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South Japan two weeks tour


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Hello guys,

I'm planning my next holiday in Japan at the end of next month.

The initial idea was to spend two weeks crossing the whole country, from South to North, riding all the Shinkansen's.

It was doable but I wouldn't have that much time exploring. So I decided to the Southern part, from Kyushu to Nagoya.

I bought the JR pass for two weeks, Green. O'll mostly ride JR Kyushu and JR West trains, with a few private railways ones.

I'm still not sure If I want to buy the JR Kyushu pass. It will be 15,000 yen for three days. I will ride a few of the historic trains, and I'm afraid I won't find available seats if I make the reservations only when I get to Kagoshima. If I buy the JR Kyushu pass, it will allow me to reserve seats one month in advance, so I'm sure I'll get them.

 

Here's the itinerary:

 

1315800453_Image097.thumb.png.6ec0796652f1791ddf70a6c6c69905d4.png

 

DAY 1

Fly into Osaka, Shinkansen to Kagoshima, ride the Ibusuki no Tamatebako 

DAY 2

Visit Sakurajima, then Hayato no Kaze, Shinpei, Kawasemi Yamwasemi to Kumamoto

DAY 3

Shinkansen Tsubame to Kurume, Yufuin no Mori to Yufuin, Yufu to Beppu

DAY 4

Sonic to Usa, Sonic to Hakata, then Ltd Exp Kamome to Nagasaki stopping at Hizen Kashima

DAY 5

Gunkajima tour, Ltd Exp Kamome to Hakata

DAY 6

Visit Dazaifu, Shinkansen to Hiroshima, then Miyajima

DAY 7

Hiroshima, Shinkansen and local train to Onomichi

DAY 8

Shimanami Kaido bike ride

DAY 9

Shinkansen to Himeji then to Shin-Osaka, then Ltd Exp Kuroshio to Kii-Katsuura

DAY 10

Ltd Exp Wide View Nanki to Taki, visit Ise then Nagoya

DAY 11

Spaland amuement park in Nagoshima

DAY 12

Wide View Shinano to Nagiso, Nagoya railway museum, Shinkansen to Kyoto

DAY 13

Visit some temples/shrines (I've already been in Kyoto), railway museum, Kintetsu line to Yoshino

DAY 14

Visit Yoshino then Osaka

DAY 15

Shopping in Osaka

 

 

What do you guys think?

 

Paolo

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Day one and two I dont think are realistic.

 

Day one has you one a shinkansen for almost 5 hours, plus the time from Kix to Shin-Osaka, so not sure you;d make Kagoshima Chuo in time for your joyful train.

 

Day to also from memory, if you wanna do the Hisatus line in its full length, you need to get the first Hayato no Kaze around 0930.  No time for Sakurajima, which I think you need a half day aka 4hrs for minimum.

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The flight lands into Kansai at 6:20 am, transfer to Shin-Osaka at 8:08, then Shinkansen at 9:17; I'll be in Kagoshima at 1:30pm

The Ibusuki train leaves Kagoshima-Chuo at 2:02pm, so I should be able to catch it.

If the plane is late, I'll just take some pictures of the train at the station 😉

 

Sakurajima in the morning; then there's an Hayato no Kaze service at 1:23 pm, then Shimpei at 3:16 then Kawasemi Yamasemi at 5:24pm. It should be ok.

My only concern is to be able to find available seats.

 

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Any reason you cannot do the itinerary in reverse?  Your only reserved seat only trains are in the first 3 days.  Gives you a 10-12 day head start on booking seats.

 

Plus if you do the day two in the opposite direction, Kawasemi Yamwasemi 1 has a car of non reserved seating, as opposed to Kawasemi Yamwasemi 6 with is all reserved seating.  One less reserved seat you have to worry about.

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That would have been a good idea actually, to do it in reverse! But I've already booked all the hotels on booking.com so it would be a pain now to cancel them and re-book.

I might get the JR Kyushu pass for 3 days so I can book the trains on line one month in advance

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Day 6 looks incredibly busy. The best way to get to Dazaifu is to take the Nishitetsu Omuta line. You need to get into Tenjin which is a short ride on the subway from Hakata and get the train from Nishitetsu Fukuoka station. 

