The observation deck here, situated 50 meters above sea level, offers a panoramic view that includes the beautiful Pacific Ocean and wide blue sky, as well as the strange rock formation known as the Devil’s Washboard. Visitors here can also enjoy the tropical resort atmosphere evoked by the many beautiful flowers that bloom throughout the four seasons. Soft ice cream is available here in flavors that exemplify Miyazaki, such as mango and hyuganatsu, a type of mandarin orange, making it a great place to stop for a break during your trip.

Udo Jingu features a beautiful and colorful vermillion-lacquered main shrine building within a cave on the cape that juts into the sea. This is one of the main shrines of southern Kyushu, located on the Nichinan Seacoast in southern Miyazaki. The shrine has long been loved by the locals and is believed to offer blessings for safe childbirth, child rearing, and marriage. Worshippers here can try a famous challenge involving tossing an Undama, or luck ball, to make their wish come true. Men use their left hand and women their right to throw the ball towards a rock called Kameishi, or turtle rock. In this custom called “Undama-nage”, If the ball enters a depression on the rock, then your wish will come true. The approach to the main shrine offers a beautiful view of the Hyuga-nada Sea, while rocks of many forms surround the cape as they accept the powerful beating of the waves. 
 Meanwhile, if you walk for about 20 minutes out the shrine gate from Udo Jingu, you will arrive at Namikiri Shrine. This place is considered a power spot, where the torii gate and tiny shrine, located in a cave right up against the encroaching sea, evoke a fantastic and spiritual atmosphere. We recommend wearing shoes with good grip when visiting, as the rough path to the shrine weaves through rocky terrain and you can slip easily.

Obi Castle Town was the first place in Kyushyu to be selected as a Preservation Districts for Groups of Traditional Buildings in 1977. The streets of this town, known as the little Kyoto of Kyushu, feature surviving buildings from an earlier time, including stone walls made of Obi stone and samurai residences made with Obi cedar. Gallery Kodama offers visitors a chance to try a dish local to Nichinan City called Katsuo Aburi Ju that consists of Katsuo, or bonito, flavored by marinating it in two types of sauces, lightly searing it in a small Japanese grill called a Shichirin, and placing it over rice.

Visitors to the Shochu Dojo located at the shochu brewery Sakuranosato Shuzo can observe the process of shochu production up close on the other side of the glass. After the tour, you can join a workshop where you can blend shochu made from the various raw ingredients, such as sweet potato, wheat, and buckwheat, and affix a handwritten label, resulting in your own original shochu found nowhere else in the world (a fee is required for the shochu making experience.)
 

This roadside station, reopened after renovations in 2023, is easily accessible just five minutes by car from the Miyakonojo Interchange. A wide array of local produce, including meats and vegetables, is available at the spacious farmer’s market in the main facility. There is also a very ample supply of shochu in the shop, as well as a variety of traditional Miyazaki crafts. 
This is a particularly good place to visit for gourmet adventures, with four café courts based on different themes of meat, shochu, fruit, and potatoes, as well as a restaurant featuring a meat-rich menu. 
There is also a plaza featuring a wooden slide and other playground equipment, as well as picture books, where parents and children can play together, making it popular among families with small children.

This hot spring is located at the foot of the Kirishima mountains. In addition to the outdoor bath with a view of those mountains, this hot spring offers a total of 26 different types of bath, both eastern and western style, including a denkiburo, also known as an electric bath or pulse bath, and a bubble or foam bath. The spring water is said to be highly effective at beautifying the skin, and is popular for leaving your skin silky smooth after bathing. The facility also includes a shop selling fresh local vegetables, a restaurant, and accommodations.

Miyakonojo is home to a thriving livestock industry. The entertainment district known as Mutacho, located not far from Nishi-Miyakonojo Station, features a variety of specialty Yakiniku restaurants, featuring not only the famed Miyazaki beef, but places specializing in chicken and Kagoshima Birkshire pork yakiniku as well. There are restaurants serving all manner of other Miyazaki delights in the district as well, such as Jidori Sumibiyaki, or domestic chicken flavored in salt and pepper and grilled over charcoal, the special Karamen ramen featuring a hot and spicy soup flavored with chili pepper, and Kamaage Udon, a dish where you dine on freshly boiled udon by dipping it in sauce while still hot rather than as a soup, so you might even want to visit several restaurants in a row.

