Kyushu

Today was the last day of the trip and we would spend most of it travelling back to Tokyo. I had a couple of options in mind. One option was to take a break at Himeji and see Himeji castle. The second was to take a break at Shin-Fuji and go and see Mt. Fuji. Getting to see Mt. Fuji trumped visiting the Himeji Castle. But based on the reading of travel blogs and websites, it seemed that being able to get a good view of Mt. Fuji was subject to local weather conditions and/or the time of day. The last thing we wanted was to get there and not be able to see Mt. Fuji. The third option was to break the journey in Okayama and do a side trip to Takamatsu in Shikoku, effectively visiting all the four main islands of the Japanese archipelago. We choose this one and used our Japan Rail Pass 🔗 for seat reservations for the trains till Tokyo. ...

We used our Japan Rail Pass 🔗 to travel to Ibusuki. We boarded the 7:51 AM Nanohana Rapid Service at Kagoshima-Chūō Station and travelled on the Ibusuki Makurazaki Line along the eastern coast of Satsuma Peninsula till Ibusuki Station. It took us a little more than an hour to get there. Ibusuki appeared to be a quite, laid back town. We walked through the peaceful local neighbourhoods which had very rustic feel and were very different that anything we had seen in Japan thus far. Saraku Sand Bath Hall was about a 20 minute away by foot away from Ibusuki Station. ...

We got up early and got ready, it was too early so we skipped breakfast again. We walked from Piece Hostel Kyoto to Kyoto Station. We used our Japan Rail Pass 🔗 for seats reservations for the long distance trains for today. The plan was to visit Hiroshima and Miyajima (also known as Itsukushima) and then head to Kagoshima. Our first journey would take us from Kyoto to Hiroshima on the Hikari 491 which operated on the Tōkaidō Shinkansen line till Shin-Osaka and then on the San’yō Shinkansen line till Hiroshima. This was the fastest Shinkansen ride during our trip covering a distance of 380.6 kms in 1 hour 44 minutes with average speed of 219.58 kmph. After reaching Hiroshima Station, we visited the Hiroshima Tourist Information to buy the Visit Hiroshima Tourist Pass for the day. Seeing that we were foreign visitors who had just arrived by train, the staff confirmed that we could use the Hiroshima Sightseeing Loop Bus to visit all the placed we had planned and that it was included with our Japan Rail Pass 🔗. We then went to the baggage lockers to leave our bags there before heading out and taking the Sightseeing Loop Bus. ...