A surf trip to Japan?

[Flyfrequently]

Day 6.

Moving day! After spedning the first half our trip in Northern Miyazaki prefecture based out of Hyuga, the second half was to be spent based in the resort town of Aoshima, just south of Miyazaki City.

We got up early as the surf forecast looked good for this day. A bit of swell was coming through and there was next to no wind so we got what was one of the best surfs of the trip in early at Okuragahama, before heading back to Airbnb to re-pack the car and get on the road!

For the drive we decided to break up the monotony of Japanese Highways and take the B-Roads which provided some beautiful views of mountains, the ocean and Japanese farm land. One other interesting thing we drove past was the Tsuno Solar Way. It's a several KM long stretch of former Maglev test track that has been converted into a large scale solar farm and looks quite sytopian set against the coast. For those intersted I'll put a link below.

https://www.kkc.co.jp/english/cms/pdf/rep202306/20110404.pdf

We entered Miyazaki City and found a Cafe Gusto for lunch. I was craving Hamburg and the novelty of being served by robots is yet to wear off! After this we finished the drive 20 minutes south of the city to Aoshima and checked into the ANA Holiday Inn Miyazaki Aoshima. Someone collected our bags while we took care of check in duties. The website to book was quite confusing so I was pleased to know we had been assigned 2 superior rooms on the top floor of the hotel with sweeping ocean views!

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The hotel itself fed some weird obsession I have with Japanese Economic miracle built buildings that seem to be a shell of their former selves, with the bar no longer operating, the buffet and only open for breakfast, a cinema now disused, and the pool and hot tub drained and innaccessible. I think this all started with Rusutsu resort and the obscenely strange theme park within it, and was only further fed by visiting the Yuzawa area and seeing things like a gondola station and shinkansen combined building as well as random 30+ storey apartment towers in the middle of the Japanese alps... That being said the Hotel was comfortable, rooms large, staff very helpful however with limited english and the access to the beach was unreal.

After unpacking I decided to go for another surf as the waves were too inviting and made use of the Hotels complimentary surf rack behind concierge. We booked dinner at a local well known Izakaya called Amimoto as it was my dads birthday. It was a relief to be able to enjoy a night out and not drive with the restaurant across the road from the hotel. Many beers, sashimi, tempura and miyazaki beef later we called it a night!

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Miyazaki-gyu in a teriyaki butter sauce. Lived up to all the hype the local beef has surrounding it!
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The aftermath! May have over ordered...

I have additional photos to add here but my phone has had a meltdown, so they may get added, they may not, I may also have a personal meltdown... Who knows?!

Happy Birthday to Dad !

 

[clifford]

Glad you enjoyed your trip to Miyazaki.

I was there in August and thoroughly enjoyed it. My travel companion and I took the Umisachi Yamasachi Limited Express sightseeing train along the scenic Nichinan Coast from Miyazaki Station to Nango. It's a lovely coastline.

We walked from Nango station to the harbour (about 700 m) and I decided to walk back, whereas my companion, she decided to walk on to Ōdōtsu Station, which turned out to be a beautiful coastline walk, not much further than my trek back up to Nango station.

But we did love the beautiful scenery and the people.

​

 

[HirafuHeartAttack]

Day 7.

Pretty quiet one here. After 2 surfs and a big drive, as well as more than a few beers celebrating dads bday we had a later start but still managed to be in the water by 8am after a coffee with this view!



I got a couple and then had the chance to learn my first new Japanese word of the trip... Kurage. These b*stards are the Aoshima version of our bluebottles, though far harder to see and pack quite a stinging little punch. Only managed to catch a few waves before calling it quits from the sting and itch of these. Came in and had some breakfast at the hotel. Didn't take photos but was your typical japanese/western spread. We weren't ever charge for breakfast despite it no being included in our room rate which was also strange.

Spent the rest of the morning knocking out some work in the 'bar' at the hotel. In reality this was a weird little spot that was no longer manned and had some self serve coffee, tea and soft drinks. We packed up around lunch and wandered down to a cool little taco/burger joint called UPPER YARD about 200 mtrs from the hotel. Had lunch and then my partner and I decided to explore Aoshima and island from which it gets its name a little more. But not before seeing this thing!


