Day Trip to Takachihokyo, Miyazaki

Takachiho is in the middle of Kyushu, in Miyazaki Prefecture but also very close to Oita and Kumamoto Prefectures. It's most famous for being the region that the god Amaterasu Omikami is from and the meeting place for eight million gods to talk about important decisions.

Since I'm no expert on Japanese mythology or Shinto beliefs, I'm going to keep those explanations minimal and focus on why I wanted to go there:

it's pretty nature.

There are 88 shrines in the region, but during this tour we only saw around five of them.

We have never been on a package tour but it seemed like the best way to go about this journey without driving. During the trip I was thankful that we hadn't rented a car - the roads can be steep and windy.

Through Nishitetsu Bus Hike group, there are day tours leaving Fukuoka City and going to Takachiho about three times a week. The group offers several tours to other locations in the region. The website and all materials are in Japanese, so being at least conversational in Japanese is recommended. Booking can be done through the website in the link.

The departure time was early, considering we had to go into the city to meet by 7:30. The bus often left a little earlier than stated if everyone was there, which I quickly learned was always the case.

The tour does not include typical tour guide explanations, but there were some descriptions of where we were about to arrive. Most of the day was spent on the bus for the 3-4 hour drive there and back. We felt like the on site times were rushed, as would be expected for this type of day tour.

My husband and I prefer slow travel when possible so we have time to discover unexpected things, but we still thought this was the easiest way for us to go without spending the night in the area.

From Kumamoto City there are highway buses as well. The reason we went for this tour is that the highway bus into Takachiho leaves only twice a day: early in the morning and in the evening. Return buses are similar. In addition, the cost for the (not shinkansen) train and bus round trip was a little more than the price for the tour we decided on, which also includes lunch. (7900 yen per person from Fukuoka City.)

This tour is described as being a 'Power Spot' tour - full of shrine visits and nature. I guess you can say I felt more powerful during our visit. It may have been from all of the powerful naps I took on the bus.

The passengers were nearly all middle aged women. The first stop was lunch.

We had less than an hour and around 50 people waited in line to take food at the included lunch buffet. The healthy Japanese food was tasty, but it wasn't fun feeling rushed to eat.

Next stop, Kushifuru Shrine.

There are tons of steps leading up to the shrine where a god came down from heaven or something like that. The bronze and carved wood accents were beautiful.

At Amaniwato Shrine we were blessed by a priest then allowed onto the porch behind the shrine overlooking the gorge. No photography is allowed, but we could see the cave where supposedly the god Amaterasu fled to and hid.

After that we followed a narrow path down to the gorge and along the river. It was beautiful and cool despite the humid summer weather.

There's a shrine inside a cave there called Amanoyasukawara, which was my favorite. Tons of rocks were piled up in the big cave and it was just a beautiful lush landscape along the river.

After walking back up, we got some mango soft serve ice cream.

It's Miyazaki after all!

The most famous location would have to be the gorge and waterfall itself. Takachihokyo and Manai Falls near Mihashi, one of the bridges crossing the river in that area was lovely. The rock formations are really cool.

You can see pictures online with the rental boats in the river, but the rental was closed while we were there. I think it's because it rained earlier that day.

Rental boats are 2000 yen for 30 minutes.

We walked down into the gorge for around 30 minutes then took a mini bus up to a parking lot after doing some gift shopping.

Then a quick drive to our last stop, Takachiho Shrine. Here you can see the 'wedded cedars' and pray for just about everything as it's supposed to represent all the shrines in the area. 

It was a long day, but I'm still glad we were able to go so conveniently.