This is Part 2 of our May 2025 trip to Japan. Kumamoto was mountains and castles AND its mascot is a bear!! What else could I ask for??
Our hotel was a short walk to the Kumamoto castle, so of course that was in our itinerary. In the meantime, we wanted to explore the city as well. First thing on our agenda was to settle into the hotel room and get some food!
Hubby found a delicious Sri Lankan restaurant, and as we later found out, this was a popular restaurant type to have in Kumamoto.
After a good night’s rest, we woke up and tried to find the nearest bakery. Sometimes it’s hard to find one that’s open early, but this one was right by a bus stop and had really fresh bakery items (as well as coffee).
I really enjoyed sitting and people-watching as I sipped my coffee.
There were a few tunnels and side streets that made up the local shopping district. Lots of unique items, classic souvenirs and clothing stores that locals were shopping at. Cafes lined the streets as well, some of them looking very inviting.
There were also “other” types of inviting places. I unknowingly took a picture of this place because it had cute care bears on it. Hubby explained that it’s an “information center” where you can get referred to places that offer services, like “soap land” spots or “delivery health”. Basically, “night-time” activities. But it’s good to know, because on our trip to Ureshino there was a place called “Soap” something or other and I would have naively thought that they sold soap. Nope!!
For lunch, we found ourselves a soba restaurant that was housed in a more traditional building and served noodle water. I hadn’t had noodle water in many years at a restaurant. I think the last time I had it was in Beijing, in 2011 actually.
We made our way to the mountains on a bus after this. It dropped us off in what seemed like the middle of nowhere among mountain fields. A short hike up the steep incline brought us to a lonely vending machine, a shrine and a lookout point that offered beautiful views.
A bit of a hike further up, we reached the Buddhist temple Unganzenji that had the “Spirit Rock Cave” (Reigandou).
A monk gave us our tickets when we paid, and before we walked in, we filled up on some special water that they had flowing. The sign verified that it was delicious and hubby had heard that Kumamoto had famously good groundwater, so we filled up and drank it without reservations.
The walk through the hills here was not too long, but was meandering and very peaceful. No traffic visible, only forest and mountain backdrops.
Some of the signs explained that pieces sometimes fell off of the statues due to earthquakes. The carpet of moss covering everything was my favorite part.
At the end of the path was a famous cave, where a samurai (near the end of his life, if you read his story) wrote several important books. People come here and leave messages tied to the vines inside the cave.
There are characters (kanji) carved into the roof of the cave as well.
There were pamphlets (old, yellowed with time) left for visitors to read and use in their prayers (I believe) as well as names left in many places.
As we exited the temple grounds, a gachapon caught my eye. This was a gachapon located in one of the most remote locations I could think of, and had souvenirs specific to this temple – I couldn’t help but stop to get one, even though it almost made us miss our bus!!
After sprinting back down the mountain to catch our bus, we swung by a Taiwanese restaurant that hubby was very delighted to find.
We spent a year living in Taiwan in our 20’s, so it was very nice to find some hot Taiwanese breakfast items.
While meandering our way back to our hotel, we came across a festival that hosted several food trucks with Taiwanese food.
The next day, we visited the Kumamoto castle. It was gray and overcast, but didn’t pour on us, so it was fine weather overall.
Here was a section of the wall that had crumbled, but was still holding. I believe they were working slowly on the repairs.
The castle was beautiful, and definitely picture-worthy.
I think a stand-out feature of this castle is that unlike others, it was extremely handicap-friendly. It had all the accommodations needed for people in wheelchairs.
Inside, they had lots of replicas and explanations on how the castle had been built as well as the leaders who lived inside them.
The sun eventually came out, which was nice but then very humid, and we enjoyed the change in the weather and lighting in our pictures.
After making it through the castle grounds, by the exit there was the mandatory souvenir shops of course. I was tempted by the visually appealing and cooling ice cream and did not regret it. We also cooled off by heading into a small building that had some more interactive exhibits.
Whew!! After that, we settled in for another round of Taiwanese food for dinner (couldn’t help it, so good!). I had my favorite noodle soup, Tantanmen, for dinner and we found a spot that sold waffles with filling. The filled waffles (pictured below) were nostalgic for me, because in Taiwan there was a waffle cart that I frequented often that sold these exact desserts.
The next morning, hubby made some tea while I enjoyed the hotel’s coffee.
We had *Taiwanese food* again, for breakfast, because we couldn’t help ourselves. It’s just that good!!! And it was really special to find it, in the wild. Not many places offer Taiwanese food (and have it taste authentic as well). Specifically Taiwanese breakfast food is seldom found.
Hubby found a tea shop and we had to wander in. Most tea shops will offer you samples of the tea, which they did, and hubby walked away with a couple bags of tea. I bought one myself as well.
The apartment in Fukuoka was very spacious, and because it was off-season it only cost us approx. $60 USD for the night. It had two bedrooms, a living room and kitchen, a full bath and half bath.
Our dinner after check-in was at our favorite udon chain.
The next morning, I took advantage of being back in a larger city by going Rilakkuma shopping!
If you want to see my full haul, you can check the Haul post listed on my main page.
Hubby then took me on a bus ride to Dazaifu, which is a popular tourist destination. It had beautiful grounds, very extensive gardens and hiking paths and many shrines. They even held ceremonies and you could pay to participate in them (for religious purposes).
There were a pair of very old camphor trees that had grown together. This pair in particular were estimated to be between 1,000 to 1,500 years old.
There was a bull statue whose face was rubbed often for good luck, and the roof of the ceremonial building had a small forest growing on top of it, trees and all!
We had decided to go on this adventure on our way to take our flight back, so we had our suitcases with us. A cafe located within the grounds offered some much-needed respite from dragging our suitcases around and they staff were extremely kind, and offered to watch our bags while we enjoyed the rest of our time there.
It was a very pleasant, traditional-style building with lots of air flow and classic Japanese cuisine. Hubby enjoyed some red bean mochi (soup?) and I ordered the matcha with grilled mochi. I also was starving so I ordered some curry, too.
Here is the menu they offered and what we ordered:
That really hit the spot!
We left our suitcases in the corner of the restaurant and went hiking up the trails. They curved in steep switchbacks with Torii along the way. At the top, there was a plateau with shrines dedicated to what seemed like a fox god, and a spot to purchase tokens and charms. There were other trails that we explored briefly as well.
Hubby found a tunnel that REALLY reminded him of the one that Chihiro walked through in Spirited Away.
With that, it was time to head back to the airport to fly out on our night flight.
The Kumamoto part of the trip was so memorable. At the hotel in Kumamoto, the staff were so kind, jovial and welcoming. The lobby had lots of Kumamon memorabilia and I left with a few tokens to remember them by. I really enjoyed Kumamoto – smaller city charms, green spaces and lots of adventures!
Rilakkuma Obsessed 