3 Friends. 1 Van. 5 Days Across Kyushu – A Roadtrip to Remember

3 Friends. 1 Van. 5 Days Across Kyushu – A Roadtrip to Remember

kyushu Japan’s southwestern frontier it’s hard to reach on a short trip and even harder to see it all but that’s what makes it special off the bean path packed with history and full of insane landscapes in this video I’m proposing a 5-day road trip for travelers short on time but hungry for adventure i’m Ryan i left my 9 to5 in the summer of 2024 came back to Japan and bought an old camper van to explore the roads less traveled while I mostly travel solo this time I’m joined by my friend Wiki my senpai from architecture school back in Vancouver and his friend Genki a Fukoka local who also lived in Vancouver for 3 years we met up in Fukoka and they had 5 days before their flight out from Kagoshima no plans just a destination and a deadline after a night out in Fukoka having a few too many drinks to celebrate our reunion we had a rather late start to the next day road trip starts let’s go guys woo we started the trip by heading to the towns of Imari and Arita which are tucked away in the countryside of Saga Prefecture primarily known as the birthplace of porcelain production in Japan but this was only made possible thanks to the Korean potters who were taken as prisoners of war after the Injene invasion in the late 1500s and brought to Kyushu to further improve Japanese pottery one of these Korean potters discovered a stone suitable for porcelain and the rest is history over 400 years later people still flock to this area to see the unique pottery fortunately this history was not erased and you can even see a cluster of graves dedicated to the Korean potters who long for their homeland [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh what’s it called korean
korean yeah wakey you got this can you tell the camera what komi means
best I understand it it’s the effect of the light coming through the leaves on the surface totally boom done [Music] come on [Music] and the guy
yeah in Shikoku right that’s Arita is the next town over from Immani the main thing I wanted to see here is toan shrine which has lanterns lion dogs and even a tori all made of porcelain [Music] [Music] truly [Music] [Music] fun well since it’s Golden Week and we’re just winging it Wiki and Genki have to rough it out in the tents while uh I get the comfortable van well good night boys see you tomorrow getting us gasping for air well we woke up quite early to see these rice terraces and unfortunately it doesn’t seem like there’s any rice being grown um and there’s no water or anything so it’s a bit disappointing but uh I’m hungry let’s go get some breakfast and coffee we originally talked about heading east into Saga Prefecture but decided on the spot to instead head south to Nagasaki [Music] as per usual we had zero plans but uh we decided to come down to Nagasaki we’re just taking it day by day and so far it is a very chill vibe city loving it [Music] as we wandered through the hilly Nagasaki we headed towards Sulfaji a temple built in the 1600s by the Chinese monk Chosen for the Chinese residents that had settled in the city you can see the design is quite distinct from Japanese temples so it feels like having momentarily stepped into a piece of China [Music] is a spot for the lightning and the wind god so that
but this is not the only influence Chinese residents had on the city nagasaki is also home to one of the three major Chinatowns in Japan the other two being in Yokohama and Coobe and we came here to find perhaps Nagasaki’s most famous specialty food all right we’re looking for some lunch uh Genki can you tell me what is the famous food in Nagasaki
ringutago okay but uh what what’s famous about Ring like what dish
champon noodle champon which is what
it’s a kind of ramen
like Chinese style right
uh yeah okay sweet let’s go let’s go let’s go let’s go yeah good oh baby cho with yoza that’s cookie with a spicy cho influenced ramen all right and what did we get for dessert
casta
costera which is also
from Bumo one of the two famous shops you said of Costa
yeah in Nagasaki
another Nagasaki specialty [Music] since we were in Nagasaki we of course had to stop by the atomic bomb memorial the atmosphere becomes solemn as everyone reflects over the atrocities of war but despite this event becoming quite distant in the past we have to remember that these atrocities are not limited to history and this history perhaps becomes more relevant than ever with current global events after a day exploring the city we drove just 20 minutes south of downtown to one of the many beautiful beaches along the peninsula despite Golden Week we somehow had the entire beach to ourselves [Music] we got Kanjima aka Battleship Island over there we’re not going to visit it this time though
oh wow how does that grow we found a free campsite for the previous night and continued southward the next day to the Shimab Peninsula which is notably made up of Mount Unen a group of active volcanoes and where there are active volcanoes there are usually onen towns this is Unen Unsen which has been a resort town for over a hundred years but this desolate steaming post-apocalyptic landscape is fittingly referred to as Unen Jigoku or Unzen Hell [Music] very nice
the steamed egg onen
steamed with the onen or like the sulfuric steam right
yeah it’s like