The first japanese obsession I ever had was with cars. specifically 80's-early 00's JDM, so to see this crown wagon in amazing condition with a couple of cool boards on top was a buit of a full circle moment!


Then we saw a Shiba...

Walked up the main little tourist drag towards to Island.




The Shrine was stunning, quite busy with tourists but we got to see some Shinto rituals going on as well which always hits me spritually.

We couldn't hget a booking at any of the restaurants we were after on this night so one of the english speaking Concierge suggested a good ramen spot about a 10 minute drive away. I was over having to drive to dinner so we organised a taxi there, in the hope that we'd somehow be able to get a taxi back to the hotel!


The ramen was unreal. Their speciality was Tonkatsu ramen which is by far my favourite style (miso butter corn a close second) so I had one loaded with char siu. My partner and dad both went for spicy miso and said it was good, but not as good as the first ramen place we went, which makes sense as that place specialised in Miso ramen. After a great meal i was a bit anxious to see how long it would take us to get back. Fortunately one of the staff spoke some english and in my broken Japanese we managed to organise a taxi which ended up arriving within 2 minutes. Made it back, had a couple of drinks from the Hotel convenience store and called it a night knowing the next day would be another big one.

 

[drron]

According to the last 2 Australian census results I am a follower of Shinto.
One of the most tolerant of religions.

 

[HirafuHeartAttack]

Day 8.
Probably my favourite day of the whole trip. For context, we live on Sydneys northern beaches and have been lucky enough to frequent what, in my humble and I guess fairly qualified opinion, is the best and most authentic Japanese restaurant in Sydney called Nara in Narrabeen. The predominantly Japanese staff are awesome and part of a cool little communtiy of young Japanese families who live in this area. When we told the owner, Tomo, of our trip he let us know he had a Japanese friend originally from Tokyo who had lived in Australia for a number of years in our area before moving back to Japan last year. He had settled in Miyazaki prefecture and was a keen surfer. Details were passed on and we got in touch Masa just before we left and had organised to meet up on this day.

We got up and left the hotel around 7am for the stunning drive south from Aoshima, through Nichinan to meet up with Masa at a michi no eki about 45 minutes south. He then took us on the stunning drive from there to Koigaura, via a little secret spot he surfs but that wasn't quite breaking well enough. We got to Koigaura to find some wind effected but but still very good surf.

We shared waves for about an hour with Masa and struck up a convo with a funny old guy who was again amazed at Aussies on a surf trip down there.


After the surf Masa had suggested we visit a local onsen about 20 minutes away. The Kushima onsen was lovely and very traditional. However this is where one the weirdest things I've ever experienced in Japan also happened. As most who've visited would know, older Japanese people tend to range from very reserved to borderline xenophobic and in onsens like this previously I've had more than my fair share of questionable glares and people leave as soon as I entered. Here however, no one cared about foreigners being there, and even still an older Japanese man struck up a conversation with us while in the bath about how we had ended up there! Never in a million years did I expect anything like that to happen.

After the onsen we drove back through Nichinan, stopping off for the traditional マクドナルド for lunch, before heading home via the Udo Jingu shrine. The shrine itself is set into a cliff on the side of the ocean and would rank amongst the most unique I've visited, and would highly recommend (for those without mobility issues).




Finished up the day with some beers on the beach before going to the Chinese restaurant within the hotel for dinner. I haven't had Japanese Chinese food for a long time but it was quite good, a little different to what you'd expect but with seafood as fresh as it is in this region it's hard to go wrong!

 

[Seat0B]

. As most who've visited would know, older Japanese people tend to range from very reserved to borderline xenophobic and in onsens like this previously I've had more than my fair share of questionable glares and people leave as soon as I entered. Here however, no one cared about foreigners being there, and even still an older Japanese man struck up a conversation with us while in the bath about how we had ended up there! Never in a million years did I expect anything like that to happen.

