KYUSHU, Japan – The little onsen town of Kannawa is an enchanted world with wisps of steam rising everywhere from pavements. Its retro bathhouses, fed by underground hot springs, seem to me like cinematic echoes of the Japanese animated fantasy film Spirited Away (2001).
Exploring the alleys, travellers stop at public foot baths for a spontaneous soothing soak, restorative after a flight. Or they may pop into a chic cafe, enjoy a mini oden and chat with the young proprietors, as I do.
The oden turns out to be an appetiser because, soon, I cannot resist a late lunch at Jigoku Mushi Kobo Kannawa steam cooking centre (5-kumi, Furomoto, Beppu, Oita 874-0044). I choose the “Enchanted” solo diner’s set with lots of vegetables (1,050 yen, or S$9; additional 400 yen for steaming).
I let the dozen ingredients steam in sodium-tinged vapours, guided by a volunteer, and my lunch is an aromatic array after 15 minutes. My egg gets its own ice bath and bamboo basket, an expression of the Japanese affection for detail, even in small daily routines.
Steam-shrouded Kannawa is a district within onsen city Beppu in Oita prefecture, which abounds with more hot springs than anywhere else in Japan.
With its nostalgic bathhouses, local delicacies and lanes made for Insta-wandering, Kannawa is an ideal start to my “onsen gastronomy trek” – a triple indulgence in Japan’s best gifts to travellers.
On a trip hosted by Walk Japan (walkjapan.com), which pioneered walking tours in hidden regions, my companions and I relax daily in natural hot springs, dine on the freshest seasonal produce and trek on gentle trails.
The Enchanted solo diner’s set with vegetables, leaf-wrapped dumpling and egg for lunch at Jigoku Mushi Kobo Kannawa steam cooking centre.ST PHOTO: LEE SIEW HUA
Over five timeless days, our small group will discover rural Oita and Kumamoto prefectures in Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands.
Here are the three sweetest pleasures of the trip.
1. Onsen, morning and evening
The hot springs here vary greatly. Bubbling or still, sulphurous or odourless, clear or coloured. All are signs of the volcanic and seismic forces that shaped this part of Japan.
We stop at Beppu’s Seven Hells, a cluster of hot springs where the milky turquoise Sea Hell dazzles. There is also the Blood Pond, tinted with iron oxide and other rosy minerals.
While these superheated pools are only to marvel at, we will luxuriate in therapeutic thermal waters at all our intimate hotels and ryokan, day and night.
Blood Pond from the Seven Hells cluster of hot springs in Beppu.ST PHOTO: LEE SIEW HUA
Even the three-star, few-frills Dormy Inn (12-13 Ekimaecho, Beppu, Oita 874-0935), minutes from the bustling Beppu train station, is an onsen idyll.
Its rooftop is a whole floor of communal baths, private onsen and a “break room” with massage chairs and books. I snag a coveted, complimentary private outdoor onsen with a panorama of mountains, sea and sky.
A personal onsen on the rooftop of three-star Dormy Inn in Beppu.ST PHOTO: LEE SIEW HUA
Built with natural stone and wood, with contemplative music playing and a leaf-catcher in the corner, the personal onsen is designed to be dreamy. The sounds of the city are more ambient than apparent here.
The Dormy Inn is my nest before the Walk Japan journey begins, as I have arrived a day in advance, and it is a prelude to the hot-spring hotels on the itinerary, each an immersive experience of Japanese culture and beauty.
The Enokiya Ryokan (www.yufuin-enokiya.jp) in Yufuin, for instance, has three private baths. Again, I am cocooned by warm water and steam, this time with a slice of the night sky above me.
In-room open-air onsen above the waves at Amane Resort Seikai in Beppu.PHOTO: GAN YEE HUAT
The Amane Resort Seikai (www.seikai.co.jp) in Beppu has an in-room onsen built into the balcony, where I soak above the waves of the bay.
Beyond these private sanctuaries, I enjoy public footbaths and bathhouses.
In Kannawa, after the lunch of steamed goodies, I buy a towel for 200 yen from the restaurant and step into the huge semi-circular footbath next door. There is solitude among strangers, including an indulgent dad with his toddler, who finds the water a sensation, like kids everywhere.
Another time, led by Australia-born Japanese-speaking guide Jonathan Finger, some of us try a tiny, traditional streetside footbath fashioned from wood. Roll up your trousers, insert your feet into two steaming “buckets” and enjoy the feeling of walking out on clouds.
Tiny, traditional streetside footbath in Kannawa where the writer enjoyed a feeling of walking on clouds after a hot soak.ST PHOTO: LEE SIEW HUA
2. Gastronomy on the go
Each day is sumptuous. There is much to love about the intricate multi-course kaiseki banquets at our inns where, fresh from an evening onsen soak and cosily robed in yukata, we dine at low tables on tatami mats.
