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The Kibiji Cycling Route was one of the easiest and most enjoyable day trips we did from Okayama. It is flat, well signposted, simple to organise by train, and gives you a completely different side of Japan: rice fields, quiet lanes, working farms, old shrines and a five-storied pagoda rising above the countryside.
Okayama worked best as a practical stop rather than a city we fell madly in love with. It has good train connections, easy access to Kurashiki, and one of the nicest low-effort cycling routes we did in Japan: the Kibi Plain route between Bizen-Ichinomiya and Soja
Tottori is not a city packed with endless sights, but it does have one very clear reason to visit: the dunes. Huge sand dunes rolling down towards the sea are not something you expect to find in Japan, and that alone makes Tottori feel different from anywhere else we visited.
The former Taikyuji Station still feels half-forgotten, and the bamboo grove looks like something from a Studio Ghibli scene.
Kurayoshi has a lovely old town, some excellent coffee, a wonderfully odd pear museum and one of the most atmospheric abandoned railway walks we found in Japan.
Matsue is well worth visiting if you like historic cities with a slower pace. It has one of Japan’s few remaining original castles, a moat, old streets, awesome samurai history, lakeside views and a quieter atmosphere than the more famous historic cities.
If you are travelling through western Japan, Shimane Prefecture, Matsue or Izumo, we think it is absolutely worth making time for.
Masuda isn’t a famous destination, and it’s not somewhere we’d suggest going far out of your way for, but it worked well as a pause between Mojiko and Izumo.
Mojiko, also known as Mojiko Retro, is a small port town at the northern tip of Kyūshū, just across the Kanmon Strait from Honshu.
Is Fukuoka worth visiting? We think so, especially if you want a calmer and less touristy Japan.