Matsue Area or Northern Kyushu?

Hello everyone,

I'm planning a 3 weeks trip in april - may, and my first draft of itineray seems a little too much considering we will traveling with two kids (6 and 7).

So I'm wondering whether I should choose between going to Matsue (to see the garden, the Castle, and going to Izumo) or rather spend two days around Kurume in Northern Kyushu (Kumamoto, Yanagawa, Fukuoka).

Our current itinary is :
4 nights in Kyoto (including 1 side trip to Nara and 1 side trip to Uji)
1 night in Kurashiki (stop at Okayama to see the garden on the way)
1 night in Miyajima (ryokan)
2 nights in Kurume
1 night Okayama (near the station to take the train to Matsue on the early morning)
1 night Matsue
3 nights Nagoya (one day at Legoland, one side trip to Ise or Gifu)
3 nights Takayama (Gero Onsen on the way, one day trip to Shirakawa-go)
1 night Nikko (Edo Wonderland)
4 nights Tokyo (one day trip to Takao-San, one day trip to Narita / Boso no Mura or Sawara)

We intend to use the JR Kansai Area Pass (5 days) then if we go to Kyushu the Sanyo Sanin Northern Kyushu Area Pass or just the Sanyo Sanin Area Pass if we only go to Matsue.

Thank you for your advice.

With 2 kids this schedule seems to be way too busy. Why not limit it to 3-4 hotels at most? Day trips can be good because of the family doesn’t feel it you can always cancel and jus explore more where you are already

So my answer would be neither northern Kyushu nor Matsue. Unless you remove some other destinations

Both areas have some good sights, and I went to both this year. You could be a bit more specific on the dates, and for Matsue you mention the "garden", but you don't mention if you mean the Adachi Museum or the Yuushien Garden. Both look quite nice; in fact if you can see Yuushien when they have their peony festival in Golden Week, it is really something to behold. You could also consider seeing the Tottori sand dunes and the sand museum, which has some amazing artistic work.
But it is a lot more traveling to get around that area. Kyushu has a lot more to see in terms of various sights. You mention staying in Kurume - it has its Naritasan Great Buddha and Kora Taisha Shrine, as well as a big April azalea festival, but I take it you are just naming there to stay as a base. There are some other very good sights like Daikozenji in Kiyama and Mifuneyama Rakuen in Saga if the azaleas are in bloom, and both are very impressive (as is the Yoko Museum's Keishuen Garden nearby, of interested). For Kumamoto I assume you mean the city - there's the castle and Suizenji Garden, plus a few other minor places, but if you mean Aso, renting a car is by far the better to way to see the area.
https://goo.gl/Q843Bg

What a coincidence, I went to Matsue last year, and will pass through Kurume this year :)
With your itinerary, it makes more sense to visit Shikoku or the Setonaikai. But maybe you've already been there?

1 night in Matsue is a bit short, but it should give you enough time to see the castle and Izumo Taisha. I visited the Momen Kaido on my way back from Izumo, but I wish I had gone to Yuushien instead.

Regarding Okayama, the garden can be fun with children if it's sunny. Otherwise it's not really worth a detour. The train that goes to Matsue (the Yakumo) stops at Kurashiki, so you can start from there as well and reallocate one night in Matsue.

How about this?
Kyoto > Miyajima (stop at Okayama on your way to pick up your JR passes, and maybe visit the garden) > Kurashiki > Matsue (2 nights)

(Thanks @Ken for the recommendations by the way! I'll make sure to check out Kora Taisha. I fear early May will be too late for the flowers at Mifuneyama Rakuen though :/)

Thank you for all your answers.

We are going from the 20th of April to the 11th of May.

In Matsue, I meant Yuushien Garden, as far as I understood, Adachi Museum Garden is nice, but only to be seen from behind glasses, and I like to wander around, not "just look at it" (if that makes sense). We might be in time for the Peony festival. Tottori seemed to far to be worth it (the sight is very close to what we can see in Dune du Pilat in France).