Intricate, seasonal omakase feasts are a great delight after an evening onsen soak.ST PHOTO: LEE SIEW HUA
Then there is the light-hearted cafe lunch in Bungoono, a city cuddled by forests and waterfalls. Lunch in the sunlit room begins with three flights of sake procured from the family’s cellar steps away.
At the Takakiya Garden Sasara cafe (takakiya-garden.com), our sake-laced lunch includes a chicken dish marinated with koji. Used to ferment sake, soya sauce and miso, the koji infuses the silken chicken with sweet-salty-floral umami.
Grilled fish at a splendid multi-course kaiseki dinner that uses fresh, seasonal ingredients.ST PHOTO: LEE SIEW HUA
We also visit the family’s Hamashima Sake Brewery, just across the country road, where one highlight is the koji room. Although it is barred by double doors, we are intrigued by sixth-generation brewer Yasuhiro Hamashima’s description of the magic of fermentation.
Mr Hamashima, 31, also mentions that during the koji-making season, brewers cannot eat natto. “It can kill the koji,” he says. That factoid is lodged in my mind because I like topping my Japanese breakfast rice bowl with natto, the fermented, earthy, gooey soya beans.
Mr Yasuhiro Hamashima at the barred “secret” koji fermentation room of his family’s brewery.ST PHOTO: LEE SIEW HUA
Elsewhere, we savour regional soul food, including homely dangojiru or dumpling soup. The thick hand-kneaded wheat noodles are simmered with sliced shiitake mushrooms, carrots and burdock root in a miso broth.
Between meals, it is always time to eat. I remember the juicy boiled groundnuts peddled in depopulating Showa Town and the soft-serve soya ice cream drizzled with caramel-like soya sauce in pretty Yufuin.
In a class of their own are delicate wagashi desserts – typically mochi filled with bean paste – paired with green tea at elegant Tajimaya, Oita’s oldest Japanese confectioner circa 1804.
The ingredients for our good eats are seasonally sourced from the fertile land, pure rivers and surrounding seas. All these foodie experiences make our trip as much Eat Japan as Walk Japan.
Even our treks are culinary quests. We spot wild strawberries and persimmon, chestnuts and kabosu, a refreshingly tart citrus fruit closely related to yuzu.
Every trek is a culinary quest and walkers may also spy chestnuts (pictured), wild strawberries, plums and ginkgo, depending on the season.ST PHOTO: LEE SIEW HUA
We also pass plum (ume) trees, the fruit of which is beloved in the Japanese diet. Think umeboshi, the sun-dried, pickled plums that are a tart, antioxidant-rich treat. Or the sweet-sour allure of umeshu, the popular plum wine.
I touch the tiny aerial tubers (mukago) that grow on Japanese yam vines. Resembling pea-sized potatoes with their brown skins and knobbly shapes, the tubers are either foraged or cultivated as an autumn delicacy. Added to an array of dishes, they have a mild flavour, as I discover at several meals.
3. Walks in towns, up slopes
Each day’s walk reveals more stories of Japan. We experience rural Kyushu as a natural tapestry of millennia-old rice fields, deep cedar forests and volcanic slopes. At the same time, also on foot, we explore greying towns intent on revamping their identities to appeal to younger Japanese and global travellers.
Starkly, Japan’s population of 125 million is forecast to halve by the century’s end. Driven by plunging birth rates and urban migration, depopulation has hit small-town Japan in the interior significantly.
But there is some optimism when we wander through retro Showa Town and popular European-chic resort town Yufuin, just 50km apart but worlds away from each other. These tiny towns have rebranded in opposite directions, though both keep their Japanese essence.
Showa Town in Bungotakada city invites travellers to step back in time to the late 1950s and early 1960s. On display are Daihatsu Midget mini-trucks.ST PHOTO: LEE SIEW HUA
Nostalgic Showa Town recaptures the 1950s and 1960s with shops stocking toys from the era, such as Ultraman and paper balls.
On display are Daihatsu Midget single-seater mini-trucks that look like rotund cartoon characters. Also on show are classrooms filled with wooden desks and chairs, and I imagine the industrious children who grew up to power Japan Inc.
Wonderfully, the immersive art collective teamLab, which has a global imprint including in Singapore’s ArtScience Museum, has planted a permanent exhibition in little Showa Town. At teamLab Gallery Showa no Machi (www.teamlab.art/e/showanomachi), a digital gallery brings to life drawings of people made by visitors.
Showa’s shopping street is studded with shops selling giant live beetles, some of which have been fashioned into key chains. Less disquieting are the hip cafes and vintage shops.
The town is silent and wistful on a weekday, but we are told that the Japanese drop by on weekends to experience the past.
