After the 30mn ferry ride from Kumamoto, we stopped briefly at Shimabara castle ruins, which ended up being less ruined than Kumamoto’s castle… Nice little tower, and flowery small garden around, it was worth the detour.
As it was already a bit late in the day, we decided to only visit the nearby volcano museum.

The museum was unexpectedly fascinating! Mt Unzen is an active volcano, and supposedly the deadliest of Japan. It had 2 major eruptions in the last 300 years. One in 1792, resulting with the collapse of one of the mountain into the sea, causing a massive tsunami, and an estimated death toll of 17,000 people. Nevertheless, people of Shimabara rebuilt their city, and continued to live near the beautiful but threatening mountain. The following eruption was in 1991, with enormous pyroclastic flows, aggravated by debris flows, causing 45 deaths. Of which those of the Krafft, the famous French volcanologists. The eruption cycle lasted 5 years. Yep… 5 years, 13 lava domes creations and explosions, and around 9,500 eruptions. A bit scary when you get such information…
As the latest eruption is quite recent, it was very well documented, with many images, videos, and testimonies from the survivors. It made it really real, and we had a very different perspective on the beautiful mountains around us.

We highly recommend this museum. We spent less than 2 hours because it was end of the afternoon, but we could have stayed much longer. Well presented, very informative, and there is a great section for kids too (not that we care much about that, but can be important for others…).

There is another portion of the museum, where you can see houses which have been destroyed by the debris flows. Huge volume of volcanic ashes, big rocks and debris went down the mountain to the sea, for more than 4 km, destroying and covering 145 houses on the way. Some of them have been kept covered by the debris, as a memory token for future generations.

We decided to stay around for the night, and to visit this portion in the morning as it was already closed when we arrived.
Instead, we went to a onsen, and had dinner in an izakaya. Nice place, and fun time with a couple of Japanese who were at the same table. The guy spoke in Japanese, we gathered 10% of it once again, but his wife was saving the discussion with English translations from her app. They were sweet and nice and chatty. Another great random evening, and one reason why I love Japan!!

Next morning, we drove to the Unzen Jigoku, similar “hell” than the one we went to in Mt Kuju. It was very cloudy so we were not able to see much. But we still managed to find the commemoration cross of Christian martyrdom. In the 17th century, Christians were persecuted, and in that particular place, several missionaries were thrown into the boiling water. Not a pleasant onsen for them…

We continued our journey through Nagasaki prefecture by the East coast. Given our schedule, the limited time we had left, and the bad weather forecast, we skipped entirely Nagasaki city and its bay. It is supposed to be beautiful, so we keep it in mind for another trip. It is also exciting to keep excuses to come back!!

The sun came out for our visit of Yutoku Inari shrine, a colourful Shinto temple hanging off the mountain. The hill facing the shrine was covered in beautiful azalea trees: bright red, pink, yellow, white. It was slightly after full bloom, but the powerful scent and the mosaic of colours were simply amazing. Forget about cherry blossom, azalea season is the next big thing!

Temples in the region are more decorated and colourful that in other parts of Japan. Yutoku is a good example of this different style. Be prepared for a bit exercise though, as it is all uphill. Follow the toriis to go to the top and enjoy the view of the valley and surrounding mountains.

We were then ready for a treat, and spend the night in an hotel near Takeo city. Only 7 days to enjoy before leaving Japan, so we booked a ferry from Kitakyushu to Osaka to spend more time in the region, instead of driving all the way back.

Mifuneyama Rakuen was the last stop of Nagasaki. Another beautiful garden, famous for its hills covered in azaleas. Unfortunately, we arrived 2 weeks too late, and we had faded trees rather than blooming colourful hills. But it was perfect timing for the wisterias, so was still worth the visit! It is always difficult to navigate through season, sometimes it is too early, other too late. Flower tourism is sooo unpredictable…

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