In Kurume I think we will be to late for the Azalea festival. By Kumamoto I meant the city, and more specially the Suizenji Garden (As you might I've understood, I'm a big fan of garden).

Otherwise, rather than spending the night in Okayama to take the limited train in the early morning, I've seen that there is a but from Hiroshima to Izumo (JR Bus). Do you have an opinion about it ?

We could do :
2 nights in Kurume
Kurume - Hiroshima - Izumo (arrival in the evening)
2 nights in Matsue or Izumo

That would mean quite a lot of travel during the day, but with on less hotel change, and almost the same trip duration.

Otherwise, I think we will choose Matsue over Kyushu, and save Kyushu for another trip with more dedicated time.

Our reasons for changing hotel "often" are :
- I've already been to Japan a few times, and went to the "major sites" (Kyoto, Tokyo and day trip from there), Tohoku and Hokuriku Shinetsu, so we want to see other that may be hard to reach by day trip (or it would mean a lot of travel every day.
- Considering the period of the year, it's difficult to find accomodation for 4 people for several days in our budget, it has been an input for the itinerary.
- Being in differents cities allows for early / evening walks in different places for one of the adult around the hotel while the kids are sleeping. I like to get up early while my husband sleeps, and he likes to go out during the evening.

Since you mentionned that you are fond of gardens, have you been to Ritsurin-koen in Takamatsu? It is doable as a day trip from Okayama (or Kurashiki, by changing trains at Okayama).

I have been a bit harsh on Okayama's Koraku-en. It is not the best if you just want to sit down and contemplate the scenery while sipping a bowl of matcha, but with its size, it's perfect for walking around :)

If going from Kurume to Matsue, it would be very long and tiring. Although there is still the 500 yen bus from Hiroshima to Matsue. The info is on the Matsue tourism site.
https://www.visit-matsue.com
There is also a JR bus from Hiroshima to Izumo. Both buses take about 3 hours.
https://bit.ly/3ujCmlj

I agree that just looking at the Adachi Museum garden from the outside is a bit disappointing. It was made to be a 3-D picture than a garden to stroll through. But there are a couple places outside you can see the garden from as well. If you go to Yuushien, by all means try to see it when they have the peony festival - I missed it by a couple of days and am still kicking myself.
If interested in gardens, there is also the Matsue Vogel Park, and I greatly enjoyed seeing Enchoen, which is an authentic Chinese garden near Lake Togo, in Tottori. Korakuen in Okayama and others are in a class by themselves though.
https://goo.gl/KoqErH

If you pick Matsue, there is a regional microbeer you could sample, at the Fureai Hiroba, near the castle moat pier, and there are 3 local sake makers you could also try - Yoneda, Rihaku, and Kokki.
--
Mellye~
Yes, early May may be too late for the azaleas, but they are not as short and fickle as the cherry blossoms. Still worth keeping an eye on though. There is also Yoshinogari Park, which is in part a Yayoi archeological site nearby, plus for flowers you can see the wisteria such like Kurogi no Ofuji in Yame, Kawachi Fujien (Kitakyushu), or the peonies at Maizurujo in Fukuoka or the Hakozaki Shrine garden.

I agree that it is a lot of moving around. For a garden-lover, I definitely understand the desire to visit Yuushien Garden during its most famous festival (Matsue Castle is a great original castle, as well, and Izumo Shrine is also impressive). It is really beautiful and unique seeing the pond full of pink flowers!

If you are relying on public transportation, I think it will be difficult to see Izumo Shrine, Matsue Castle, and Yuushien in a single day. Izumo Shrine is far from the station, so it takes a while to get to the train station and then take a bus to get to the shrine, see it, and go back. Yuushien also relies on bus access which slows travel down a lot. I think with just 1 day, I'd visit Yuushien and Matsue Castle (and the surrounding castle town) and leave out Izumo Shrine since the garden is top priority. Taxis may be cheaper than buses though with a family, so that will give you more flexibility since you don't have to worry about bus times.