Yufuin has successfully rebranded as a chic European-Japanese resort town for younger citizens and the international jetset.ST PHOTO: LEE SIEW HUA
In contrast, Yufuin is on the international radar, its shopping streets buzzing day and night. The names of its artisanal shops alone suggest imagined European lifestyles and global cachet, such as Homme Blue Cafe, a whimsical gift store playing Parisienne tunes and designed with clouds and cats.
I also pass a Firenz gelateria, Snoopy Chocolat and Caramel Planet. Artists and potters have relocated here too, adding bohemian elements.
An ice cream shop in pretty Yufuin, which has European-Japanese vibes.ST PHOTO: LEE SIEW HUA
But Yufuin is also very Japanese with its Mame Shiba dog cafe and incredibly milky soft-serve ice cream in seasonal flavours. The streams and peaks surrounding Yufuin also situate it in pastoral Japan.
I am happy to walk alone. Over-stimulated and crowded out in this intensely curated town, yet also fully immersed in a cool slice of Japonica. I find myself relieved that Yufuin’s lights are not going out, unlike other abandoned towns.
Walking through a tunnel on a decommissioned railway track, trekkers will discover fruits of the fields and forests such as ginkgo and strawberries.PHOTO: GAN YEE HUAT
Beyond lovely towns, we traipse on a decommissioned railway track, where we see fruit of the fields and forests, including tiny, sweet strawberries, ginkgo and Japanese yam.
Once, we trek to a small crater that spews plumes of steam, and I am reminded of Japan’s position on the Ring of Fire, a seismically active zone around the Pacific Ocean. Like the immensely popular hot springs, Japan’s volcanic landscapes, which include Mount Fuji, are its geothermal gifts to travellers.
Walking to a crater wafting with geothermal steam.ST PHOTO: LEE SIEW HUA
The wind is strong, and the slopes have a wildness and remoteness that feel uplifting to walkers.
Out of curiosity, I buy crater-cooked eggs from a nearby shop. The taste is ashy, and I will say the latte in the heated vending machine is much more of a treat. I make a note to save some coins for the hot canned azuki and corn soup, which are seasonal.
Gentle uphill trek at Nagayu onsen town.ST PHOTO: LEE SIEW HUA
Torii gates, marking the boundary between the sacred and everyday, are often seen on mountains.ST PHOTO: LEE SIEW HUA
Elsewhere, we trek on uplands clad with whispering cedar and cypress forests. Small vermilion torii gates and Shinto shrines often mark the boundary between the sacred and the everyday on these mountainous places. We head to summits for vistas of hidden Japan.
And so we travel deeper into Japan each day.
Getting there
I take a direct flight on Singapore Airlines to Fukuoka. From Fukuoka International Airport, I ride the free shuttle bus to the domestic terminal to catch the speedy Fukuoka City Subway Kuko Line (Airport Line) to Fukuoka’s Hakata Station, minutes away. This is the gateway to many southern cities on Kyushu island.
From Hakata Station, I transfer to the JR Kyudai Main Line’s high-speed shinkansen train bound for Beppu, where my five-day Onsen Gastronomy: Oita & Kumamoto trip starts. The train journey is almost two hours. Be sure to check all routes and timetables when planning train rides.
The gentle guided walking tour in the two rural prefectures is organised by Walk Japan (walkjapan.com), an adventure travel company specialising in off-the-beaten-path walking tours.
The walks are along paths in pretty villages, through forests, on gentle mountain slopes and past rice fields, rivers and valleys. Walk Japan describes the tour as “light walking combined with plentiful onsen hot spring baths and opulent cuisine”. Accommodation is in authentic Japanese inns.
Travel tipsSpend some time at pleasant road stations (Michi-no-Eki) for local delicacies, crafts and information. Across Japan, there are over a thousand rest stops that showcase local and regional cuisine, such as apples in Aomori and trout in Toyama. I stock up on Japanese condiments and dried goods such as shiitake mushrooms. I also taste creamy local milk and taiyaki, the sea bream-shaped street snack with fillings like red bean paste and custard.Strike up conversations with locals, who are often curious about travellers, for a greater sense of countryside Japan. Google Translate is your friend. Pack a small towel for that spontaneous soak in public footbaths when visiting onsen towns. Spend a few days in Fukuoka after the trek. Japan’s sixth-largest city is less-seen compared with the Big Three of Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. Fukuoka is a welcoming and appealing metropolis, however, with great food and cool attractions at saner prices and smaller crowds. Its speciality mentaiko (cod roe) is on many menus. Try the hyperlocal motsunabe (offal hotpot) and Hakata ramen in a creamy pork-bone broth. Or go for street food such as yakitori and ramen at yatai, the open-air food stalls. I also linger in chic cafes, visit a couple of museums and shop at modern malls. Once, I hop onto a train to canal city Yanagawa for a day-trip. In the colder months, sip mulled wine and look for Winter Illuminations, dazzling here and everywhere in Christmas-loving Japan.The writer’s trip was hosted by Walk Japan.
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