Miyazaki

Miyazaki is a prefecture on the southeast coast of Kyushu, palm-lined and mild, facing the Pacific with some of Japan's most reliable surf. In the postwar decades it served as the country's honeymoon capital, and it still carries an easygoing resort feel the rest of Kyushu lacks.

Cross the footbridge to Aoshima island, ringed by the Devil's Washboard, long combs of wave-cut rock, and continue down the coast to Udo Shrine, whose vermilion halls hide in a sea cave where visitors throw clay balls at a target rock for luck. Inland, Takachiho Gorge cuts basalt cliffs above a green river.

Surfers work the breaks most of the year, and the kitchens answer with chicken nanban and famously sweet mangoes. Flights and the coastal Nichinan line put the beaches within easy reach. Spring and autumn bring warm days without the gambles of typhoon season.