Kumamoto

Kumamoto is nearly midway along the west coast of Kyushu. From here you can go to Unzen to the west, Aso-san to the east, and Kagoshima to the south on the new high-speed train line.

The town has many sights of its own, including the nationally famous Suizen-ji Garden, but the most renowned is the castle once deemed impregnable. Kiyomasa Kato ushered in the 17th century with the construction of the mighty fortress (it was even bigger than the current replica), and he and his son held sway here until the 1630s. The Hosokawa clan then took over, and for the next couple of centuries Kumamoto was a center of the Tokugawa governmental authority. In 1877, the real "Last Samurai," Saigo Takamori, and his army of rebels brought their doomed rebellion here to battle untested Meiji government conscripts holed up inside. In the ensuing tussle much of the castle and its compound were destroyed. Supposedly, it was during this fearsome siege of 50-odd days that raw horseflesh was first eaten—and discovered to be so worth doing that it continues as a local stamina food to this day.

A number of notable folks had homes in town, including the writers Lafcadio Hearn and Soseki Natsume, both of whom lived here for brief periods while teaching English.