Get to know Kyushu’s Hell Circuit, volcanic trails, and kaiseki dining on a unique Japanese walking holiday. Photo / 123RF
Get to know Kyushu’s Hell Circuit, volcanic trails, and kaiseki dining on a unique Japanese walking holiday. Photo / 123RF
It’s the first day of our Walk Japan experience on the southern island of Kyushu, but the trip has already gone to Hell, writes Brett Atkinson.
High above the coastal city of Beppu, the relaxed town of Kannawa features six of the hot springs making up the region’s Jigoku Meguri (Hell Circuit), a bubbling and steaming collection of eight different Hells (hot springs). Some are infused with a kitsch design combo that’s equal parts Dalí and Disneyland, but the Kannawa Hell is rather more heavenly. Lilies float on a turquoise pond, vermillion-coloured torii gates frame hillside walking trails, and the hiss of sulphurous steam is masked by delicate waterfalls.
Embarking on the first walk of our five-day Onsen Gastronomy experience around the northern Kyushu prefectures of Oita and Kumamoto, we soon learn Kannawa’s geothermal energy also infuses the town’s history and culture. Rustic cedar onsen (Japanese bathhouses) are used daily by locals, and street stalls selling steamed sweetcorn, sweet potato and eggs reflect the tradition of Jigoku Mushi (“Hell Cooking”), a culinary practice dating back more than four centuries.
Beppu’s "Hell Circuit" hot springs include eight unique geothermal pools, some over 400 years old. Photo / Brett Atkinson
Later that night, dinner at Beppu’s oceanfront Amane Sekai Resort is very different from Kannawa’s simple street food. Setting the scene for evening meals at different ryokan (Japanese inns) across the next four nights, the resort’s eight-course menu introduces our group of 10 walkers to Japanese-style kaiseki dining, elaborate multi-course meals strictly showcasing seasonal and local produce. Partnered with a flinty and fruity tasting flight of nihonshu – the correct appellation for what’s commonly known as sake – super-fresh sashimi artfully piled high and grilled wagyu beef from nearby Oita are highlights of a leisurely feast lasting more than two hours.
Two nights later, in the riverside onsen town of Kurokawa, local trout is perfectly enhanced with salt and lemon, while pickled eggplant, the empathic zing of kabosu – a citrus fruit popular in northern Kyushu – and wild-harvested shiitake mushrooms all fast-track our understanding of Japanese cuisine.
Men's onsen. Photo / Brett Atkinson
It’s food worth getting dressed up for, so we do, wearing traditional and super-comfortable yakuta robes to dinner each night. As a shared sartorial choice, it helps to bond our group of Anzac travellers, plus, the loose-fitting yakuta is handy when segueing between kaiseki courses four, five, six and seven. While we’re dining, our rooms at each ryokan are transformed from relaxed lounges into cosy bedrooms, with firm but comfortable futons laid out on floors covered in traditional tatami bamboo mats.
Jigoku Mushi, or “Hell Cooking,” uses steam from hot springs to prepare local delicacies like eggs and sweetcorn. Photo / Carol Piper
In a country where the concept of nagomi – balance or harmony – is so important, our five-day Walk Japan itinerary seamlessly blends the three elements of walking, culinary experiences and onsen bathing. From hellish adventures around Beppu and Kannawa, we detour northwest to the remote Kunisaki Peninsula, a rural area with a 1300-year history as the centre of the ancient Rokugo-Manzan Buddhist culture.
A world away from the touristy scrums crowding the temples of Tokyo and Kyoto, a forested trail leads from the centuries-old Buddha statues of Makiodo temple, venturing across wooden bridges past rice paddies and soaring limestone cliffs. As the trail narrows, we negotiate caves originally inhabited by monks seeking enlightenment in Rokugo-Manzan’s unique synthesis of Buddhism and Shintoism, before squeezing past the occasional fluttering bat to re-emerge into autumn sunshine.
Walk Japan also offers other more physically challenging hikes, but the easygoing pace is perfect – super-relaxed, and ideal for leisurely chats about Japanese society and culture with tour leader Jon Finger, raised in Melbourne, but now a long-term Kyushu resident with a Japanese wife and a young family.
