Road Trip in Japan: Kyushu - Chugoku - Shikoku - Kyushu

Hi everyone,

It’s been a while since I last posted... so I’m jumping back in with this amazing trip we took in October 2025:

We’re doing this trip with fellow traveler friends who, like us, have already been to Japan. That means we can aim for a different side of Japan, away from the usual tourist circuits. That’s why I opted to rent a car instead of relying on trains. I was drawn to the castles and the samurai-novel atmosphere.

When I plotted the sites I wanted to visit on Google Maps, it suggested a return route via the island of Shikoku, so it turned into a nice loop around the Seto Inland Sea between Kyushu, Chugoku, and Shikoku.

The trip will be just the four of us, doing it all independently. I rented a car from Budget in Fukuoka. Before heading over, I watched several videos to get an idea of what to expect—road signs, parking, and general driving behavior. In Japan, they drive on the left, but that’s not an issue since in Southern Africa we also drive on the “wrong side of the road,” so I’m used to it. For accommodations, after checking with two agencies, I decided to handle it myself. It saved a significant amount of money, and I was able to choose exactly what I wanted. I know I can be picky about the type of lodging I want, especially in Japan where you can really treat yourself. We stayed in some stunning ryokans, once in little cabins run by monks next to a temple, and more.

Here’s the route: Fukuoka - Hagi - Miyajima - Matsue - Okayama - Kurashiki - Matsuyama - Yufuin - Kurokawa - Kumamoto - Fukuoka

Here we gooo...

I'm hopping in the car.

Nakunatte shimatta ! 😉

Before starting the story, a quick context note about Japanese castles:

The donjons of the archipelago The Japanese castle, with its multi-story donjon, large watchtowers, wooden architecture, and nowadays its vast open gardens, has become one of the iconic landmarks of the Land of the Rising Sun. But did you know there are several types of castles across the archipelago?

The yamajiro We won’t be visiting any castles of this type. The only one that existed, Bichu-Matsuyama, would have required too big of a detour... timing, you got us... Before the 14th century, Japan only had temporary castles consisting of wooden fortifications surrounded by moats, designed to serve as defenses against foreign invasions. During the Sengoku period of warring states (1477–1573), the multiplication of conflicts across the country led to the construction of the first castles intended for internal use. These castles were built on high ground, on hills or mountains. "Yamajiro" means "mountain castle." Due to the terrain on which it was built, the castle had neither watchtowers nor moats, but simply a donjon ("tenshu"), from which it was easy to survey the territory for military operations.

The hirayamajiro We’ll visit three of these: Matsuyama, Matsue, and Kumamoto. The hirayamajiro, or "plain and mountain castle," is built in a way that combines the advantages of high ground and the plain, allowing for both military and civil use (as a political power center). Thus, a castle was built on a hill overlooking the plain easily. Unlike the yamajiro, the hirayamajiro features, in addition to its imposing stone-based tenshu, moats, turrets ("yagura"), and very complex fortification systems for strong citadel defense. Those we’ll visit fall into this category.

The hirajiro We’ll visit Okayama’s, which is of this type. The hirajiro is a "plain castle" corresponding to castles built during a more peaceful era. At this time, the fortress, seen as a symbol of power, played a much more political and economic role than a strategic one. Indeed, its topographical location made it much harder to defend. Located in the center of cities, it still retained large moats and turrets as a means of protection. These vast castles, spanning several hectares, were, like the hirayamajiro, traditionally organized around multiple enclosures. The "honmaru," the inner citadel surrounding the donjon, served as the lord’s residence, while the "ninomaru" (second enclosure) and "sannomaru" (third enclosure) housed samurai, among others.

The mizujiro We’ll visit Imabari’s. Alongside these major castle categories, there’s a smaller one called "mizujiro," or "water castles." Only three remain: those in Nakatsu (Ōita Prefecture, so visitable), Takamatsu (Kagawa Prefecture), and Imabari (Ehime Prefecture, so visitable). These castles face the sea and use it as a form of protection.

Hey JF, happy New Year!

We’ll squeeze in a bit in the car, but I’m joining you on this Japanese adventure.

Thanks Agnès and Jérôme for joining us! 🙂

Friday, October 18 Flight from Frankfurt to Fukuoka with a layover in Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific. Well, this is the second time we’ve flown with them, and we’re still not fans...

Saturday, October 19 Arrival in Fukuoka at 3:30 PM. Picked up the rental car from Budget at the airport. No issues—when it comes to organization, the Japanese have it down. We’d opted for the ETC card for the electronic tolls.

Spent the night at Resol Hakata Hotel. This was the better of the two hotels we stayed at in Fukuoka. Plus, it’s well located. ... yep, we’re definitely in Japan now 😉

In the evening, we headed to the Tenjin district to check out the Yataï, where we happily stuffed ourselves... yum yum!

A little post-dinner culture with Kushida Jinja.

Hey JF.. I’m jumping in too! Just back from my trip in November 2025 and I already wanna go back. Your travel journal’s gonna give me some ideas. I’m posting mine now. Patrick

Hey JF,

Flight from Frankfurt to Fukuoka with a layover in Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific. Okay, we’ve flown with them twice now and still aren’t fans

I don’t have a bad memory of my flights with them, but maybe things have changed.

Picked up the car from Budget at the airport. No issues—when it comes to organization, the Japanese really know what they’re doing. We got the ETC card option for the electronic tolls.

So you had your license translated before leaving. Who did you go through?

Hi Jean-François,

Another travel journal about Japan—how cool! Especially since you’re visiting places I’ve never been to.

Hey JF,

I don’t have a bad memory of my flights with them, but maybe things have changed.

They struggle with punctuality, and the seats are cramped.

So you had your license translated before leaving. Who did you use for that?

Keikaku

Hello,

Yeah, Japan is super popular right now! 🙂 I thought about making a travel journal, but since this is an unusual loop and we did it as a self-drive trip, we figured it might interest future travelers.

Yeah, a self-drive travel journal is a great idea! 😉

Yes, a self-drive travel journal is a great idea!

For you, I’ll jump to the conclusion: traveling by car in Japan is almost as easy as it is in France :cool:

But not at the same price...🤪

But not at the same price...🤪

We paid 1028 € for the two weeks for a medium-sized car (4 adults + 4 bags). That seems pretty reasonable to me

Hi JF,

I don’t have a bad memory of my flights with them, but maybe things have changed.

They struggle with punctuality, and the seats are cramped.

So you had your license translated before leaving. Who did you use?

Keikaku

Okay, thanks for the details! 👍

Hello everyone,

It’s been a while since I last posted... so I’m jumping back in with this beautiful trip that took place in October 2025:

Hello and thanks for sharing! The Japan section since the site reopened doesn’t seem very active, so I’ll be following along with pleasure.

The route was: Fukuoka - Hagi - Miyajima - Matsue - Okayama - Kurashiki - Matsuyama - Yufuin - Kurokawa - Kumamoto - Fukuoka

I’m especially interested because some of these cities are familiar to me, and others have caught my eye.

we paid 1028 € for the two weeks for a medium-sized car (4 adults + 4 bags). That seems pretty reasonable to me

1028 divided by 14 days comes out to about 73 € per day. That seems a bit high to me. I’ve rented cars in Japan several times, and usually the rental ranged between 40 and 50 € per day. Where did you book?

Hello Jean-Francois,

If there’s still a little room in the car, I’d love to join for the Japan trip! 😊