments donated by nations around the world.
NagasakiObi Castle, ruled by the Ito clan for centuries, was completely refurbished in the late 1970s along with its surrounding castle town.
Nichinan · MiyazakiKnown as the Black Castle, Kumamoto Castle is famed for its stone walls and architecture, and is open to visitors again after earthquake restoration.
KumamotoOriginally built in the late sixteenth century to control highway crossroads, Saga Castle served as the Saga Domain's residence and was reconstructed in 1989.
SagaLocated on an island in central Fukuoka, Nakasu is celebrated for its vibrant nightlife, entertainment venues, and traditional yatai street food stalls.
Fukuoka