Kyushu’s Kunisaki Peninsula has a 1300-year Buddhist history blending Shintoism and Zen practices. Photo / Carol Piper
After lunch of handmade wheat noodles at Kunisaki’s oldest family-run restaurant, a visit to nearby Fuku-ji reveals the simple perfection of what is reputedly Kyushu’s oldest temple, infused with an ethereal half-light teak interior, and still in use after 13 centuries. A shard of afternoon sunlight slyly intrudes to softly illuminate the centuries-old frieze framing the temple’s central shrine.
Overnighting at Yufuin’s stylish Enokiya Ryokan – a stylish and modern reimagining of a traditional inn – there’s time for both a relaxed onsen experience in their private couples’ baths, and a stroll along Yufuin’s pedestrian street and its Japanese approximation of a European spa town. Mochi buns crammed with strawberries, black sesame ice cream, and refreshing yuzu and honey soda are all essential distractions before another yakuta-clad kaiseki experience back at the ryokan. Only-in-Japan highlights in town include samurai dog tote bags and a giant crab announcing a seafood restaurant.
Forest bathing. Photo / Brett Atkinson
Sheltering Yufuin to the northeast is the leviathan volcanic peak of Yufu-dake, 1584m-high and still active, but our next walking destination is Garan-dake, further northeast, and around 500m lower than Yufu-dake. The open-air public onsen of Tsukahara sits on its volcanic, denuded slopes but we’re here to make a short but steady uphill hike to view the mountain’s main crater, steaming and sulphurous with multiple fumaroles.
After lunch of soba noodles in a roadside restaurant, the day’s main walk begins in the town of Oguni. Spanning around 4km, it’s a relaxed stroll through abandoned railway tunnels – a legacy of Oguni’s past as a rail terminus – across a viaduct, and framed by a bamboo forest refreshed by intermittent rain showers.
Yufuin’s pedestrian street mimics a European spa town with Japanese sweets and quirky shops. Photo / Carol Piper
Our overnight stop is at Kurokawa Onsen, the most popular of the onsen centres fed by Kyushu’s hot springs, and also the island’s most atmospheric. At the end of a meandering road tracing a downhill riverine path, Kurokawa’s Ryokan Sanga has forest-shaded pathways leading to onsen baths crafted in cypress and natural stone. Adherence to traditional protocol means it’s strictly nude bathing in shared men’s and women’s facilities; an experience as authentic as the evening’s kaiseki dinner. Shochu – another Japanese distilled liquor – and local craft beer fuel another superb meal.
Harajiri Falls was formed by the massive eruption of Mount Aso nearly 90,000 years ago. Photo / Brett Atkinson
Food, history and relaxed walking also combine on the tour’s last full day, with a morning exploring the Bungo-Ono Geopark – terrain formed by the cataclysmic eruption of Kyushu’s Mt Aso 90,000 years ago – leading to the perfect horseshoe-shaped profile of Harajiri Falls. Any nerves instigated by negotiating the waterfall’s suspension bridge are alleviated by a tasting at the Hamashima Sake Brewery, a family-owned business founded in 1889, but now serving lunches amid the Scandi-inspired blond wood interior of their Sasara Garden restaurant.
In a largely traditional and rural area, the sunny eatery is a cosmopolitan surprise with seasonal, freshly-brewed sake alongside delicious karaage fried chicken. A final walk to the windswept plateau of Oka Castle reveals 360-degree horizon views and a history of warring clans dating back 900 years, and nearby, in the charming riverside onsen town of Nagayu, Daimaru Ryokan is our last overnight stop. It’s the most rustic and traditional of our ryokan stays, and there’s even a mixed-gender, strictly nude-only onsen pool a few hundred metres along the riverbank.
This particular open-air experience is bravely enjoyed by one of our walking companions, but for the rest of us, it sounds more like our idea of Hell.
Hamashima Sake Brewery, founded in 1889, combines sake brewing with modern Japanese dining. Photo / Walk Japan
CHECKLIST:
Walk Japan’s Onsen Gastronomy: Oita and Kumamoto four-night, five-day itinerary is one of the company’s speciality tours and has a maximum of 12 guests. Prices per person begin at ¥360,000 (around $4100).
