Kumamoto City is located nearly smack in the middle of Kyushu. With the opening of Amu Plaza Kumamoto, a multipurpose facility right next to the station featuring shops, a hotel and office space in the spring of 2021, the city feels new and revived. Yokamon Ichiba, located near the Shinkansen gate, is home to several restaurants serving local fare and souvenir shops.

Your first stop after you arrive in Kumamoto should be Kumamoto Castle. Just below the castle, stop by Kumamoto Castle Museum Wakuwakuza to experience the history and culture of Kumamoto and enjoy entertaining displays that use VR and other cutting-edge technology. Next door, at Sakura-no-Baba Josaien, you can enjoy local cuisine at the restaurants, take a load off at one of the cafes and pick up some souvenirs from one of the many shops.

Kumamoto Castle, the heart and soul of the city, suffered severe damage in the 2016 earthquakes, but thanks to many generous donations, it has been repaired and now serves as a symbol of the region’s recovery. Repair work on the castle keeps, which cost ¥8.6 billion, was completed first, and it reopened to visitors in June 2021. Many collapsed stone walls and cracks in the ground remain, so reconstruction on other parts of the castle is ongoing. You can see how the castle is gradually being restored from the 350m-long temporary elevated observation path that stands 6m above ground.

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The best thing about visiting a new place is trying the local food, but it’s not always easy to know where to go and what to order. Never fear, there is a food tour in Kumamoto that solves this problem for you. The tour starts with sushi made at the counter by master chefs, then moves to an izakaya (Japanese style pub) where you can try some of Kumamoto’s local cuisine, and it ends at a cozy tucked away bar. A guide will accompany you, so you don’t have to worry about figuring out how to order or eat the dishes.

Kumamoto Yatai Mura, which gathers 18 different restaurants serving delicious Kumamoto dishes in one place, opened in June 2022. Only a 10-minute walk from Kumamoto Castle, it attracts many tourists and locals alike. Each restaurant offers its own specialty—from local seafood and meats to grilled veggie skewers, tempura, shabu-shabu, teppan-yaki and more. Customers can also sip local alcoholic beverages and have the option to sit at outdoor tables or at the counters around each stall’s proprietor. Enjoy authentic Kuma shochu (a type of rice shochu) made by the 27 distilleries of the Hitoyoshi-Kuma area of southern Kumamoto, with prices starting at just ¥100 per glass.

Deciding whether to spend a refreshing morning in Kumamoto City in the castle or in this garden is a tough choice. Suizenji Jojuen Garden, a Japanese garden built around a pond fed by subterranean water from the Aso region, is considered the best spring water garden in Japan. The best position to view the garden is from the Kokin Denju-no-ma (tea house), a more than 400-year-old room that was moved from the Kyoto Imperial Palace to its current location in 1912. Here you can enjoy matcha green tea and Japanese sweets while gazing at the garden.

A statue of Luffy, the main character of the popular manga One Piece, whose author is from Kumamoto, stands in front of the Kumamoto Prefectural Office. Aiming to help Kumamoto recover from the widespread damage caused by the 2016 earthquakes, a total of seven (nine in the future) statues of One Piece characters have been erected around the prefecture together with plaques outlining their backstories. A statue of Chopper was installed at the Kumamoto City Zoo and Botanical Garden to provide solace for injured animals.

Tonkotsu (pork bone soup) ramen is very popular throughout Kyushu. In Kumamoto as well, a mild yet rich broth made from pork and chicken bones is the standard, and garlic chips and fried garlic oil provide the ramen with its unique flavor. Ramen is a popular national dish of noodles in soup, but each region has its own style, so it is fun to learn about the differences by trying ramen at different restaurants.

When talking about Kumamoto City, Kumamoto Castle and its associated samurai culture cannot be ignored. Kumamoto is known as the place where Musashi Miyamoto, the most famous swordsman in Japanese history, spent the last years of his life. According to his teachings, a warrior must not only master the martial arts but also tea ceremony and other elements of culture. The Shimada Museum of Art, a private museum known for its collection of items related to Musashi Miyamoto, displays many of his swords, sumi-e ink paintings, and literary manuscripts.

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The Book of Five Rings, in which swordsman Musashi Miyamoto describes his philosophy of swordsmanship, military strategy, and how to live as a warrior, was written in Reigando Cave on Mt. Kinpo. Mt. Kinpo is a famous night view spot, but Reigando Cave, which is located behind Unganzenji Temple on the mountain, remains steeped in mystery.

The downtown area of Kumamoto City consists of two large arcades called Kamitori and Shimotori. The streets bustle both day and night and are lined with many stores and hole-in-the-wall restaurants. You can enjoy Kumamoto’s famous Akaushi beef, Kumamoto ramen and other local cuisine. Even if you’re flying solo, there are many restaurants with a welcoming atmosphere.

Kumamoto City still has remnants of its old castle town in the Shinmachi and Furumachi districts located between Kumamoto Station and Kumamoto Castle. These areas are dotted with old town houses, temples and shrines, stone bridges, and historic stores.Shinmachi is the area north of the Tsuboi River, which forms part of the outer moat of Kumamoto Castle, and Furumachi is the area south of the river. 
At Mitsusuke (Shinmachi), a store specializing in Higo Zogan, a traditional type of inlay for decorating guns and swords that developed alongside samurai culture, you can try your own hand at making accessories.

Musashi Miyamoto believed that applying oneself to the arts, such as calligraphy and ink painting, was a means to train in the art of warfare. The tour offers a special menu of experiences (e.g., Japanese archery (kyudo), Japanese sweet-making, sake tasting) to help you learn the way of the samurai. Try your hand at kyudo, one of the basic skills of a samurai, under the supervision of a master of kyudo at a traditional kyudo hall, enjoy tasting sake at a sake brewery established in 1867, and make Japanese sweets with a Japanese confectioner—all activities that would be difficult to arrange on your own.

Another Highlights of 4 cities
(Fukuoka City, Kumamoto City, Kagoshima City ,Kitakyushu City)