I also like gardens, and Suizenji is very unique compared to others in Japan, so I do see why you want to visit, but the Kurume/Kyushu portion is out-of-the-way and seems to be making the trip more hectic, which could make the children fussy and unpleasant.

As someone else said, Ritsurin Garden would fit better into your itinerary as a daytrip from Okayama. I think skipping the Kyushu portion altogether and adding time in Okayama and Matsue would make it a bit more relaxed for the family (if you need something more in the Matsue area that is cool for the kids, especially in the evening, Shigeru Mizuki Road is accessible from Matsue and it features Japanese yokai/ghosts/legendary creatures, light-projections, and ghost-themed foods).

Since there is discussion about Korakuen:

Korakuen in Okayama is my favorite garden in Japan. It's the oldest of Japan's "top 3" and really takes advantage of each season so that there's always something new to see. In recent years, they've begun selling food to feed the koi, which is really nice for the kids. It does have at least 2 tea houses (both offering exclusive views of the garden) and a small cafe, as well.

I went to Kyushuu back in 2013 and I also visited Matsue area in 2018.

I'd choose Matsue area.

As for Kyushuu, I like Fukuoka as a city but for me it's just a big city, the canal area is very nice specially at night when you see many food stalls "yatai" and the Ohori park is nice to have a walk. Dazaifu is a must if you go there, and you can also visit Yanagawa after it and have a boat tour there. Beppu if you like hot springs is good and specially Nagasaki perhaps is my favourite place in Kyushuu, specially because of the night view from Mount Inasa at night which is incredible, the best one among the 3 best in Japan, the other 2 being Hakodate and Mount Rokko in Kobe.

As for Matsue (San'in area) I remember I left superearly like at 5 AM from Osaka to have a fast visit in Tottori city, when I mean fast i mean being there like at 9 AM drop my baggage in a locker, go to the Sand dunes walk there 2 hours and climb them and see the Sea of Japan from there, come back to station have lunch and arrive at 3 PM in Matsue city by train. Then go by bus to see the Matsue castle and the MeiMei-an teahouse viewpoint, the samurai district and Buke Yashiki, and finish my day close to the Prefectural Museum of Art and see the sunset in Lake Shinji (one perfect spot for a beautiful photography) and finish my day in an izakaya.

Next day wake up early and visit Yuushien garden, which was amazing, come back and pick train and bus to Izumo Taisha, which I think unless you are a lot into shrine's if you don't have much time you don't really have to go if you can't. And then come back in the afternoon and visit Tamatsukuri Onsen and spend the afternoon in a hot spring.

It was a bit rush, if I could I'd have stayed one day more in Matsue city but it was overall very nice., I did enjoy a lot.

Once again, thank you for your advices. Mmy husband was pleased to learn about the microbeer and sake makers !

We worked on our "new" itinerary, and so far we have, for the western part of the trip:

5 nights Kyoto (day trip around)
1 night Miyajima
1 night Tsuwano
2 night Matsue
2 night Okayama

Then is not totally decided, I'm still working on it ! We might go to Kanazawa instead of Nagoya (this way I will go back to the Kenroku-en, that I have only seen during winter, and samurai district for the kids)

If we can manage to get places, we intend to ride SL Yamaguchi between Yamaguchi and Tsuwano for the kids. I've seen there is a Inari Shrine in Tsuwano, not as big as the one in Kyoto, but it looks like it will be way less crowded, and way more sized for the kids.

Regarding this new schedule, we intend to stop on Izumo on the way between Tsuwano and Matsue, then spend the next morning in Yoshien and the afternoon visiting the Castle and doing a little boat trip. This way, if the kids are tired, I will go along to the garden. It will be during the peony festival (and also during GW). Then after the second night in Matsue, we take the time to go back to Okayama, either stopping at Adachi after going all this way, or arriving early in Okayama to chill / visit the garden in the afternoon.

Sounds like a very nice trip :)