Miyazaki

Almost every disappointment here comes from treating the prefecture as one place. The Pacific edge is subtropical, flat and easy: palms along the road, a surf culture that runs year-round, a railway that follows the shore south, and a city you can cross in twenty minutes. Nothing about that prepares you for the interior, which is folded mountain country reached by switchback roads where an eighty-kilometre gap can eat half a morning.

The two halves also want different weather. The coast is at its best in bright, settled conditions; the gorges inland are at their best a few days after rain has cleared, when the river has dropped and gone green again. Plan them as separate blocks with a night in between, rather than as a loop you drive in one push. Visitors who try to see Takachiho as a day trip from the coast spend most of that day in the car and arrive when the light has already gone off the canyon walls.

Three days, following the coast and then turning inland. Miyazaki City is on the Pacific side with a subtropical climate and a surfing culture; the Nichinan coast running south from it has a shrine in a sea cave and an island of wild horses, about an hour down.

Inland is where the prefecture becomes remarkable. Takachiho gorge, with its columnar basalt cliffs and a river you row through, is around three hours from Miyazaki City and about ninety minutes from Kumamoto — which means it is often better approached from the other prefecture. The night-long kagura dances in the surrounding villages run through the winter.

Three days: coast, gorge, and either the Ebino highlands in the south-west or the Saitobaru burial mounds. Four is better because the inland driving is slow.

Flying is the sensible option: Miyazaki Airport is about an hour and three quarters from Haneda and ten minutes from the city by train. There is no shinkansen, and reaching Miyazaki overland from Hakata means either a limited express down the east coast of Kyushu of over five hours or the Kyushu Shinkansen to Kagoshima and a bus across. The JR Nichinan line runs south along the coast to Aoshima and Obi. Takachiho is the hard one — its railway closed years ago, so it is a bus of around three hours from Miyazaki or two from Kumamoto, or a drive. A car makes the Nichinan coast much better.

A car, for the inland half without question. The coastal railway runs south from Miyazaki City and covers the Nichinan coast adequately. Takachiho has no railway at all — the line that served it closed after storm damage — and the bus service is limited, so the gorge is a driving destination.

Miyazaki has an airport close to the city with direct flights from the main hubs, which is often the sensible way in, since the prefecture is a long way round by land from anywhere. Note that the mountain roads inland are winding and slow, and the distance from the coast to the gorge takes considerably longer than the kilometres suggest.

From late autumn into winter, villages in the mountains north-west of the prefecture stage yokagura — sacred dance cycles performed straight through from evening until the following morning. These are not scheduled attractions. They are held in farm buildings and community halls, funded and danced by the households of the hamlet, and they happen because the hamlet has always held them.

Outsiders are generally welcome, and the etiquette is the etiquette of arriving at someone's house. Bring something to contribute, sit where you are put, do not walk in front of the dancers, and understand that leaving after two hours is normal and staying until dawn is the point. Dress for a building with an open side and no heating beyond a fire and the crowd. You will need a car and somewhere to sleep afterwards, and the dates are set locally rather than published far in advance, so ask when you book the room.

Late summer and early autumn. Miyazaki is on the typhoon track and takes direct hits; flights, trains and mountain roads all suffer, and the coast is exposed.

June's rainy season is heavy here, which matters because the gorge is at its best when the river is clear and it turns brown after rain — the rowing boats also stop when the water is high. Winter is mild on the coast and cold in the mountains, and it is the season for the all-night kagura performances in the villages around Takachiho, which is the most interesting thing in the prefecture and the least accessible.

Winters here are the mildest on Kyushu's main island, with January highs near 13°C and heavy sunshine, which makes January and February genuinely good months to visit. Summers are hot and humid above 32°C, and this coast takes typhoons directly from August into September — more of them than most of Japan. June brings sustained rain to the Takachiho uplands. Takachiho's all-night kagura performances run in village halls from November to February, while the shrine's nightly abridged version runs year-round. Mango season is May and June. Surf is biggest with autumn swells.

Chicken nanban is fried chicken dipped in sweet vinegar and topped with tartare sauce, invented in Nobeoka in the 1950s and now eaten across the country. Miyazaki beef has won the national wagyu championship repeatedly. Hiyajiru is a cold soup of grilled fish, miso and cucumber poured over rice, a summer field-worker's meal. Jidori, charcoal-grilled free-range chicken served blackened in an iron pan, is the standard izakaya order. Mangoes ripen in May and June and the top-graded fruit is sold individually at prices that surprise people.

A first visit is the coast and Takachiho. The Nichinan coast has a shrine built into a sea cave beneath a cliff, an island of wild horses, and a subtropical drive with palms and washboard rock formations along it. The gorge inland is a narrow basalt canyon with a waterfall dropping into it, and you row a small boat to the base of it yourself.

A second visit should go for the kagura. The villages around Takachiho perform night-long sacred dances through the winter, in farmhouses and community halls, running from evening until the following morning, and outsiders are welcome if they behave like guests rather than an audience. It is the oldest continuous performance tradition most visitors will ever encounter and it requires a car, a cold night and some patience. Bring something to sit on and something to share; these are village gatherings rather than ticketed events.