MAMI & ROB VISIT KYUSHU

05.01.2025

Left home around 9:30am and headed south to Kyushu on the Sanyo Tollway. Our first stop after two hours was Tully’s. Since we discovered ‘Light Foam’, Tully’s is once again on the list of ‘go to’ coffee places.

We drove through Fukuoka-city, and onto Itoshima. We stopped there for a while to take some photos of the beach and the various items of amusement for holiday makers. Have a look at the photos and videos and you’ll see what I mean. They also had, most importantly, a soft serve ice cream vendor. It seems as if they just keep following me around Japan!

Itoshima is a city located in western Fukuoka Prefecture, with sandy beaches, surf, hiking and seafood. It is also very famous for strawberries. At some strawberry farms, you can pick your own berries, while at some others you can buy by the box. The strawberry season has just begun TODAY!! And it runs until early May. Mami had planned for us to pick our own strawberries at the end of this trip, so that she could take them back to Yoshi and Yoko. However, being both lazy and hungry we bought seven large strawberries for 1000Y, just as a taster!! We will still be looking for a tray of Strawberries to buy and take home to Yoshi and Youko.

We drove on, after drooling over strawberries, to a famous waterfall called Shiraito no Taki, which translates to White String. If you have a look at the photos and focus on the water falling, you can see why they gave it that name. It is located 900 meters above sea level, halfway up Mt. Hagane. 

Mami drove up the very narrow road, which threaded it’s way up to the waterfall. She absolutely hated doing that drive, so I was given the job of driving down from the mountain. However we both agreed the scary drive was well worth visiting this beautiful waterfall.

When we were in Hokkaido, we talked about how many prefectures we have covered in the last 20 years. We then found we haven’t really stopped at Saga, one of 8 prefectures in Kyushu. (Yes, Hiromi-san! Your hometown!). So Mami has booked tonight’s hotel in Saga Prefecture, not only so we can tick it off our list, but also because it has an onsen. Mami loves going to an onsen and will spend at least 30 minutes, both morning and night, there. She will then come back to her room glowing!