Yes, I’ve had the same experiences at both ends of the spectrum you described. I’ve found, in the ladies side at least, that quiet, modest, respectful behaviour and being very obvious about your pre-Onsen scrubbing all help them to feel more comfortable that you are not going to cause trouble. And that has led to some lovely experiences - as I mentioned in my Japanuary 2023 trip report, a little old lady spent a lot of time adjusting the temperature for us, and then gave a back scrub. Another time, a lady showed me how to use the onsen paddles (not sure what they are called in Japanese) to stir the Onsen and cool it down a bit. I’ve had people offer me restaurant and tourist suggestions (in Japanese) and even a few want to practice their English. It’s a strange and wonderful experience, being accepted in an onsen.

 

[HirafuHeartAttack]

Day 9.

A more relaxed and locally spent day on this occassion. I got up early and had a solo surf although my partner managed to snap some shots from the hotel room. The water was lovely, the air still and the surf small and fun.

After this we took a short stroll north to a small coffee cart called Byron Bay Coffee. It's a Tokyo based chain that had branched out to it's first regional destination. Junko was a delight and had ironically just moved home from the Byron area. We chatted for ages about how she had lived in the Northern rivers, returned to Tokyo, taken a job with the company but didn't particulalry like the city and jumped at the opportunity to move down south. She also made killer coffees!

We walked back and grabbed the old man and the car and took him there as he was dying for a real coffee. After that we went to a local surf shop to get some presents and then checked out the All Japan Surf Chamiponships that were happening nearby. Finally had some Japitalian food for lunch before heading back to the hotel for an afternoon onsen. I neglected to mention it earlier but the hotel had one of the coolest onsens I've experienced with a view straight out to the beach and break in front of the hotel. (Hotel image below).

More beach beers then headed for dinner at another local izakaya called Onisen. Forgot to take heaps of photos but was equally as good as Amimoto. Again the Miyazaki-gyu was the star of the show!



Finally we had a few drinks at the bar next door simply called Aoshima Bar. Had a good conversation with Joe, the bartender from Nagoya, who tried his best to convince me to visit but it's nothing if not ticking a city off the lsit at this stage as it remains the only major Japanese city I'm yet to visit.

 

[Seat0B]

the bartender from Nagoya, who tried his best to convince me to visit

You know we visited Nagoya on one of our trips in around 2017 or 2018, and had a fantastic time there. If you can make the time, it is worth it. The train museum is really good, the Toyota museum astonishingly so, and I have heard good things about brewery and china tours (we ran out of time) and they also have some interesting cuisine and good shopping. I wouldn't go there for a week, but we stayed 3 nights/2 days and enjoyed it more than we thought we would.

 

[HirafuHeartAttack]

You know we visited Nagoya on one of our trips in around 2017 or 2018, and had a fantastic time there. If you can make the time, it is worth it. The train museum is really good, the Toyota museum astonishingly so, and I have heard good things about brewery and china tours (we ran out of time) and they also have some interesting cuisine and good shopping. I wouldn't go there for a week, but we stayed 3 nights/2 days and enjoyed it more than we thought we would.

Yeah I know there is certain aspects I would love but it's just never quite had the same appeal as Tokyo for it's size or Osaka for it's vibrance and ability to get to other cities as well! I'll get there one day!

 

[HirafuHeartAttack]

Day 10.

Our Final full day in Aoshima was fairly non-eventful, mostly evident by the fact that I took no photos. Another morning surf, coffee at Byron Bay Coffee Co, lunch at Hamazushi in Miyazaki city and a return for a long last soak in the onsen.

We had found a cool looking mexican fusion bar/restaurant for dinner called Sanbarco so we had it booked for us. This ended up being the most memorable meal of the trip. The staff were amazing, and the food fresh and delicious, but beyond that we ironically ended up being seated next to one the few japanese english speaking staff from the hotel and his partner. We had a great chat about our trip and it was really cool to see him out of the work environment as he was equally as hospitable but so much more laid back. The other highlight was meeting the owner of the restaurant, Ryusuke, and chatting to him about their pop-up they run in Niseko during winter. While it's unlikely many people from here will end up in Aoshima I'd dare say there's a few who make it to Hokkaido to ski and if you fall in to that basket, look this place up on instagram @sanbarco0706 and make your way to it if you can! (I believe they're normally in Annupuri).

