When deciding where to go in Japan for my 10 days, I wanted to head somewhere new, and somewhere vaguely warm. Okinawa prefecture was the obvious choice for warmer weather, but I find it a little bland compared to the rest of the country, not to mention it wouldn’t really be hot anyway in January.
So it was then a toss up between Shikoku island that id never been to, or else parts of Kyushu that I hadn’t been before. In the end I decided on Kyushu, mainly as an old friend from school happened to be living in Fukuoka and was free to meet up over the weekend.
Having investigated various flight options, I decided on flying into Nagasaki, before getting the bus over to Unzen National Park, then the boat across to Kumamoto, then the Shinkansen bullet train to Kagoshima, before flying back up to Tokyo for my onward flight to Kuala Lumpur.
With just 1 night in Tokyo after a late arrival from SFO, and an early morning flight to Nagasaki, I decided to just look for a cheap hotel near Haneda. I ended up in a cute little business hotel in Kamata, just 10 minutes on the train from the airport.
My small, but cheap, clean and comfortable room
I was unsure given the 8 hour time difference from London to California, then just 3 days later another 8 hours to Japan how my body clock would be doing. Would I sleep for days, or by up all night? Happily after going to bed around 10pm, I woke naturally around 6.30, so giving me plenty of time to head to HND in time for my 11am flight.