The optional trips were as remarkable as the train itself. The first day took me to the remote pottery town of Onta, where the craftsmens avoid electrical power in favour of water-powered stamp mills for squashing soil into great powder, kick wheels, and woodfired cumulative kilns. Day 2 concluded with a remain at the magnificent hot-spring resort Tenku no Mori, a Relais & & Chateau facility. With simply 3 rental properties, the home is spread out throughout a lavish stretch in Kagoshima Prefecture including 60 hectares of natural charm, 3 duck-filled ponds, and a garden that supplies the home’s dining establishment with 65 ranges of fruit and vegetables. My rental property included 2 roomy sleeping and living locations, with spectacular views of the Kirishima Mountains, together with indoor and outside onsen (warm spring baths). The following early morning, I was handled a trip through the mountainous landscape on the border in between Kagoshima and Miyazaki Prefectures, approximately the Yatake plain for an al fresco lunch neglecting the green valley of Ebino. On the last day, we ventured deep into the forest along a mossy riverbed for a meditation session inside a cavern surrounding to the Kumano Magaibutsu, a 26-foot ancient Buddhist relief going back to the 8th century.
There was likewise plenty to do on the train. Activities consisted of a tea event, performed in the cupboard-sized conventional café embellished with tatami mats, where tea sommelier Naohiro Tsuruta blended emerald-green matcha in charming ceramic cups. For skillfully blended aperitifs, I went to the fancy Kazu Bar, a flashing gem box in automobile 3 with a handful of seats and a midnight-blue ceiling studded with golden stars. Evening home entertainment included live piano and violin music, in addition to table-side magic (cooler than you believe). However I invested the majority of the time mesmerised by the view, which moved in between heavily forested mountains to verdant rice paddies and captivating towns. On the 3rd day, as we headed back north from Kagoshima along the beachfront, I enjoyed smoke curl from the rim of Sakurajima, among Kyushu’s 9 active volcanoes, while drinking a glass of Ruinart to a piano performance of “The Lady from Ipanema.”