After a lovely night of food and drinks and new friends we made our way back to the Holiday Inn for our final night there. Apologies for the lack photos here, we were caught up at dinner and I feel like there's been enough surf photos posted!

 

[HirafuHeartAttack]

Day 11.

Our last full day in Japan started early with average weather and terrible surf. Not that it mattered as we were leaving Aoshima and Miyazaki Pref. and heading to Fukuoka for our last night in Japan!


Most bags had been packed the night before so that only left the surfboard cases to be packed. For anyone who's every tried to pack an overstuffed ski or snowboard bag times that by 10 for the struggle, especially fitting a 9'8" board into a 9'6" case! With the car loaded up we left about 8am and headed into Miyazaki city one last time.

Had a delicous breakfast stop with our trusty packed steed at the golden arches, then headed west and inland through central Kyushu towards Fukuoka. Stopped at a few PAs on the way for souvenirs and snacks and made it to The Crowne Plaza Fukuoka about 2:30.


Given the height of the car with boards we were given VIP parking on the footpath and set off for a walk before we could check in. We had lunch under Hakata station which is nearly directly across the road from the Hotel. Took the old man back and checked in after that before my partner and I headed off for a quick jaunt around the city. We went to Canal City to pick up a few last minute souvenirs and then wandered around Tenjin before hopping a cab back to the Crowne Plaza for club lounge happy hour.

$14 000 irons anyone?



indulged in a few Kirins and some Ume-shu in the club lounge before taking a short stroll to an Izakaya nearby for our last dinner. Had Uni again after an unsuccesful tasting in Hokkaido last December, still hate it and think it's closest resemblance is snot... but the Gyozas and rest of sashimi were amazing as well as everything else!


From there we called it a night with an early start and fairly anxiety inducing morning ahead of us to make our flight home!

 

[HirafuHeartAttack]

Day 12. (Part 1)

Awoke bright and early after a fairly big night celebrating our last in Japan. Packed the bags and car then headed back inside to breakfast.

View from the club lounge level at the Crowne Plaza Fukuoka

Breakfast was served in the main restaurant, high quality and hugely varied options including DIY hakata Ramen, really impressed!
We departed and made our way via a petrol station to return our car. This is where things got a little hectic. With Times rental car only opening at 8am for our return, and a 10am departure from Fukuoka things were cutting it a little fine for me. Luckily we had somewhat clued them in to our rush. We arrived at 7:50am, emptied the car and set our luggage aside. At bang on 8 the branch opened, I went inside to finalise admin/payment with the desk attendant while Dad and my partner started loading the shuttle. No time to wait for other guests and by 8:05am we were off and straight into morning peak hour on the way to the airport.

Fortunately it was only a 10 minute ride and by 8:15am we were dropped off at the international terminal. Fate going our way the SQ check in was at the end of the terminal we had been dropped to. Straight inside and no lines at business, perfect! Boardbags measured, tagged and placed aside. Suitcases tagged and sent on their way and we were all checked in! Through immigration and security, no fast track but it wasn't all that bad and into the terminal then to find Lounge Fukuoka, SQ's contract lounge here.

The lounge was more akin to a domestic Sakura Lounge than an international lounge, albeit with a little more food, but nothing to write home about. We sat for about 25 minutes before deciding to mosy on down to our gate via the obligatory duty free shops full of Chinese and Korean tourists stocking up on last minute gifts and souvenirs.


Found our 787 awaiting to take us back to Singapore! Boarding was prompt and we were seated with champagne in hand very quickly. The crew on this flight were fantastic! It was also our first chance to try the famous Chicken Satay and it absolutely lived up to expectations. My partner and I ended up having 2 serves each, washed down with a Singapore Sling. About an hour and a half later we were served the proper lunch. The starter was a prawn salad and main was a marinated chicken karage type dish which was tasty but easily the worst thing we were served aboard SQ... (Still better than some of the best QF business dishes I've had though).



