Things to do in Kumamoto Prefecture

《Regarding the Tour Guide and Service Experience》 Our tour guide for this trip, Eiichi, was incredibly thoughtful and kind. Although he is a local Japanese, he was able and willing to explain things in both English and Chinese, accommodating travelers with different language backgrounds. He also reminded us about the route and safety precautions. Before the trip, he even sent a written itinerary explanation and food recommendations. Compared to other experiences where I've often taken elderly family members on similar tours, sometimes the Chinese explanations were skipped, leading to them not understanding, or the tour simply went through each spot without detailed historical explanations or important notes. This experience, however, was excellent. 《Regarding the Itinerary》 Our visit was in May and June, which coincided with Japan's rainy season. Although I checked the weather beforehand, the mountain weather is indeed unpredictable, with rain stopping and starting. Here are some tips for travelers planning this itinerary during this period: 1. Raincoats are more practical than umbrellas: This tour involves continuous walking. If you want to take good photos and move around easily, choosing a stylish raincoat or a clear umbrella would be more convenient. 2. You might not need to book the Takachiho boat ride: As shown in the photos, if it rains, the water level rises, and there's a high probability that the boat service will be suspended. The platform initially stated that if suspended, a refund of 2,000 JPY would be issued. However, the original cost of booking the boat ride was actually close to 4,000 JPY. Therefore, if there's a risk of rain, I recommend not even considering the boat ride. 3. Lunch arrangements: Lunch is at the scenic restaurant in Kusasenri, where you can enjoy Kumamoto beef from Kyushu. However, because time is quite tight, if you want to take good photos and climb to spots with good views, you might not have time for lunch. You could buy food at a convenience store along the way in the morning to maximize your photo-taking time.

Today's itinerary was packed, and it felt wonderful. First, there was the mini-train, which the kids are sure to love; the driver even blows bubbles at the end! Then, the canyon was beautiful and very photogenic; I really enjoyed the scenery as we strolled along. My personal favorite was the Kumano Shrine; it had a very, very serene atmosphere, with ancient moss-covered lanterns and towering old trees looking down on everything. It started raining at our last stop, so we ate Kuroge Wagyu barbecue on the second floor of Kusasenri, looking out at the lush green landscape. All my senses were delighted. Many thanks to our guide today, Mr. Miyamoto, who was very attentive and thoughtful. Not only did he give us a perfect day, but he also gave us posters on the way back, and I got my favorite, "Spirited Away"! I'm so happy.

I recently took the Dazaifu + Yufuin + Beppu day tour. Overall, the itinerary was well-planned, and the attractions were definitely worth visiting. However, it rained all day, which certainly impacted the experience and my mood. The planned cable car ride was canceled due to a typhoon and replaced with a visit to Umi Jigoku (Sea Hell), which was a bit disappointing. Still, the attraction itself was unique, though it would have been more complete if we could have stuck to the original plan. Yufuin itself is beautiful, but with the constant rain that day, walking around the town was a bit inconvenient, and I couldn't browse or take photos at my leisure, which slightly diminished the overall experience. Despite the weather and itinerary changes, the tour guide was excellent 👍 and very responsible throughout. I left the group in Yufuin to stay two nights there and one night in Kurokawa, enjoying the open-air hot springs (rotenburo). When I left the group, the guide even helped me call a taxi 🚕 so I could get to my hotel smoothly, which was truly thoughtful.

great tour with an amazing guide Sun-san who is well versed with the history and information of all the attractions, his candid and lively explanation is a great highlight of the trip, and it's so refreshing to have a tour guide that shares what are not just the must tries and also what to avoid as well (souvenirs and snacks). the pace of the trip is great as well, and I appreciate that Sun-san was flexible to shuffle the sequence of attractions to visit to avoid the weekend crowd, that's really thoughtful! and not forgetting the main highlight of the trip visiting the beautiful Mt Aso (we didnt get to go there due to the recent accident), shrines and gorge! well planned and well paced - was an amazing trip in all and would highly recommend it!

We visited a lot of places during the tour and was able to have time to browse lots of souvenirs and food throughout. Mount Aso crater was unfortunately closed but we were still able to enjoy and take in the amazing views. Our guides especially Sun was so accommodating even when we me and my friend were the only 2 English speaking people in the trip. They were both really jolly and would give good infos about the places and also gave tips on food and where else to visit around Fukuoka. So thank you so much to them :)

this tour was really good if you love animals and want to see them up close. I enjoyed the guide Zhu Zhu was so sweet and even she spoke little English she was so great and made sure I was able to follow along with rest of the group. She was so delightful and kindhearted, helped me order all the foods form all the shops and stores and offered me her umbrella and even the sweet apples. I highly recommend this route you get to see lots in one day!

We really like our guide Carson!! He asked about our preferred language when we first met, since my Chinese speaking skills are pretty bad lol so we were gonna talk to him in English but surprisingly he could speak Cantonese as well! during the intros he would speak in Chinese and English (we could understand both) and if we had any questions we could use Cantonese which was just perfect. I really liked the mountains and had time to do some shopping and take photos. I personally don’t really enjoy onsens but I was happy to see a chubby cat there and those unique buildings. Carson also reminded us about snakes because it was the first sunny day after days of raining. Carson was very helpful and full of information, we really liked him as our guide which was one of the main reasons we trusted this company and went on another trip.

Kumamoto Castle is hassle-free and a must-visit when you are in Kumamoto. I definitely recommend it to anyone visiting Kumamoto for the first time. The castle is very unique compared to Himeji and Matsumoto. The interior of the castle is modern, and there is air conditioning inside. There was also a samurai dance show outside the castle, which was very fun to watch.

what a memorable experience. only in fukuoka I can experience watching wild dolphins with a 90% probability of spotting them 😍