Late July. The middle of summer, when the heat is at its peak. I wanted to travel.
Japanese summers. Notorious, right? It’s an island country, so the humidity is high, and they say that makes summer harder than in a dry country at the same temperature.
Back in the summer of 2024, I spent about two weeks in Kyoto myself. On the day I flew home, stepping into Seoul’s summer actually felt like relief. That’s how hellish it was.
Late July. The middle of summer.
Maybe I should escape the heat? That was the thought. Head north in Japan and it should be cool even in summer.
So I decided to travel to Aomori(青森) this time. Five nights and six days or so, including Hirosaki(弘前) nearby. A cool trip sounded good.
I looked up places to wander around and checked the transport. I gathered information on where to drink, where the good restaurants were, and then went to book a hotel — and the hotels were strangely expensive.
The Aomori Nebuta Festival(青森ねぶた祭) in early August is the biggest festival in the Tohoku region, famous nationwide, so I had deliberately scheduled around it. Even so, the hotel prices were well over double the usual.
Ah, so that was it.
Japanese people also go somewhere cool for their summer holidays. Which means places with cool summers, like Aomori or Hokkaido, are peak season all summer long, not just during the festival.
Most of the hotels around Aomori are old and dated, as far as I know. I didn’t want to pay more than double the usual price to stay in one of those. The mood of the trip was ruined before I’d even left.
So I opened my travel notes again. I keep a note where I jot down places I want to go whenever they come to mind. I looked through it and decided to put together a new plan.
Fukue Island(福江島), off Nagasaki. The island that served as the setting for the manga Bakuman.
The Amami Islands(奄美群島) sit right above Okinawa but belong to Kagoshima Prefecture, and I hear the atmosphere of the forests there is quite different from Okinawa despite the proximity.
Driving along the Pacific coast from Miyazaki(宮崎) is something I’d like to do one day too.
Nagoya(名古屋) is a big city, and I still haven’t been. It looks like I could make a day trip to Ise Grand Shrine(伊勢神宮) from there…
Going down the list, the place that caught my eye was Akune(阿久根).
A very small port town on the northwest coast of Kagoshima Prefecture. It doesn’t have a swimming beach or any major tourist attraction. I’d come across it by chance, in a brief appearance on some famous chef’s YouTube channel.
Buying sashimi from a fish shop in a small town, taking it back to the room, eating it with shochu — an ordinary scene like that. But that everyday, small scene stayed warm with me. So I’d written it down in my travel notes.
Akune. Right, that’s where this trip is going.
But I couldn’t fill a whole itinerary with this one small town. I spread out the map. And looked at the surrounding towns one by one.
Well now, there’s an interesting railway line running through Akune. It’s called the Hisatsu Orange Railway(肥薩おれんじ鉄道). Apparently it’s a line that was handed over from JR to a local railway company when the Kyushu Shinkansen opened.
Taking the Orange Railway along the coast, I could start from Izumi(出水) and go all the way to Satsumasendai(薩摩川内). And of course the finale of this trip should be Kagoshima(鹿児島), my favorite city.
That’s how the route and itinerary for these seven nights and eight days came together.
Compared to the week or so I spent agonizing over the Aomori plan, this course was thrown together in a single day. But I’ve liked the city of Kagoshima for a long time, so visiting other towns in Kagoshima Prefecture was something I’d wanted to do at some point anyway.
This trip looks like it’ll be a little different from all the eating and drinking I’ve done in Tenmonkan in Kagoshima, and I’m looking forward to it.
So, starting with the next post, the story of a new trip begins!
Oh, and let me say this in advance — summer in Kagoshima is more bearable than Seoul. The humidity is far lower. When the wind blows, or when you stand in the shade, it actually feels cool. But it’s much further south, and the sunlight stings enough to hurt. Sunscreen and other burn protection are a must!
