Visit to Kyushu
When Japan announced the lifting of their restrictive visitor travel ban, Woody suggested that we take a trip to Beppu since we are planning to relocate there. Beppu is a city on the island of Kyushu, the southernmost large island in Japan. It was our first opportunity to travel to Japan since the two promised events had occurred. It was our first visit to Kyushu. Since we were completely unfamiliar with Kyushu, couldn’t speak or understand Japanese, and had never driven in Japan, my first inclination was to use a travel agency to help plan our trip. During an internet search, I found a website from a couple who owned a Kyushu travel service that offered 7 day trips over parts of Kyushu. They arranged transportation, hotels and restaurants for a small group and served as the travel guides on their trips. One of their planned stops was Beppu. However, their trips didn’t align with the week that Woody was not working due to spring break at her college. In communicating with the travel service over email, they emailed that we could pay them to plan our trip. Part of the fee would be used by them to obtain hotel reservations and a car rental. They would ensure that the in-car GPS was preprogrammed for the trip route, and would be available to communicate at any time should we encounter trouble while we were on our trip. However, we would be responsible to drive to all of the locations along the planned route. Despite the plan cost, I thought that it sounded like a very reasonable option for all of the reasons mentioned earlier. However, at one point in our email dialogue, I didn't receive a response from them for a number of days, which concerned me. What happens if they fail to respond at a critical time while we are on our trip? The delay gave me time to consider that I was completely trusting their web site and what they posted. I assumed that they were a legitimate travel company based on their online postings and a brief email exchange that I had with them. In a worst case scenario, they might be operating a fraudulent web site and I would have no recourse. But even if they were legitimate, I began to wonder if we really wanted to pay a lot of money for some planned accommodations, foods and attractions that we would likely not do otherwise. I could see photos from their previous trips that showed things that we wouldn’t personally choose so I began to wonder if I could plan the trip myself. I immediately thought about Airbnb. Do they operate in Japan? When I opened the Airbnb site and typed ‘Fukuoka,’ I was pleasantly surprised to see that Airbnb operated in Japan and that there were quite a few listings. However, as I reviewed the listings, I didn’t see any options that appeared right for us. The options were less expensive than a hotel room, but most were condominiums in high rise buildings. I was hoping to find options that were less western and more cultural. Fukuoka is a large city, so I decided to expand the map. As I broadened my search beyond the city, more rural options appeared here and there. One in particular, was located to the southeast in the next prefecture in a town named Arita in Saga prefecture. The listing was for an entire house. The house was an old, remodeled home that had great reviews. It looked historic and beautiful. It was a bit expensive, but still less expensive than rates that the travel service was charging. And that price was for an entire home with a kitchen where we could prepare meals. And importantly, it had a nice bathtub for Woody. I wondered how many similar options existed in other prefectures. Since Woody loves to take a bath every evening before bed, I made having a nice bathtub a priority in my searches. As I viewed homes around the Island, a travel plan began to emerge where we would stay in homes while visiting all seven prefectures in Kyushu. The travel agency's trips were for 7 days. Our trip plan was for 15 days so we had more time to cover the Island. I determined that we could drive and spend a day in Nagasaki but then return to Arita since Nagasaki prefecture is surrounded by the ocean except for its border with Saga prefecture. I found a rental in Aso in Kumamoto prefecture, and then one down on the southern tip of the island in Ibusuki in Kagoshima prefecture, and one on the eastern coast in Miyazaki prefecture near the city of Miyazaki. Last, but not least was a listing for a home in Oita prefecture. The house was in Hiji along the coast of Beppu Bay and showed a large bathtub that I was sure Woody would certainly enjoy. Next, could I rent a car, and more importantly, could I drive in Japan? I first tried American car rental companies but found none rented in Fukuoka at that time. That was likely due to the travel ban to foreign travelers that Japan had just lifted. An online search returned Toyota, which offers car rentals throughout Japan. Their website was a bit crude, but it could be displayed in English! Toyota didn’t require a credit card to hold the reservation so I went ahead and rented a car. The site displayed a reservation number as a confirmation, but never sent a confirmation email. Prior to our trip, I returned to their site repeatedly to verify that they still had our reservation. I also learned that Japan has an agreement with the US that allows an American to drive in Japan if they have an international driver’s license. A US driver with a valid driver's license can pay a small fee to obtain an international driver’s license from a travel agency. Surprisingly, a test to make sure that you understand Japan's driving laws isn’t required for the licence. I paid the fee and obtained a license. We now had flights to Fukuoka, a car and driver's license, and an Airbnb rented for every night besides the first night when we arrived in Fukuoka. As I traversed the Airbnb options in Fukuoka, I was a little concerned that I would be driving for my first time in Japan. That would require driving on the opposite side of the road for my first time, in a city, at night, with unfamiliar signage, to an unknown destination, following three long flights from San Antonio. I was also concerned about what would happen if we were unable to get our car after hours if our flight was delayed. As I was pondering these concerns, I received an email from Hilton Hotels, which was unexpected and surprising. Hilton was a previous employer’s preferred hotel from over a decade prior! That employer had changed to another provider some time back, and I hadn’t traveled at all with my new employer. The email stated that I had unused hotel points that were about to expire. I had completely forgotten about them. Since I was in the process of looking for a place to stay in Fukuoka, I wondered if Hilton had a hotel there, so I searched for one on their website and found one Hilton hotel in Fukuoka! It was near the ocean and a bit distant from the airport, but it meant that we could delay renting the car until the next morning. Plus, the points that I had left on my account almost identically matched the amount needed for a hotel room. While still in amazement of His providence, I booked the room for our first night. Of course, I booked a room with a bathtub! And with that last detail, our trip to Kyushu and to Beppu was mapped out - at least on paper.