 

Then return to Hakata via Nishitetsu line and subway, catch the shinkansen to Hiroshima. This won’t leave you a lot of time to get the ferry out to Miyajima.

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Yeah that is true. Dazaifu warrants 4 hours. Miyajima warrants 4 hours but preferibly all day. Plus travel times. I'd probably omit Dazaifu from that day and just do Miyajima.

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serotta1972

On my next trip to Japan,  I plan on covering the same area.  I just came from Japan and went to Hiroshima and then to Onomichi planning on doing the Shimanami Kaido bike ride.  I wasn't able to do it because I couldn't get a bike at 7 am and the only place that was open at that time already had all their bikes rented out that day.  Most of the rental bike places open at 9 am.  Make reservations if you can.  I plan to return to Onomichi and do the ride and will be bringing my Bike Friday folding bike.  Have fun!

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Also be aware that a lot of businesses don’t open until 10am in many places. 

 

Its definitely a Japanese style plan. Trying to squeeze in as much everyday as possible. My in-laws took a European trip doing 6 countries in 9 days.

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That is a very tight schedule, I spent 22 days over the new year period and only went to places basically around and between Hiroshima and Tokyo and up to Nagano. I didn’t really have any days off, apart from a day skiing (well the kids did). 

If I had known I would become interested in JR modeling at the time I would have done a few different things and taken a lot more rail/general photos, I also had no idea this forum existed.

 

 

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On 4/22/2019 at 8:38 AM, Kamome said:

Day 6 looks incredibly busy. The best way to get to Dazaifu is to take the Nishitetsu Omuta line. You need to get into Tenjin which is a short ride on the subway from Hakata and get the train from Nishitetsu Fukuoka station. 

 

Then return to Hakata via Nishitetsu line and subway, catch the shinkansen to Hiroshima. This won’t leave you a lot of time to get the ferry out to Miyajima.

 

On 4/22/2019 at 11:59 PM, katoftw said:

Yeah that is true. Dazaifu warrants 4 hours. Miyajima warrants 4 hours but preferibly all day. Plus travel times. I'd probably omit Dazaifu from that day and just do Miyajima.

 

On day 6 I'll visit Dazaifu in the morning, I'll arrive in Miyajima in the afternoon. I'll visit it also the morning after, so I'll spend almost 24 hours on the island.

 

 

On 4/23/2019 at 2:07 AM, serotta1972 said:

On my next trip to Japan,  I plan on covering the same area.  I just came from Japan and went to Hiroshima and then to Onomichi planning on doing the Shimanami Kaido bike ride.  I wasn't able to do it because I couldn't get a bike at 7 am and the only place that was open at that time already had all their bikes rented out that day.  Most of the rental bike places open at 9 am.  Make reservations if you can.  I plan to return to Onomichi and do the ride and will be bringing my Bike Friday folding bike.  Have fun!

 

Thank you for the hint, I'll make sure to reserve a bike before I go.

 

 

On 4/23/2019 at 2:12 AM, Kamome said:

Also be aware that a lot of businesses don’t open until 10am in many places. 

 

Its definitely a Japanese style plan. Trying to squeeze in as much everyday as possible. My in-laws took a European trip doing 6 countries in 9 days.

 

I know it's very tight, but I usually wake up very early in the morning and never get tired when traveling. Also I'll spend a lot of time on trains, that's not very tiring 😉

 

Most of the shrines and temples open early, those are the only places I plan on visiting early.

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So I also go the JR Kyushu pass for three days. This way I was able to reserve seats for the Ibusuki no Tamatebako, Hayato no Kaze, Kawasemi Yamasemi, Yufuin no Mori and Yufu (you can book starting from one month in advance). Most of them had very few seats left.

I couldn't find the Shinpei/Isaburo on the reservation page. So I emailed JR Kyushu support, and they replied that unfortunately it's not possible no make online reservations for those trains.

Fortunately they also have non-reserved cars, so that shouldn't be a big deal.

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Ok, so I came back a few weeks ago from my Japan trip. Every time I visit Japan, I love it more and more.

I managed to to everything I planned, and more.

 

The Kyushu region is really awesome. A lot of beautiful places to visit, and almost no foreign tourists.

