Aya & Ebino: A Canopy Bridge, an Evergreen Forest & Volcanic Lakes — 2 Days

Aya's great attraction is the Teruha Ohashi, a pedestrian suspension bridge slung 142 metres long and 142 metres above a gorge of the Aya River, for years the longest walking suspension bridge of its kind in the country. What makes the crossing special is what lies below and around it: the largest surviving tract of virgin laurilignosa — warm-temperate broad-leaved evergreen forest — in Japan, a deep, glossy-green canopy that once covered much of southern Japan and is now protected as a UNESCO biosphere reserve. You walk out over the treetops with the green falling away on both sides and the river far below, and on the far side trails lead down into the forest itself. The slight sway of the bridge and the sea of green make it a memorable, mildly thrilling start to the highland days, and the natural first stop in Aya.

About ¥350 per adult (approx., 2026); year-round, daytime hours. The forest trails on the far side are free. West of Aya town. Allow about 90 minutes.

Aya Castle is a small wooden keep on a wooded hill above the town, a 1985 reconstruction built in the style of a medieval mountain castle of the Muromachi period — timber-framed and plain rather than the white-plastered grand keeps of later centuries, which makes it an unusual and rather charming thing to see. The story is that a castle stood on this hill from the fourteenth century, and the modern keep, raised from old descriptions, gives a sense of how a simple provincial fort of that age would have looked, with a craft hall nearby where you can sometimes watch local woodwork and bamboo craft. The view from the top floor over the Aya valley and the green hills is a good one, and the visit is short and easy. It makes a quiet second stop after the bridge before the brewery.

About ¥350 per adult (approx., 2026); closed Thursdays. On a hill above Aya town. Allow about 45 minutes.

Aya's clean mountain water has made it a centre of brewing, and the Shusen-no-Mori — the wood of the spring of sake — is a leafy park built around the Unkai brewery, which turns the local water into sweet-potato and barley shochu, sake and even wine. You can tour the cellars and see how the spirits are made, taste a range across the counter, and the park has restaurants, a bakery and shops so it doubles neatly as a lunch stop: a meal of local food with a tasting of Aya's shochu and wine, in the green grounds, is a relaxed midday break. There is a glassworks and gardens to wander too. It is the heart of Aya's craft-and-clean-water identity and a good, unhurried middle to the day before the drive out to the flower plateau. Reserve the brewery tour ahead.

Park free to enter; tour by reservation, tastings and meals paid. In the Shusen-no-Mori park, Aya. Allow about 90 minutes for the tour and lunch.

On the slopes above Kobayashi, with the great cone of the Kirishima volcanoes filling the southern horizon, Ikoma Kogen is a flower plateau planted on a grand scale: in mid-spring a hillside of bright poppies, in autumn an ocean of more than a million cosmos in pink and white running down toward the mountains, and other blooms through the warmer months. The setting is what lifts it — the flowers in the foreground, the long sweep of the highland, and the volcanic peaks of Kirishima beyond — and there are paths, viewpoints and a café among the beds. It is an easy, beautiful afternoon stop in season, and even outside the peak blooms the plateau and its mountain backdrop are a fine place to stretch your legs after the day's drives. The drive on from Aya brings you toward the Ebino plateau for day two.

About ¥700 per adult (approx., 2026); poppies mid-Apr to mid-May, cosmos late Sep to late Oct. In Kobayashi, on the way toward Ebino. Allow about 75 minutes.

On the way up into the highlands, near the old village of Suki in Kobayashi, the Suki Falls drop in a wide white curtain into a green pool in the forest, an easy roadside waterfall reached by a short path from a small car park. It is not the tallest fall in the prefecture, and the flow is partly governed by the dam upstream, but in good water it is a pretty, cool stop among the trees, with a viewpoint above the basin and the sound of the water filling the gorge. It makes a natural short pause to break the drive from Aya toward the Ebino plateau and a gentle warm-up before the higher country ahead. Combine it with a look at the quiet upland village around it.

Free; a short roadside path. Near Suki in Kobayashi, on the way to Ebino. Allow about 45 minutes.

Ebino Kogen is a high volcanic plateau at around 1,200 metres on the northern rim of the Kirishima range, a cool open world of grassland, silver pampas, dwarf pines and steaming volcanic hills, completely different from the warm coast and rice plain below. The Eco-Museum Center at the plateau's hub is the place to start: it explains the volcanoes, the crater lakes and the walking trails, and tells you which routes are open, which matters here because the area's volcanoes are active and trails are sometimes closed. From the centre the plateau opens out to walking paths among the craters and lakes, with wide views to the surrounding peaks. In autumn the grasslands turn gold and russet; in winter there can be frost and snow at this height. It is the gateway to the day's high walking and the place to confirm what is safely open.

Plateau free; the center is free to enter. Confirm volcanic-alert trail restrictions here. On the Kirishima rim in Ebino. Allow about 60 minutes.

A short walk or drive from the plateau hub lies Fudoike, one of the small crater lakes that stud the Ebino highlands, a near-perfect round pool of startling cobalt-blue water held in an old volcanic crater and ringed by trees. The colour comes from the mineral water and changes with the light, from deep blue to almost green, and the lake sits quietly below the bare volcanic slopes with a path running round part of its rim. It is the most photogenic of the Ebino lakes and an easy, beautiful stop, part of a longer pond-circuit trail that links several of the crater lakes when conditions allow. Walk a stretch of the rim, then continue toward the Karakuni trailhead, keeping an eye on the volcanic restrictions that sometimes close parts of this loop.

Free; a short rim path, part of the crater-lake circuit. Some segments subject to volcanic restrictions. On the Ebino plateau. Allow about 45 minutes.

Karakunidake, at 1,700 metres the highest peak of the whole Kirishima range, rises straight off the Ebino plateau, and the Ebino-side trail is the standard way up — a steady climb of a couple of hours through volcanic scrub and over loose ground to a summit that looks down into a vast bare crater and out over the smoking cones of Kirishima, with the sea visible far off on a clear day. Even part of the way up gives huge views back over the plateau and its lakes. But this is an active volcanic zone: the nearby Shinmoedake has been at a raised alert level, the Ioyama area has no-entry zones, and access roads and trails are opened and closed as the volcanoes dictate, so the full climb is only possible when the authorities permit it. Treat the summit as a goal to confirm on the day, and if it is closed, the lake circuit below makes a fine high walk in its place. A spectacular, weather-and-volcano-dependent finish to the highlands.

Free; a 2-hour climb to the summit on the Ebino-side trail, subject to volcanic-alert closures — check the current status before setting out. Allow about 120 minutes for as far as conditions allow.