Kyushu 2015 Autumn Self Drive Trip - Day 6

Day 5 : Kumamoto to Izumi  ( Kagoshima ) Via Gokanosyo

Today is gonna be a very long drive from Kumamoto to Izumi in Kagoshima , direct route will takes about 2hr + but cos we will be driving to Gokanosyo ( 五家莊 ）based on google map will take almost 5 hrs , about 180 km , but actual drive is actually longer due to it all mountain roads. Why we decided to visit here is due to an article we found online , claiming this place is the "last secret place in Kumamoto " the article link is here but it's in chinese. In short , this place is actually a hiding place for one of the Japanese clan called the Heike , there are supposed to be a very powerful clan long ago but lost in war and end up hiding to prevent wipeout by their enemies. the clan actually "hid" in a few areas all over Japan, this part is just one of those. What make it so secretive about this area is that it is high in the mountain and very secluded and the story was that the clan actually hid there for generations but no one found out about them , but there was once some robbers happen to rob there then got caught but was let go by the villagers and thus the news of this clan was exposed. This is what i read somewhere online so how true is it , i am not sure. But this place is actually a autumn colour spot nowadays and can get very crowded then. Link here for a brief history of this place in english and the official website in japanese. 

Before we left Kumamoto , we actually detour to try this famous ramen 黑亭拉麵 ，it is popular of the garlic added into the soup and adding of raw egg yolk. The place is always very crowded from what i read online and it fills up very fast when we were there, taste wise i would said not bad if you like the garlic taste and also a special way of eating is to eat one of the yolk raw then the other put in the spoon then dip the noodle and eat. Egg yolks had to be very fresh in order for you to eat it raw though.

This is the start of the road to the mountain, as you can see it quite narrow and though this is for 2 way traffic , so have to be very careful at bends. This is also during the peak season , they will restrict on certain days it only one way drive. We missed the peak period by about a week cos at first we thought it will still be ok cos autumn colour will not fade so fast like Sakura seasons but we were wrong. Cos apparently due to a big typhoon in Aug , apparently a lot of trees were affected , thus this year the autumn colour is not as fantastic cos most of the branch/leaves were damaged.





It was a slow and long drive up before we reach the first viewing point , but it gets very misty suddenly and we cannot see much view ( we should have waited a while )
Cos look at the 2 pictures above ( this is a few min drive away from the first observation deck ) , when we reach it was very misty , but less then a minute ( cos we went to to toilet and came out ) the whole place is super clear , then we realised that , it's not the mist but actually clouds like the one we experienced at Mt. Unzen.

the higher of the twin bridge

first bridge to the first fall

the fall behind the shop houses

first water fall

There are many suspension bridges , waterfalls and small villages , the bridges are the only way of getting form one side of the mountain to the other side , cos when driving we can see that we are making big "U" shaped to get to the other side. As you can see from the pictures , just one week away from the peak of their autumn colour season , almost all the leaves are gone and the trees are quite bare. Weather on top is very cold so need to take note  ( think about 1-2 deg or more lesser then Kumamoto city area ). Also need to note is there the waterfalls all need a bit of walking + climbing up and down on paths so be prepare.
The pictures above are taken from the Heike village , think entrance fee is about 300 yen / pax ( or 600 yen ? )  Finally we saw some red leaves here , there is also a small restaurant , which is in one of those house in the 2nd picture. the last picture is their "stage" where performance will take place during the autumn seasons or special events. See the amount of autumn leaves in the pond ? think till be very nice if to visit during the peak but then think will be very crowded and also think traffic will be even slower.
There is a museum in the Village and ( think there is a deer feeding area from the map i saw but did not check in out ) . Inside the museum , there are a lot of displays regarding the Heike Clan , but all in japanese , there is a guide also but also in japanese ( not sure if they have other languages ) as we are rushing for time as daylight is short in winter , so we just had a quick look around then we moved on.

catchment of the first fall

some shop houses

twin suspension bridges

view from nearby the village entrance

There are some shops near one of the waterfall after the village but think it's only opened during the red koyo season ( or it might had close cos when we reach there is ard 4pm+ which is getting dark already ), so it looks like a dead town when we were there. There is a path to a very high waterfall but I did not go all the way down but only walk about 20 min and take a look ( it's the 3rd picture next to the suspension bridge on top )
Before I forgot , thanks to a fellow TA's member that give me very detail direction for this route , below is the guide for those who wanted to visit Gokanosyo in a day self drive trip to experience the peacefulness and remote of the area and how the Heike clan managed to "hide" from the world.
" You can get through the area down to Izumi in a day, but just a couple of hours won't do it. To save some really narrow roads you could just see Nihonsugi, Uminokidokoro Falls, Momigi Heike no Sato, and turn right to check out Sendantodoro Falls, exiting at Miyahara on Route 3 where you could drive south to the next expressway entrance to go south until the expressway runs out and back onto Route 3 to Izumi in Kagoshima. For a 1 day tour through Gokanosho from Kumamoto, I would use this route: 

