Shrines, museums, parks, and the spots in between, with the access details worked out.
A 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.
KagoshimaThe garden and villa of the Shimazu lords at Kagoshima, laid out in 1658 with Sakurajima and the bay borrowed as its scenery.
KagoshimaHot spring resort nestled in volcanic mountains, featuring 13 public baths and traditional ryokan alongside outdoor rotenburo and foot-bath experiences.
Kusatsu · GunmaA 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 Rinzai Zen temple at Fukuyama with tea houses, moved historic halls, gardens, and one of the largest collections of Hakuin's Zen painting.
Fukuyama · HiroshimaA daimyo garden begun in 1620 in the centre of Hiroshima, destroyed by the atomic bomb and rebuilt over thirty years.
HiroshimaA six-hectare strolling garden beside Hiroshima Airport, laid out in three zones that stand for the mountains, the countryside and the sea of Hiroshima.
Mihara · HiroshimaA 266-metre hill above Tadanoumi in Takehara, half an hour's walk to a view over Okunoshima and the islands of the Seto Inland Sea.
Takehara · Hiroshima
