I Would Walk miles

IT'S ALMOST DINNER but it's time for a hot bath. I had just walked 14.5km through countryside and temples and, believe it or not, the onsen was calling my name.

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While it's not my usual practice to make eye contact at a Japanese hot spring-much less, conversation-with strangers, I end up talking anyway. A woman in her 60s, who speaks English better than I do Mandarin, tells me about living the slow life in this part of Kyushu and how much she enjoys it compared to her hometown of Osaka.

"It's way too crowded over there," she says. It isn't every day I get to visit a part of Japan so hidden from the rest of the world. The southernmost island of Kyushu, sedated with natural beauty and a seductively laidback tempo, is often overlooked by visitors. History and legend were made here, from the samurai rebellion to the Shinto sun goddess that illuminates its land. Filled with active volcanos that heat its many great hot springs, Kyushu's Oita prefecture is home to the most number of hot springs in the world. But there's more to do than to get in hot water with strangers, even in a December that's way colder than usual.

"I have travelled far and wide in Japan and Oita is hard to beat for its wide range of attractions. It has a wide range of food from three different seas, mountains and rivers, and it has exceptional scenery," says Paul Christie, the CEO of Walk Japan. "The sheer variety of stimuli I find on the Kunisaki Peninsula makes sure I always look forward to going home." Christie, who joined the company as a tour leader in 1997, left London for Kunisaki in 2002 and never looked back.