Explore Kumamoto

Yamaga Lantern Museum 山鹿灯籠民芸館

The Yamaga Lantern Craft Museum,  灯籠民芸館, introduces the history and culture of the traditional craft of paper lantern making. This rare and extraodinarily delicate paperwork has been passed down since ancient times and is unique to the Yamaga area. The museum is situated in the old bank just a couple of minutes walk down the […]

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Yamaga Lantern Festival

Yamaga Lantern Dance Festival – Yamaga Toro Matsuri 山鹿吐露祭 in Japanese, is held on the evenings of August 15th and 16th in the city of Yamaga every year. The highlight is the One Thousand Lantern Dance when hundreds of women, dressed in simple white summer yukata and red obi sashes dance elegantly through the night wearing beautifully crafted paper illuminated

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Yachiyoza kabuki theatre tour

Yachiyoza Theatre

The town of Yamaga is situated an hour’s drive north of Kumamoto City. In its heyday, over a hundred years ago, Yamaga was a prosperous, bustling agricultural town and a very lively onsen retreat. In 1910 the local merchants funded the very first kabuki theatre in Kyushu and called it the Yachiyoza (the Eternal Place). This theatre born

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Kikuchi Gorge

The Healing Forest Kikuchi Valley, known as Kikuchi Keikoku 菊地渓谷 in Japanese is renowned as one of Japan’s 44 ‘Shinrin Yoku’ or ‘Forest Bathing’ sites. The Japanese developed Forest bathing in the 1980s, the idea being to boost your health and well being by engaging with nature using all five senses, luxuriating in the sights, sounds and

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The Kumamoto Traditional Crafts Center

SItuated within an easy walk of the castle, the Kumamoto Traditional Crafts Center (Kumamoto Kougeikan) celebrates and promotes Kumamoto’s unique range of traditional crafts. The crafts you can see range from intricately designed black and gold pieces of Higo inlay to modern and traditional glassware and pottery, traditional toys, razor sharp cooking knives, washi paper, tatami placemats, indigo died

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rakkan buddhas reigando cave

Reigando Cave

The Reigando Cave, in Japanese simply Reigando 霊巌洞, is a mysterious and sacred cave located on the Western slopes of Mt. Kinpo the 200,000 year old extinct volcanic peak that is the backdrop to Kumamoto City. Famed as the cave where the great philosopher swordsman Musashi Miyamoto spent his last years in meditatation and created

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Suizenji Gardens

Suizenji Gardens Also known as Suizenji Jojuen Park, these beautiful gardens are situated in the east of the city, a 15 minute tram ride from the city center. Suizenji Jojuen is a very popular destination for both Japanese and international tourists, however, on a weekday it is possible to have the park mostly to yourself sharing

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