hot spring cat [Music] seems like the start of an anime [Music] maybe the yolk hey don’t swear on camera [Music] tastes like a regular boiled egg to be honest hey it’s good [Music] oh no all right Ricky give us a good one here that looked like a Whoa a short drive over and down the other side of Mount Unen is the city of Shimabra a city rich in history and you can still get glimpses into this past due to the preservation efforts for example walking down the Bukayashki or samurai resident street is a must several samurai homes can even be entered for free our lunch place is like this coffee curry thrift shop etc sounds interesting let’s go oh baby with sort of castle views in the background you can see the castle grounds anyway after lunch we wandered over to Shimabara’s carp street where many carp can be found swimming through the spring water running through the street ditches [Music] and we even found goldfish in another [Music] [Music] in our loop back to the car we made our way to Shimabara Castle which dates back to the 1600s although the structure is not original it’s one of the most unique and extravagant castle designs I’ve seen in Japan
do you love the emperor
we had Skia for the first time yesterday and it has become Wiki’s favorite restaurant it’s all right there it is the equivalent of the Golden Arches but in Japanese to finish off the day we took the ferry across the bay to Kumamoto City it was pouring rain the next morning so we took it easy and hit the batting cages and arcades at Round One Stadium to wait it out it’s one of my favorite rainy day pastimes oh holy
next stop is the Nagabeta tidal road so this uh tidal road is supposedly used to harvest ni since it’s very shallow for hundreds of meters actually this bay that’s uh around Saga and Kumamoto and Nagasaki has the highest tidal range in all of Japan and this road gets submerged at high tide uh so right now the tide is rising and it’s best to see it within 2 hours of low tide because if it’s too low tide you get all these rocks and stuff and then the road is just much higher than uh the water but when you get it uh approximately 2 hours before or after low tide uh you get this surreal feeling of the the road just kind of going right into the water it’s really cool this is absolutely crazy this road is just getting submerged right in front of my eyes that looks delicious did
they give me like a spoon thing all right this is the spread we got mixed seafood and pork cocon and cheese and yaka y oh that yakoba looks scrumptious don’t get the inside of my mouth on YouTube wiki and Genki then stayed back in Kumamoto City for one night to go to a show they wanted to see but I had plans with nature something Kumamoto has a lot of so I headed southeast into mountains reminiscent of my recent trip through Shikoku [Music] my escapade into nature began early i slept in the van by the trail head to Kaname Falls one of the famous 100 waterfalls in Japan [Music] the next area I’ve had my sights set on for several years so I was excited to finally see it for myself what I’m talking about is Kirishima Kinkoan National Park one of the oldest national parks in Japan featuring otherworldly volcanic landscapes and the location of one of the most important Shinto legends heat heat [Music] [Music] here on Mount Takiho is where the sun goddess Amaterasu sent her grandson Ninigi Nomikoto down to earth bringing the three sacred treasures with him and beginning Japan’s imperial lineage that’s right the emperors of Japan are said to be descended directly from Amaterasu herself the iconic Takaji Nomina spear planted at the summit marks this legendary descent today the area offers stunning hikes panoramic views and a deep connection to Japan’s spiritual roots well I’ve been chilling up here for an hour now i think it’s about time I head down and head over to Kishima where I’ll be meeting up with the boys again [Music] all right we’re show the inside flip it around here that is crazy it’s actually just a full loaf filled with ice cream don’t worry Yenki and I helped Wiki finish this abomination of a dish and when we left the Isizakaya we bumped into a local legend who spoke really good English and took us to a snack bar where we had an eventful last night well there you have it that was a 5-day itinerary through Kyushu i think it’s honestly pretty replicable especially if you’re starting in Fukoka and ending in Kagoshima because from there you can catch a flight back to Tokyo if that’s where you’re headed or the Shinkansen also goes from Kagoshima and for me as someone who’s always solo traveling it was nice to have a couple buddies along for part of the trip so with that I hope it was a useful video if you also only have a short time in Kyushu and you want to see a lot of things if that interests you i have a couple other itinerary videos on my channel check them out if you want and speaking of my dad is actually visiting for the next couple weeks and so we’ll be seeing a lot of cool stuff and of course I will be documenting it so with that I hope you look forward to the next adventure [Music]

Three friends. One van. Zero itinerary. Join us as we road trip through Kyushu, Japan’s southernmost main island, with nothing but a destination and five days on the clock. From quiet mountain villages to beautiful coastlines, we stumbled into onsen towns, scenic lookouts, and a few surprises we never saw coming. The best part? This roadtrip itinerary is easily replicable for those wanting to visit Kyushu with limited time, but wanting to get a good feel for the island.

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🎬Chapters:
0:00-00:41 Intro
00:42-3:51 Day 1 – Saga
3:52-8:12 Day 2 – Nagasaki
8:13-11:57 Day 3 – Shimabara
11:58-14:54 Day 4 – Kumamoto
14:55-18:04 Day 5 – Kagoshima
18:05-18:58 – Outro

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