The Handa Kogen

I felt bad about not getting (acceptable) pictures of Kizuna Onsen for everyone and hatched a plan to go back there today rather suddenly. But I'd spent the previous night drinking beer and eating ridiculous amounts of okonimiyaki pushed on me by a couple of Japanese men much more drunk than I and was feeling, well, guilty about that night's unhealthy dietary choices so I took my bike along with my towel and shampoo.


The Yamanami Highway looking south and north, respectively. Yes, that's a smoking volcano crater. Yes, that's a dude ranch called "Rancho Grande".

In Japanese, kogen means "plateau" or "highlands" and is a common geographic moniker around the rim of the massive Aso caldera in neighboring Kumamoto Prefecture. Indeed, Handa Kogen is high, flat and breathtakingly beautiful--an ideal place to explore on two wheels. I started at the Otsuri Bashi, the highest suspension bridge in Japan and that goes absolutely nowhere, then rode up through the town of Handa, straight past my target of Kizuna Onsen and up a few kilometers of the Yamanami Highway. Sticking with the day's health conscious attitude I stopped at an all-tofu restaurant and got a massive and massively delicious lunch set. I think the most unhealthy thing in there was the rice.


It came with a tiny, cute little hibachi grill! How can one resist?

Kizuna was as wonderful as before and this time I got the pics...look!


The rotenburo at Kizuna Onsen. Perfect, iron-rich water and a breathtaking view to boot.

--Matt