We disembarked at around 3pm and had a 5 hour layover ahead of us. Immediately headed to the T3 SQ Business lounge which was deathly quiet compared to our last visit. Parked up and had some food and champagne before my partner and I headed off for some shopping. Managed to pick up a pair of sunglasses that retailed at $600 at the brand, for $340 at Sunglass hut... Couldn't quite work that one out. We then returned to the lounge for a snack, shower and some plane spotting.

Prawn Siu Mai and Singapore Nyonya Chicken Curry. This lounge really nails it with food and I think would be the best I've experienced outside of those offering a la carte dining.

Cool retro livery Garuda 737

Lufthansa 787-8. As Aussies were pretty starved of seeing passenger 747s so this was cool. Although I did see the Korean Air 747-8 this past weekend at Sydney which was beautiful.

(Will continue below)

 

[HirafuHeartAttack]

Day 12 and 13. (Part 2)

We were first to board the A380 to head home, strangely, as I have no idea where the suites guests were... maybe still enjoying the private room? Indulged in our last PDB champagne and took off for Sydney. One more serve of Satay and then a couple of BTC items for dinner.

Kok Kee Wonton Noodle for me. This was hands down the best meal I've ever had in the air and some of the best food i've had period. The light broth at the bottom was delicious, the noodles springy and tasty, the pork had a fine balance of flavour and a bit of fat for tenderness and the wontons were like little parcels of heaven. I was so blown away and kind of annoyed now as I still have lobster thermidor on the avgeek bucket list but any time this is on the menu it'll be hard to go past!

Makhan Wala Murgh (Butter Chicken) for my partner. She said it was tasty but the lack of rice (or more roti) was interesting.

We slept most of the flight as best we could. But i'm certainly not a fan of the SQ A380 seat for an overnight flight and also being relegated to sleeping only on one side on a VERY firm seat. We arrived into Sydney at the standard 'every red eye long haul intercontinental wide body' time of around 7am. That being said it was fairly quiet being mid week and just after school holidays had finished.

Final bit of duty free shopping on arrival, through border control and onto the carousels in record time. Bags off quickly, board bags also surprisingly fast. Lined up at customs expecting an inspection given how much luggage we had but the 2 people in front of us decided to argue with the agent so I think he was a bit fed up, saw we were Aussies with nothing to declare and waved us through.

Last trek with the board bags through to the valet pick up and the final roll of the dice for the trip. Given the run around I had to do to drop the car off AFTER taking the boards off I was anticipating having to do a similar thing for pick up involving taking our stuff to express pick up, collecting the car, and then doing a loop into there to load up. Fortunately I spoke with the valet agent and he said that the height guages at the entrance are only designed for those heading to upper levels, and that the ground floor is actually all about 3 metres high.

Hallelujah for that. Packed the boards and suitcases there and we were finally on our way home!

Thank you for everyone who has read this report. My partner has been bugging me to start documenting our trips a little better so a website/blog may be in the works after I polish my skills up here a little more. The likes and comments are so appreciated and seeing this featured in the email newsletter was a superb little treat so thanks to the admins for that one!

Our next trip is in Feb. 400 000 QFF points and about 80 000 VA points for SYD-TYO QF J, Cash TYO-CTS and CTS-ITM (Osakas smaller airport) on JAL Y, ITM-TYO-SIN on JAL J, SIN-HKG on SQ A380 J again and finally HKG-SYD on QF A380 J (but hopefully in an F seat). We'll be staying at the new Mercure Tokyo Haneda, some cheap apartment in Niseko not far from my old house for nostalgic reasons, the Holiday Inn Sapporo during the snow festival, The Conrad Osaka (Hilton points redemption) with HH Diamond status, An as yet undecided hotel in Singapore (so if you have any suggestions of ones with great pools, great club lounges and city views throw them my way) and finally the Langham in HK! See you then!

