Cycling in Kinokura
Who would have thought that Kumamoto is the adventure capital of Kyushu? Here you can go snowboarding on a winter's day in nearby Gokase Highland Ski and Snowboard resort, and earlier in the same day, ride through amber fields straight from Aso Kumamoto Airport in just your lycra. It is probably as close as you can get to “helicopter-cycling”, or being able to be dropped from the plane and cycle downhill. Being in the sub-tropical southern island of Kyushu, a sunny winter’s day means the temperature is no excuse to stop you from riding, or wandering through the rice fields and taking in the butterflies and the gentle streams less than an hour from the city center or the airport.
One of the places that might stop you from your wandering is the Inari Shrine. While the rice fields and bamboo forests are bereft of human activity, the neat roads and flower fields suggest more quietness than a deserted landscape. Likewise, the Inari shrine, while devoid of a physical human presence, is..