:: A late afternoon departure is a relaxed one.
The day the trip starts. This time I didn’t have to rush much.
That’s because the one Korean Air flight a day to Kagoshima leaves after 4 in the afternoon. Last time, the flight to Kanazawa left at 7:30 in the morning, so I was up and moving before dawn. This time it was very relaxed.
Usually on a departure day you have to get up before sunrise and catch an early airport bus, right? There was none of that on this trip. It was around lunchtime when I finally got on the airport bus and headed out.
And Incheon Airport wasn’t as crowded as I expected either. The morning seems to be the peak. There don’t seem to be that many flights leaving in the afternoon.
It was the first time the start of a trip felt this unhurried.
:: From Kagoshima Airport to Izumi by airport bus
It was past 6 in the evening when I arrived at Kagoshima Airport. It’s a small airport and there weren’t many passengers, so immigration and baggage claim didn’t take long. It must have been the last flight at the international terminal, because the airport was very quiet.
The main part of Kagoshima Airport is the domestic terminal. There aren’t many flights on the international side. Restaurants, ATMs, and other facilities are all gathered in the domestic terminal. The airport buses leave from in front of the domestic terminal too.
I went to the information desk to check the airport bus timetable to Izumi(出水), and there was one bus leaving at 7:15 in the evening. I also bought a 1,900 yen ticket from the vending machine at the ticket counter.
I made one big mistake at the ticket machine.
Maybe my head was entirely taken up with putting cash into an English-language machine, finding the destination, issuing the right fare, and printing a receipt at the end. Or maybe I just wasn’t used to getting change back in bills. I put in 5,000 yen and failed to collect the 3,000 yen in change that came out as notes. I only took the 100 yen that came out in coins.
While going over my expense notes in the middle of the trip I found that 3,000 yen in cash had disappeared, and only then did I realize I hadn’t picked up my change at the airport.
The bus left at exactly 7:15 and ran for over an hour, arriving at Izumi Station close to 8:30 in the evening. By then the darkness had settled in all around. It’s a rural town out of tourist season, so there weren’t many people either.
I’d have to check in before it got too late and get back outside to find somewhere to eat. Or maybe all the restaurants would already be closed and I’d have to settle dinner at an izakaya, with drinks.
My mind was in a hurry, so my steps sped up.
:: The hotel right in front of Izumi Station, KOKO STAY Izumi
Luckily the hotel I’d booked was very easy to find. It was a hotel called KOKO STAY Izumi(KOKO STAY 出水), right in front of the plaza at Izumi Station.
There are no tall buildings nearby, and it sits right next to the plaza, so it stands out well. Among the few hotels in Izumi it was the one at a reasonable price, and being close to the station is its strong point.
I checked in and went up to the room, and — huh? The room was quite a bit bigger than I expected. And I’d been worried after reading reviews saying it was old and not clean, but it was far tidier than I thought.
The TV was a little small, but I barely watched TV this time so it didn’t really matter. And I tend to travel with a large-screen iPad, so the size of the TV isn’t actually that important to me.
In any case, the room was well stocked with the basic things you need. The hallway and lobby had all sorts of manga set out, and they said you were free to take them and read as much as you liked, but they were in Japanese, so it wasn’t much of a draw for me.
Above all, the staff were very kind. There was a lot I didn’t know about the city of Izumi, so I asked about all sorts of things, and they always answered with a smile and great kindness.
I’ll probably explain this again in the next post, but there’s something called the Manpuku Premium Voucher(出水市お泊り満腹プレミアム付商品券), sold only to people staying overnight in Izumi.
You pay 2,000 yen and get 4,000 yen worth of vouchers. They can be used at various restaurants and izakaya in Izumi.
I asked at the hotel lobby whether I could buy them there, and they kindly explained this too. Thanks to that, over two nights I bought 8,000 yen worth of vouchers for 4,000 yen and used them. I was going to eat dinner and drink every evening anyway.
For reference, the vouchers can only be used until October 1, 2026.
The response to them has been good, so there may well be a similar event again in the future.
You’d need to check on the Izumi tourism website.
:: Arriving late meant the schedule got longer too.
I planned two nights in Izumi.
Not because there’s so much to see and do in Izumi, but because I knew I’d be arriving this late at night. If I arrived late at night and moved to another city the next day, my time in Izumi would end up far too short.
If today’s flight had been a morning one, and I’d reached the hotel a little after lunchtime, I probably wouldn’t have booked two nights in Izumi. That’s how the whole trip ended up a day longer.
This seems to be the downside of an afternoon flight. On the first day of the trip, you can’t plan anything. You reach the hotel late in the afternoon, so once you’ve had dinner the first day is already over.
Well, that’s how I thought it would go, anyway.
What happened in the backstreets of Izumi on that first day, I’ll tell you in the next post. I’ll say this much in advance: I didn’t just eat dinner and quietly fall asleep.