1) 445 and 443 from the south part of Kumamoto City (Mifune) to the cross island route 218. Alternatively, you could take Route 3 South to Matsubase (Uki) to pick up 218. 

2) East on 218 to Misato Town. 

3) Turn south on 445 to begin the hill climb into Gokanosho. Lots and lots of turns 

4) At the top, there is an overlook you walk to and you can get some views from behind the small restaurant on the right at the corner. Don't turn right here though. The road to the right will take you back to the coast. 

5) Continue south on 445 toward Itsuki and on your right and left will be small parking lots for the long and high concrete hanging bridge which you can see off to the right. A 15-20 minute hike leads you to the waterfall on the other side of the valley that you walk above. There used to be a pipe sticking out of the mountainside on the left parking lot with water coming out. By the right parking lot is a small shop and some rest rooms. The restaurant must only be open during koyo as it's never been open when I go by in the summer. 

6) Further south, there will be a small group of buildings and an intersection sign to turn left for Heike no Sato and Momigi. This road with some ups and downs and a lot of turns leads to the old exhibit and small museum of the Heike who hid out in this valley after the battle of Dan-no-ura. The museum is up to the left. If it's crowded, you have to use the lower parking lots and hike up a lot of steps. If it's not crowded, you can drive up the small road to the left where there is a small parking lot across from the ticket building. 

7) Continue further past Heike no Sato through the small hamlet of Momigi. There are some minshuku here and an elementary school with about 7 kids. A short ways beyond that is a super tight turn to the right that leads down to a parking lot to the 2 hanging bridges over the Kawabe River. There is a thatched rest building, some rest rooms, and a small restaurant below the parking lot. These bridges were the only ways around until the road was built. 

8) If you continue farther, there is a museum of Gokanosho that mainly has photos, and beyond that a campground. The road circles back on the other side of the valley or you can turn around to get back to 445. 

9) Further south, over some new road sections and through some tunnels (look for the old road along the mountainsides to get an idea of how remote this area used to be), you get to another small group of buildings in a place called Miyahara. Here there's a sign over the road pointing west (right) to Sendantodoro Falls. Turn right. If you see the sign below, you've missed the turn to the right. Link

10) You will pass a thatched roof house and signs for some ryokan and minshuku before you catch sight of the falls from the road. Stop at a wide area if you want but you continue on until you get to a large parking area on the right and a small group of shops on the left. On the right side of the shops is the top of the trail that leads down to the falls. There's some good wading spots and if you explore more, a couple of good swimming holes down farther where the rivers join. There's a shelter at the bottom of the falls that's starting to fall apart. 

11) Continue up the mountain over the pass and you will go back down a narrow winding road for the coast. About half way down is a small turnout on the right which gives good views over the mountain hamlet of Iwaoku. Link

12) Follow Route 52 all the say down past the reservoir on your left which is behind the Hikawa dam. When you see it, there will be a stop sign at a "T" intersection. Turn left on 443 to get to Route 3 to head south to Miyahara Town. If you turn right here, there's a restaurant and craft shop at the top of the hill on your right (Furiai Center Izumi). They have varying amounts of pottery, tea, and wood products from the surrounding area. Sometimes there's a special exhibit. A bit further on if you turn to the right you will come to 3333 steps. It takes a while to get to the top but it's kind of fun. There will be roadside markers of steps as you get closer. There are pay parking lots and some small restaurants around the bottom of the steps. Link This Izumi is not the Kagoshima Izumi. 

13) In Miyahara by Route 3, the left turn to go south is sometimes pretty busy. I just follow the road straight when the main road goes to the right to a stop light and wait a while. The next highway entrance is in Yatsushiro. 

 The distances are further than you think and the driving speed is slow, so you can't do this quickly. Be sure to use the convex corner mirrors on the winding roads so you can see around the corners. It takes some practice but you soon realize how convenient they are. "

After a long drive , we finally reach Izumi, Kagoshima around 8 pm ( we left Kumamoto around 12 pm ) so except for some stop to take photos and walk to the waterfalls , we spend the rest of time driving in the mountain ( from the last POI in the mountain , it tools use about 3 hours to reach Izumi ).