Visitors to this vast farm at the foot of the Kirishima mountains can get up close and interact with cows, horses, and sheep. The cow milking workshop is popular with children, and other attractions include tours of the cow barn and horse riding. Visitors can also join workshops to try making their own sausage, ice cream, and butter by hand.
The restaurant and food court offer an abundant assortment of choices such as yakiniku, Genghis Khan (a type of Japanese mutton yakiniku), pizza, and steak, and soft ice cream popular for its rich natural sweetness. If you’re in the market for gifts, we recommend heading over to the shop and its array of original products from Takachiho Farm, including dairy products, bread, ham, sausage, and confections.
A visit to this sprawling farm surrounded by nature will surely be a fun day for the whole family.

Sekinoo Falls throws up a spray with a roaring sound as it falls down the cliff. Visitors here can enjoy the impressive views of the falls up close from the several observation decks and suspension bridges along the walking paths. Just upstream from the falls, the surface of the riverbed is covered with the Sekinoo Potholes. Potholes is the common translation for “ouketsu”, which refers to holes in the river bed of roughly one to three meters in size formed when the flow of the river rolls the stones and rocks found there. The Sekinoo Potholes, designated as a national natural monument, is one of the largest such formations in the world, and you will be surprised when you learn that all of it is actually a single connected rock bed. 
In April 2024, the Snow Peak Miyakonojo Campfield was opened, managed directly by Snow Peak, one of Japan’s leading outdoor brands. In addition to the spacious campground with room for 100 tent sites, there are also ready built accommodations such as cottages. The campground is very well equipped, meaning it is safe and comfortable even for beginners unfamiliar with camping, so you don’t have to bring anything with you.
Visitors can enjoy the richness of nature and walks along the many paths, but there is also a Snow Peak direct shop offering camping goods and other limited products, a restaurant serving meals made with local Miyakonojo ingredients, and a stylish cafe, so you can enjoy a day here even if you don’t want to camp.

The most popular dish on the menu here is the delicious Hitsumabushi Teishoku, or set meal featuring premium Wagyu beef flavored in a secret soy sauce-based sweet and salty sauce over rice in an ohitsu container. First, try the dish as is, and then add green onions and Sansho (Japanese pepper) to taste. And there’s a third taste you can enjoy from the dish as well, when you top it off with a bonito broth and eat it like the popular Ochazuke rice soup dish.

This garden park is operated directly by Kirishima Shuzo, a famous shochu maker and producer of such honkaku imo shochu varieties as Shiro Kirishima and Kuro Kirishima, boasting the top sales in Japan.
Visitors here can take a tour of the shochu making process (with reservations) at the Kirishima Walk Factory, and taste some of the product at the end. Visitors can also learn all about shochu and why shochu is made here at the Kirinokura Museum. Meanwhile, the Kirishima Eco Factory uses art and video to explain how the production of Kirishima shochu is an ecological and cyclical activity that is good for the environment. Then there’s the Kirinokura Brewery where you will find shochu, original goods, and local products from Kyushu available for sale. You can also view a kiln used in beer brewing. There is also a restaurant serving craft beer and meals made with local ingredients, and the popular Kirinokura Bakery that features freshly baked bread. 
Numerous flowers blossom throughout the seasons on the spacious grounds, which offer a sense of respite much like a park, so this is a great place to enjoy relaxing activities such as walks and picnics. 

This large suspension bridge crosses the Ayagawa Gorge in the Kyushu Chuo Sanchi Quasi-National Park. It is one of the largest pedestrian bridges in Japan at a height of 142 meters and a length of 250 meters. Crossing the bridge offers a thrill as though you are walking on air, and a massive panoramic view of the spacious sky along with one of Japan’s largest laurel forests (a type of subtropical forest) right before your eyes.
Aya Town, where the Teruha Suspension Bridge is located, is registered as a Biosphere Reserve under UNESCO's "Man and Biosphere Program," and approximately two kilometers of nature paths offer visitors a chance to immerse themselves in the forest beyond the bridge. There is also a roughly three hour course where you can observe the valuable flora of the laurel forest on foot, accompanied by a guide (advance reservation required, guidance in Japanese only).  Visitors can also learn about the laurel forest and the creatures living there at the Lucidophyllous Forest Museum, located close to the bridge.

This facility, directly operated by Unkai Shuzo, is located in Aya Town that features one of the largest laurel forests, a type of subtropical broadleaf forest, in Japan. The brewery produces shochu and sake using the waters purified by the laurel forest.
In addition to their honkaku shochu and sake breweries, the site is also home to the Unkai Budoshu Jozosho winery and a beer brewery. Visitors can also take a tour of sake production at the Aya Shizengura Kengakukan (the Aya Natural Brewery Museum - reservations required). Participants can even taste the local beer and other alcoholic drinks at the end of the tour, and even make their own original bottles or aluminum can badges. 
In addition to the breweries, there is a shop selling the various types of alcohol available, local goods, and a restaurant using local ingredients. 
Visitors can also tour the glass workshop of glass artist Kuniaki Kuroki. Original works by Kuroki, who has been nationally recognized as a contemporary master craftsman for his exceptional skill and is renowned throughout the world, are available for purchase.

