Kyushu Foodie Friendcation | JNTO

Gift an unforgettable birthday in Japan! Kyushu

Draw inspiration from Jie Lin and Claudia’s trip and celebrate your loved ones with mouthwatering cuisines across Kyushu!

To celebrate Jie Lin’s birthday, the pair of best friends embark on a foodie journey to try out dishes like authentic edomae sushi, luxurious kaiseki meals, premium wagyu, and even roadside yatai (food carts)! Find out where to indulge in good food on this exciting culinary trip in the four cities of Kyushu: Kitakyushu, Kumamoto, Kagoshima and Fukuoka. And of course, not to mention the many activities and sightseeing spots on the way!

Check out our website for the itinerary and other details!
https://japanbyjapan.com/special_occasion/birthday/kyushu/

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I think the purpose for the trip was definitely to celebrate Jie Lin’s birthday. We also wanted to have something to look forward to like "ah, we actually started the year really well." From the tea experience, and looking at the tea master prepare the tea for us, you really can understand and appreciate Japanese craftsmanship, and you can tell that this can only come about with years of experience. I thought that it was beautiful to watch. We went up to the fifth floor of Tenshukaku, there’s a cafe there. We tried some dessert. The chocolate terrine was very, very good. It was like a sweet, nice ending to our morning. They (the chefs) are very passionate about what they do. So, for example, there is…they try to tell you to eat the sushi within one minute of them serving it, so that you taste it at its best. After lunch, we went to the Mojiko station, from where we walked to the Kanmon Strait Museum. I just feel like it’s kind of like a movie set or like a drama set where you can kind of walk through how people used to live, and how life was. I did like the view around the Mojiko port. You get to see a lot of foreign-designed buildings. Staff: Happy Birthday! My birthday surprise was the fireworks, and something that I’ll remember for a long time. To end the night off, we went to the Mekari (Park) Second Observatory, where you can see the Kanmon Bridge that connects Kyushu and Honshu and lighting up the cities. A really amazing view. We, from the Mojiko station, we took a train to Kumamoto. When we arrived in Kumamoto, we headed straight for a strawberry farm. We had like a pluck-and-eat-all-you-can buffet for adults, which I thought was very fun. That Kaiseki meal at Shiromiyagura in Kumamoto Castle, that whole meal was like really like a work of art, sitting just right by the Kumamoto Castle and with a cute little Kumamon teddy bear next to me. That’s something that will stay in my mind for a long time. It’s a very elaborate piece. Suizenji is a really beautiful stroll garden. The water is so clean and so clear, and I think it’s precisely because of that that’s why the koi fish in the pond are so beautiful. The guide mentioned to us that in Kumamoto Castle in 2016, there was an earthquake. They are currently reconstructing, and a lot of the stone walls actually fell. I felt the walk through the castle grounds was very beautiful with the snow dancing around. And then we, of course, we were in our kimonos. Kumamon is very well-known, even outside Japan. So we had to also try the Kumamon-yaki. It felt a bit cannibalistic to be biting off Kumamon’s head but it was very cute. I particularly love the Akaushi Wagyu beef. When I heard it sizzling on the hot plate, my ears were in heaven and I was so excited, I was salivating. We took a train from Kumamoto to Kagoshima. It’s actually home to the Shimadzu clan (from Satsuma) for more than 360 years. It oversees Sakurajima volcano, which is the most active volcano in Japan itself. You could see very clear influences of Western all the way to Chinese influences within the Japanese architecture. And we went for lunch at Zino and got to try Kuroge Wagyu, which was something that I’ve been really looking forward to and we had a very good lunch. We went to the island of Sakurajima. So what we did was we did some sand art. They use volcanic ash from Sakurajima. I thought it was a very nice way of having personalised touch and a memory to it. I think one of the best parts is while you are soaking your feet then you can actually see Sakurajima in the back. So it’s kind of like you know, you make your way up, and make your way down and you sit there and have a good rest. For dinner, we went to Wakana, which serves Kurobuta shabu-shabu, which is black pork shabu-shabu. It was another melt-in-your-mouth experience. I think that Kagoshima is a great place for meat lovers. We left Kagoshima via the Shinkansen back to Fukuoka. We got to enjoy the nice sunny weather. One thing I really liked about the open-top bus was the fact that when we were on the highway she was saying to lift your hands up as if it was a roller coaster. Basically what they serve is Hanakago Gozen, and it is presented very beautifully. Most of the ingredients are sourced locally from Kyushu. It’s like a little surprise within the little basket itself, and it’s very adorable. The Fukuoka tower has a 123-metre-tall observatory deck, so what you can do is that you can walk around the whole deck. It also showcases some of the highlights of Fukuoka itself. Kind of like a different experience that Fukuoka actually offers. You know, you get to see the city and then you get to visit the seaside. I think that’s the speciality of Fukuoka, the beach is so close to the city centre. (At teamLab Forest Fukuoka) you can catch animals in a jungle and then you can release them. It’s very instagrammable. I think there was one that was a kaleidoscope, we were really trying to capture an image of ourselves. I love the ambience at the Yatai. The owners made us feel very welcome, we had a good chat with them. They were very funny and very humorous. It was comfort food and good vibes, I think it was a sweet end to our trip in Kyushu. Overall, we had a lot of fun in Kyushu and this trip will stay in our memories for a very long time. We definitely want to return to Kyushu again in the future with our family and friends!