Izumi is quite a small town ( from what we see at night ) cos we stayed near the train station but around there , it doesn't seems to have big malls etc. Along the way , further away from the train station ( about +/- 30 min drive ) does have quite a lot of big shops and eatery. We did not bother to explore cos our main reason for staying here is to visit the Crane Observation Centre tomorrow morning.  *Note : most bigger stores like supermarket , Daiso , H&M , etc , will have outlets a bit further from the main town , guess maybe rental is cheaper and they can have it bigger also , so they all clustered together. It's the same in many other parts of Japan.

Kyushu 2015 Autumn Self Drive Trip - Day 5

Day 5 : Unzen to Kumamoto Via Shimbahara Today we will be making our way from Unzen, Nagasaki to Kumamoto via Ferry from Shimabara Port. First thing in the morning before breakfast , we went for Onsen again cos next few days will not be staying in Onsen hotel , as usually in "City" we cut cost by staying in Business hotel like Toyoko Inn.
Before checkout , We did a check on the update of Nita Pass and found that the ropeway is open but view is slightly cloudy. We decided to take chance and go up since we did not went up yesterday. So we decided to skip Unzen Hell and drive straight to Nita PAss ( paid 100 yen again ) then all the way to the Ropeway. It was very cold about 9 deg in the morning as since yesterday , Kyushu is hit by a low temperature current for the next 1 week , else the temperature should not be this cold at this time of the year here ( 2 days later , a fellow TA member said there was light snow and hailstorm in Unzen )
It started to rain a bit when we were up the top of the Ropeway and wind was howling. There was too much clouds for a good view though we could peek a bit on and off when there happen to be a "gap" between the clouds.
After that we move on to Shimabara, first we visited a site where it had some house covered in soil, these are the after effect of volcano eruption and the lava moved down and covered that area.

Shimabara Castle

Then we moved on to Shimabara Castle , the main reason here is to "wear" the Samurai uniform for photo taking  else we would have skipped cos next day we be visiting the Kumamoto Castle. So we did a quick tour and then move on to lunch nearby at 姬松屋. The main outlet is very near the Castle , almost next to the foot of it. when we reach there was about lunch time ard 12 pm and was quite crowded. This place sells a famous Shimabara dish called Guzouni ( 具雑煮 ) This is a local dish from the Shimabara region, made with mochi rice cakes and over 10 kinds of ingredients gathered from the local sea and mountains, with a wholesome flavor brought out by the combination of the light soup and pleasantly savory ingredients.>> The soup itself is actually quite nice , will recommend to try if you are in the area.



Before heading to the Ferry Terminal , we detoured nearby to Shimei-Sou 四明荘 ,basically it's a house that is open for tourists to visit.( link to video on Youtube here)  Shimabara is famous for the cool spring water due to the volcano , so this 四明荘 actually got a pond in front whereby you can just sit on the house and view the koi fishes inside. The friendly lady will make you great tea ( free ).

 Another place to go is KOI NO MIZUBE MICHI / 鯉の水辺路 which is basically drains … yes i mean DRAINS , this is because due to the natural cool spring water , they actually had Kois living in it, did not had much time so did not search for those many that Kois , but did saw a few in a part of the drain nearby.Next we make our way to the Ferry Terminal , NOTE : there are 2 different ferry company that operate from Shimabara Port to Kumamoto Port. Kumamoto Ferry is the faster one takes about 30+ min but more expensive ,  Kyusho Ferry is the slower one takes around 1 hour but cheaper. they had slightly different time table , so depends on what time you reach there ( if you never do reservation like us ) or if you wish to save money. Basically when you reach the Shimabara port , there will be 2 lane at entrance  with a few guys standing there, they will have the timing for the next ferry , once you choose the ferry , they will direct you to the respective parking lane to wait for the ferry. ( oh we took the ferry with our rented car ). They might pass you a card to state the size of your car in order for the ticket booth to charge the correct amount, with the car ( or think car key also can ) you will go to the counter to purchase the ticket.Think Kyusho is counter 1 and Kumamoto Ferry is counter 2 , there just pass the card and tell the number of passengers in the car and they will charge you the tickets according. The car ticket comes with the ticket for driver , so if 2 of you inside , meaning you will only need to purchase 1 car + 1 additional passenger ticket.We made a mistake by choosing the slower ferry ( cos i forget the timing ) then after purchased the tickets , i realised that and quickly ask for a refund and purchased from the other booth and had to shift our car to the other lane for the faster ferry.