 

 

Here are a couple of videos from a few Joyful trains in Kyushu:

 

Ibusuki no Tamatebako

Very cool color scheme, also the benches on the platform are half black and half white.

Only one stop, some nice views of Kagoshima Bay and Sakurajima volcano, but nothing to write home about.

 

 

 

Hayato no Kaze

Some better views of the volcano, a few stops in the country side

 

 

 

Isaburo / Shinpei

Probably my favorite. It stops in very pretty country side stations. At Yatake St., you can admire a D51 steam locomotive.

Lots of really amazing views of the valleys. In most of the stations, you can buy some products from local farmers or artisans.

The train also does a loop and a switchback!

 

 

 

 

To be continued...

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Here are the last two videos about the JR Kyushu Joyful trains.

 

Kawasemi Yamasemi

Of all the Joyful trains, this is probably the prettiest.

The trip was from Hitoyoshi all the way to Kumamoto. The first half of the journey is along the Kuma river, so you get some really nice view of the valley, with some pretty red bridges.

As you get near the sea and approach Kumamoto, the scenery becomes quite boring.

 

 

 

Yufuin no Mori

This is the last Joyful train I took, from Kumamoto to Yufuin. Most of it is through nice valleys, so the trip is very enjoyable.

I managed to sit in the front car, which has a very wide view in front. I really envied the lucky ones seated in the first row!

 

 

 

I have to say, riding these Joyful trains in Kyushu is really a fun experience. Also, not many foreign tourists, cause I guess they're not very popular outside Japan and also because it's Kyushu.

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20 minutes ago, paolo said:

Here are the last two videos about the JR Kyushu Joyful trains.

 

Kawasemi Yamasemi

Of all the Joyful trains, this is probably the prettiest.

 

I have to say, riding these Joyful trains in Kyushu is really a fun experience. Also, not many foreign tourists, cause I guess they're not very popular outside Japan and also because it's Kyushu.

 

The Kawasemi Yamasemi comes in third place for me after the SL Ginga and the Shikoku Mannaka Sennen Monogatari. Too bad nobody models these three.

 

I loved Kyushu and have done pretty much the same trip you have a few years ago, and wonder why most westerners don't visit it. Leaves more train space for us I guess.

 

Cool vids and thanks for sharing!

 

Edited by Yavianice
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Let's not spread the news about how beautiful Kyushu is! That's one of the things I loved the most about it, it doesn't feel to be in a EU or US country, like when you visit Miyajima, or worse, the Kyoto or Osaka areas. It really feels to be in Japan!

I was briefly in Shikoku and I saw that red-white-green train, I thought it was an Italian themed train ehehe!

That's a bit more expensive than your standard Kyushu Joyful train, but looks amazing, yeah.

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I loved Kyushu! It feels like another world within japan as well. I only stumbled in there on my first trip to japan in grad school as the travel assistant at the scientific meeting I was attending in kyoto knew I was a poor grad student and found this great set of high end ryokans and resorts at amazingly cheap prices (it was July and not many want to vacation there at the height of the heat) so I got to live like a king on a grad student budget! I was so glad I did it as even in the 80s kyoto/osaka/tokyo had a lot of westerners. Kyushu and norther Honshu were great as I was pretty much the only westerner around a lot of the time and it was a fun immersion. I’ve always wanted to return there and just bop around on smaller trains.

 

jeff

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Kyushu is still like that!

My next trip will be in Tohoku, so hopefully not so many tourists there as well, and plenty of joyfull trains as well!

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Plenty of Chinese and Taiwanese in Kyushu.  So close to mainland asia so quick long weekend can be had.  Can get crazy still in parts of northern Kyushu, but still no where near Kansai and Kanto levels.

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WOW I really love the way your videos are edited! Really nice! Thanks for sharing them!

 

I have to ride the Yamasemi/ Kawasemi the next time i'm in Kyushu... The scenery looks great and the train interior is nice! 

 

 

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56 minutes ago, katoftw said:

Plenty of Chinese and Taiwanese in Kyushu.  So close to mainland asia so quick long weekend can be had.  Can get crazy still in parts of northern Kyushu, but still no where near Kansai and Kanto levels.

 

That's right, 90% of the tourists in Kyushu were Chinese, usually travelling in big groups, so they don't go unnoticed.

