Miyazaki Hidden Gems

Miyazaki records more sunshine hours than almost anywhere in Japan and its coast is lined with palms, which made it the national honeymoon destination in the 1960s and 70s before cheap flights to Hawaii took that away — the resort infrastructure from that period is still visible along the Nichinan road. The other Miyazaki is inland and much older. Takachiho, in the northern mountains, is where the sun goddess is said to have hidden in a cave, and the village has performed the yokagura dances retelling that story through winter nights for centuries; the gorge below it is a column-jointed lava canyon that you row through in a rented boat. On the coast, Udo Shrine is built into a cave in a sea cliff and Aoshima is ringed by a wave-cut rock shelf that locals call the devil's washboard. Surf breaks run most of the coastline, and Miyazaki has produced a disproportionate number of Japan's competitive surfers because of it.