More than 1,500 restaurants and bars are located in the area around Nishitachibana Street in this, the largest dining district in Miyazaki city, located in the city center. The locals have given the area the affectionate nickname of “Nishitachi”.
The compact streets are literally packed with plenty of places for your barhopping needs, including Izakaya style eateries offering delicious local snacks, stylish bars, standing bars, and restaurants serving everything from yakiniku to Italian cuisine. You will find the atmosphere at many establishments welcoming even when you are alone, and you are sure to find one or several that meet your fancy.

There is a culture of eating udon for breakfast in Miyazaki, so there are many restaurants that are open as early as six in the morning. Why not try a bowl of Asa-udon (morning udon), featuring soft noodles in a slightly sweet broth?

A burial mound is a type of ancient Japanese burial mound. The Saitobaru Burial Mounds consists of over 300 Kofun of various sizes scattered in a vast plateau area stretching 2.6 kilometers east to west and 4.2 kilometers north to south. Designated a special historic site, it holds one of the largest clusters of Kofun in Japan. The round shaped Oni-no-Iwaya is the only Kofun in the clusters with an open entry way on the side, and visitors can tour the inside. Legend has it that this Kofun was built in just one night by an Oni, or demon, that fell in love with the beautiful Konohana Sakuyahime.
The entire area forms a park that attracts numerous visitors as a famous place to view seasonal flowers, with cherry blossoms and flowering canola in the springtime, sunflowers in summer, and cosmos in the fall. Meanwhile, artifacts uncovered during archaeological digs at the site are available on display at the Saitobaru Archaeological Museum of Miyazaki Prefecture, offering a chance to learn about life in ancient Japan (admission free). There is also the Konohana-kan (Guidance Center) with a shop and restaurant featuring local goods and produce, which is worth a visit.
* Note that the Konohana-kan will be closed for renovations from April 1, 2024 through February 28, 2025.

This shrine is said to be the place where gods who appear in Japanese mythology carried out the first wedding ceremony. The couple that were married were subsequently blessed with a child, so this power spot that is popular with women is also said to offer blessings for matchmaking and marriage, safe childbirth, and child raising. There are many other attractions on the shrine’s grounds as well, including a stone that will ensure pregnancy if you pet it, and a tree that, when you pass through it, will make wishes come true.

The delicious flavor of the juices of the deep fried chicken mixed with the sweet and sour vinegar and tartar sauce is addictive. While Chicken Nanban originated in Nobeoka City, it has now spread throughout the prefecture and is served at countless restaurants. So please try this dish that is the pride and joy of the people of Miyazaki and well loved by them.

Aoshima, a small island of 1.5 kilometers in circumference that is surrounded by the wavy rock formation known as the Devil’s Washboard, is itself a power spot. The abundant blessing of rich subtropical flora that grows throughout evokes an atmosphere of more southern climes. Meanwhile, the Aoshima Shrine located near the center of the island is popular for offering blessings for marriage and matchmaking. There are many other attractions around the island worth a visit as well, such as the Miyakoh Botanic Garden Aoshima where visitors can enjoy tropical flowers in bloom, and the Aoshima Beach Park that offers a selection of drinks and meals.

Aoshima Shrine is a popular tourist destination in Miyazaki. With the entire Aoshima island considered to be the shrine’s grounds, the main building of Aoshima Shrine is located at the center of the island, and worshippers can visit by traveling across Yayoi Bridge that stretches across to the island.
Aoshima shrine is the location for a famous myth and is said to offer blessings for marriage and matchmaking. If you visit, make sure to write down a wish on the heart shaped wooden plaque called the Ema and submit it as an offering, or pick a random Koi Mikuji that will offer love advice just for you. Another popular activity here among travelers is to seek out the many hidden heart shaped decorations.

The airport is decorated with flora that evoke a sense of tropical climes, such as bougainvillea and Canary Island date palms. With plenty of restaurants and gift shops to choose from, you can try some mango soft ice cream or just enjoy the views from the observation deck. You can also pick up any gifts for those awaiting you back home if you’ve forgotten, thanks to the wide selection of items at the gift shops.