See those "feeding hands" below

Once the time for departure , the staffs will direct you to drive up the ferry and park in the ferry , then they will put stopper at the wheels. Once done you can choose to stay in the car or you can move up to the passenger deck on top. ( Note : if you are going up , remember which staircase you went up then you can go down the same way , we almost went on the wrong deck then we took the ferry from Kagoshima to Sakurajima , was a bit panic as we almost reaching the island and couldn't find our car). Many tourists will feed the seagulls on the top open deck, there is a rack nearby that sells the prawn crackers , some will bring bread as well.
Upon reaching Kumamoto , we drive straight from Kumamoto Port to Kumamoto Castle , cos we hope to cover today then will have more time tomorrow morning as Kumamoto Castle is quite huge and will take at least 2 hours to complete. ( Link to a PDF guide online )
Kumamoto Castle is considered one of the three premier castles in Japan, along with Himeji Castle and Matsumoto Castle. Like most castle , some part of it was burnt and was restored so many part of the castle looks very touristy. Guess this is what happen when you want to let tourist visit , you have to make sure the building is safe , etc. But there is some building which is still the original part of the castle , we went up to one of them which is the "Uto Yagura" , there is nothing much inside , very steep staircase ( the top level is a one way small staircase which you need to wait for ppl coming down before you can go up cos it's quite narrow) the topmost level got a viewing deck.We did not managed to cover the whole castle , so only managed to cover the main castle tower and the main hall.

 Cos we bought a dual pass with Wakuwakuza visit, you can dress up for free and take photo and have a some exhibit here, not really worth visiting to me cos maybe we were in a rush before it close ( or maybe i am just not interested in all these history stuffs ) But some interesting exhibit to take picture , like you can sit on a horse display , stand behind a samurai armour , sit in a cart to take picture.

Uni Ball

Sakuranokoji is at the same area , it basically consist of shops that sells foods and souvenirs. ( link to the area and different foods sells here ) . there is a shop that sells "肥厚太鼓“ , it's like some mix nuts , at first thought it maybe taste quite normal so just bought a packet of 5 piece ( cos got Kumamon design on the package ) but when i try it back home , it's actually quite nice , regret not buying more. The shop is called "antagatadokosa " , they actually just opened another shop in Asakusa ,Tokyo. There is also a who selling Uni balls and watermelon soda. Wanted to try the ice cream waffle from a shop but it was sold out. Kumamoto Prefecture Tourist Center is just about 5 min walk away if you want to get some local products but actually most places will have it. There is a free shuttle bus for your convenience between Jousaien and the Kumamoto Castle "Hohoategomon Gate." It runs every 7 minutes and only takes 3 minutes. To use this service please wait at the Jousaien bus stop or the Hohotaegomon Gate bus stop.
For dinner , we went to this restaurant called "Clover" cos i saw from this site they actually got all you can eat buffet ( link ) but when we got there , they said there is no more buffet ( but we saw it at the entrance when we left , there is 2 entrances ) , I dunno japanese and they staffs there don't really know english , so chicken and duck talk , but still we decided to eat there. Food was not bad and the best was one of the beef dish , it looks very raw ( i usually had my steak med-well type ) but this really taste so good that we had wanted to order another plate BUT it was a special items aka 1 table of up to 4 pax can only order 1 serving of it. Note: though no buffet , if you print out the slip form the link , you are still entitled to the discount ( 20% on Mon - Thur / 10% on Fri & Sat ).

After dinner , we went to shop a bit at the Shimotori Shopping Arcade (opposite one is Kamitori Shopping Arcade , Link here ), basically went Drug stores hopping and also found that Mcdonald had a Chocolate pie for 100 yen , it actually taste good even when cold , it actually is puff pastry with chocolate and peanuts. I even recommend to my friends who were visiting Osaka a week later and try and they loved it too.

Oh before dinner @ Clover , we actually visited Kumamon Square ( aka Kumamon's office ). Some days he will be in his office at 11am and 3 pm to do a show and you can take picture with him. ( click on the link here for his timetable ) Both days we are in Kumamoto he is out ( from his time table , he is usually in from friday to monday usually ). Anyway was a bit disappointed cos thought can find a lot of his "items" but not that much actually , you can actually find some in one of the shop in Sakuranokoji and in Wakuwaku-ichiba in Shimotori Shopping Arcade and some in Kumamoto Prefecture Tourist Center.