 

[Seat0B]

Thanks for the trip report @HirafuHeartAttack. I’ll look forward to your next one.

 

[Flyfrequently]

Day 12 and 13. (Part 2)

We were first to board the A380 to head home, strangely, as I have no idea where the suites guests were... maybe still enjoying the private room? Indulged in our last PDB champagne and took off for Sydney. One more serve of Satay and then a couple of BTC items for dinner.
View attachment 353533
Kok Kee Wonton Noodle for me. This was hands down the best meal I've ever had in the air and some of the best food i've had period. The light broth at the bottom was delicious, the noodles springy and tasty, the pork had a fine balance of flavour and a bit of fat for tenderness and the wontons were like little parcels of heaven. I was so blown away and kind of annoyed now as I still have lobster thermidor on the avgeek bucket list but any time this is on the menu it'll be hard to go past!
View attachment 353527
Makhan Wala Murgh (Butter Chicken) for my partner. She said it was tasty but the lack of rice (or more roti) was interesting.

We slept most of the flight as best we could. But i'm certainly not a fan of the SQ A380 seat for an overnight flight and also being relegated to sleeping only on one side on a VERY firm seat. We arrived into Sydney at the standard 'every red eye long haul intercontinental wide body' time of around 7am. That being said it was fairly quiet being mid week and just after school holidays had finished.

Final bit of duty free shopping on arrival, through border control and onto the carousels in record time. Bags off quickly, board bags also surprisingly fast. Lined up at customs expecting an inspection given how much luggage we had but the 2 people in front of us decided to argue with the agent so I think he was a bit fed up, saw we were Aussies with nothing to declare and waved us through.

Last trek with the board bags through to the valet pick up and the final roll of the dice for the trip. Given the run around I had to do to drop the car off AFTER taking the boards off I was anticipating having to do a similar thing for pick up involving taking our stuff to express pick up, collecting the car, and then doing a loop into there to load up. Fortunately I spoke with the valet agent and he said that the height guages at the entrance are only designed for those heading to upper levels, and that the ground floor is actually all about 3 metres high.
View attachment 353535
Hallelujah for that. Packed the boards and suitcases there and we were finally on our way home!

Thank you for everyone who has read this report. My partner has been bugging me to start documenting our trips a little better so a website/blog may be in the works after I polish my skills up here a little more. The likes and comments are so appreciated and seeing this featured in the email newsletter was a superb little treat so thanks to the admins for that one!

Our next trip is in Feb. 400 000 QFF points and about 80 000 VA points for SYD-TYO QF J, Cash TYO-CTS and CTS-ITM (Osakas smaller airport) on JAL Y, ITM-TYO-SIN on JAL J, SIN-HKG on SQ A380 J again and finally HKG-SYD on QF A380 J (but hopefully in an F seat). We'll be staying at the new Mercure Tokyo Haneda, some cheap apartment in Niseko not far from my old house for nostalgic reasons, the Holiday Inn Sapporo during the snow festival, The Conrad Osaka (Hilton points redemption) with HH Diamond status, An as yet undecided hotel in Singapore (so if you have any suggestions of ones with great pools, great club lounges and city views throw them my way) and finally the Langham in HK! See you then!

Thanks @HirafuHeartAttack for a great TR and having us ride the waves with you.
Hope your Dad enjoyed it as much as we did following your travels

 

[pagingjoan]

A great trip report, HirafuHeartAttack.
Thank you for the entertainment.

​

 

[OZDUCK]

Thanks for the TR. I have to admit that the surfing culture in Japan was a bit of a surprise to me.

 

[drron]

Thanks for a very informative Japan TR. Loved it. Certainly reinforces my going with a car rental to get to more out of the way places. Doing a month driving around Hokkaido next July.
I worry though that increasing age might make car rental impossible.

 

[Seat0B]

I worry though that increasing age might make car rental impossible.

Yes it is a genuine worry. Many car rental companies start declining to rent cars at 75 as we found out when Mr Seat 0A's dad wanted to rent a car in Australia (aged 90!!!!!!!), so do look into it carefully before making your arrangements.