 

The last day of the trip, I was in Osaka around Namba, and it was like being in Shanghai, no Japanese around (they knew better...), only Chinese going nuts in the shops.

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On 10/5/2019 at 12:00 AM, paolo said:

 

That's right, 90% of the tourists in Kyushu were Chinese, usually travelling in big groups, so they don't go unnoticed.

 

The last day of the trip, I was in Osaka around Namba, and it was like being in Shanghai, no Japanese around (they knew better...), only Chinese going nuts in the shops.

 

 

Seems to me that is the case more and more everywhere.  We were in Hokkaido a few days and the majority of tourists we saw seemed to be Chinese.  Also had a busload at the hotel in Tokyo we stayed at a day on the way back from Hokkaido, as well as on the way to Hokkaido.

 

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Here's some more videos from this trip.

We're done with the Joyful trains, now it's time for some Kyushu medley:

 

 

I have to say that traveling by train in Kyushu is really a joy, so many different models, beautiful scenery, almost no tourists.

My favorite train it's probably the old Sonic, such a unique design.

 

 

And then the infamous Go! Waku Waku trip with Mickey:

 

 

Not the best livery they could come up with, but it surely doesn't go unnoticed, and I guess that was the goal.

Unfortunately I only saw the yellow version, as I was there at the end of May, not sure if the red one is less annoying...

 

 

Then we're moving to Honshu, starting with some JR West trains:

 

 

 

Also here some beautiful trains. My favorite is definitely the Shinkansen 500. It was the first time I saw it, and it was love at first sight (well, the standard version, the Hello Kitty one is kawaii but not exactly my taste).

I was lucky enough to ride the Panda, loved the evil face!

I also really enjoyed the Wide View Shinano. I was in the Green car which is the first car, so I could enjoy the front view. Also the train conductor was a very beautiful girl, which was probably on her first ride, cause she took a lot of selfies with herself and the train, and she looked very excited while driving it.

I took a video in the front car from the start in Nagoya till the first stop, coming up in the next few days.

Edited by paolo
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Thank for the videos Paolo! Seems like you had fun riding the rails!

 

19 minutes ago, paolo said:

 

My favorite train it's probably the old Sonic, such a unique design.

 

 

Yeah the 883 series is a nice design! But I have to admit the ride wasn't really good for me... I felt the 885 did a lot better in terms of riding comfort... The tilting was great and there was much lesser vibration than the 883 series... 

 

21 minutes ago, paolo said:

 

I also really enjoyed the Wide View Shinano. I was in the Green car which is the first car, so I could enjoy the front view. Also the train conductor was a very beautiful girl, which was probably on her first ride, cause she took a lot of selfies with herself and the train, and she looked very excited while driving it.

I took a video in the front car from the start in Nagoya till the first stop, coming up in the next few days.

 

Nice! I rode on the Shinano front car before too, and mine was also a beautiful female driver ~ Seems like Shinano has quite a number of female drivers ~ 🙂

Are they allowed to take selfies while on the job?  🙄

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2 minutes ago, JR 500系 said:

Yeah the 883 series is a nice design! But I have to admit the ride wasn't really good for me... I felt the 885 did a lot better in terms of riding comfort... The tilting was great and there was much lesser vibration than the 883 series... 

 

For sure the 885 is much more comfortable to ride, but the wooden interiors of the older 883 have more charm!

And the bench facing the front of the train, where you can seat and look the driver, is very cool:

 

175920733_Image247.thumb.png.f8bcd727cce8ad39dc0e2ca05ebf4a35.png

 

8 minutes ago, JR 500系 said:

Nice! I rode on the Shinano front car before too, and mine was also a beautiful female driver ~ Seems like Shinano has quite a number of female drivers ~ 🙂

Are they allowed to take selfies while on the job?  🙄

 

I will forever remember her and her train... 😍

I should have asked her to take a selfie with the three of us eheheh.

I think she noticed me taking pictures and videos, cause when I got off, of course I shoot a video of the train leaving, she sounded the horn (for no other apparent reason) and she smiled.

 

No no, she was taking selfies on the platform in front of the train before getting on board! While driving, she was very busy shouting and pointing at stuff.

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