Protocol P-01, Japan
Kyushu is the southern island of Japan where the ground is warm almost everywhere you stand. This protocol moves slowly from the bathhouses of the north coast to the volcanic south, with two nights in most places and never more than one transfer a day.
Duration
9 days
Group
Up to 10
Season
Oct to Dec, Mar to Apr
Effort
Gentle
Meet at
Hotel hall, Mariánské Lázně
Indicative price
From CZK 119,900 per person
The price is indicative, per person in a shared double room. A manager confirms the final price when you send a request, because flights and hotel rates move with the season.
We stay in family-run ryokan with their own baths, sleep on futons and eat the evening meal where we sleep. Japanese bathing has rules that feel strange for a day and natural after that; your leader explains them on the first evening, before anyone has to undress.
Effort profile
Day by day
Day 1
Hall to the airport
We meet in the hotel hall after breakfast and drive to Prague airport. The flight to Fukuoka goes overnight with one change.
Day 2
Fukuoka
Arrival in the afternoon. A short walk along the Naka river, a supper of noodles at a counter, an early night in a city hotel.
Day 3
Yufuin
A train inland through rice fields to Yufuin, a small town under the twin peak of Mount Yufu. The first ryokan bath, outdoors, before dinner.
Day 4
Beppu
Down to the coast at Beppu, a town of some two thousand hot-spring outlets. We walk the steaming lanes of Kannawa and eat food cooked in spring steam.
Day 5
Kurokawa
A bus over the hills to Kurokawa, a village in a wooded gorge. With a wooden pass you may use the outdoor baths of several inns; we spend the day doing exactly that.
Day 6
Aso caldera
A morning on the rim of the Aso caldera, one of the largest in the world, and a slow afternoon back in Kurokawa.
Day 7
Kumamoto
To Kumamoto by bus. The castle garden in the late afternoon, then a city bath that the locals use after work.
Day 8
Ibusuki
A long train south to Ibusuki, where attendants bury you to the neck in naturally warm sand on the beach. Fifteen minutes is enough; you will see why.
Day 9
Home
Kagoshima airport, the flights back, and the drive from Prague to the hotel, where your room from the first night is ready.
What we arrange
- Flights from Prague and back, in economy
- All ground transport inside Japan, including rail passes
- Eight nights: one city hotel, ryokan for the rest
- Breakfast daily and six evening meals in the ryokan
- Bath passes and the sand bath at Ibusuki
- A leader who speaks Japanese, from the hotel hall and back
What we leave to you
- Lunches, which are cheap and quick in Japan
- Drinks with meals
- Travel insurance, which we ask everyone to hold
- A single room in ryokan, where few exist
What to bring
- A light cotton robe is supplied; bring warm socks for the inns
- Shoes you can slip on and off twenty times a day
- A small towel of your own for the shared baths
- A cover for tattoos, as some baths still ask for it
People with tattoos are welcome on this protocol. Two of the ryokan we use accept them openly; at the others we book a private bath for the group’s use at set hours.